The Bricklayer is Loretta Pettway’s favorite pattern, and this quilt is one of the earliest surviving examples of her work. She recalls, “Arcola [Pettway] came over to Magdalene Wilson’s house next door and saw my quilts hanging on the line all around the yard, and she laughed till she cried, and made fun of them. She said they was all made alike and they was all Bricklayers. I told her. . . my quilts going to do just what them Eight Point Stars do for you. They going to keep me and my family warm.”