QUILT INDEX RECORD

12-8-6757

Who documented this quilt?

Michigan Quilt Project; Michigan State University Museum Collection; Women of Color Quilters Network; The Black Diaspora Quilt History Project

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Michigan State University Museum

Michigan Quilt Project Number:

15.0131

If this quilt is owned by a museum, enter the accession number:

2014:55.89

Essay:

African planted the first seeds of music with the birth of the drum. Our people, stolen from Africa and brought to America, tucked that drumbeat in their pockets of ancient memory and mixed it with new, sometimes terrible experiences in fields of cotton and Delta shores, in newly born urban centers and tightly packed country churches. Seeds were planted, flavored with blues and gospel, brass and strings, wherever Africans in America journeyed and the plants from these seeds grew and grew and grew, blending and grafting together to create music that has grown all over the world ... JAZZ! The jazz singer perched in the tree has grown out of traditions described. She is in ecstasy as she sings, hardly aware of her precarious position, hanging on to the jazz roots tradition from which she sprang. She will drop her own seeds, seeds of a new generation, mixing...matching...grafting...keeping jazz music.
-- by Charlotte Hill O'Neal

Quilt's title:

Jazz Music is Roots Music

Subject of the quilt:

Jazz

Who helped you fill out the form?

Aleia Brown

When was the form filled out?

3/19/2015

Quilt top made by:

O'Neal, Charlotte Hill

Quilted by:

O'Neal, Charlotte Hill

Where the quilt was made, country:

United States

Quilt is presently used as:

Artwork/wall hanging

Does/did the quiltmaker belong to a group? Name of the group?

Women of Color Quilters Network

This is a:

Finished quilt

How wide is the quilt?

35"

How long is the quilt?

56"

What color is the quilt?

Purple

Quilt's condition:

Excellent/like new

Describe the quilt's layout:

Pictorial

Fiber types used to make the quilt top:

Cotton; Cotton or polyester blend

Describe the fibers or fabrics in the quilt top:

Jewelry , plastic coverings, cotton, feathers, sequins, metal chains, acrylic yarn, microphone laminated paper, lace, sponge batting

Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Piecing

Applique techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Applique

Describe the techniques used to make the quilt top:

Embellishments

Embellishments used:

Cotton thread

Materials used in the quilt binding:

Cotton

How is the binding made?

Separate binding applied; Bias grain

What kind of filling is used in the quilt?

Cotton

How thick is the quilt?

Thin

How are the layers held together?

Hand quilting

Features or notes about the quilt's appearance, materials, or construction:

This is a narrative quilt depicting a portrait of a jazz singer; there are also flowers, and within each flower is a subgenre of jazz. It displays hand piecing and hand applique techniques.

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Original to maker

Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:

Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition

Person filling out this form is:

Quilt collector

Ownership of this quilt is:

Public- Michigan State University Museum

Quilt owner's name:

Michigan State University Museum

Quilt owner's city:

East Lansing

Quilt owner's county:

Ingham

Quilt owner's state:

Michigan (MI)

How was this quilt acquired?

Received as a gift

Tell the story of how the quilt was obtained:

From the Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi

Who photographed this quilt?

Pearl Yee Wong

Copyright holder:

Michigan State University Museum, all rights reserved