Fannie Lou Hamer Quilt for Black Votes Matter
A second quilt honoring Fannie Lou Hamer. This one was delivered to Black Votes Matter.
Fannie
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.
Fannie and Kit Collaborate
Quilting doesn’t stop for a pandemic. Fannie and Kit started these quilts in person and finished them over the phone.
Comfort Quilts
These quilts were made by Kit, Fannie and Catherine, after the election, to thank activists for their work and to offer comfort to those around them.
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.
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!
Nevada Peace Quilt Series
“This quilt is based on a stained glass window in my mother Maya Miller’s kitchen. I’m sorry I don’t know the artist! I love the design. Nancy Raven transposed the design, and Fannie Etheridge and I sewed it. We gave this one to Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, one of Nevada’s two Democratic women senators.” (Over a few months in 2019 Kit made 4 more of them for people she admired for their organizing and political work. Those quilts are shown below.) These Nevada quilts were made for Bob Fulkerson and Laura Martin, the past and current directors of PLAN, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. They are both great organizers who have helped Nevadans talk and fight back against mining, development, and mass incarceration, and for the rights of Native peoples, immigrants, workers, small ranchers and many others. This quilt was made to honor Jan Gilbert, many years co-director of PLAN, who especially lobbied and organized for the rights of low-income women and children in Nevada.
Pine Burr Quilt
We’re so happy to have spent several days in Nevada with quilt guru Fannie Etheridge of Alabama, learning to make a Pine Burr quilt (which is Alabama’s state quilt). We gave it to Fannie’s Mama, Ms Weatherly. She taught Kit and Catherine this quilt. They worked together for about 3 or 4 days. Catherine ironed hundreds of little squares