the woman at church who told me my quilts would be "so much prettier" if I followed a pattern
Sister Bernice cornered me after service today. Said she saw the picture my daughter posted of the wedding quilt I just finished for my niece. "Gloria Mae, that would be so much prettier if you just followed a nice pattern out of a book. All those crooked pieces just look like you made a mistake."
I stood there holding my pocketbook and just smiled. Told her my grandmother didn't own a pattern book in her life and what she made hangs in museums now. Bernice's face went tight as fresh starch.
Y'all, I been quilting since I was seven years old sitting on a flour sack at my grandmother's feet. The "mistakes" are where the breath gets in. The crooked pieces are where the spirit moves through.
Bless her heart though. She means well. She's just used to quilts that lay flat and quiet. Some of us like our quilts to have something to say.
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There's a particular kind of person who thinks "pretty" is the only thing a thing should be, and I think that says more about them than about your quilt.
I've had years of people standing in front of my work and telling me what they'd change. Usually it's "I don't get it" dressed up as advice. But your grandmother's quilts are in museums, that's not an opinion, that's a fact. And the women who made those knew exactly what they were doing. The crookedness was the point.
Sister Bernice can buy a pattern book if she wants one. You keep working the way your hands know.
That's exactly right, honey. "Pretty" is a small word for a big world. My grandmother used to say "pretty fades before supper, but truth holds till morning." She wasn't making pretty, she was making true.
And you're right about the crookedness. You ever seen an old oak tree with every branch straight? No, you haven't. The beauty's in how it bends and reaches. Same with these quilts. Sister Bernice means well enough, bless her heart, but she's looking at my work and measuring it against somebody else's ruler. I don't quilt by nobody's ruler but my own.