BACKSTITCH with Jess Bailey

In our last SEAMSIDE conversation on Episode 5, quilt historian Jess Bailey aka @publiclibraryquilts and I discussed the role of storytelling in art history and the power of visual images to convey narratives, experience of feeling seen and recognized through images, and we talked about why Jess would rather her quilts be considered sturdy rather than soft.

We catch up now a little over a year later to share our favorite quilt book recommendations, personal stories from recent quilting bees, and I share a vulnerable moment that Jess indirectly helped me understand one of my own blind spots in regards to the improv quilts of Gee’s Bend.

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SHOWNOTES OF THE GODS (thank you, Jess)

You can see the Ascott Martyrs Quilt if you visit the People's History Museum in Manchester or you can learn more about the Martyrs story and early union history through this resource. Big thanks to Fi Ashley at Gresshenhall for amplifying material culture histories of unions and first telling PLQ about the Ascott Quilt.

Zak shared his copy of the standby of any well-stocked quilt library: A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories by Roland L. Freeman. Remember, if you can't find an out of print quilt history book, its always worth checking Worldcat - a search engine that aggregates the world's library collections!

Two must read quilt history books of 2023: Out this June from University of Washington Press, Professor Lisa Gail Collins' Stitching Love and Loss: the story of a Gee's Bend Quilt promises to encompass the power and role of quilts across a human life.

Professor Janneken Smucker's A New Deal for Quilts will be published by the International Quilt Museum in October. Jess has had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy and everyone needs to see the stunningly beautiful early 20th century photographs of quilts in this book. You can preorder it at the link above.

Jess & Zak are a Sharbreon fan club in this episode! If you'd like to read Dr. Sharbreon Plummer's Diasporic Threads published by Common Threads Press, you can find it here. Jess & Sharbreon have some projects up their sleeve, in the meantime explore Sharbreon's quilt work.

You can watch Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi’s lecture at the International Quilt Museum here (and maybe spot Zak in the front row!)

Oh and did Jess mention an upcoming quilt fundraiser & raffle? Stay tuned for more from Jess & her collaborator Ashley J. May (@grassrootsmorning) as they prepare for the Kin Folk Library Quilt fundraiser funding a library of children's books amplifying the rich histories of Black feminist writers and Lil' Free Bird story times at the Salt Eaters and other bookshops.