Essie Bendolph Pettway

b. 1956

The daughter of Mary Lee Bendolph, Essie began making quilts at a young age and was an accomplished quilter by her teen years.

“I was looking at my mama sewing back when I was seven, eight—might have been younger—and I was thinking I want to do that for myself. Maybe I was twelve or thirteen when I made my first quilt. I have a family with a lot of peoples quilting—my grandmother, a lot of aunts, my mama—and I picked up a lot from watching them and learning what they was doing.” 

— Essie Bendolph Pettway
excerpt from Souls Grown Deep