Untitled (Strips and Bars Quilt)

Description

The artist who made this quilt alternated “strips and bars” of leftover fabric in warm and cool colors to create a tight composition. Scholars have noted how quilts such as this one bear a resemblance to traditions of weaving from Africa. The string quilt tradition spread from West African countries, including Ghana, to the Southern United States in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. “Strings” refer to the smallest usable rectangles of leftover cloth. In the string quilting tradition, these small pieces of fabric are sewn together to form horizonal and vertical bands.