"Quilts are not just comfy ways to keep warm in the winter. They can also be like the pages of books, surfaces for telling stories, or notes sending coded messages....
One common motif in African American quilting was the cross, which had obvious religious connotations, but also pointed to the idea of a crossroads.
'For African Americans in the 19th Century, the crossroads is going to play a huge role,'... Slaves found themselves having to choose whether to stay where they were, or leave everything they knew and escape to freedom, she said."
http://www.hopewellnews.com/article_3099.shtml
