Aliyah Bonnette: Queen of Quilts

Written by Miles McKeller-Smith
Photography By Madison Cubbage
November 14, 2023

Aliyah Bonnette is dedicated. Not only to her craft, but to understanding her ancestors who paved the way for her to practice the art of quilting today. A routine college assignment that forced her to think outside the box led her to painting on a quilt. Since then, quilts have become her new canvas, and have taken her career to new heights. We caught up with Aliyah to discuss her experiences as she’s transitioned into a new phase of her career.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

I’m originally from Silver Spring, Maryland; I grew up there until I was 16. And then I moved to Garner, Carolina. When I moved there, that’s really when I started making art, which transitioned into me wanting to teach art. So I originally went to college at East Carolina University for art education, but I ended up doing a double concentration in painting and textiles in art. I also did a minor in African American studies.

There seems to be a deep history of quiltmaking within your family. Can you tell us about its origins in your family?

So my grandmother was a quiltmaker. She passed away before I was born and my family also didn’t really talk about her a lot. I didn’t know that she was a quilter – but growing up I knew that some family members, like my great-great grandmother, crocheted blankets.

My work in college was very focused on African-American history; which came naturally to me. So in the process of doing one of my projects, I told my mom I was about to make a quilt, and she said I should call my grandfather and ask him about my grandmother’s quilts. I called him and he still had all her fabric that she never used, the quilts that she never finished, and he gifted them all to me.

As I was quilting more and learning about it, my grandfather and I would talk about the history of my grandma’s quilting. At the time she was quilting, she had recently retired from her job at the post office.

This was in the 1960s – 70s, and there were about 12 or 13 people living in their house at the time. So she was kind of using quilting as an escape from all the people that were in her house, but also as a way to keep her family warm. Especially when you have that many people in the house at one time. So that’s the history of quilting in my family.

It seems like you’ve been able to learn a lot about your family history through her quilts. Would you say that’s true?

Definitely. When I first got her fabrics and quilts, I knew it would be a way that I could get to know her. Seeing her stitches, her fabric choices, the way that she composed her quilts; that’s how I got to know her.

Especially as an artist, we identify with other artists pretty heavily. She definitely wasn’t calling herself an artist, but that was an extremely important way for me to connect with that side of my family.

Would you say your work is mainly for gallery spaces? Or do you feel like your quilts can still serve a traditional purpose like your grandmother’s did?

That’s a really interesting question; I haven’t really been asked that before. I think I honor that aspect of quiltmaking with the style of quilting that I choose to use. I’m doing improv quilting, so before I make the quilts, the only thing that I really know are colors that I want to work with. I don’t use any patterns or measure anything out. I just cut and snip the fabric.

So that pulls me back to the practice of working with the fabric that you have to create something that is supposed to keep your family warm, like my grandmother would do. Though – she was very much a pattern-based quilter.

When you look back into slavery and enslaved women making clothes, they were making clothes for their slave owners first and foremost, but then they would take scraps that they had to create clothes for their own families. They weren’t getting good quality blankets and fabrics. So before I add paint and other elements, it’s important to me that that quilt stands on its own strength as a quilt, technique-wise, just so I can honor that. Especially since there’s such a debate between craft and art. Putting these quilts that are still traditional into fine art practices is really important to me.

When did you decide to start painting on quilts? And what inspired that decision?

That came to me slowly, to be honest. I was a painter first – so  I was trying to figure out how I could paint on anything I came across. At ECU, I had a project where I was tasked with making a painting, on something other than a canvas or panel, that could be picked up and moved around. That led me to quilts. At the same time I was taking a class in African-American studies and my professor was talking about quilts being used in the Underground Railroad as a way to lead enslaved people to freedom. 

At first I was thinking more about how to do this assignment and get an “A”, because that was the sort of person I was (laughs). But I realized that this is not something that’s being done a lot right now, so I want to learn more about it. Also I was super interested in learning about my ancestors, and I know that definitely influenced my motivation to keep learning and growing this practice.

How have people responded to seeing paintings on your quilts?

Read the full interview in Issue 3 of crEATe Magazine