About This Quilt

In this quilt, solid blocks of color alternate with blocks of intersecting lines that recall maps, mazes, or grids. The quilt as a whole looks like an aerial view of land, roads, and fields. When Bendolph pieces her quilt tops together, she often reworks their design by cutting them apart and rearranging them in new ways. She describes most of her designs as based on the Housetop pattern but as she works on them they become “un-Housetop.” The connection to her ancestors through quiltmaking is important to her, and today her daughter and granddaughter design quilt patterns on the computer.

Let's Look!

• If this quilt were a map or an aerial view, what kind of place could it be?
• What colors did the artist use? What do these colors remind you of?
• Bendolph says she bases many of her designs on the Housetop pattern. How does this quilt remind you of that pattern?