POWERGRAMS

MayJune_Powergrams

Issue link: https://alabamapower.uberflip.com/i/673072

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 32 of 59

30 While queen-size quilts can sell for $3,000 or more, smaller bed quilts generally start in the $500 to $700 range. Bigger quilts can take two weeks or more to produce. Pettway can sew three 13-by-13-inch quilts in a week and get $150 or more for each, so she sews the smaller variety that is a quicker sell in the collective store. Mary Ann Pettway says the more expensive large quilts sell "now and then," but customers frequently buy smaller ones in the $300 to $500 range. "Mary Ann cannot keep a quilt; it's gone as soon as she gets it made," Nancy Pettway says. "I'm like that with the potholders. Our names are out there, but every breath you breathe is another day closer to 'home.' I can live on through my quilts." "I make my quilts to sell, I don't make them to keep," Mary Ann Pettway adds, her words punctuated by a big smile and a loud laugh. "That's how I make my money." Nancy is the last surviving board member of the old Boykin Improvement Association, which once owned the building that now houses the collective. As she sews, she notes that every person in the wall of fame behind her has passed on from this life. Her husband of 33 years, Yancy, whose portrait is just to her left, died in 2001. He was a community leader and deacon at Friendship Baptist Church. Nancy is now the oldest member of their church. The mission of the surviving quilters is to get young people involved. Mary Ann's 14-year-old grandson in Montgomery has sewn and sold a quilt. She hopes the busloads of visitors to Gee's Bend will one day arrive to admire the artwork of a new generation. In March, the Gee's Bend quilters received a 2016 Leadership Award from the Alabama Momentum women's organization. The Pettways say that honor was "wonderful," and they look forward to another major accolade. President Barack Obama has promised to place in his presidential library a Gee's Bend quilt that Nancy and Mary Ann helped sew, which was delivered on his inauguration in 2008. "Someone told me a long time ago: 'Find something you're good at doing and get someone to pay you for doing it,'" Mary Ann Pettway says. "I'm blessed to be able to do this and I love it." The Gee's Bend Quilters Collective building is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. and on Sunday by appointment. Gee's Bend quilters sell their handmade items inside facility where they work and greet guests.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of POWERGRAMS - MayJune_Powergrams