The technique is simple, explains Lee Rowell, 69, of Maryland, but the color, the symmetry, the vision have never been more unique.

A board member of the Virginia Quilt Museum, Rowell viewed "Continuities & Innovations: African Signs & Symbols in African American Quilts of Virginia," a collection on display until Oct. 16.

The quilts were a highlight of last week's Furious Flower poetry conference.

"The creativity, the color - it's astonishing," Rowell said. "There's something beautiful about an outside-the-envelope approach."

The quilts often feature piecework or traditional patterns. But the quilt's trademarks are the unique symmetry and variety of patterns pieced from scraps or worn clothing.

"Even where the layers are tied together, the ties aren't on the seams," Rowell said. "They're not perfect. They combine at different lengths and intervals. It comes from the soul."

The Virginia Quilt Museum exhibit tracks three generations of quilters, starting with Blanche Prunty. She assembled quilts quickly, without patterns or templates. Prunty also never learned to read or write - her designs were produced through careful observation.

Before her mother's death in 1985, Velma Saunders carried on the tradition. The former art student at JMU often quilts reversible patterns. Her daughter, Annette, also learned the craft.

Other quilts take contemporary approaches on quilts. Three dimension quilt pieces turn Wendell George Brown's work into soft sculptures. "It's more like fine art," said curator Rachel Malcolm-Woods. "It's a whole new concept."

Malcolm-Woods said visitors should keep an open mind. "The quilts are not hung like quilts, they're hung like paintings," she said. "There's such innovation in these quilts. Come, enjoy the diversity."

Other quilts are at the Collection & Alumni Center of JMU and 150 Franklin Street Gallery and Booker T. Washington Community Center and the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace in Staunton.

Contact Kelly Jasper at skyline@dnronline.com