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During
Sabina Historical
Society's annual
Heritage Day a special
display of pictorial
quilts was seen at the
society's museum. These
quilts were made by the
late Paul Buford, a
self- trained painter,
sculptor and musician
whose wife, Marietta
Pritchett, grew up in
Sabina and graduated
from Sabina High School
in 1938.
Marietta
met Paul in 1936. Two of
her cousins from Xenia
visited her every summer
and then she would visit
at their home in Xenia.
Paul Buford was the boy
next door. During one of
her visits to Xenia,
Marietta and her cousins
went to Yellow Springs
to a dance and there was
Paul, standing on the
other side of the room.
He came over and asked
her to dance and after
the dance, he went back
to the other side of the
room. As she was
leaving, he helped her
put on her jacket. He
was such a gentleman!
When
she returned home she
thought about him often
but wasn't expecting to
see him again so soon.
Her brother drove her
and one of her friends
to a dance at Washington
C.H. and there was Paul,
playing bass vIol m the
band. At another tIme,
she went with a group of
girls from her church to
a convention at the
Wilberforce University
campus. She was sitting
on a wall outside
Shorter Hall when Paul
found her and took her
picture. He kept the
picture in his wallet
for the rest of his
life.
His
inspiration for making
quilts came to him when
he and Marietta made a
trip to New Orleans. He
had been painting in
water colors and
acrylics and when they
saw three black
musicians entertaining
on Jackson Square in the
Amish community, he
sketched the scene and
remarked, "I'm going to
make a quilt from this
sketch." Later, they
went to Waynesville and
bought fabric to match
what he had in mind.
Between 1989 and his
death in 2000, he made
twelve quilts. The image
of his wife sitting on a
wall became the theme of
his favorite one. All of
his quilts are wall
hangings 45" by 45".
When
he had completed ten
quilts, he had a call
from the curator of the
University of Maryland
who wanted to include
them as part of an
exhibit of male quilters
whose works were staged
at the Smithsonian
Institution's Anacostia
Museum. Buford's quilts
were on display there
for nine months and more
recently have been on
display for four months
at the Dayton Art
Institute.
Paul
and Marietta became
engaged before World War
II, which took Paul
overseas as an
anti-aircraft artillery
gunner in the all-black
450th division combat
group. He suffered a
head wound while in
Italy and was sent back
to the states to Walter
Reed Hospital for
surgery and to have a
plate inserted in his
head.
When
he recovered, he and
Marietta were married
but it was years later
that the idea of making
pictorial quilts came to
him. He never forgot the
World War II scene of
1943 when the Tuskegee
Airmen - the 332nd Red
Tail Aircraft Fighter
Group - flew over
Venafro Valley, Italy on
their way to bomb a
German-held monastery
and, as anti~aircraft
artillery gunners, his
combat group protected
them. In his quilt
depiction of the scene,
the black planes with
red tails can be seen
swooping up and over a
mountain, while Buford's
gun crew is waving from
inside the sandbag
enclosure.
Marietta
Buford is a talented
seamstress and has made
Nigerian dolls for
display. She created the
borders for all of her
husband's pictorial
quilts and was
influential in selecting
the fabrics for the
scenes, although he had
an artist's eye for
color and texture and
always knew what he
wanted.
The
quilts were given to
Mrs. Buford's
grandchildren, other
family members and
friends after being on
display.
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