Legacy: The Story of Talula Gilbert Bottoms and Her Quilts
by Nancilu B. Burdick
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Description
A granddaughter of master quilter Talula Gilbert Bottoms traces her grandmother's life, discusses the artistry of her quilts, and provides a look at life in the South in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.Tags
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2 Works 123 Members
Common Knowledge
- Dedication
- For Almira and Mollie Ruth:
Talula's daughters
who had the wisdom to save the records
and the quilts
that made their mother's story possible;
And for Gilbert and Mayme:
who, without realizi... (show all)ng it,
have encouraged me enormously,
by loans of quilts,
by outright gifts,
by their hospitality,
and by simply being who they are:
my most direct living link with my grandmother. - First words
- [Preface] That hot July afternoon in 1978 when my mother opened a cedar chest in the Alabama home where I grew up and matter-of-factly lifted out a half-dozen quilts, she revealed a far different world from the one I remembe... (show all)red as a child.
The time was summer 1941, the place a little country estate near Athens, Alabama, in the heart of the Tennesse Valley.
[Afterword] If there is one thing to be learned from Talula and Tom Bottoms's story it is that there were people in the South who did not waste time and energy after the War on bitter resentment toward the "Yankee Devils" wh... (show all)o had plundered their good land and decimated their families. - Quotations
- How different from many women today whose work outside the home provides merely money to buy things that are soon discarded, things not valued because the work of loving and creative hands has not been invested in them.
An... (show all) Indian woman exactly describes the sane and healing function of the hands-on work of quiltmaking as well as the value so conferred, even though she speaks of India's indigenous crafts. "The human touch does something to the fragments which are brought together in the finished piece where they mingle and cling together, to give birth to a new life in a fresh form--unlike the tumult and pressuring of a powerful machine where the pieces seem helpless and lost." -- Kamaladevi Chattapadhyaya in Introduction to India: Village, Ritual Arts, exhibit catalog to travelling exhibition (La Jolla, California: Mingei International, 1981), P. 8 - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Preface] Acknowledgement is particularly made to the present owners of quilts who have graciously allowed them to be photographed for inclusion in Talula's story, and to those who have sent photographs so their quilts could be counted
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)More than one hundred of Talula's quilts remain today in the hands of her descendants (scattered from New York to California), the loving legacy of a courageous woman who will not be forgotten.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Afterword] Is it possible that Talula's legacy, those insights so vividly expressed in Kamaladevi's words, can be our legacy, too? Her quilts and her story are evidence they can.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Home & Garden, History, Art & Design, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 746.970924 — Arts & recreation Drawing & decorative arts Fashion Design / Weaving, Knitting, Embroidery Other textile products
- LCC
- NK9198 .B68 .B87 — Fine Arts 3600-(9990) Other arts and art industries Decorative arts Other arts and art industries Textiles
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 79
- Popularity
- 401,633
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
