Bettie Bendolph Seltzer began quilting around the age of 10. She became a member of the Freedom Quilting Bee in 1971 and was a member of the Gee’s Bend Quilting Collective, which was formed in 2003 to highlight the history and craftsmanship of the quilts. Her mother, Annie Bendolph, and mother-in-law, Sue Willie Seltzer, were also quilters associated with the collective.

Dating back to the nineteenth century, Gee’s Bend quilts play an important role in the history of American quilt making. Members of the community descended from the enslaved people of the cotton plantation in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, where the women would repurpose clothes and fabric scraps to create quilts of bold, abstract designs. These patterns have been passed down through generations and are still applied today. Gee’s Bend quilting survived over generations of oppression and provides a visual testament to family traditions.

Gee’s Bend quiltmakers played a significant role in the civil rights movement. In 1966, their craftsmanship began reaching wider audiences through the Freedom Quilting Bee, a worker’s cooperative established to connect the Gee’s Bend and Alberta quilting communities to the greater American art world. Soon, Influential figures in the arts and fashion industries took notice, and news sources began covering their work. Galleries, museums and department stores all sought out the quilts. Not only did they become part of the American art conversation, but the initiative brought the artists new forms of income and materials to work with, as well as empowerment of their community.