The most remarkable thing about the quilts in this exhibition is that they were made by a new quilter. She called her first quilt “The Village,” and used machine applique to depict scenes of life in a settlement in the African savanna. Building on the techniques she employed then, she has created in three years a body of work astonishing in both its quantity and its technical expertise.

Ethel White has known how to sew for most of her life, which explains why her work is technically so accomplished, but she made her first quilt after she was inspired by the exhibit THE QUILTS OF GEE’S BEND, which she viewed at the Milwaukee Art Museum in the fall of 2003. She has now made several dozen quilts, learning from friends and using books to teach herself the techniques that give quiltmaking a different approach from her previous stitching skills, mainly tailoring. Some of her quilts, including “The Village,” have been exhibited at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and the Milwaukee Federated Library.


Maggi Gordon (left) and Ethel White at Exhibit Opening

Born in Mississippi, she arrived in Milwaukee during a break from her training as a Braniff Airlines flight attendant with a cousin who was helping her parents move to the city. She later met James White, a minister, elected official, and Milwaukee native whose parents are also from Mississippi. They married, and raised two daughters. When her administrative job at GM was bought out, she decided to open a boutique at 55th Street and North Avenue, and spent the next nine years designing and making custom clothing, from leather hats and purses to choir robes, coats and men’s suits to wedding ensembles for brides and their attendants. Eventually the work load became more than she could handle alone, and she returned to administrative work in the food service industry and then in a drug and alcohol treatment center.

Making quilts began as a pastime, but after she left her position at the treatment center, she started to exercise her creative genes in earnest. Her work may have been inspired initially by the Gee’s Bend quilts, but technically and visually her quilts are on a different plane. Her choices of designs tend toward the so-called “traditional” but the execution is hers alone. Using mainly African fabrics mixed with solids, her work, with its bright colors and strong contrasts, makes well-known pieced patterns such as Rail Fence and Courthouse Steps, or appliqué designs like butterflies and colonial girls in swings, sing with a new vigor. Her experiments with new techniques and unusual color combinations work to create quilts that will appeal to fans of the traditional as well as those who prefer the abstract qualities of many art quilts.