During the early 1960s, Loretta Pettway created Four-Block Strip from the scraps of men’s clothing and cotton twill. Here, Pettway’s sure hand combined found materials using rhythmic improvisation. Variations in scale and color are stitched together in the geometric forms of recycled fabric to create four distinct parts of a whole. A member of the Gee’s Bends quilters, direct descendants of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the Alabama cotton plantations of Joseph Gee (died 1824), Pettway learned quilt making from her grandmother. In this way, she participated in a history of knowledge sharing amongst the women of Gee’s Bend, enabling them to ensure economic independence as well as stylistic and technical continuity.