Pictorial quilt

Harriet Powers was an African-American born as a slave, folk artist, and quilt maker from rural Georgia. She used traditional appliqué techniques to record local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events on her quilts. Only two of her quilts are known to have survived: Bible Quilt (1886) and Pictorial Quilt (1898). Her quilts are considered among the finest examples of 19th-century Southern quilting.

Powers is thought to have orally dictated a description of each square of her quilt to Jennie Smith, who had purchased the first quilt Powers made, and arranged for it to be exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. This second quilt is thought to have been commissioned by a group of "faculty ladies" at Atlanta University, and given (together with the descriptions by Powers) as a gift to a retiring trustee. The quilt is divided into fifteen pictorial rectangles. Powers was working on it with pieces of beige, pink, mauve, orange, dark red, gray-green, and shades of blue cotton.

Look at it in the full screen mode - it's amazing!

P.S. Check out the history of representation of a black woman in art; for centuries, black women appeared in Western art as slaves, servants, or exotic novelties. But as regal queens and leaders? Shamefully not. Read more.

Today it's birthday of Brad, our English proofreader :)) HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAD! :))))))) <3