Gee's Bend

Craft often doesn't get the recognition that art does. You know, it's just stuff women do to keep their hands busy. So I love the story of the Gee's Bend quilters.
They are a group of women from Gee's Bend, Alabama, an isolated and impoverished community near Selma. They developed a totally unique and distinctive style of quilting, using old clothes and household scraps in bold, bright geometric motifs. They were "discovered" in 2002, after almost a century of making these quilts, and the quilts were exhibited in a museum in Houston to great acclaim, then eventually exhibited all over the US and featured in several books and on The Martha Stewart Show etc. You can read more about their story here.
So the background of the quilts is obviously awesome, but they are just so visually stunning too. The colour combinations and the patterns are so inspiring.

The quilt below on the right was made by my mom as a wedding gift for Karl and I. It's based on some of the elements of the Gee's Bend quilts, and I think it's so beautiful. It hangs on our bedroom wall and makes me happy every time I look at it. It's definitely one of my most prized possessions!