Quiliting.  What began as a way to pass the time, that told a family's history and holds a story in every stitch, the rural community of Gee's Bend is home to generations of  families but also holds a deep, rich history; a history of cotton fields picked, where old Negro spirituals are sung every Sunday to this day, where the civil rights movement strengthened history and where working with your hands is still the truest measure of honest work.  It is also where the recent discovery of quilts sewn by the women of the community of Gee's Bend, Alabama is being "discovered" by the world over...from websites and internet listings, from the West Coast to the Far East...and the ladies are still quilting to this present day!

Keeping the tradition of the Pettway family spirit, Tinnie and Minnie Pettway continue to quilt after over 50 years and now have turned their quilting into the wonderful, grassroots business venture "THAT'S 'SEW' GEE'S BEND", INC. that not only promotes their private quilt line "Tinnie Pieces With Minnie Designs" but will also produce the viable future of the Gee's Bend community through public service and business developments, job opportunities and preserving the heritage of the community.  Though we represent the collection of Tinnie and Minnie, we are also preparing (with great excitement) to soon represent other quilters of the community by also promoting their own line of quilts....establishing generational growth and greater heritage preservation for families of Gee's Bend!!!

THAT'S 'SEW' GEE'S BEND, INC. formed in 2007 by Tinnie and Minnie's daughter/niece & son-in-law, De'Lon and Claudia Charley was created to simply make the Gee's Bend quilts more accessible and more affordable not only to our own citizens of Alabama but to all who are lovers of the wonderful quilts, stories, songs and all that is Gee's Bend.....a hamlet on the "bend" of the Alabama River where there is much history in the midst of the excitement of the quilts.  Closing in on three years of operartion, our company has been blessed to have accomplished so much in so little time.  From hanging in museums from Ohio to Georgia to being on display at galleries and libraries throughout the state of Alabama.  We have been featured on local television in Birmingham ("Absolutely Alabama" - Fox 6, "Daytime Alabma", WVTM 13) and have been featured in many newspaper & magazine articles throughout the state of Alabama. Though we are headquartered in Cropwell, Alabama, "TSGB" is 100% Gee's Bend born and Gee's Bend bred!!  Tinnie, a former member of The Gee's Bend Quilt Collective*, is a first time author with TSGB self-publishing her first volume of her personal poems, short stories and anectodes in her book called "The Gee's Bend Experience"  which was on some of Birmingham bookstores best-sellers list!  Tinnie is also the first published author from Gee's Bend!!  She has also been featured on Birmingham radio station WBHM 90.3's "Tapestry" program twice, one of which garnered the station a National Public Radio (NPR) broadcasting award for their feature on Tinnie.

Growing up as a "bender" in Gee's Bend was unlike anything today's children will ever see and know.  Tinnie, the eldest sibling, along with her sister Minnie, the third of five, had to not only do the house chores along with their mother, but also had to take to the fields side by side with their brothers and father and prepare the ground for seasonal planting...only for months later to reap the harvest when the crops were ready....from sun up to sundown.  It was then when their mother put some old shreads of fabric & clothes with a needle in their hands and had them to begin quilting little blocks.  From being used as a form of punishment to passing the time away, Tinnie and Minnie never dreamed that their "punishment" would one day hang in museums!  Their grandfather and father were also astute businessmen/philantrophists in the community that allowed neighbors to shop in their garden and even allowed them to use "credit" they granted to them if funds were tight.  Years later they bought the shares from the "shareholders" of the community to later form the family owned store, the "Boykin Mercantile Store" which is still in operation to ths day by Tinnie Pettway.  It was Tinnie as the first employee of the store that was very instrumental in keeping the books and monies correct in the early days of the store when she was a girl.  Tinnie along with her brothers and sister eventually moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut and lived for quite a few years where she received her LPN degree in Nursing and not long after the birth of her one and only daughter, Claudia, she decided to move back to Boykin (Gee's Bend) and there became a daycare owner and took over the operations of the mercantile store after the daycare was closed down.  Minnie, who has Bachelor and Masters Degrees, returned home and taught physical education and served as a "guidance counselor" for many children in the Wilcox County School System where she taught 25+ years.  Now a retiree, she continues to keep the family land and livestock in place along with her brothers.  Claudia, a fourth generation quilter, a "bender" herself and a astute businesswoman in her own right, with her husband De'Lon saw a great opportunity and future for not only her mom and aunt works but the betterment of the community and the future for their children....the creating of a company that not only showcases the quilts but establishes the community in a much greater light and preserves the inheritance of her mom and aunt's quilts for their children.  Generational giving to the community.  Generational inheritance for their children.  The way it should be!!

Now both sisters have their hands full (with enjoyment) by constantly producing quilts, wall arts and potholders for the company that bears their name in their quilt collection.  With greater opportunity growing each day for the company, along with their "growing" four grandchildren, Andrew, Jalynn, Francesca and Frederick DeLon II, Tinnie and Minnie knows who has blessed them to see such a time in their lives taking place and He's the one who will make this great inheritance be a blessing for generations to come for the family after them........