Gee's Bend Quilters Collective

Artist biography:

The women of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective all live in the area of Rehoboth and Boykin, Alabama. Throughout much of the twentieth century, making quilts was considered a domestic responsibility for women in Gee’s Bend. As young girls, many of the women trained or apprenticed in their craft with their mothers, female relatives, or friends; other quilters, however, have been virtually self-taught. The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend have passed their skills and aesthetics down through at least six generations to the present.

The women consider the process of ‘piecing’ the quilt ‘top’ to be highly personal. In Gee’s Bend, the top - the side that faces up on the bed - is always pieced by a quilter working alone and reflects a singular artistic vision. The subsequent process of ‘quilting’ the quilt - sewing together the completed top, the batting (stuffing), and the back - is sometimes then performed communally, among small groups of women.

In 2003, with assistance from the Tinwood Organizations, all the living quilters of Gee’s Bend - more than fifty women - founded the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective to serve as the exclusive means of selling and marketing the quilts being produced by the women of the Bend. The Collective is owned and operated by the women of Gee’s Bend. Every quilt sold by the Gee’s Bend Quilt Collective is unique, individually produced, and authentic - each quilt is signed by the quilter and labeled with a serial number.