Loretta Pettway, American, born 1942
Lazy Girl, 2006.
Statements:
“I made all my quilts out of old shirts and dress tails and britches legs… Some people would give me old clothes, and some of them my children couldn’t wear, and I would tear them up and make quilts. I didn’t think I was too good at cutting out. If I could have got with friends to get me on the right track, maybe. But I didn’t have friends, so I had to piece up things the way I could see to do.
Bars and Blocks, 1960.
I used to work all day and when night come I was sick all night. I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t have no appetite to eat, but I can thank the Lord now and say that he has reached way down and picked me up, made my life better. I have food, money, a roof over my head, my health and strength…”
—Loretta Pettway in “Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts”
Brick Layer, 2007.
About:
Log Cabin, 1958.
Loretta Pettway has overcome many obstacles in her life. As a child she suffered emotional pain when her mother abandoned her family. Pettway also faced physical hardship, walking for miles each day and working in the fields. She endured a thirty-year marriage to an abusive husband, with whom she had seven children. Like Loretta P. Bennett, she is a descendent of Dinah Miller (Pettway is Dinah’s great-granddaughter). She pieced her first quilt together when she was only eleven years old, learning skills from her grandmother, stepmother, and other female relatives. Many of them preferred the Bricklayer pattern. Pettway did not always enjoy sewing, as it was a chore added to her heavy workload; now, her attitude has changed. Given all the adversity that she has faced, Pettway’s brilliantly designed quilts reflect her personality and strength.
(text Philadelphia Museum of Art)
