Annie Mae Young threw caution to the wind by not adhering to a quilting pattern when she created Blocks.

Young was a free spirit the same way that her mother and grandmother before her were. The quilting trade has been passed down from mother to daughter since before the abolition of slavery.

Some superstitious people believe that if a quilt’s pattern is confusing then it’ll keep evil from inhabiting your body while you sleep. But the art world is inclined to believe that Young knew the quilting rules and broke them on purpose for ~style~. Young herself explained that, “I never did like the book patterns some people had. Those things had too many little bitty blocks...however I get them, that’s how I used them…” So she was more of a medium purist than a pattern purist, which has gotten her national acclaim as a quilting goddess.

Unfortunately, that acclaim was tainted by the fact that the man who discovered her, William Arnett the curator and art collector, may or may not have cheated her out of money that was rightfully hers. The two went to court over the matter in 2007. Young claimed that, “they had been cheated out of thousands of dollars in proceeds from their work and copyrights” and Arnett claimed that the entire lawsuit was a waste of time. His relationships with other folk artists like Lonnie Holley indicate that he is innocent in the matter, but a 1993 “60 Minutes” segment explored the fact that he was completely shady and exploiting poor African-American artists for his own sick gain. The lawsuit with Young was settled outside of court so we may never know Bill Arnett’s true character. Duhn. Duhn. Duuuhn.