Voting Rights Quilts
New Quilts for the 2024 Election Quilts and Banners for the 2020 Election
News Archive
Black Girls’ Joy Quilt
People sometimes ask about our process. We started the Black Girls’ Joy quilt by ordering a lot of the great pink and brown and girl power fabric. The tour’s logo is in the center (puffed out). Then we cut and sewed the fabrics in a “Lazy Gal” quilt pattern. We sewed the top in Washoe Valley, Nevada. Fannie Pearl Etheridge and her granddaughter Kimani are shown quilting the top and bottom together in Alberta, Alabama. Fannie presented the Joy Quilt to LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter in Selma, Alabama.
Zoom Retreat March 2021
Since we weren’t traveling we shared some fun learning the Town Square block. Quilters gotta quilt!
Watch Return of the Bees
In October of 2019, Acres of Ancestry traveled to Alberta, Alabama to interview the few living legacy members of the Freedom Quilting Bee: Ms. Mensie Pettway, Ms. Patti Irby, and Ms. Fannie Etheridge. These legacy lightbearers hope that a revitalization of the Bee will serve as a community institution—propelling the next generations forward in distinct ways, in the cooperative tradition. Our Return of the Bees Project is inspired by the Freedom Quilting Bee paradigm—cooperative, community-centered, and sustainable. The Return of the Bees multimedia project documents the history and evolution of southern Black agrarian material culture, particularly textile arts and heritage quilting, and the culture bearers who carry these traditions.
Quilts for Sheroes
Women like Autumn Harry are feeding us and leading the way.
Our Quilts go to Congress and on Campaign Trail
Oakland Women’s March 2020 – Congresswoman Barbara Lee meets quilt guru Fannie Etheridge – it doesn’t get any better than that!
We are Radical Threads!
Meet some of the artists and activists behind the Radical Threads Collective!