A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories

African-American Quilters, Preservers and Their Stories represents the first national survey & a personal record of how this photographer & folkorist's life has intertwined with the world of quiltmaking. The communion refers to the power of quilts to create a virtual web of connections-individual, generational, professional, physical, spiritual, cultural & historical. Some of the names of those glorious quilts are: Rainbow Block; Slave Chain; Log Cabin; Three Pigs in a Pen; Double Wedding Ring; Black Jack Scarecrow; Monsters, Dragons and Flies; African Diaspora; African-American Women; African-American Men; Memories of My Father's Death; Memories; Scripture; Martin Luther King Jr.; Hand Me Down My Mother's Work; Mother Africa's Children; The Underground Railroad; Baltimore Arabber Selling Watermelons; Harriet Tubman Quilt & Tableau.For all those who consider quilt making one of America's finest crafts, this will be a lifetime companion & will rekindle that dramatic & endearing form of art. Very well done!You have got to read this book! It is filled with women & men & the love of fabric & colors; of the love of design & community coming together to stitch lives together. Do visit my site for my full review & more books on quilting.

Mr Freeman's passion and understanding of the human spirit revealed in quiltmaking is both remarkable and inspirational. This is a book that speaks to all quiltmakers,....it educates, entertains, and inspires.One of my most favorite books. It gets to the heart of a quilt...not about technique and pretty blankets, but about the heart & soul of the men & women who made them.This is a book to be read, and reread again. I have given it often as a gift (to non quiltmakers as well), and their response has been enthusiastic! No one who has read this book doesn't love this book. Roland Freeman has done us all a great service! He curates a traveling exhibit on this subject which I hear is outstanding as well.

Awesome Inspirational is this book which culminates a 26 year span of this phenomenal man's life that he devoted to recording the lives of Afrcian American quilters throughout the U.S.!! This book should be in every African American home to appreciate and cultivate the dynamic roles that women, men and children have preserved their heritage as more than just a work of art but more as their unique way of expression! This book can motivate, stimulate our next generation and I feel, be placed in a time capsule as it is really a document of testimonials that have bridged the gap of time. I was fortunate to not only see the 1st exhibit in Detroit at the Museum of African American History on March 21, 1998, but also had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Mr. Freeman, a humble man of vison, great determination and integrity. I was awed and determined that the next book I would be in----it affected me that much. Any historian or educator should have their class see this exhibit!!! This is a MUST-SEE for EVERYONE!!!!! I was also fortunate to meet Gerry Benton of Pittsburgh, PA who is in this book and her quilts are phenomenal as I see why she's in there!!!

Being perfectly honest, I bought this book because a relative was featured. But the more I looked at the photos, the more fascinated I became! I ended up reading the book from cover to cover! One could feel that this was a true labor of love for Mr. Freeman! That he traveled all over this country visiting quilters, many he did not know before he arrived on their doorsteps. The African American networking among quilters was apparent as one quilter would recommend another, often in another state, whom Mr. Freeman should visit. The book is a true reference book on quilting. I learned about the major quilting patterns and saw so many varieties of the patterns. It is heartening to know that this folk art is still being practiced. Would that more people could see these quilts! There should be more exhibits. Surely many young people would be inspired to quilt. This is a art that must not fade away!!

Roland Freeman deserves to be canonized for this wonderful, insightful and spiritual look at African American quilts and, most importantly, quilters. I have been an "art" quilter for ten years and have read many books on the subject of quilts, both traditional and not-so traditional. Freeman goes beyond the technical perfection that almost all other books honor and shows the artistry inherent in just doing a quilt - with no need for rules, regulations, stitch-counting and other limiting notions. He venerates the people who made the quilts -- who in all other quilt books take backstage to their skills. I was so impressed with him as a writer, a photographer and most of all as a human being that I may never get over reading this book -- needless to say, I highly recommend it!