Untitled (Strip Quilt with Suiting)

This quilt is made of wool suit material. The quilter likely pieced different fabrics together into a stripe pattern, then cut and repieced the stripes to give the impression of small multicolored squares. This quilt is part of the Smithsonian’s Corrine Riley Collection. While we don’t know who precisely made this quilt, curator Leslie Umberger says that because of their style and where they were found, many of the quilts in this collection may have been made by African American women. Curators and art historians use clues like local and regional traditions, oral histories, and materials to make inferences about who might have made a quilt. Scholars such as folklorist Gladys-Marie Fry argue that elements of Black American quiltmakers’ use of color and pattern can be traced back to West African textile practices, contributing to a unique aesthetic in African American and regional American art.