Four-block strips

Florine Smith is one of the few Gee’s Bend quilt makers who work with paper sketches at the beginning of a quilting project, but she moves away from the planned design toward expressive improvisation once she begins handling her materials. Her patterns are frequently dictated in part by the physical limitations of her fabrics—since corduroy is prone to raveling and fraying, her quilts typically are made with large, simple rectangular pieces.