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How homemade quilts created in rural Alabama became modern art. Descended from enslaved African-Americans on the Pettway Plantation, the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama, have been making quilts for generations. Taught by grandmothers, mothers, and aunts, these women have made quilts from cotton and corduroy and even old men's trousers, using bold colors and a variety of patterns. For the poor tenant farmers of Gee's Bend, the quilts were functional, "something to cover up with" to keep warm in cold cabins and hung out on fences and clotheslines once a year to "air out." Rubin effectively demonstrates the important role of collectors Bill and Matt Arnett in "discovering" the quilts and seeing them as visual art, "some of the best art in the country." Soon, thanks to their efforts, the quilts were being shown in museums all over the United States and included in the collection of the Modern Museum of Art in New York City. Full-color photographs beautifully present the quilts, while numerous other color and black-and-white photographs portray the history of Gee's Bend and its now-famous quilters. A thread of history runs through the narrative, too, weaving in slavery, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement. A section on "Making a Quilt Square" makes quilting accessible to young artists. A handsome volume to enchant a new generation of readers and artists. (source notes, bibliography, acknowledgments, image credits) (Nonfiction. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.