The Kongo belief that evil travels in a straight line and must be disrupted by irregular patterns has been thought to have influenced African American visual traditions like quilt making. In this quilt, long columns of blue fabric are interrupted by rhythms of patches constructed from smaller strips, many of them in contrasting orange and reddish tones. The maker may also be echoing traditions of weaving as the strong vertical lines and horizontal strips running between them simulate the warp and weft of a loom-made fabric.