“Lazy Gal” Work-Clothes Quilt

Description

The physical isolation of the small farming community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, nestled in a tight crook of the Alabama River, has led to an extraordinary flowering of visual culture. Learning from and playing off of each other’s design ideas, the women of Gee’s Bend have developed a spirited and inventive quilting practice that fuses tradition with innovation and accepted forms with individual inspiration. Annie Mae Young’s Lazy Gal quilt illustrates the Gee’s Bend tradition of constructing quilts from discarded work clothes. The addition of one small square of contrasting color and fabric is a characteristic form of visual punctuation.