03/17/2025
âSeeking sanctuary and softness, she wound her way around this healing pattern, stitch by stitch, piece by piece, with the crown of her head bowing toward her heart.â â Lisa Gail Collins, Author, Professor of Art and Director of American Studies on the Sarah Gibson Blanding Chair at Vassar Collegeâ
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A 2023 Horowitz Book Prize winner, âStitching Love and Loss: A Geeâs Bend Quiltâ chronicles artist Missouri Pettway of Geeâs Bend (AL), and her process and practice of mourning for a loved one through crafted materials. â
In 1942, Pettway, a resident of Geeâs Bend, a small African American, farming community known for their quilting traditions, experienced the unfathomable loss of her husband Nathaniel. In response, Pettway crafted an incredibly special quilt made from his work clothes, which came to be known later as the work, âBlocks and Strips Work-Clothes.â Nearly six decades since, Pettwayâs daughter Arlonzia Pettway, a seasoned quiltmaker herself, recalls the quilt, its sentiments, and its impact on her grieving mother. â
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Connecting both Pettways to the history of Geeâs Bend, its residents, and the process of mourning, this publication interprets varied sources of history and memory, engaging questions that explore the process of mourning, how loss is expressed and remembered, and the presence of creativity in grief.â
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Image 1 and 2: Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee's Bend Quiltâ
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