Courthouse Steps

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A quilt titled, "Courthouse Steps," created by Martha Jane Pettway of Gee's Bend, Alabama. The red wool and undyed white cotton quilt is sewn with a Courthouse Steps block. The blocks feature a red center with six strips stacked on top of each other, with the longest strips in the middle and each set getting shorter to create a step design that gives the block its name. There are five complete blocks on the quilt. The top left and all three right side blocks are half the motif. The bottom left of the quilt features four half motif blocks that surround one complete motif block. The blocks are bordered by a single layer of strips of the red wools and undyed white cotton. It is hand quilted in off-white thread that is sewn in a curvilinear pattern. The quilt is backed with a solid off-white plain-weave cotton.

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