The People’s Quilting Bee
Stories have always been told at quilting bees: stories of legacy, of resistance, and of community care. This autumn we invite you to join Dr Sharbreon Plummer, independent curator and author, and Dr Jess Bailey, associate lecturer in the history of art, UCL as they re-imagine the quilting bee, creating an online space in which to learn about the rich and diverse histories of patchwork in North America while perhaps making your own quilt.
Across six lectures featuring a range of writers, researchers, and quilters, you will learn why and how artists in this tradition are so connected to quilt histories. Guests will share their knowledge and experience of topics that are integral to how we understand quilting in the past and in our present such as through a deeper consideration of materials, diaspora, indigenous knowledge, and queering quilt legacies. Participants will leave with a renewed understanding of both the diversity and vitality of quilt histories in passing down artistic traditions. The lecture series is hosted online by Tatter Blue Library in NYC across Autumn 2023.
Meet the hosts & teachers
We met because of quilts and books. We reimagined the traditional quilting bee to bring thoughtful researchers together to reflect on quilting past and present while making art historical education more accessible.
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Dr Sharbreon Plummer is an artist, scholar and quilt researcher whose work centers the lives and creativity of Black women through textiles. Her upbringing in southern Louisiana informs her interest in how culture and ancestral memory act as catalysts of personal expression. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Center for Craft and American Quilt Study Group. She is author of Diasporic Threads: Black Women, Fibre and Textiles from Common Threads Press and is a writer for QuiltFolk Magazine. You can learn more about her practice at sharbreonplummer.com and @sharbreon.
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Dr Jess Bailey is an art historian, writer, and quilter. She teaches histories of visual and material culture in the history of art department at University College London, UK and holds a PhD in art history from UC Berkeley. Her research has been supported by fellowships in the US, Europe, and the UK. Bailey shares her own family tradition of hand quilting, yearly quilt fundraisers, and the many ways in which quilts are community care through @PublicLibraryQuilts. Bailey is the author of the zine Many Hands Make a Quilt: short histories of radical quilting from Common Threads Press. You can find more of her work at jessbailey.uk
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Lecture 1. Why Learn Quilt History? with Dr. Jess Bailey and Dr. Sharbreon Plummer
Join Dr. Sharbreon Plummer and Dr. Jess Bailey as they discuss the role of history and story telling in our lives as quilters. Why do quilters have an affinity for the past? And why is it so important to learn the diverse legacies of quilt history? What tools do we have as quilters and as historians of visual and material culture to stand in relationship with the historical depth of quilt work? Learn about Dr. Plummer and Dr. Bailey’s favorite historical quilts and how we can re-think the larger stories we have been told through the power of quilt history.
September 6th, 2023
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Lecture 2. Honoring the Foundation on Which We Stand with Jenn Steverson
Jenn Steverson’s work centers African Diaspora communities, and she looks to textiles to tell her things that were not preserved in written archives. She moves between material culture and written records to gain a fuller, richer picture of Black communities. These techniques are valuable because she is often forced to read against the grain of primary sources that are tainted by prejudice and dismissive of African Diaspora cultural practices.
In this lecture Jenn will speak about her artistic foundation which is African American craft traditions. She will review archival research techniques that she uses when working on a quilt or quilt inspired textile installation. She will focus in particular on cross referencing and the importance of citation when an artist is inspired by a specific artist, creative community, or region.
September 27th, 2023
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Lecture 3. Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt with Lisa Gail Collins
In 1942 Missouri Pettway, newly suffering the loss of her husband, pieced together a quilt out of his old, worn work clothes. Nearly six decades later her daughter Arlonzia Pettway, approaching eighty at the time and a seasoned quiltmaker herself, readily recalled this cover made by her grieving mother within the small African American farming community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Centering this quilt made in mourning and the memory of its making, I ask with reverence: How might a closely crafted material object–a pieced together quilt–serve the work of grieving a loved one as well as illuminate the perseverance and creativity of the quilters in this rural Black Belt community?
October 18th, 2023
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Lecture 4. Honoring Our Ancestors with Susan Hudson
Ya a’ tey, (Hello) Susan Hudson yii niish yii (I am Susan Hudson) Kee Yaà áanii nish lii’ (I am born of the Towering House People Clan) Deshchii’ Nii ii’ ee baa’ shish chiin’ (I am born for the Apache People Clan) Taabaa ii’ ee’ daa’ shi chei (My maternal Grandfather is from the Water Edge People Clan) Naaki’ Din na ii’ ee daa’ shi Naah lii’ (My paternal Grandfather is from the Apache People Clan) I live in Tooh Haltsooi (Sheep Springs, NM) on the Navajo Reservation. To ensure that our Ancestor’s stories are never forgotten, I have made a mark on the Native Quilting world, and to open the doors for those that will come after me. To show that it has taken generations of Native quilters to help me become the artist that I am. The honoring of our ancestors, those that lived, cried, shed blood, and died so we are able to be here and to tell their stories.
November 8th, 2023
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Lecture 5. Quilting, Queerness, and Community with Grace Rother and Sunny A Smith
What does it mean to queer quilt history and how might we begin to engage with queer patchwork traditions? How have quilts been used as records of identity in the past? Drawing on local quilt archives, broader queer history, and their own relationship with the craft, quilter Grace Rother and artist Sunny A Smith pull a thread of connection between the current climate of queer resilience and the handwork of the past. Join them in digging through the quilting legacies on record to find seeds of queerness and marvel at the power in creating something both soft and sturdy to tell your story.
November 29th, 2023
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Lecture 6. Quilting New Futures with the Past with Dr. Sharbreon Plummer and Dr. Jess Bailey
In our culminating lecture and discussion, Dr. Sharbreon Plummer and Dr. Jess Bailey explore how quilt makers can work in relationship with the past and offer advice for starting your own journey of quilt research. What do we want to do with the past, old stories, and deep historical legacies as quilters? How do we begin traditions if we don’t come from a quilting family and how do we continue them amongst blood and chosen kin? We will highlight examples of thoughtful research and collaboration from our own journeys and explore tools and tips for researchers of all levels. Reflecting and gathering together wisdom from our group of speakers across The People’s Quilting Bee, we will also have a quilt show and tell. Bring yourself and the quilt you have worked on while attending the lecture series.
December 20th, 2023