African American quilter Irene Williams was born in 1920 in Wilcox County in Rehoboth, Alabama. She lived on the same road as fellow quilter Sue Willie Seltzer, but the two did not interact often since Williams quilted alone as a break from farming and her domestic responsibilities. Williams started quilting at age seventeen after she got married. She recounted, “When I got married, I started making quilts. I just put stuff together. I didn’t do the best I could, because in them years I didn’t have nothing but what little we got to make quilts and things out of.”[1] In fact, quilting was a form of upcycling, where worn-out clothes and other fabric could be given new life through patchwork. Williams used a variety of fabric sources, including basketball jerseys, a choir robe, flannel pajamas, chenille bedspread, and other items.[2] She likened quilting to learning song lyrics: “I used to keep a songbook. I get my songbook and I look through that songbook and I would sing a spiritual song. But when I learned what I wanted to learn out of them books, I put them down and didn't have to pick them up no more, because I could sing without them.”[3] As Williams learned a new technique or drew from new inspiration, she added it to her arsenal of skills and pulled from it as she saw fit in future projects.
Williams died in 2015.[4]
PMA Collection
Notes
[1] Williams n.d.
[2] Arnett 2006, 30.
[3] Williams quoted in Herman 2006, 212.
[4] Williams n.d.
References
Arnett, William. 2006. “Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt.” In Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. Edited by Paul Arnett, Joanne Cubbs, and Eugene W. Metcalf Jr. Atlanta: Tinwood Books.
Blum, Dilys. 2006. “A Dirt Road in Rehoboth.” In Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. Edited by Paul Arnett, Joanne Cubbs, and Eugene W. Metcalf Jr. Atlanta: Tinwood Books.
Herman, Bernard L. 2006. “Architectural Definitions.” In Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. Edited by Paul Arnett, Joanne Cubbs, and Eugene W. Metcalf Jr. Atlanta: Tinwood Books.
Williams, Irene. n.d. “Irene Williams.” Souls Grown Deep. Accessed October 26, 2021. https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/irene-williams.
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