Qunnie Pettway (1943–2010) was an American artist. She worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee and is associated with the

Gee's Bend Boykin, also known as Gee's Bend, is an African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The te ...

group of quilters. Her mother,

Candis Pettway Candis Mosely Pettway (November 25, 1924 – May 22, 1997) was an American artist. She is associated with the Freedom Quilting Bee and the Gee's Bend group of quilters, alongside her daughters Qunnie Pettway, Sally Mae Pettway, and Edwina Pettw ...

, taught her to quilt, and she passed the skill on to her daughter

Loretta Pettway Bennett Loretta Pettway Bennett (born December 29, 1960) is an American artist. She is associated with the Freedom Quilting Bee, where her mother, Qunnie Pettway, worked, and with the Gee's Bend quilt-makers. Her quilts '' Sew Low'' and ''Vegetation'' a ...

. She specialized in making traditional quilt patterns out of scraps she brought home from the Bee.

Life

Qunnie was surrounded by dedicated quilt-makers her entire life. Her mother,

, and her sister were her first mentors. Later she learned classic patterns while at Estelle Witherspoon's house, where upwards of 20 women would quilt together. She later developed diabetes, and when she began to lose her eye sight, she only made quilts from simple patterns. She died in 2010.

Work

Recognized for her innovation, Qunnie's style is marked by her improvisational versions of traditional patterns. Her favorite method was the "Crazy Z" quilt composed of corduroy from the Freedom Quilting Bee.

References

1943 births 2010 deaths Gee's Bend quilters {{US-artist-stub