Sewn Together

Two Centuries of Alabama Quilts

January 28 through April 16, 2017

On view in the Goldman, Richard, and Rushton Stakely Galleries

Overview

The handmade quilt is a benchmark of traditional American culture and creativity—quilts were both treasured family heirlooms as well as everyday staples in the homes of most Alabamians since settlement. Sewn Together presents examples of Alabama-made quilts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, drawn from the extraordinary collections of the MMFA and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The quilts in this exhibition are presented as “exemplary pairs”, demonstrating and illustrating comparisons of the varied techniques, themes, and traditional patterns as seen in two hundred years of Alabama quilt making.

The quilting tradition in the state is a vibrant one that epitomizes the creative impulses and inspirations in both white and black communities; there are distinctive characteristics within each, as well as elements that represent the continuation of shared traditions passed down within families and localities. These quilts share common traditions and traits—patterns such as the Lone Star, the simple block, and strip quilts—as well as piecing, applique, and hand stitching. The craftsmanship, sophisticated principles of color theory and design that characterize twentieth-century Alabama quilts are rooted in the production of the state’s nineteenth-century quilters.

To learn more about the exhibition, quilting in Alabama, and more about the quilts, visit the joint exhibition website, www.sewntogetheralabama.org.

Above: Photograph of the 2017 installation of the exhibition at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

The quilting tradition in the state is a vibrant one that epitomizes the creative impulses and inspirations in both white and black communities; there are distinctive characteristics within each, as well as elements that represent the continuation of shared traditions passed down within families and localities.

Organizer

Cooperatively organized from the collections of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama.

Sponsor

Support for this exhibition was provided for by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts with additional support provided by Laura and Michael Luckett.

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