I have given several talks to guilds recently about my cityscape quilts. The talk mentions 'Seminole patchwork', which can be used to create the effect of decorative brickwork in modern city buildings. Here’s my slide on the subject. ("Quoin" is what decorative brickwork in building corners is called)
Since I started quilting in the 90s, one of my most-used books has been Cheryl Bradkin’s “Seminole Patchwork,” published in 1992 (Its cover is shown on the upper right of the image above.) Bradkin (who is not a tribe member) figured out how quilters can use Seminole’s piecing techniques to create wonderful complex-looking designs.
Called the “grandmothers of strip piecing,” the Seminole, and their related tribe, the Miccosukee, sewed strip sets, cut them apart, and rearranged them into bold, graphic patterns, starting more than 100 years ago, long before the quilt industry introduced rotary cutters and mats. They sewed on treadle and hand-crank machines.
They created long, colorful, intricate and precise patchwork bands, which were then stitched into clothing, especially skirts. Here's a vintage postcard depicting those skirts.
More about that history with incredible photos, is here. Another photo of a single, wonderful skirt is here. The techniques were also used to make doll garments, sold to tourists.
So a month ago, browsing the news, when mention of the Seminole tribe came up on my feed. I clicked on it, and the photo stopped me in my tracks. A group of women, wearing the unmistakable pieced skirts, were holding protest signs. (See the photo here.) One sign reads: “Stay Out of My Swamp.”
They were protesting the prison in the Everglades, their home. The prison’s official name, "Alligator Alcatraz," is a brutality joke. Some visitors have reported that inmates are held with starvation rations, 24-7 bright lights, and inadequate medical care. Two-thirds of the inmates have no criminal record. Official accounts say a half-dozen inmates have died there. Many more are being deported to unknown places.
The Seminole and Miccosukee have been protesting this facility from the very beginning, originally for its threat to the environment.
And this week, the tribe was in the news again. On Sunday, July 27, 2025, 14 miles from the prison, a fire destroyed Miccosukee family homes and a cultural center. Along with holding irreplaceable artifacts, the center is where tribal members learned sewing. “What we have lost there is a lot of history in terms of the patchwork and in terms of the kind of stitching and sewing that that has been done over the decades,” Curtis Osceola of the Miccosukee Tribe was quoted as saying in a report by a local tv news station, here.
Another report, in the Naples Daily News, says the tribe is collecting donations to assist in rebuilding.
