Housetop variation quilt

Lola Pettway

1970s

Corduroy fabric

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A quilt with a repeating pattern of concentric rectangles in various shades of green, red, brown, and cream. The quilt is bordered by a thin red strip and a wider brown strip. Lola Pettway was greatly influenced by her mother, Allie Pettway, and her mother’s quilting circle, the Freedom Quilting Bee. In 1972, the Freedom Quilting Bee secured a contract with Sears, Roebuck to produce pillow shams. The department store supplied materials to the quilters. Allie would have brought home unused material, accounting for Lola’s use of corduroy in quilts from this period. Here, a red square anchors the composition, from which nine concentric squares of avocado green, tomato red, gold, and brown vibrate outward. Strips of red and green corduroy edge the beige panel. In this quilt, we can reflect on continuity, not