In 1886, at the age of forty-nine, Harriet Powers of Athens, Georgia, who had sewn many other quilts in her lifetime, began work on a very special quilt that would be more than a coverlet; it would be a diary of her spiritual life.
Harriet Powers's Bible quilt, now a treasure in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, is made of 299 appliqued pieces of cloth. Each panel depicts a scene from the Bible. Twelve years later Harriet Powers completed her second story-quilt, one that combines biblical incidents with local folktales. It belongs now to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Using Harriet Powers' own words, as well as historical accounts of the period, Mary Lyons has pieced together this artist's experiences into an absorbing narrative.
