Elizabeth Scott grew up in Chester, South Carolina, the daughter of sharecropper parents. She had no formal art training, but learned to quilt at home, a common experience among African-American families in the rural South. After moving to Baltimore in 1940, Scott set quilting aside while working and raising her daughter, artist Joyce Scott. Taking up her needle again after retirement, she advanced beyond the utilitarian quilts of her youth to create highly esoteric art quilts inspired by personal experience and intended for display. The appliquéd comet and stars of Plantation recall the night sky above Scott’s childhood home. “These stars back home were very precious to me,” the artist explained. “They lit our way home at night. They lighted up the porch. They even seemed to. . . warm us.” Below these heavenly bodies, lay the plantation, its contours and crops represented by highly individual quilting stitches.