Everything in the black family either happens in church or around the dinner table. In our house every other Saturday my dad and three uncles would get together to play poker, while the women would "visit" with each other in another room.
The poker players took their game very seriously. Each would try to bluff the other into thinking that he held the better hand. In the quilt each man is looking at the other with suspicion. Each would chide the other by saying, "I've got an ace up my sleeve."
The quilt is also my way of honoring my father, who brought much laughter into our home when I was a child.
-Carolyn Mazloomi