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Growing up in the country, I would observe four to six women sitting around the quilting horse sewing or repairing a quilt that they brought to my grandparents' front yard.
They’d tell stories of slavery, speak about their current and past troubles, talk about God, and shed a tear or two over prominent things in their lives. Amazingly, all these women possessed the same type of look in their eyes. I always felt that it was something about their eyes, whereas I saw strength, but at the same time, looking deeper, there was sadness as well. The quilting is what brought them all together with their stories in tow; they were able to process feelings of loss, laughter, and pain. Watching and helping Grandma quilt over those almost ten years that I remained with her, I, too, could feel those older women long after they’d returned to their homes. It wasn’t until years later that I could fully articulate how quilting was these women’s catharsis. I’m sure it’s a phenomenon that went back to Africa and beyond.
I often listened to the old folks as they spoke about how enslaved people made it to freedom.
They talked about how quilts were hung across fences and tree limbs and acted as a guidepost for enslaved people who tried to make their way north. Some held railroad track designs, arrows, and other symbols that pointed them to freedom. As I look at my grandmother’s quilts, I can’t help but see some of the same features in those quilts that those women described as I laid under the house listening, learning, and ready to save all this knowledge about those quilts in my memory bank.
My Quilt of Souls. The first piece of cloth was placed in the quilt around 1870. Over the years up until 1966, she continued to add pieces to it. Photo credit: Reginald B. Elmore
THE QUILT OF SOULS
This quilt was made and given to me by my grandmother Lula Horn. The first time I laid eyes on it was 1957, I was four years old, and it was not a full quilt. Over the next nine years, my grandmother slowly and deliberately added pieces of her ancestors and loved one’s clothing into my quilt of souls. I would sit and listen as she told me the life stories of the people’s clothing that she weaved into my quilt.
Historical Quilts
MOTHER’S QUILT
This quilt was given to me by my mother. A quilt that was made by my grandmother Lula for my mother. The pieces of clothing that are included in this quilt are unknown.
Historical Quilts
GRANDMA LULA’S LAST QUILT
My grandmother was over the age of 100 as I watched her place pieces of fabric into this quilt. She could still thread a needle unassisted.
Historical Quilts
LOST ANCESTOR QUILT
This quilt was presented by my cousin Sue Spears whom I found through DNA. Her Mother was my grandmother’s lost ancestor who was displaced during slavery. Her 100-year-old mother made this quilt for me before she passed away a couple of years later.
Historical Quilts
Blue Quilt of Valor
2. Quilted by Carol Price and Terry Shuler and presented to me by Hendersonville NC, Quilting Guild in honor of my military service
Trbute Quilts
RED COAT PICTURE
Stitched by Sylvia Hernandez of the Quilters of Color of New York City. This quilt is a replica of myself at the age of 12 standing in my grandmother’s dogtrot in tiny Livingston, Alabama. Sylvia captures beautifully the roles I’ve played during my lifetime.
Trbute Quilts
TRIBUTE QUILT
Made by the Quilters of Color of New York City. This quilt was presented to me in 2016. In each block most of the members of QCNYC signed their names.
Trbute Quilts
THE QUILT THAT BINDS
Stitched by Sylvia Hernandez and Thadine Wormley of the Quilters of Color of New York City. (QCNYC) The blue and white cloth in the quilt are the pieces of my grandmother’s housecoat that she had on when she passed away in 1988 at the age of 104.
Trbute Quilts
Red Quilt of Valor
1. Quilted by Linda Rial, Les P. and Elaine P of the Tidewater Quilters Guild, Chesapeake, Virginia and presented to me in honor of my military Service.
Trbute Quilts
My Grandmother Lula Horn’s quilt given to me by my mother around 1990. It’s possible that this is the quilt that Grandma gave to my mother when she was a little girl. Photo Credit: Reginald B. Elmore
This is the last quilt I remember my Grandmother making prior to her death in 1988.
Photo Credit: Reginald B. Elmore