Quilts and Stories by Sherry Ann Blog

Publish Your Quilts: Sherrie Theriault has self-published more than 30 art books!

2012-08-06T09:42:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Sherrie Theriault has self-published more than 30 art books!

Publish Your Quilts: If Quilts Could Talk: My Quilts, My Stories by Aisha Lumumba

2012-07-15T05:09:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: If Quilts Could Talk: My Quilts, My Stories by Aisha Lumumba

Publish Your Quilts: Edna Patterson-Petty's Fabrics Work Now Published!

2012-07-15T05:08:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Edna Patterson-Petty's Fabrics Work Now Published!

Wilbur T.(Bill) Bonner-Titus: Official Titus Family Researcher and Historian.

2012-07-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Wilbur Thirkield (Bill ) Bonner-Titus
Born: February 9,1919 - Died: June 10,2012

Bill at work recording family history. He learned how to use the

computer in his 80's.

The Governor and Amanda Titus Family

Bill Titus and his mother Amanda Marie Hunter-Titus
who insisted he help her record the family's history.

Today I am going to write about a person who has made a great impact on my life and many others from the Edward "Ned" Titus family lineage and from the county of Freestone in Texas.His name is Wilbur Thirkield (aka "Bill") Bonner-Titus who recently died on June 10, 2012.........

The slave Edward "Ned" Titus, who was brought to Freestone County , Texas
in 1852 by the Simeon and Nancy Lake Family from South Carolina.

There is always at least one person/s in every family lineage who is concerned about researching, recovering and chronicling that family's history and lineage so as to save it for future generations. For the Edward "Ned" Titus family of Freestone County, Texas that person/s would have to be Mr. Wilbur T.(aka Bill) Bonner-Titus, ( and his sister Loreta Titus-Phillips). This post will introduce you to both of these two most amazing and respected person/s....not only are they admired in the family, but in the Freestone County Community as a whole. It is with great pleasure that I present to you their story. This article commerates their HARD WORK and PERSERVERANCE in preserving this family's history.....ENJOY!!!!!

In His Own Words

A Condensed Autobiography of Wilbur Thirkield "Bill" Bonner-Titus

Reading Specialist, Family Historian, Poet, and Author

My parents were Amanda Elmira Hunter and James Isaac Bonner. I was born on February 9, 1919, in Young's Mill, Freestone County, Texas, which no longer exists. I was given the name Wilbur Patterson Thirkield, in honor of a white Methodist Episcopal Bishop, who was popular among African Americans, during the period of my birth. During the early part of my life, I was called Thirkield, which often to my disgust, was mispronounced.

I was raised by my mother and her devoted husband, Governor R. Titus, in the community called Titus Farm and/or Brown's Creek Community. This community was composed predominately of African Americans,ex-slaves and their progeny and was located in "the flat woods," ten or eleven miles northeast of Fairfield, Texas, in Freestone county.

We were poor. There were six of us children: Catherine, Cornelius, Joe Pierce, Loreta Yvonne, and me, who grew up on the little farm that had been given to Daddy by his father (Willie Titus). We were poor, but in retrospection, I find that we had dignity and self respect, and the seeds of independence, responsibility, the value of cleanliness of person and character, and of education, obedience to the laws of God and constituted authority were instilled within us as being essential if one were to enjoy the good and fulfilling life.

Home Background

My life seems to have been typical of the farm boys of the era and locale. I was the cowboy, as such I attended to the cows. I drove them home from the woods where they fed, if they did not come home of their accord. I milked them, and fed them during the winter. I slopped hogs, fed chickens, chopped wood, and helped with all of the work of the fields.

I carried water from the tank for washing and bathing, and from the well, some distance away, for cooking and drinking. I was the first one to get up in the mornings. In winter, I would light the fires, one in the heater and the other in the cook stove, so that it would be ready for Mother and later my sister Catherine, to prepare breakfast for the family.

Some of the pleasant things that I enjoyed during my childhood was picking berries, and other fruit, fishing, hunting rabbits, reading, cooking, singing, and playing with friends.

Religious Background

With my mother and siblings, I attended Sunday School and "church" at Hope Well Methodist Episcopal Church, regularly. I participated in all of the children's and youths' activities of the church. We also attended the services of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which was our neighboring church. Daddy seldom attended any church, except for funerals, but he saw that we attended church and respected its teachings.

Education

My elementary education was received from Titus Farm School, from the first through the seventh grade, which I completed in 1933 as valedictorian. The school was a one teacher institution which held classes in Hope Well Methodist Church from nine o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the afternoon.

In order to continue my education, I went to Mexia, Texas, lived with Aunt Susie Roberts and attended Dunbar High School. I was diligent about my studies; I remembered how Mother and I had planned for me to win a scholarship and for me to go to college. There was no other way. I worked before and after school to help support myself and completed my high school studies in 1937 with second highest honors.

Even though I worked after school, I was active in extracurricular activities. I was the leading tenor in the male and mixed quartets which represented Dunbar High School in the Interscholastic league competition in Prairie View College. I also represented the school in spelling and as a member of a debating team. One year I had an important role in high school drama.

In 1937, I entered Tillotson College, now Houston-Tillotson College, Austin,Texas on a scholastic scholarship. This scholarship paid my tuition that first year. I had to find work in order to pay for room and board. It took me five years to receive my degree, because I worked and attended classes alternately during my last two years.

I received an A. B. Degree in History, with a double minor of Education and English. After a stint in the Us Army, I returned to Tillotson College and took enough courses in English to qualify for an English major.

The extracurricular activities in which I participated during my college years include the college choir, glee club, and Crescent Club Male Quartet, the debate team, and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. I was active in the social life of the college, and was voted the " most popular man" one year.

As a reward for my making good grades and being an asset to the college, the college gave me jobs in the kitchen and dining room, where I moved from dishwasher to head waiter. My first job, during my freshman year, was as reader for a junior student who was technically blind. For him, I would read his course assignments that were not written in Braille. This proved to be a valuable experience.

During my junior and senior years, I was editor of the college newspaper. When I left the dormitory and found lodging in the city, I found employment at the La Conga Night Club, where I progressed from dishwasher to cook, to head waiter, and finally cashier.

Military Experience

In November of 1942, I was drafted into the United States Army and served until September 22, 1944. I did my basic training in Camp Wolters, Texas, where I was trained to use the 30mm rifle, mortar, and 30mm caliber machine gun. My highest rank achieved was corporal, and clerk, serving on both the company and the regimental levels in the states and overseas.

I served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, including New Zealand, Australia, and New Guinea.

I was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Bronze Star for New Guinea Campaign, and the Good Conduct Medal.

Political Involvement

Ever since African Americans in Texas were permitted to vote, I have been a member of the Republican Party and have participated in its activities. I was chosen Precinct Chairman of the Fairfield, Texas Republican Party in 1978, and have worked the polls several times.

Work Experiences

My work experiences include those of a farm hand, dishwasher, cook, waiter, yardman, soldier, mail orderly, clerk, cafe owner and operator, manager of a barber college for a year, public school and college teacher, assistant principal, director of a reading department, director of summer concentrated reading programs, director of musical groups, director of activities, reading consultant, and much volunteer work in the communities in which I have lived.

Memberships

Listed here are some of the names of organizations of which I am or have been a member:

AARP
National Retired Teachers Association
State Retired Teachers Association
Advisory Board of Retired Senior Volunteer Program of the Heart of Texas Agency on Aging, Waco, Texas
Freestone County War on Drugs
Jones Chapel United Methodist Church, Reunion Center Advisory Council of Fairfield, Texas
Mexia, Texas Public Library Board
National Reading Conference
Western Reading Conference
International Reading Association
Texas Association for The Improvement of Reading
National Association For The Improvement of Colored People
YMCA , Board of Directors
Boy Scouts Of America Circle Ten Council Mustang District
The Voices of Sigma
Veteran Of Foreign Wars ,W. H. Bailey Post ,Fairfield, Texas
Dogan High School Alumni Association
Life membership in Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Publications

My published works are limited to poems and articles published in the Tillotson College newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, an U. S. A. newspaper of the World War II era, and entry in The Anthology of College Poetry, 1948, and as editor of the St. Paul United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas during the nineteen sixties and seventies. I have published three books. Two of them are collections of poems and the other is a historical account of the accomplishments of contemporary members of the Bailey Hunter, Sr., and Edward Titus Families.

My first book of poems, Poetic Reflections of Wilbur Thirkield Titus, is a collection of poems written during the period of 1942-2003. The poems depict my experiences, memories, impressions, beliefs, and convictions.

The second books of poems, Give Me America !!!, is a collection of patriotic poems in which I sing the praises of America and dedicate it to survival of America.

The third book is Who Is Who In Hunter And Titus Families.

The first two books are published by myself. Who Is Who In Hunter and Titus Families is published by the Hunter And Titus Family Reunion.

Honors And Awards

Humanitarian Award, January 24, 1990 by RSVP of Waco, Texas
Certificates of Appreciation for 1983 to 2002 from RSVP
Outstanding Service Award, July 18, 1995, Hunter And Titus Family Reunion
Civil Defense Award, Texas Education Agency
Appreciation Award for Outstanding Achievement And Unselfish Service by Rho Chapter, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Man of the Year Award, 1973, Omicron Sigma Chapter, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Dallas, Texas
Education Award, in recognition of Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Education
The Good feather Award For The Most Outstanding Performance By A Human Being, by Radio Station, WRR, Dallas, Texas 1973
Certificate Of Appreciation, April 23, 1998, by Freestone County, Texas for outstanding personal service to the Fairfield Senior Center and the community
Certificate of National Service, 2001, Senior Corps of RSVP
Certificate of Appreciation, 2002, by Central Texas Senior Ministries, for participation in the Legacies writing contest
Nomination for induction into Marquis Who's Who 2004, March 2003

Hobbies and Interests

My interests and hobbies include singing, listening to classical piano, jazz, and sacred music, reading,creative writing, playing bridge and television, sports, using the computer, genealogy, and interacting with people.

Personal Life

Miss Virgie Lee Tucker married me on December 31, 1947. We had no children. Our divorce was granted on January 22, 1974. I have foster children whom I love dearly.

At this writing, I live alone at 946 South Bateman, Fairfield, Texas. I am busily enjoying my retirement, and continuing my writing, which includes the writing of a history of the Hunters and Titus's, (See How Far We Have Come!), in which I discuss the beginnings of the families and summarize their accomplishments. The Complete Poems of Wilbur Thirkield Titus is being compiled, and a collection of my love poems, From The Depths of My Heart, is nearing completion.

I am enjoying the adoration of my foster children, the blessings of God, the benefits of freedom, and the respect of friends. I am content, and I shall ..."Live until I die!"

By Wilbur T. Titus

August 14,2003

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Bill Titus loved recording his family's historical background and until his recent death in June 2012, he lived up to his faithful motto.....I shall "Live until I die". He left tons of historical documentation and memorabilia that attests to the firm roots that the Titus family planted in Freestone County, Texas.

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Loreta and Louie T. Phillips

His sister Loreta Earnestine Titus-Phillips was in harmony with her older brothers' mindset on cherishing family history and roots. Her efforts to save it are recorded below in a quote from her cousin Odis Rich in "A Tribute to Loreta Titus-Phillips" which was presented during the Hunter and Titus family reunion, on July, 26, 2003, Fairfield, Texas. It reads:

"Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends,

In order to fully understand and appreciate the significance of the next acknowledgment, I must first give you some background.

In January of 1863 slavery officially ended in the US through the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln. However, it was not until two and a half years later that slavery ended in Texas in June 1865.

Only fourteen years later on March 4, 1879, Ned Titus with two of his sons and a son-in-law purchased 320 acres of land here in Freestone County, TX, from Willie Lane and her husband C.B.Lane. In case you are wondering from where I got detailed information, I have a copy of the deed which is still available here in the county court house.

What is important to understand is that these men, after spending their entire lives as slaves, in only 4 years after freedom, were able to buy a large area of land for their family. The ancestry of many of us in this room today, and many who are not, can be traced to these men and their wives. During the years later, the sons purchased additional land that expanded the initial acreage.

Upon that land a community was built. There were houses for shelter, farms that provided work and food. There was a church which was also used as a school...( Some here today attended that school.) Also, a cemetery was created, the land having been donated by Henry Titus whose son was the first internee.

On June 19, 1928, 49 years after Ned Titus and his sons bought the first 320 acres, Loreta Yvonne Titus was born. She is now known as Loreta Phillips.

Loreta is a great-grand daughter of Ned Titus. The significance of my telling you about Loreta's birth will come later. For now, let us go to 1968 and the few years leading up to 1968.

Most of the 60s were tumultuous years. The Vietnam war was fought throughout the period.

In 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated.

In 1965, the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which was enacted to force southern states to allow black Americans to vote. Texas was one of the states that had to be forced.

In 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Also in 1968, Loreta's sister Catherine died...This was undoubtedly, a very stressful time (for her). 1968 was also a year that the Texas Utility was forcing our family members to sell land which had been divided and passed down to them.

Coal had been discovered on and around the Titus Farm community in the 60s, and the Texas Utility Co. wanted it for generating electricity, to mine, and to build a power plant. The Texas Utility Co. needed the land. Of course, some family members resisted selling. But in the end, they all were persuaded to sell or risk seizure.

Concerned about the family getting an unfair price for the land, and more importantly, concerned about protecting the cemetery, Loreta (Titus) Phillips took action.

This cemetery is the burial place for Ned Titus, his wife Clora, their children, and many other of our descendants. As well, many Hunters are buried in this cemetery. After realizing that the fight with the TU to save the land would be lost eventually, Loreta persisted in the fight to save the cemetery.

The TU had a plan, too, for saving the cemetery which was not acceptable to Loreta. Under the TU plan, they would dig-up the graves and rebury them someplace else. If they could move a whole coffin, they would. Otherwise they would collect the bones in barrels....."

Neither of these solutions were acceptable to Mrs. Phillips whose great uncle, Henry Edward Titus, had begun the cemetery and where her father and other relatives and friends were buried. So Loreta, with only her husband Louie T. Phillips, for support......went before the Water Commission of the State of Texas, in Austin, Texas and received assurance that Hopewell Cemetery would not be disturbed.

SHE FOUGHT TO SAVE HER HERITAGE!!! ....and that is why Hopewell Cemetery , to date, is the only surviving landmark to a once vibrant and active African American Community called Titus Farms.

Loreta and her brother "Bill" never ceased to hold on to the amazing history of their ancestors.

Area where Titus Farms once existed. Only Hopewell Cemetery

continues to exist right next door to the Big Brown Electrical Plant.

To enter the cemetery, one has to ask for a key at the Plant's Guard House

to gain entry to the cemetery access road.

******************************************************

Bill Titus's Accounts of the Demise and history of Titus Farms.

******************************************************************

The End......ENJOY!!!!

2012-06-07T12:34:00.001-07:00

Source: youtube.com via Smashley on Pinterest

2012-06-07T12:22:00.001-07:00

Source: youtube.com via Smashley on Pinterest

Publish Your Quilts: Monna Ellithorpe Publishes Double Wedding Ring Quilt Pattern

2012-05-26T17:51:00.002-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Monna Ellithorpe Publishes Double Wedding Ring Quilt Pattern

Publish Your Quilts: Mary and The Dream Quilt - One Grandmother Publishes Stories for Her Grandchildren

2012-05-26T17:51:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Mary and The Dream Quilt - One Grandmother Publishes Stories for Her Grandchildren

Publish Your Quilts: The Studio Quilt, No. 8: Quilted Sculpture

2012-05-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: The Studio Quilt, No. 8: Quilted Sculpture

Eli Leon Collection of Titus Family Quilts

2012-05-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

(Click on Photos for slideshow.)

All photos contributed by Eli Leon unless specified otherwise.

Eli Leon,

Mission Statement:

The knowledge, attitudes and values carried across the Atlantic by enslaved Africans appear to have informed a quilt making tradition so powerful that, to this day, it preserves its identity in a special province of African-American quilts. Such "Afro-traditional" quilts are made by people who have no formal art training and who usually do not consider themselves artists; they learned their craft and absorbed its esthetics by watching and helping their mothers, aunts and grandmothers who, in turn, learned from previous generations--an astonishingly short, direct line to the patchwork traditions of enslaved African-Americans.

The resulting--often highly idiosyncratic--quilts call out to be seen as the works of art that they are. Not that they cease to be products of custom. The brilliance of this work must also be credited to a tradition which encourages individual expression and provides a context in which the talents of individual artists can flourish.

Improvisation, pervasive in black African art and familiar as a basic element of many African-American musical forms, is a vital force in this tradition. The artisans maintain a generous attitude toward the accidental, embracing innovations that originate beyond the conscious domain. They use approximate measurement, stepping up the order of variability by dealing creatively with the tricky piecing predicaments that ensue. They use "flexible patterning," in which the design, conceived of as an invitation to variation, will not repeat, but will materialize in a sequence of visual elaborations.

Afro-traditional attitudes and methods are antithetical to the standard American quilt making tradition--practiced by both whites and blacks--in which great value is placed on precise measurement and exact pattern replication. They bear keen likeness, however, to the improvisatory practices of the textiles-makers of Kongo and West Africa, regions from which American slaves were taken. These antipathies and affinities suggest an enduring African influence on the Afro-traditional quilt.

My shows and catalogs celebrate the sophistication, vivacity and significance of improvisational African-American quilts, both as artistic achievements and as expressions of African-American traditions.……………

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Resume: Eli Leon (elileon1@yahoo.com)

***

Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1989.

Surface Design Association Critical Writing Award for the development and

application of critical vocabulary in the field of surface design, 1990.

***

Selected Publications:

Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins. Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.

Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quiltmakers. Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.

Improving the Bow Tie. Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, June-Aug 2005.

"Too Short to Save: African-American Improvisational String Quilts," in A Report from the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2002

Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts (exhibition catalog), William D. Cannon Art Gallery, San Diego, CA. 2001.

Review of My Quilts and Me: The Diary of an American Quilter by Nora McKeown Ezell, in Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 3, 2000, pp. 75-79.

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern (exhibition catalog), South Carolina State Museum, 1998.

"African Influence on the American Block-style Quilt," in Sally Gant, ed.,African Impact on the Material Culture of the Americas (collected symposium papers), Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Old Salem Inc., Winston-Salem, NC, 1998.

Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American Quilts (exhibition catalog), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1997.

"Shadows of the Divine Perfection," in Lawrence Rinder, ed., Rosie Lee Tompkins(exhibition catalog), Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, 1997.

"Showing Up": African-American Maximum-contrast Quilts (exhibition catalog), Richmond Art Center, 1996.

Arbie Williams Transforms the Britches Quilt (exhibition catalog), University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993.

Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork (exhibition catalog), Winston-Salem State University, 1992.

"Cross-strip Patterning in African Textiles and African-American Quilts," Surface Design Journal, Vol.15, #1, Fall, 1990, pp.6-8,38.

Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking (exhibition catalog), Introduction by Robert Farris Thompson, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1988.

"Wrapping Home Around Me: How the Patchwork Quilt became a Medium for the Expression of African Values," in Rambling On My Mind (exhibition catalog), Museum of African-American Life and Culture, Dallas, 1987, pp.18-33.

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Selected Exhibitions:

Sunshine and Surprises: African American Quilts from the Eli Leon and Robert Cargo Collections. Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK. Aug 16-19, 2007.

Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins.Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.

Approximate Measure: Improvisational African-American Quilts. Shirley/Jones Gallery, 235 Corry Street, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Jan-March 2007.

Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quiltmakers.Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.

Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA, Sept-Nov 2001; Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, June-Sept 2002; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Feb-March 2003; New England Quilt Museum, Sept-Nov 2003; New York State Museum, Jan-March 2004

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern, South Carolina State Museum, Oct 1998-March 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, Sept-Nov 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Jan-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, Feb-March 2003.

African-American

Quilts and; Quilters

"My first awareness of African-American quilts as a category of quilt making came several years ago when Eli Leon, collector of African-American quilts and author of several books and show catalogs, came to me to help him solve a problem dating a quilt with questions about the dyes on it. Eli had received a Guggenheim award several years ago to aid in his research and collecting of African-American quilts. I later read one of his well-researched books and saw how he drew parallels between the quilts made in the African-American community and the fabrics which I knew and loved from Africa. I was hooked! (He also draws parallels with jazz, another of my favorite things, and African-American quilt improvisation styles.) The combination of elements of traditional African textiles with the blocks and patterns of traditional American quilt patterns can result in a joyful finished quilt………."

An earlier exhibit, …of quilts from Eli Leon's collection, was called Who'd A Thought It ,and it traveled to several museums around the USA. The catalog was published by the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum with an introduction by Robert Farris Thompson, an African-American scholar.

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Improvisation with Needle and Thread

Imagine a field of study that requires information that can’t be found in a book, archive, or art museum. There’s no conventional way to gather samples. Tracking down exemplary specimens can involve con men and bribery.

Welcome to the world of Eli Leon ’57, (He graduated from Reed College in 1957), who has carved out a niche as a leading scholar and curator of improvisational African-American quilts.

Leon, who majored in psychology at Reed and has an M.A. in psychology from the University of Chicago, has published numerous books on the subject and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 to further his study.

Early on, Leon focused his collecting efforts on quilts more familiar to Euro-Americans, in which the fabric patches are painstakingly measured, and stitches are tiny and even. His focus shifted in 1981, though, when a “quilts wanted” ad in an Oakland newspaper led him to a quilt that defied everything he thought he knew about the craft. That’s when Leon traded a leather jacket for the address of a reputed con artist—the son of the remarkable quilt’s maker—in an effort to learn more about its origins (improvisational quilts are often sold at auction without attribution to their makers).

Quilts like the one Leon happened upon in 1981 have been likened to jazz, gospel music, and the blues, for departing from rigid repetition and for embodying the personal preferences of the maker. Arbie Williams, a National Heritage Award-winning quilter, once told Leon: “If you get discomfortable with something you’re making . . . just cut it down the middle and send it to the other side.”

Quilters discovered by Leon, such as Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–), who grew up in a large family where poverty demanded that every scrap of cloth be put to use, express themselves piece by piece in patchworks. Leon says these quilts and quilters have changed the way he thinks about art. “The revelation that a body of work seen by the dominant culture as nothing but failed attempts to meet that culture’s rigid standards is, on the contrary, a powerful and sophisticated art form with its own ideals and conventions, affected me deeply,” he says. “The growth process I’ve undergone to transcend my culture-boundedness has been exhilarating.”

This spring, Leon’s seventh cataloged exhibition was shown at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African American Quiltmakers featured improvisational quilts by four generations of women from one Texas family. Much of the same material will be displayed at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont in 2007–08; check www.brattleboromuseum.org for details. In the meantime, Leon will have another cataloged show—Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African and African American Textiles—at the Figge Museum in Davenport, Iowa, November 18, 2006 through February 11, 2007 (see www.figgeartmuseum.org).

—Rachel Fredericks ’04

Eli Leon ’57 Alumni Peofiles / Reed Magazine / Autumn 2006

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The Beautiful Choas of Improvisational Quilts

July 13, 2011

by Lisa Hix

www.collectorsweekly.com

"Quilt collector Eli Leon explains that while improvisational quilts may look spontaneous, they do require technical proficiency and quilting know-how. “Improvisational quilts are not crazy at all,” he says. “They often have a number of patterns in one quilt. They may even be the same pattern on the whole quilt, but it doesn’t necessarily look that way because the pattern keeps varying.”….

Leon—an Oakland, California, resident who has amassed many collections in his lifetime, including toasters, 1930s salt-and-pepper shakers, and quilts of many kinds—firs came atcross improvisational quilts and the work of Sherry Byrd in the early ’80s. He knew he’d unearthed a unique form of folk art, and one that deserved a spotlight…….

“I was going around to museums and showing them slides of mine, wanting to do a show,” Leon says. “The curators I met were very doubtful that I had anything of interest. They didn’t like the improvisational quilts and certainly didn’t think that they were as special as I did. But the director of the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum at the time, J. Weldon Smith, was a scholar of African art. He was fascinated and allowed me to have a show.”

Despite all the curatorial doubts, the show was a runaway hit, as museum-goers immediately responded to the quilts’ life-affirming vibrancy and brilliance. “I wasn’t going to have a show without a catalog, so Smith agreed to do a catalog,” Leon says. “He ended up printing 10,000 of them, and they all sold out.”…..

In fact, the exhibition was such a hit, it toured the country, stopping at around 25 different museums, including prestigious institutions such as the Smithsonian. The show put the San Francisco museum, now called the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, on the map……

For Leon, he sees a similarity between improvisational quilts—which he calls antithetical to traditional American quilting—and textiles produced in West Africa and the Congo. He cites commonalities such as broken patterns, improvisation, and palindromic motifs, as well as a great variety of bordering styles……

As Leon, a white man, continued to publish books and showcase his collection around the country over the next 20 years, his race never seemed to be an issue. Byrd and her family, for example, were pleased to find such an enthusiastic buyer and advocate…..

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Joanna Williams Says :

This is a thoughtful, feeling account of an artistic tradition and the man who studies it. The illustrations are high quality, especially the details. A model for such and article…..

January 28th, 2012 at 8:14 pm Anne Seiden Says:

Beautiful work…..which despite the amazing artistry of the pieceworkers and quilters….. still, almost none of us would have known about without Eli Leon’s practical and scholarly work…..AMAZING ALL THE WAY AROUND…….

Gladys C. Durham –Henry Biography

GLADYS CELIA DURHAM-HENRY (born 1906-died 1996) …in Butler, Texas… into a family of quilters, including her mother Ellen Anna Titus-Durham,(b.1884-d.1930) ;her grandmother, Patsie Reddick-Manning. She completed schooling that was available in her community ,at Owens Chapel school,(up to the eighth grade) and married her husband Willie Elbert Henry,….

Her quilting activity was part and parcel of the activities she undertook to support and nuture her household. In addition to quilting, she sewed clothes for people, crocheted, tatted, and made rag rugs. Like the farmwoman she was, she canned fresh vegetables from the kitchen garden she tended herself….

Gladys Henry watched her mother and grandmother make quilts when she was a girl. As an adult, with scraps readily available from her dress making job, she successfully began quilt making as a vocation. She would invent patterns, use those from friends and even adapt patterns from crossword puzzles retrieved from newspapers. Her own daughter, Laverne Brackens would later comment on her mother’s ingenuity at creating beauty from these scraps.

Yet, the legacy of her quilting is especially notable, as all participants in the exhibit "QUILTS OF COLOR: THREE GENERATIONS IN AN AFRO-TEXAN FAMILY" point to her as a central influence…she is even the most direct influence on the quilting career of her grand daughter ,Sherry Byrd.

Pat Jasper, Director

Texas Folklife Resources Gallery ,

Austin, Texas…1999

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AAVAD.COM

Gladys Henry Resume

GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art.

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisational Quilts.

September, 1996-February,1997.

27 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. of quilts with their makers. Text by Eli Leon. Quilts by 21 quilt makers, from the folk art collection of scholar Eli Leon. The exhibition is divided into four groups: Square Within a Square emphasizes improvisational variations on a widely used quilt pattern; High Contrast, the second section, features mostly black and white quilts based in the African American aesthetic "showing up," i.e. standing out through the use of large patterns, bold colors, and strong contrasts; the third section features quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins; and the fourth section displays the work of four generations of women in one quilting family: Gladys Henry, her daughter, granddaughter Sherry Byrd and great granddaughter Bara Byrd. Other quiltmakers included: Louisa Fite, Kitty Jones, Minnie Lee Metcalf, Fannie Mae Moore, Maple Swift, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Arbie Williams, et al. Excerpt from Leon's introduction (p.6): Practices such as measuring approximately, using scraps as found, incorporating accidents into the finished work and making frequent exceptions to whatever rules may have been established, are all aspects of a vision in which incidental contingencies, accepted as spontaneous offerings, are skillfully managed to contribute to the beauty and individuality of an artist's work. Accordingly, quiltmaker Laverne Brackens--an eloquent spokeswoman for improvisation--talks of "off-centering the centerpiece," displaying odd selvages, turning printed stripes in different directions, stripping lengthwise and widthwise in the same quilt, enlarging blocks that are too small for the current need with long strips of fabric, and working out the pattern as she goes along, all to effect a "different look," "change it up," or "give that quilt a offset look." [Traveled to: South Carolina State Museum, October, 1998-March, 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, September-November, 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, January-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June, 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, February-March, 2003; Museum of Art, University of Maine, October 21, 2005-January 14, 2006.] Sq. 4to (10 x 10 in.), wraps.

CHICAGO (IL). Mayor's Office, City of Chicago.

The Chicago Public Art Guide.

Chicago (IL): Dept. of Public Affairs,.

92 pp., approx. 150 color illus., intro. text by Gregory G. Knight. Contains index of works by region, branch library installations, special projects, map, index of artists with titles of work. Includes color illus. of the following works: Richard Hunt (Freeform, 1993, stainless steel sculpture, State of Illinois Building); Preston Jackson (Irv Kupcinet Memorial, 2006, bronze cast portrait sculpture, Wabash Ave./approach to Irv Kupcinet Bridge.) Works at the Harold Washington Library Center: Houston Conwill and Estella Conwill Majozo (Du Sable's Journey, 1991, terrazzo and inlaid brass floor design); Jacob Lawrence (Events in the Life of Harold Washington, 1991, ceramic tile mural.) Works in the collection of the Harold Washington Library Center: Faith Ringgold (The Winner, 1988, painted quilt); Muneer Bahauddeen (sculpture); John Bankston (painting); William Dawson (sculptures); Robert Dilworth (painting); Richard Hunt (drawing); Preston Jackson (sculpture); Calvin Jones (painting); Bertrand Phillips (painting); David Philpot (sculptures); Arnaldo Roche-Rabell (painting); Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (painting); Alison Saar (sculpture); Lorna Simpson (photographic print); Fan Warren (drawings). At the Legler Branch Library: Elizabeth Catlett (Floating Family, 1996, carved wood); and Kerry James Marshall (Knowledge and Wonder, 1996, mural painting). At the Austin Senior Satellite Center: Brook Collins (Family Mosaics, 2006, 15 photographs) and Melvin King (Follette Park and Selma March, 2006, paintings). At the Rosemont busline station: Martin Puryear (River Road Ring, 1986, wood sculpture). At the 4th District Police Station: Amir Nour (Untitled, 1980, rolled steel semi-spheres). In Bronzeville/along Dr. Martin Luther King Drive: Alison Saar (Monument to the Great Northern Migration, 1994, bronze figure sculpture); art benches by: Willie Cole, Geraldine McCullough; Ed Dwight (Blues Sculptures - Four Musicians, 2005, bronze sculptures, at 47th St./Dr. Martin Luther King Drive). Chicago Police Dept. Headquarters /Michigan Ave.: 4 quilts by Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd and Sara Byrd - four generations of African American quiltmakers. At Chicago International Airport: Dawoud Bey (Chicago Couples, 2000, photographic print); Richard Hunt (Flight Forms, 2001, stainless steel.) At the Thurgood Marshall Branch Library: Venus Blue (They All Had Something in Common, 1995, quilt). At the Woodson Branch Library: Bernard Williams (sculpture). At the Rogers Park Branch Library: Al Tyler (paintings). At the Uptown Branch Library: Mr. Imagination (installation). At Mabel Manning Branch Library: Dawoud Bey (photographs) and Willie Carter (painting). At Logan Square Branch Library: Arnaldo Roche-Rabell (paintings). At West Chicago Branch Library: Nick Cave (fabric). At Brainerd Branch Library: Preston Jackson (sculpture). At Douglass Branch Library: Emilio Cruz (banners.). At Woodson Branch Library: Richard Hunt (sculpture), Charles Searles (sculpture), and Bernard Williams (sculpture). At Wrightwood-Ashburn Branch Library: Candida Alvarez (stained glass) and Gerald Griffin (collage). At Avalon Branch Library: Stephen Marc (photographs). At Bessie Coleman Branch Library: Laverne Brackens (quilt) and Arbie Williams (quilt.) At Chicago Bee Branch Library: Carrie Mae Weems (painting/mixed media), Derek Webster (sculpture), and Gregg Spears (painting). At Jeffery Manor Branch Library: Marva Lee Pitchford Jolly (ceramic installation). At Kelly Branch Library: Robert Dilworth (painting) and Jacob Lawrence (lithograph). At Pullman Branch Library: Orisegun Olomidun (painting) and Bernard Williams (mural). At South Chicago: Kerry James Marshall (mural). At South Shore Branch Library: Muneer Bahauddeen (sculpture and mosaic) and Laverne Brackens (quilt). West Pullman Branch Library: Marcus Akinlana (mural and mixed media). [See: explorechicago.org] pdf file: www.explorechicago.org/etc/...art.../ENTIRE_PA_WEB.pdf

SAN FRANCISCO (CA). Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

Will the Circle be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilts.

May 4-July 23, 2006.

Group exhibition. Curated by Eli Leon. Eleven improvisational quilts, made by four generations of a single Texas family, spanning nearly a century in the lives of Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, and Bara Byrd. Extensive oral history from each quiltmaker, a photograph and biography of each are included in the exhibition. [Traveled to Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, August 11-November 25, 2007.]

YELLOW SPRINGS (OH). Shirley-Jones Gallery.

Approximate Measure, Improvisation in African-American Quilts.

January 19-March 10, 2007.

Group exhibition. Included: Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, Bara Byrd, Willia Ette Graham, Irene Bankhead.

AAVAD.COM

Biography

Laverne Arella Henry-Brackens

Born: 1927

Laverne Arella Henry-Brackens is the daughter of W.E. (Willie Elbert) Henry, Sr. and Gladys Celia Durham-Henry. She was born April 13, 1927 in Freestone County, Texas. She is their fourth child and oldest daughter. Her siblings are:

Clyde Henry

Coleman Henry

Richmond Henry

Laverne Arella Henry-Brackens

Aldessa Joyce Henry-Bass

Willie E. (Elbert) Henry, Jr.

Vernetta Lee Henry

Eleanore Henry (died in child birth)

Clifton Artel Henry

Their father W.E. was an only child and their mother, Gladys, was the only Durham daughter who gave birth to children, among the four sisters in her family. Gladys was a homemaker and quilted to keep the large family of children warm in the winter time. Laverne participated in her mother's quilt making activities during her youth. She began learning to quilt as a child, when she helped her mother, Gladys Henry in her quilting, but had no interest in learning the craft.

"Laverne is the middle generation of the quilters still active in her family today. Like her Aunt Katie Mae Tatum and her daughter Sherry Byrd, she learned the basics of quilting at home. observing her mother and grandmother and occasionally trying her hand at stitching and piecing. But as one of the eldest children in her parent's home, she recalls being responsible for many other household tasks. Perhaps for this reason she didn't continue quilting as a young woman.

After marrying Connie Freddie Lee Brackens in the 1940's, Mrs. Brackens worked in a variety of jobs, but most consistently as a cook in private homes and public institutions. Following an accident in the early 1980's, she retired from her job and was prevented from further work involving physical strain. As it turned out, quilting provided just the right creative outlet for her boundless energy. Nowadays, she spends all of her free time cutting, piecing and sewing several quilts a month."

Thus she finally developed an interest in making her own quilts.

“The whole time I was on crutches … I was piecing quilts because I could use my left foot [for the sewing machine],” she told an interviewer. “Nothing else I can do. So I just set down and quilt.”

Working with factory scraps supplied by a friend, she found a creative outlet in quilting. “I don’t go by patterns,” she said. “I made it up out of my head. When you pick up the material and start working with it, that’s when you know what [the quilt] will be.”

Brackens’ art represents a tradition of improvisational quilt making that has been recognized as a unique part of the African American heritage, a counterpart of blues and jazz. Her quilts are distinguished by an off-center centerpiece, rotating printed stripes and both vertical and horizontal striping. “If you piece them all where they hit right together, every quilt you piece is going to look just alike, and if you twist it up a little bit, it’ll make the quilt look different,” she said. “I just like to take a simple quilt and give it a different look. That’s what I be trying to do.”

The unusually prolific artist enjoys placing letters and numbers in her designs. A granddaughter’s eighth birthday inspired her to create a pattern that employed the number 8 in interesting and creative ways. The letters may have a meaning, as when she used “W” and “H” in a quilt for her father, Willie Henry, but in other instances, words and letters are used simply as graphic elements.

In 1996, Brackens’ work was displayed with that of her mother, her daughter Sherry Byrd and her granddaughter Bara Byrd in “Four Generations of African-American Quilters” at the High Museum in Atlanta. This evolved into the 2006 exhibit and catalog “Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilters” at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. The show coincided with a filmed interview with Brackens by the museum’s exhibition manager, Karin Nelson, and was followed by an article, “One Family’s Quilted Legacy,” in the October 2006 issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine.

Brackens’ art has been recognized in Texas as well, in a 1999 Texas Folklife Resources exhibition, “Quilts of Color: Three Generations of Quilters in an Afro-American Family”; in a 2001-2002 exhibit, “Storytelling: One Stitch at a Time,” at the Texas Memorial Museum of Science and History in Austin; and in a documentary, Family Quilts, broadcast by the television show Texas Country Reporter on October 28, 2006 (show No. 1,000). The Texas Memorial Museum owns two of her quilts, and Chicago’s Bessie Coleman Library features her work, along with that of another African American quilter and NEA heritage fellow, Arbie Williams of Oakland, California.

As of September 23, 2011, Mrs. Brackens became the first quilt maker from the state of Texas to be honored to receive a (NEA) National Endowment for the Arts Folk-art Fellowship Award. This proved to be one of her grandest accomplishments in her eighty-four years of living. Another great honor proved to be the fact that pieces of her patchwork compositions were included in a commissioned shawl that First Lady Michelle Obama presented to the first Lady Kim Yoon-ok, of South Korea, in October 2011, when she and her husband visited the White House on an official visit.

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AAVAD.COM

GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

AMHERST (MA). Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts.

Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African American Quilts.

February 1-March 15, 1997.

44 pp. exhib. cat., 44 color and b&w illus., bibliog., biogs., exhib. checklist. Features 36 outstanding quilts. Text by Eli Leon. Artists include: Roy Atkins, Irene Bankhead, Marble Battle, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, Willia Ette Graham, Georgia Lee Kidd, Rosa "Honey" Pierre, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gussie Wells, Arbie Williams, et al. 4to (10 x 10 in.), black pictorial wraps. First ed.

ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art.

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisational Quilts.

September, 1996-February,1997.

27 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. of quilts with their makers. Text by Eli Leon. Quilts by 21 quiltmakers, from the folk art collection of scholar Eli Leon. The exhibition is divided into four groups: Square Within a Square emphasizes improvisational variations on a widely used quilt pattern; High Contrast, the second section, features mostly black and white quilts based in the African American aesthetic "showing up," i.e. standing out through the use of large patterns, bold colors, and strong contrasts; the third section features quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins; and the fourth section displays the work of four generations of women in one quilting family: Gladys Henry, her daughter, granddaughter Sherry Byrd and great granddaughter Bara Byrd. Other quiltmakers included: Louisa Fite, Kitty Jones, Minnie Lee Metcalf, Fannie Mae Moore, Maple Swift, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Arbie Williams, et al. Excerpt from Leon's introduction (p.6): Practices such as measuring approximately, using scraps as found, incorporating accidents into the finished work and making frequent exceptions to whatever rules may have been established, are all aspects of a vision in which incidental contingencies, accepted as spontaneous offerings, are skillfully managed to contribute to the beauty and individuality of an artist's work. Accordingly, quiltmaker Laverne Brackens--an eloquent spokeswoman for improvisation--talks of "off-centering the centerpiece," displaying odd selvages, turning printed stripes in different directions, stripping lengthwise and widthwise in the same quilt, enlarging blocks that are too small for the current need with long strips of fabric, and working out the pattern as she goes along, all to effect a "different look," "change it up," or "give that quilt a offset look." [Traveled to: South Carolina State Museum, October, 1998-March, 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, September-November, 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, January-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June, 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, February-March, 2003; Museum of Art, University of Maine, October 21, 2005-January 14, 2006.] Sq. 4to (10 x 10 in.), wraps.

CHICAGO (IL). Mayor's Office, City of Chicago.

The Chicago Public Art Guide.

Chicago (IL): Dept. of Public Affairs,.

SAN DIEGO (CA). William D. Cannon Art Gallery.

Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts.

2001.

Exhib. cat., color photos of quilts with portraits of their makers. Text by Eli Leon. Exhibition of quilts created in the mid- to late-20th century in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and California. [Traveled to: New York State Museum, Albany, 2004; and other venues.]

SAN FRANCISCO (CA). Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

Will the Circle be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilts.

May 4-July 23, 2006.

YELLOW SPRINGS (OH). Shirley-Jones Gallery.

Approximate Measure, Improvisation in African-American Quilts.

January 19-March 10, 2007.

Group exhibition. Included: Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, Bara Byrd, Willia Ette Graham, Irene Bankhead.

AAVAD.COM

Sherry’s Resume

Sherry A. Byrd, an African American Folkart/Quiltmaker from Freestone County, Texas creates quilts of International acclaim. Six generations of quilt makers are in her family. Her works have appeared in many important exhibits.

AAVAD.COM

GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

AMHERST (MA). Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts.

Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African American Quilts.

February 1-March 15, 1997.

ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art.

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisational Quilts.

September, 1996-February,1997.

27 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. of quilts with their makers. Text by Eli Leon. Quilts by 21 quiltmakers, from the folk art collection of scholar Eli Leon. The exhibition is divided into four groups: Square Within a Square emphasizes improvisational variations on a widely used quilt pattern; High Contrast, the second section, features mostly black and white quilts based in the African American aesthetic "showing up," i.e. standing out through the use of large patterns, bold colors, and strong contrasts; the third section features quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins; and the fourth section displays the work of four generations of women in one quilting family: Gladys Henry, her daughter, granddaughter Sherry Byrd and great granddaughter Bara Byrd. Other quiltmakers included: Louisa Fite, Kitty Jones, Minnie Lee Metcalf, Fannie Mae Moore, Maple Swift, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Arbie Williams, et al. Excerpt from Leon's introduction (p.6): Practices such as measuring approximately, using scraps as found, incorporating accidents into the finished work and making frequent exceptions to whatever rules may have been established, are all aspects of a vision in which incidental contingencies, accepted as spontaneous offerings, are skillfully managed to contribute to the beauty and individuality of an artist's work. Accordingly, quiltmaker Laverne Brackens--an eloquent spokeswoman for improvisation--talks of "off-centering the centerpiece," displaying odd selvages, turning printed stripes in different directions, stripping lengthwise and widthwise in the same quilt, enlarging blocks that are too small for the current need with long strips of fabric, and working out the pattern as she goes along, all to effect a "different look," "change it up," or "give that quilt a offset look." [Traveled to: South Carolina State Museum, October, 1998-March, 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, September-November, 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, January-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June, 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, February-March, 2003; Museum of Art, University of Maine, October 21, 2005-January 14, 2006.] Sq. 4to (10 x 10 in.), wraps.

AUSTIN (TX). Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.

It Ain't Braggin' if it's True.

April, 2001.

Group exhibition. Included: Sherry Byrd (quilt).

CHICAGO (IL). Mayor's Office, City of Chicago.

The Chicago Public Art Guide.

Chicago (IL): Dept. of Public Affairs,.

RICHMOND (CA). Richmond Art Center.

Amazing Wonders: Quilts by African-Americans of the Northern California Region.

January 26-March 13, 2010.

Group exhibition. Curated by Kim Curry-Evans. Artists include: Elizabeth Browder, Blanche Brown, Sherry Byrd, Loretta Cohen, Marion Coleman, Jamie Gladney-Presley, Marilyn Handis, Benita Jones, Niambi Kee, Marilyn Lacey, Debbie Mason, Patricia Montgomery, Angie Tobias, Ann Seals, Nerlene Taylor, LaQuita Tummings, Julia Vitero, Dolores Vitero Presley, Johnnie Wade, and others.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA). Craft & Folk Art Museum.

Who'd a Thought it: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking.

December 31, 1987-February 28, 1988.

88 pp. exhib. cat., 94 illus., including 48 mostly full-page color plates, plus 30 reference illus. including photos of the quilt makers, biogs., notes, bibliog. Texts by Robert Farris Thompson and Eli Leon. A major contribution to the consideration of traditional heritage vs. personal innovation in the African American quiltmaking tradition. Artists include: Irene Bankhead, Cora Lee Hall Brown, Mary Lue Brown, Monin Brown, Sherry Byrd, Charles Cater, Alberta Collins, Odessa Doby, Willia Ette Graham, Emma Hall, Bettie Phillips, Mattie Pickett, Eula Thomas, Angelia Tobias, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gussie Wells, Arbie Williams, et al. Traveling exhibition. [Review: Ann Barry, NYT, November 16, 1989.] 4to, wraps. First ed.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA). Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

Will the Circle be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilts.

May 4-July 23, 2006.

WINSTON-SALEM (NC). Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University.

Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork.

1992.

42 pp. exhib. cat., illus., biogs. with photos of most of the quiltmakers, bibliog. Text by Eli Leon noting numerous parallels between African fabric motifs and familiar American patchwork designs. Quiltmakers mentioned include: Irene Bankhead, Cora Lee Hall Brown, Mary Lue Brown, Sherry Byrd, Charles Cater, Willie Mae Chatman, Laura Jackson Culp, Aurelia Foster, Willia Ette Graham, Emily Kirby, Ernestine Jordan, Carrie Sue Lewis, Rose R. McDowell, Bessie Moore, Dymon Moreland, Bettie Phillips, Mattie Pickett, Lucy Sims, Anny Bell Simon, Flossie Sullivan, Maple Swift, Mary Thompson, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Sarah Turnage (no photo), Johnnie A. Wade, Maudra Walker, Rosalyn Walker (no photo), Gussie Wells, Arbie Williams. [Traveled to Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA, 1994.] 4to, wraps.

YELLOW SPRINGS (OH). Shirley-Jones Gallery.

Approximate Measure, Improvisation in African-American Quilts.

January 19-March 10, 2007.

Group exhibition. Included: Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, Bara Byrd, Willia Ette Graham, Irene Bankhead.

AAVAD.COM

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Bara Byrd-Steward

Biography/Resume

Bara (1976 - ), is the latest generation of the family to

come to quilt making. She creates and exhibits along with her family, salvaging many of the scraps and refashioning leftovers from her mother’s and grandmother’s projects.

AAVAD.COM

GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art.

No Two Alike: African-American Improvisational Quilts.

September, 1996-February,1997.

27 pp. exhibit. cat., color illus. of quilts with their makers. Text by Eli Leon. Quilts by 21 quilt makers, from the folk art collection of scholar Eli Leon. The exhibition is divided into four groups: Square Within a Square emphasizes improvisational variations on a widely used quilt pattern; High Contrast, the second section, features mostly black and white quilts based in the African American aesthetic "showing up," i.e. standing out through the use of large patterns, bold colors, and strong contrasts; the third section features quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins; and the fourth section displays the work of four generations of women in one quilting family: Gladys Henry, her daughter, granddaughter Sherry Byrd and great granddaughter Bara Byrd. Other quilt makers included: Louisa Fite, Kitty Jones, Minnie Lee Metcalf, Fannie Mae Moore, Maple Swift, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Arbie Williams, et al. Excerpt from Leon's introduction (p.6): Practices such as measuring approximately, using scraps as found, incorporating accidents into the finished work and making frequent exceptions to whatever rules may have been established, are all aspects of a vision in which incidental contingencies, accepted as spontaneous offerings, are skillfully managed to contribute to the beauty and individuality of an artist's work. Accordingly, quilt maker Laverne Brackens--an eloquent spokeswoman for improvisation--talks of "off-centering the centerpiece," displaying odd selvages, turning printed stripes in different directions, stripping lengthwise and widthwise in the same quilt, enlarging blocks that are too small for the current need with long strips of fabric, and working out the pattern as she goes along, all to effect a "different look," "change it up," or "give that quilt a offset look." [Traveled to: South Carolina State Museum, October, 1998-March, 1999; Vermont Folk life Center, September-November, 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, January-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June, 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, February-March, 2003; Museum of Art, University of Maine, October 21, 2005-January 14, 2006.] Sq. 4to (10 x 10 in.), wraps.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA). Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

Will the Circle be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilts.

May 4-July 23, 2006.

Group exhibition. Curated by Eli Leon. Eleven improvisational quilts, made by four generations of a single Texas family, spanning nearly a century in the lives of Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, and Bara Byrd. Extensive oral history from each quilt maker, a photograph and biography of each are included in the exhibition. [Traveled to Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, August 11-November 25, 2007.]

YELLOW SPRINGS (OH). Shirley-Jones Gallery.

Approximate Measure, Improvisation in African-American Quilts.

January 19-March 10, 2007.

Group exhibition. Included: Rosie Lee Tompkins, Gladys Henry, Laverne Brackens, Sherry Byrd, Bara Byrd, Willia Ette Graham, Irene Bankhead.

http://www.rcreader.com/art/visual-jazz-accidentally-on-purpose/

Eli Leon: One Champion and Major Promoter of African American Improvisational Quilts as Art.

2012-05-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Eli Leon

http://www.elileon.com/

Eli Leon, the man who helped to bring African American Quilts
from Freestone County,Texas into the "Limelight" of the Art and

Quilt making worlds.Thus putting them on the map as true art.

Read more about his work at:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/quilting-jazz-with-a-needle-and-thread/

To the Titus family lineage of quilt makers based in Freestone County,Texas, Eli Leon is quite the real life hero in that it was through his undaunting efforts , perservence and detective like research that African American quilts from Freestone County, Texas became known as art.
He championed and promoted African American Improvisational quilts when they were the underdogs in both the Art and Quilt Worlds. Eli traveled to Texas ....met, interviewed, and purchased examples of Laverne Brackens works and creations of her mother,Gladys Henry. He included them in his huge collection of amazing Modern Art like textiles (more than 2,000). He was convinced that they were not the mistakes of un-skilled quilt makers...but true works of art backed with historical significance. Because of him I, (Sherry Byrd) was inspired to pursue and retrieve as much of my family's history as I possibly could. Partly because of him, www.quiltstoriesbysherryann.blogspot.com has come into existence. For this inspiration I applaud him as a true pioneer in this genre of art....African American Improvisational Quilt Making.

This page on our blog is dedicated to Eli Leon and all that he has accomplished.We hope that you enjoy the following chronicles of his amazing detective like research as much as our family has. We applaud his sincere efforts and dedication to the cause of uncovering and bringing to the world's attention the arts and skills that have been passed down to us via six generations of our ancestors...as well as the many generations that have embellished the lineages of other African American families nationwide. We also thank him for nominating....Laverne Brackens, for the 2011 NEA Folk art Fellowship Award....making her the first quilt maker to receive this award in the state of Texas.

We sincerely hope that you will enjoy and get much inspiration from the following chronicles of his efforts to capture the legacies of some of the amazing quilts in his Internationally renowned collection. The quilts are important to this collector...but the legacy behind the art work is even more intriguing to him, and well worth the hunt ,as the following chronicles reveal. ENJOY!!!!

Sherry Ann

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IN HIS OWN WORDS

.Eli Leon's

Mission Statement:

The knowledge, attitudes and values carried across the Atlantic by enslaved
Africans appear to have informed a quilt making tradition so powerful that, to this
day its identity is a special province of African-American quilts. Such "Afro-traditional" quilts are made by people who have no formal art training and who usually do not consider themselves artists; they learned their craft and absorbed its esthetics by watching and helping their mothers, aunts and grandmothers who, in turn, learned from previous generations …a direct line to the patchwork traditions of enslaved African-Americans.

The resulting--often highly idiosyncratic--quilts call out to be seen as the works of art that they are. Not that they cease to be products of custom. The brilliance of this work must also be credited to a tradition which encourages individual expression and provides a context in which the talents of individual artists can flourish.
Improvisation, pervasive in black African art and familiar as a basic element of many African-American musical forms, is a vital force in this tradition. The artisans maintain a generous attitude toward the accidental, embracing innovations that originate beyond the conscious domain. They use approximate measurement, stepping up the order of variability by dealing creatively with the tricky piecing predicaments that ensue. They use "flexible patterning," in which the design, conceived of as an invitation to variation, will not repeat, but will materialize in a sequence of visual elaborations.

Afro-traditional attitudes and methods are antithetical to the standard American quilt making tradition--practiced by both whites and blacks--in which great value is placed on precise measurement and exact pattern replication. They bear keen likeness, however, to the improvisatory practices of the textiles-makers of Kongo and West Africa, regions from which American slaves were taken. These antipathies and affinities suggest an enduring African influence on the Afro-traditional quilt.
My shows and catalogs celebrate the sophistication, vivacity and significance of improvisational African-American quilts, both as artistic achievements and as expressions of African-American traditions.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/quilting-jazz-with-a-needle-and-thread/

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.Strip Quilt, Mary Lue Brown, 1940s Photo
http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=1543

Reclaiming a Missing Link

by Eli Leon

I first saw Mother Brown's missing-link strip quilt one drizzly Saturday morning at a great distance across the enormous Oakland, California Alameda flea market. It was winter, 1984. The quilt was wrapped around an African-American quilt enthusiast and occasional dealer of my acquaintance named Alberta. As a new scholar of improvisational African-American patchwork and a proponent of the theory of African influence on African-American quilt making, I was very much on the lookout for survivals of African esthetic values in the American work. Spotting Mother Brown's quilt, even from afar, I was pretty sure I'd hit pay dirt.

I zipped across the flea market, my extra-large shopping cart bouncing behind me, and bought the quilt out from around Alberta. I'd arrived in the nick of time. Alberta and her friend Betty, who turned out to be the quilt's owner, were about to get rained out. Thrilled to find what I considered to be a repository of Africanisms so close to what I assumed was the quilt's community of origin, I readied pencil and paper to take notes and started firing questions. Needless to say, I was crestfallen to discover that Alberta and Betty had no information to give me, or so they believed. Betty had bought the quilt at auction and knew nothing whatever about its origins. Short of a miracle, its maker would forever remain anonymous.

Within a decade, this quilt would dazzle the American museum-going public in Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quilt making--my first cataloged exhibition of African-American quilts, whose twenty-some-odd venues would include the Renwick gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, Chicago's Field Museum, and the American Craft Museum in New York City. Paired with a strip woven Hausa cloth from West Africa that makes use of a similar randomized checkerboard pattern, it would grace the cover of my second catalog, Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork. And, although I would make repeated research / collecting trips to East Texas, Northern Louisiana and Southern Arkansas (the region from which most of my California quilt making contacts had migrated), and see hundreds of improvisational African-American quilts, Mother Brown's would remain my best example of a "two-pair" bordering arrangement, thereby providing critical support for one of my strongest arguments for African antecedents.1 In short, once its origins were established, this quilt would be of particular importance to my work; I couldn't have been more disheartened by the news that Alberta and Betty had no clue as to who made it.

When told of my belief that the quilt was African-American, Alberta assured me that it was. I asked how she knew. She made gestures in its direction ("Look at it!") and explained that you could just tell. Betty could not have agreed more. Well, I was pretty sure it was African-American and they were pretty sure it was African-American, but mere opinions were of limited use for my scholarly purposes.

Although the rain got steadily worse, I was unable to tear myself from the spot. I hung around, sinking onto a folding chair and asking pesky questions while Alberta and Betty packed. Did they get anything else with this quilt? Had it by any chance been in a carton with some kind of label or other stuff written on it? How long ago had this auction taken place? Which auction was it, anyway? Finally, Betty perked up. "Hey," she said, poking around in her glove compartment for a Butterfields catalog, "wait a minute." She still had it, a thirteen page list of several thousand items. She'd circled the items she'd bid on, and there it was: #640; PATCH QUILT. She'd got it for ten bucks, sold it to me for twenty-five.

rHausa Cloth, Nigeria

Many "anonymous" quilts would be reclaimable as the products of black craftspeople if I were able to engage all of the gatekeepers encountered along the way (in this case, as we shall see, I was dependent on the goodwill and cooperation of five separate informants, six if I count Alberta and Betty as two), but most of my collecting stories don't turn out this well. The search ends when I can't overcome suspicion or indifference at one or another critical point.

Betty turned the catalog over to me. Contacting Butterfields, I was soon informed that I was wasting both my time and theirs. The last thing I might expect, I was roundly assured, was for an auction house to be giving out the names of its sellers. I insisted on speaking to someone in authority and, eventually, was put in touch with a woman who gave me the time to explain that I was writing a book about African survivals in African-American quilts, that this particular quilt evidenced several such survivals, and that it would be of little use to me without its history. Sympathetic to my mission, the woman agreed to look the sale up. (A year or two later, in my attempt to reclaim the heritage of another stray quilt, I tried this again, found that my helper at Butterfields had moved on, butted against a wall of impatience and sarcasm, and had no choice but to give up the quest).

The San Francisco estate that this quilt had come out of, it turned out, had been under a conservatorship. My informant was not allowed, by law, to tell me the company name, but was willing to contact them herself and seek permission for me to talk to the party that had handled the transaction. Again I was lucky. Once apprized of the nature of my research, the conservator agreed to talk to me. Black conservatorships were extremely uncommon in her experience but, as she couldn't help blurting out as soon as I got her on the phone, the man to whom this quilt had belonged--now residing in a nursing home--was indeed black. How on earth, she wondered aloud, could I know such a thing?

This was a peak experience for me. My audience couldn't have been readier for the theory of African influence. Quite aside from which, even if I were to get no further, I now had some measure of authentication.

But I was on a roll. My latest helper called the daughter-in-law of the old man who had once owned the quilt and got permission for me to talk to her myself. Lodesta, as it turned out, was delighted to hear from me. She'd worried about the family's quilts and was relieved to learn that this one had found a good home. We arranged for me to bring it across the Bay that next day for a hands-on identification. She was amused when she saw it. Turned out, it was the quilt they used the most. Kept it on the sofa to wrap up in while watching T.V. Called it "the loud quilt."

There had been several other, "better," quilts that had been sold as higher class merchandise in another section of the auction. I tried to track them down but in each case the buyer refused to talk to me. Mine, according to Lodesta, was made by Mother Brown, a woman who'd had a special relationship with the quilt's owner, Lodesta's now-deceased mother-in-law, Helen.

Here's the story. In the 1930's, Helen had gone to Houston-Tillotson College with Mother Brown's daughter, Elfreda. A year after graduation, when Helen, an orphan, had married and was about to have her first child, the aunt who raised her died. Helen had no one to assist her. Elfreda informed her mother of Helen's plight, and Mother Brown (born Mary Lue Humphrey, Giddings, Texas, 1891) went to Louisiana to help, staying with Helen until she was able to handle the situation herself. The two formed an attachment that was to last until Mother Brown's death in 1979.

Lodesta put me in touch with Elfreda, Mother Brown's now elderly daughter, living in Southern California. Elfreda speculated that the quilt (of whose existence she'd until then been unaware) had been made in Dallas in the 1940s and sent to her former classmate as a present. Elfreda's hearing was spotty, so we corresponded. She agreed to send a photo of her mother from the forties, but several years passed before she was actually willing to risk it. "This is the only photo I have of my mother," she wrote in her accompanying note, "You promised to return it. I hope that you will be true to your word. I do not have a negative so you see how dear to my heart this picture is." The photo has since accompanied the quilt in my exhibitions and catalogs. In a later note Elfreda wrote, "I look forward to receiving a copy of the book you may publish. My children will be happy to see something their grandmother did."

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Notes
1. For a comprehensive discussion of the borders of improvisational African-American quilts and their African counterparts, see Leon, Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American quilts, passim. Surprise!A
http://www.elileon.com/

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Meeting Mrs. Murphy
By Eli Leon

Early in 1986, quilt maker Bettie Phillips (1916--2005) http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=3339 told me about her ninety-two year old friend ,Mrs. Mable Murphy (1894--1996), who lived in the little town of Dos Palos, California and had a house full of quilts, many of which were for sale. Bettie estimated there to be at least fifty and raved about their great beauty. I wanted to meet Mrs. Murphy (as she preferred to be called) right away, of course, but there turned out to be obstacles. Mrs. Murphy was hard-of-hearing, for one. Unable to understand me when I telephoned, she had her son, a smoker, handle the call. When I mentioned that I had a cigarette-smoke allergy, he got enraged and hung up. On top of that, my car became mysteriously unreliable. The meeting with Mrs. Murphy, it seemed, would have to wait for more favorable conditions.

Then Bettie informed me that Mrs. Murphy was giving up her house for smaller quarters. In all probability some of her quilts would be inaccessible after the move. For them, it was now or never. I had, meanwhile, learned that Mrs. Murphy's son didn't actually live with her, although he was often around. I'd also changed cars. So I tried to get Bettie to make the trip with me, imagining that having her along would smooth the way, but she showed no interest in the project. Resolving to take my chances and just go didn't work either; it only led to my feeling guilty whenever Mrs. Murphy came to mind, which was often, since my strategically placed to-do list was headlined "INTERVIEW MRS MURPHY."

When I asked quilt maker Willia Ette Graham (1903-1997) http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=4171, however, if she'd like to visit an elderly quilter in the San Joaquin valley, she jumped at the chance. Suddenly everything was looking up. Graham was warm, friendly and generally relaxed. The thought of her supportive presence was all I needed to lend courage to my convictions. I called Bettie to tell her that Willia Ette and I were hoping to give it a go that Monday, which happened to be a holiday, and Bettie did an abrupt turnabout; she would accompany me after all. Springing into action, she straightaway called Mrs. Murphy, ascertained that the son wouldn't be around that day, and made all the arrangements--even deciding to fix a bring-along lunch featuring fried chicken and homemade cake.

Why the sudden change? It baffled me for a moment, then I got it. Bettie was as eager to meet Willia Ette as Willia Ette was to meet Mrs Murphy! This expedition was taking on a new character. For some years I'd been listening to my informants' lamentations on the scarcity of quilt makers in the California cities they'd found themselves in after their westward migrations. They were longing to meet one another! And witnessing these meetings might very well be as informative for me as interviewing Mrs. Murphy.

I now wanted to include Gussie Wells http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=3345 and Arbie Williams http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=2169, two of my closest quilt maker contacts, in what was promising to be a memorable get-together, but there wasn't room for five in my car. When I floated the idea past Bettie, though, she immediately latched on to it. Again, I was taken by surprise. Why the rush of enthusiasm? But we needed a few more participants, I finally realized, for a critical mass. Wells and Williams were best buddies, however; we couldn't invite one without the other. After mulling the thing over, Bettie and I decided to go ahead with the invitations. If both of them accepted, we'd devise a new plan.Quilts, Eli Leon, Improvisational, Afro-American, Quilts, Rosie L American, Eli y (continued)
Bettie volunteered to drive, but her car was no bigger than mine. The obvious solution would be to go in two cars but, not wanting to miss any of the fireworks I was anticipating, I was intent on all of us riding together. As it turned out, Gussie (1901-1994) could not make it. Arbie (1916--2003), however, was raring to go. Right off the bat, she notified me that she would be wearing pants. I dutifully passed this information on to Bettie and Willia Ette.

So, on Jan 19th, 1987, Martin Luther King Jr's fifty-eighth birthday, the bunch of us assembled on the sidewalk in front of Phillips' house. At the last minute, Bettie announced that she was taking her car after all. She never went anywhere, she informed us, without her deaf-mute sister, quilt maker Missie Freeman (1914--2005). I had no choice but to take the two-car solution in stride. Meanwhile, the women were bustling with excitement and getting acquainted before leaving. An aroma of fried chicken filled the air. Everyone but Missie was wearing pants.

With wistful goodbyes and much slamming of car doors, we finally set off. Arbie, Willia Ette and I followed Bettie and Missie in the slow lane of the freeway at such a crawl that I ,(then a mere fifty-one years old and feeling like an eager teenager) expected any minute to be pulled over by the highway patrol. The time, however, passed quickly. Williams was a scintillating talker, Graham was an enthusiastic listener, and I got to be a fly on the wall. I was not surprised to discover an aspect of Williams’Quilt making history that I hadn't accessed in our prior conversations. Turned out, as a young woman living in a railroad worker's community in Becksville, Texas in 1943, Arbie had organized a quilting group.

“Well our idea was we’d [piece] all the quilts we could in the winter and wouldn' let either one know what we were buildin' on. If one come to the house and you was piecin' quilts, you'd roll it up and put it in a bag and shove it up under the bed right quick 'fore you let 'em come in. They didn' get to see what you were piecin.'” Arbie explained .

In the spring and summer, the eight women would assemble at one of their houses and quilt all day, easily completing two quilts a session. By 1945, when Arbie and her husband moved west to take advantage of the high-paying war-industry jobs that were springing up in California, Williams had amassed seventeen quilt tops and can't-remember-how-many quilts. She left them behind, though, never to be seen by her again. Nor would she again achieve the level of quilt making camaraderie that she'd almost effortlessly brought about in Beckville. In Oakland, as we all knew, the quilters were few and far between.

When we arrived at Mrs. Murphy's, we found a spry, high-spirited lady, who seemed much younger than her ninety-three years, waiting to greet us at the front door. She steered a little clear of me at first, but, taking her cues from the other women, soon accepted me as part of the crowd. I wondered how long she'd been standing watch. She must have been as deprived of quilt maker companionship as the rest of the company.

Plus, this was to be her red-letter day. This bevy of quilt aficionados were keyed to sustain an undying interest in her handwork as we emptied closets, drawers and trunks, bringing out dolls, beadwork, endless crocheted objects (my favorite was a miniature soup bowl and spoon in red thread), and quilts, quilts, quilts.
Williams, African American, Eli Leon.
All of these women were so passionate about their craft that it had taken over the better part of their living quarters; they must have felt right at home. No matter how often I encountered a house full of quilts, however, this guided tour of an artist's life work would remain a special treat. And this time it would be in the most distinguished of companies.

As for my nostalgic companions, this get-together was providing a direct line to their roots. In their formative years in rural Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma, quilt making had largely been a communal activity; six participants would comprise only a modest bee. Now light years from the rural 1940s South, where virtually all of the neighbor women could be expected to quilt, these women were compelled to work singly or, at best, in pairs.

So they lived it up as I, with Willia Ette's unsparing help and frequent visits from the rest of the company, went to town. We were extremely thorough, emptying each storage space entirely before refilling it with carefully examined goods. In a few hours we'd, in all probability, seen everything. Mrs. Murphy's recent works were splendid examples of highly complex published patterns expertly repeated over king-sized surfaces in consistent color schemes requiring great quantities of store-bought fabric. She sold these professional-level wares through a connection in Los Angeles. I regretfully refrained, however, from collecting any of them. Precisely executed quilts from printed patterns are not what my research is about and my resources were limited.
Willia Ette was the only one who was as intent as I on not missing a trick. Or maybe it was this shyness that had come over her today--which I'd never seen when the two of us were alone. She painstakingly undid the ties of a mountain of plastic bags of cloth scraps and went through each one to find an occasional pieced section of quilt top. I found a completed older top that very much interested me, and which was for sale, among the unfinished pieces, a Lone Star with Maple Leaf Corners later quilted by Irene Bankhead http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=3347 and pictured in Let It Shine (exhibit catalog) Fig. 13.

Lone Star with Maple Leaf Corners
created by Mable Murphy
b.1894-d.1996
Owner Eli Leon

Afterwards we ate our chicken and cake and took pictures of each other with Mrs Murphy's polaroid camera. Mrs Murphy gave each of us a photo as a souvenir. In response to my questions, she got to talking about her parents, who had been born in slavery. I was impressed by the extent of her knowledge of those times; her descriptions of the whippings, forced matings and so on, none of which seemed to be news to my companions, were consistent with hundreds of accounts by former slaves that I'd read in the WPA narratives of the 1930s.

Mrs Murphy's grandmother lived to be emancipated, but was not able to find a single one of the thirteen (of her sixteen) children who'd been sold away from her, their names changed as they passed from owner to owner. It is this background of dehumanization, I imagine, that makes a respectful form of address so essential to her granddaughter.

After lunch we moved on to other things. Arbie copied one of Mrs Murphy's crochet patterns, under Missie's vigilant supervision. Missie, who'd been profoundly deaf since birth and communicated with nods, gestures and grunts, would issue a volley of wordless admonitions each time Arbie slipped up, then smile when she finally got it right. Willia Ette wanted to buy a pair of Mrs Murphy's crocheted shoes, but Mrs Murphy didn't have them in her size. Bettie borrowed a Maple Leaf from Mrs Murphy's collection of sample blocks; I noted that it was pieced of fabric that was at least seventy years old. At all times there was too much going on for one person to keep track of, but it was an ongoing joy to watch these elderly, uprooted women connect through their shared interests and an affinity for an art form that I suspected had origins in their ancestral homelands.

Eventually it was time to go. Bettie and Missie went on to see other friends in Dos Palos, and Arbie, Willia Ette and I scooted off and into the fast lane of the freeway with Mrs Murphy's invitations to return ringing in our ears. For most of the trip home we were silent. We had finally run down.

Then too, we had a lot to think about. I don't know about Arbie and Willia Ette, but I couldn't get the thirteen missing children out of my mind.

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http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=9517

NEA 2011 National Heritage Fellowship Award photo
by
Tom Pich

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GRANNY, CAN I HAVE A QUILT

Laverne Brackens' Bio,Exhibitions and Publications

Eli Leon

The second of four recent generations of extraordinarily talented quilt makers in a single Texas family, Laverne Brackens (1927-) helped her mother tack quilts when she was a child, but didn't get interested in making them herself until much later. Raising eight children and five grandchildren and working for four decades or so as a cook, she was always on the go and could never sit still long enough to do quilts. But after a l987 accident forced her early retirement, she found in quilt making an occupation that she could still handle.

"The whole time I was on crutches....I was piecing quilts because I could use my left foot [for the sewing machine].

Doctor won't let me do nothing else. Nothing else I can do. So I just set down and quilt."

Once into it, Brackens developed a wholehearted passion for "creating beauty from pieces of colorful material. A friend supplied her with factory scraps and she got a kick out of seeing what she could do with them. Some ideas came to her in dreams; others she worked out as she went along.

" I don't have no certain pattern in mind. I just start working my material until I get it to look like a quilt".

Outstandingly prolific, she can cut enough pieces for three tops in one day and "go back the next day and maybe do two of them." If she feels like it, she can do all three, but it may take her "till midnight". Indeed, she pieced two hundred and six quilt tops from May 1992, shortly after we first met, to May 1993, when I gave up keeping track. This must have been an especially dynamic period for her, but 15 1/2 years later, she still has not let up.

Example of Laverne Brackens Numbers Quilt Design.

Brackens enjoys placing letters and numbers in her designs. On the occasion of a grand daughter's eighth birthday, for example, she developed a quilt pattern based on the number 8.

" I was just sitting down," she said, "and it come to me."

Since she "didn't want the figure 8 all the way around," she worked out a second pattern for alternate blocks and a third for a single border, "making these other patterns with part of the figure 8 in it" so they'd be different but "come into the figure 8 pattern."

An eloquent spokeswoman for her quilt aesthetics, Brackens emphasizes that misalignment leads to variability:

" If you piece them all where they hit right together, every quilt you piece is going look

just alike and if you twist it up a little bit, it'll make the quilt look different. I just like to

take a simple quilt and give it a different look. That's what I be trying to do."

Offsetting, measuring approximately, using scraps as found, breaking rules, and straying from the initial pattern, are, for Brackens, all parts of a larger picture in which incidental contingencies contribute to the beauty and individuality of an artist's creation. Brackens fills out the picture with mentions of off-centering the centerpiece, displaying odd selvages, rotating printed stripes, stripping vertically and horizontally in the same quilt, enlarging undersized blocks with strips of fabric, and working the pattern out as you go along, all to effect a "different look," "change it up," or "give that quilt a offset look":

Off Set Blocks by Laverne Brackens.

" You make one block just a little bit longer than the other one, but you don't do it all the way

across the quilt. That means it's not going to hit. I wanted it not to hit but I didn't want it to do that

on every block, so that's why some blocks is a little larger than others."

Ideas may or may not come from the head; "accidentals" are the artists helpmates; open mindedness and maintenance of control are not mutually exclusive:

" You'll start with one idea and that idea's not coming together like you want it to come.

Then you just say "let's try it this way." It won't come out in your first idea, but it will come

out into an idea that you like better than the first one. If it don't do what I want it to do, then

I'm gonna make it do something I like."

Statements like this clued me into the concept of Accidentally on Purpose-the title of my most all-inclusive cataloged exhibition.

Brackens once pieced a quilt for her father ( Willie Henry), which included the letters W, H and L, for Willie, Henry, and Laverne. Sometime, she puts whole words into quilts--"why", for example. The bottom line, however, is that she "likes letters in there--they're just pretty to me," and doesn't require that they mean anything. The letters J-A-N-T-L at the center of one of her quilts and an F on one side of another, like a lone L in the corner of a third, don't stand for anything. I expected to be informed that the L was a way of signing the quilt, but Brackens insisted that it was "just an L." Similarly, assortments of odd pieced or appliqued shapes, including occasional letters are for Brackens, just designs.

National Heritage Fellow, Arbie Williams, looking at slides of Brackens' work in 1993, was lavish in her approval:

"Oh she did go wild on these," Williams exclaimed. "Bless her heart. Now that's a real heart breaker there. She wants it different from what she's seen it, so that's the reason you see so much of them flashing with different corners. She don't want to do what the next woman is doing. so she doos it of her own. Where's she from, Texas? Oh God. I sure want to go see her when I go there."

In 1996, Brackens' work shared the spotlight with that of her mother (Gladys Henry), one of her daughters (Sherry Byrd), and one of her granddaughters (Bara Byrd) in "Four Generations of African-American Quilt makers," a show I curated at the High Museum in Atlanta. This exhibition later evolved into the 2006 show and catalogue Will the Circle Be Unbroken:Four Generation of African-American Quilt makers at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (MOCFA) in San Francisco, along with a filmed interview with Brackens by MOCFA exhibition manager Karin Nelson, and the article "One Family's Quilted Legacy" in the October 2006 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine.

Other exhibits in which Brackens participated and articles about her and her family include:

a 1999 exhibition called Quilts of Color: Three Generations of Quilters in an Afro-Texan Family at the Texas Folk life Resources Gallery in Austin, Texas and the Kirkland Center in Clinton, New York;

and article called "Playing Jazz with a Needle and Thread," by Norma Martin in Life and Arts / Austin American Statesman, August 6, 1999, pp.4,16-18,37;

"Black Women Fiber Artists," by Toni Wynn in The International Review of African-American Art /Fiber Arts the Stuff of Dreams, 1999, Vol.15,#5,pp.8-9;

"On the Road for Folk Art,"

by Elaine Robbins, in Texas Living: People and Places/Southern Living Magazine, November 2000,pp.14,16,17;

"Artsy Crafty," by Carl Hoover, in the Waco Tribune-Herald / Brazos Living, Nov.19,2000,p.1,Section E;

an exhibition called "Storytelling: One Stitch at a Time" at the Texas Memorial Museum of Science and History in Austin in 2001-2002;

Stitches in Time, by Amanda Rogers in The star-Telegram, Ft. Worth, April 13,2002;

Aloha!, the Autumn 2005 Catalog by Dosa Inc., Los Angeles, pp. 16-17,49,91,113:

"Quilt Legacy in Fairfield: Quilt making is in Laverne Brackens' Bones," Texas Co-op Power, June 2006,p38;

and Family Quilts, a television documentary by the Texas Country Reporter (show #1000) on October 28th, 2006.

The Texas Memorial Museum owns two of Laverne's quilts;

Chicago's Bessie Coleman Library's five featured artworks include quilts by Laverne Brackens and Arbie Williams.

Additional cataloged exhibitions of mine that included works by Brackens are

"Showing Up": Maximum-Contrast African-American Quilts at the Richmond Art center in Richmond,CA,1996;

Something Else to See: Improvisational bordering Styles in African-American at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, 1997;

No Two Alike:African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern, at the South Carolina state Museum in Columbia, 1998;

Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts at the William D. Cannon Art Gallery in San Diego, 2001;

Improving the Bow tie: African-American Improvisational Quilts at the Mills college Art Museum in Oakland, California, 2005;

and Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts at the Figge Museum in Davenport Iowa, 2006.

Good Books also published one of her quilts in their 2002 African American Quilts wall calendar.

Typically, Brackens' works outnumber those of most of the other quilters in her group exhibitions. Over 70 outstanding quilt makers, for example, were responsible for the more than 100 illustrations that were selected from a pool of thousands of improvisational African-American quilts for my Accidentally on Purpose catalogue. They would, therefore, average little more than one work per artist. Indeed, only four of the 70 had more than three of their works in the show. Brackens, however, had five. Those besides Brackens with more than three were National Heritage Fellow Arbie Williams, virtuoso Rosie Lee Tompkins, and Brackens' mother, Gladys Henry. And quilts, furthermore, are not Brackens' only exceptional contributions to the world of African-American improvisation. In addition to her works of art, my writings draw heavily on her arrestingly expressive verbalizaions, some of which I've quoted in this bio and can be found in Eli Leon Interviews with African-American Quilt makers archived by the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska.

These quotations by Brackens are all over the Internet. (To locate the web sites referred to below, google "Laverne Brackens") The Alliance for California Traditional Arts Calendar,The Tribe, and the Oakland tribune, for example, all repeat the quote:

" I don't go by patterns. I make it up out of my head. When you pick up the material and start working with it,
that's when you know what [the quilt] will be."

Kate Brown in WordPress.com's Thoughts Not Mine: The Monkey wrench Emporium, quotes:

"If you piece them all where they hit right together, every quilt you piece is going to look just alike,
and if you twist it up a little bit you will make the quilt look different. I just like to take a simple quilt
and give it a different look."

Caireen Todd, in The Patchwork Dress: Unbroken Circle, reports:

"[Brackens] can cut out the pieces for three quilt tops in a day and 'go back the next day and maybe do two of them'."

Most of these quotes come from show catalogs that include passages from many other quilt makers, but Brackens' are frequently among the ones chosen. In this domain, she can be equaled by none other than Arbie Williams.

Bara Byrd, Laverne's quilt making grand daughter, pieced seven tops at the age of twelve,sold six of them, and sent the seventh to her grandmother.

Brackens was "tickled to death". " I sleep under that quilt," she reported. "Only time that quilt's off of my
bed is when I wash it and put it up in the Spring. I just love it." She got teary-eyed talking about it: "Cause
it's my granddaughter that made it. Usually, the rest of them is always saying, 'Granny, can I have a quilt?"

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Some Titus Family Quilt makers featured in Eli Leon's

Internationally renowned collection of African American Quilts.

Gladys Cellia Durham-Henry
(Born 1906-Died 1996)
"Big Mama"
http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=9520

Gladys was a self taught crafts person at heart. She created many
and varied items, on a continual basis, through out her entire life span.

Side I of "Jazz With A Needle and Thread" reversible
story quilt composed by Sherry A. Byrd features items created by
her grandmother Gladys C. Durham-Henry (Born 1906-Died 1996).

Side II_"Jazz With A Needle And Thread".
This reversible story quilt commemorates the history
of six generations of quilt makers in the Edward "Ned"
Titus family of Freestone County, Texas. Patchwork created
by four generations are featured on it along with several
blocks which chronicle the history of all six generations.

This quilt and the one above it were created from
NewspaperCrossword Puzzles as their patterns.

Broken Dishes Pattern

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Laverne Brackens

Most Prolific Titus Family Quilt Maker
Born 1927

http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=9517

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Sherry A. Byrd
Born 1951
Storyteller/Writer/Quilt maker/Folk artist
http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=3331

Sherry the Researcher

Sherry the Storyteller/Folk artist and Chronicler of
Family History

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Abstract M-provisational Quilts by Sherry Ann

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Bara Byrd-Steward
Born 1975
Oldest daughter of Sherry A. Byrd
http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=9521

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.
Resume:
Eli Leon (elileon1@yahoo.com)
Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1989.
Surface Design Association Critical Writing Award for the development and application of critical vocabulary in the field of surface design, 1990.
***
Selected Publications:
Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins. Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.
Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilt- makers. Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.
Improving the Bow Tie. Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, June-Aug 2005.
"Too Short to Save: African-American Improvisational String Quilts," in A Report from the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2002
Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts (exhibition catalog), William D. Cannon Art Gallery, San Diego, CA. 2001.
Review of My Quilts and Me: The Diary of an American Quilter by Nora McKeown Ezell, in Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 3, 2000, pp. 75-79.
No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern (exhibition catalog), South Carolina State Museum, 1998.
"African Influence on the American Block-style Quilt," in Sally Gant, ed.,African Impact on the Material Culture of the Americas (collected symposium papers), Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Old Salem Inc., Winston-Salem, NC, 1998.
Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American Quilts (exhibition catalog), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1997.
"Shadows of the Divine Perfection," in Lawrence Rinder, ed., Rosie Lee Tompkins(exhibition catalog), Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, 1997.
"Showing Up": African-American Maximum-contrast Quilts (exhibition catalog), Richmond Art Center, 1996.
Arbie Williams Transforms the Britches Quilt (exhibition catalog), University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993.
Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork (exhibition catalog), Winston-Salem State University, 1992.
"Cross-strip Patterning in African Textiles and African-American Quilts," Surface Design Journal, Vol.15, #1, Fall, 1990, pp.6-8,38.
Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking (exhibition catalog), Introduction by Robert Farris Thompson, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1988.
"Wrapping Home Around Me: How the Patchwork Quilt became a Medium for the Expression of African Values," in Rambling On My Mind (exhibition catalog), Museum of African-American Life and Culture, Dallas, 1987, pp.18-33.
***
Selected Exhibitions:
Sunshine and Surprises: African American Quilts from the Eli Leon and Robert Cargo Collections. Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK. Aug 16-19, 2007.
Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins .Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.
Approximate Measure: Improvisational African-American Quilts. Shirley/Jones Gallery, 235 Corry Street, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Jan-March 2007.
Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quiltmakers.Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.
Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA, Sept-Nov 2001; Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, June-Sept 2002; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Feb-March 2003; New England Quilt Museum, Sept-Nov 2003; New York State Museum, Jan-March 2004
No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern, South Carolina State Museum, Oct 1998-March 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, Sept-Nov 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Jan-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, Feb-March 2003.

Quilts from the 'Hood: East Bay African American Improvisational Quilts, The African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Feb-June 1997.
Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American Quilts, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Feb 1997; Marin Community Foundation, Jan-April 2001.
No Two Alike: Improvisational African-American Quilts, High Museum, Atlanta, Sept 1996-Feb 1997.
"Showing Up": African-American Maximum-contrast Quilts, Richmond ArtCenter, January-March, 1996.
Arbie Williams Transforms the Britches Quilt, University of California, Santa Cruz, Nov-Dec 1993; Berkeley Art Center, April-June, 1994.
Putting the Pieces Together: Patchwork Quilts by Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Migrants to California, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA, Sept-Nov, 1993.
Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork, Winston-Salem State University, Jan-March, 1992; Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Jan-March, 1994.
Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking.
***
Venues for Who'd a Thought It:
San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, January-February, 1988.
San Jose Museum of Art, March-April, 1988.
Meadows Museum, Shreveport, LA, January-March 1989.
The Old State House, Little Rock, AK, March-May, 1989.
Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge, July-Sept, 1989.
New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA, Sept-Nov, 1989.
American Craft Museum, NYC, November-January, 1989-90.
Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, February-April, 1990.
California Council for the Humanities, Oakland City Center, "A Sense of Belonging/A Sense of Place," May-June, 1990.
Old Pueblo Museum, Tuscon, AZ, July-September, 1990.
Field Museum, Chicago, IL, October-January, 1990-91.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, February-March, 1991.
Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, CT, April-May, 1991.
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, June-August, 1991.
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Wash., D.C., Sept-Jan, 91-2.

Ackland Art Museum, Univ. of N.C., Chapel Hill, Feb-March, 1992.

Honolulu Academy of Arts, April-May, 1992

Wichita Falls Museum and Art Center, W.F., TX, June-Aug, 1992.

Kirkpatrick Arts Center, Oklahoma City, Jan-Feb, 1993.

Grant House Folk Art Center, Vancouver, WA, May-Aug, 1993.

Center for the Visual Arts, Metro State College of Denver, Nov-Dec, 1993.

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Jan-Mar, 1994.

Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, CA, Feb-May, 1996.

Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Feb-April, 1997.

Thomasville Art Center, Thomasville, GA, Jan-Feb, 1998.

This show was acclaimed by San Francisco's leading art critic, Kenneth Baker, and awarded "Critics Choice" by the San Francisco Chronicle. ABC did a network program (The Home Show, Feb.29, 1988) about quilt maker Willia Ette Graham, including the entire installation. The mayor of Oakland proclaimed Feb.29th "Willia Ette Graham Day."
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Credits:

All chronicles in the previous article was reproduced with the permission of Eli Leon, Scholar/Researcher/Writer/Collector of African American Improvisational Quilts.

February 2012.

Photos provided by Eli Leon, Tom Pich and Sherry A. Byrd

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Other good reading on Eli Leon Quilt Collection.
http://www.rcreader.com/art/visual-jazz-accidentally-on-purpose/

Publish Your Quilts: Offer your quilt catalog in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy!

2012-05-18T09:31:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Offer your quilt catalog in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy!

Publish Your Quilts: Step 11 - Type Your Artist Resume and Proof Your Catalog

2012-05-18T09:30:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 11 - Type Your Artist Resume and Proof Your Catalog

2012-05-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Royal Alberta Museum Quilts
Added to Quilt Index

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA and EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN -
As it begins an ambitious new plan to add international quilts, The Quilt Index (www.QuiltIndex.org) is happy to
announce the first posting of historic quilts from the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=e65cc5bab&v=001MLAw4fjEPp
X5W3PKHO9bZism9lFTSMBC_o5_wJM5QU__3sb-pCz4Z99hPMtGxFKF52A4vvkU
q9RaXe46xjkXabSkipI7FwBYdQwuTMH9h7VJbE-nzIl6TIFXpwucVbUY776OafAGxma6Wfgh0TKgYu8ro5pGlTNgmk8BTiYB8huoPn
WizembnktzKzNCv6AaybKksbXXKy30SMAuHsi3LYKHcwOOSteRLhbU8v
_2wxdFCbH6lkL7HrQO3SrUz-ErIl_pI8GZM22VZpPFIhdcywdWJVoaEmrQDJo8
dO7qEyM4bAON0G6ZWGj_26nvjxkPwss-nYuh1hS2g-8CFRsFyQ%3D%3D

The Quilt Index is a great resource for researching Quilt Histories
of all eras and kinds. Enjoy!!!

Publish Your Quilts: Step 10 - Insert Photos of Your Quilts into Your Catalog

2012-05-11T22:49:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 10 - Insert Photos of Your Quilts into Your Catalog

Publish Your Quilts: Aisha Lumumba's New Art Quilt Catalog Is Available for Sale!

2012-05-05T01:57:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Aisha Lumumba's New Art Quilt Catalog Is Available for Sale!

Publish Your Quilts: Beauty Secrets: 150 Years of History in One Quilt Pattern

2012-05-02T21:07:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Beauty Secrets: 150 Years of History in One Quilt Pattern

Publish Your Quilts: Step 9 - Write Your Own Catalog Essay - Starter Questions here

2012-05-01T02:30:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 9 - Write Your Own Catalog Essay - Starter Questions here

Publish Your Quilts: Step 8 - Type Your Catalog Just as It Will Appear Printed

2012-04-25T21:21:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 8 - Type Your Catalog Just as It Will Appear Printed

Publish Your Quilts: Step 7 - Format your Microsoft Word file based on your catalog size

2012-04-17T06:20:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 7 - Format your Microsoft Word file based on your catalog size

Publish Your Quilts: Quilt Guilds and other Sewing Group Book Titles

2012-04-11T04:03:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Quilt Guilds and other Sewing Group Book Titles

Publish Your Quilts: Quilt and Artist Catalogs - Examine the Titles and Subtitles

2012-04-11T04:01:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Quilt and Artist Catalogs - Examine the Titles and Subtitles

Publish Your Quilts: Step 6 - Make Your Catalog Title Work

2012-04-11T03:44:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 6 - Make Your Catalog Title Work

Publish Your Quilts: Step 5 - Create the Framework for your Quilt Catalog

2012-04-07T08:15:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 5 - Create the Framework for your Quilt Catalog

Publish Your Quilts: Step 4: Consider the components of a book - Pick your catalog size

2012-04-05T12:10:00.001-07:00

Publish Your Quilts: Step 4: Consider the components of a book - Pick your catalog size