The Great Lakes Afri Quilters' Network

Everlasting Threads The Great Lakes Afri Quilters' Network

GLAAQN Everlasting Threads joins the cannon of documenting the stitching history of Michigan Black Women. In 1887, Mrs. Delia Barrier founded the Willing Workers Club in Detroit. Affiliated with the Needlework Guild of America, this group of fifty members raised funds through the sewing and selling of quilts for at least forty years. The 1915 Michigan Manual of Freedmen's Progress included mention of quilters Miss Fannie Anderson (Detroit) and Mrs. Dennison Graine (Kalamazoo). In the 1990s, the late Carolyn Lucille Warfield documented Michigan African American quilting guild activities and shared her articles in community and regional publications. In 1997, Michigan State University published African American Quiltmaking in Michigan, the first comprehensive study of Black American quilts by any US state. Today, longtime Detroit News columnist Jocelynn Brown continues to promote crafters, needle artists and quilters, through her "Homemade" articles. Now and 50 or 100 years in the future, we'll know about GLAAQN and its members when other guilds may be forgotten.