Secrets of a race evader
Winning two ribbons at my first quilt show was the all the encouragement I needed to keep going. It told me I was on the right track. I’m still thrilled to death when I win a ribbon today.
This is a short recap of my greatest wins and favorite quilts.
Thanks for looking and reading. I love to share my quilts.
I made this video as a final assignment for my Digital Media class. Dr. Stacey Patton generously taught about 200 adults skills to tell their stories. Tell the stories for the ancestors and for the decedents. Let the future know how one person felt in this time, at this place, for me, to me.
This is the second time I received this instruction. During the summer term I skimmed the surface, but didn’t dig deep enough until the very end to really understand how to let go, how to give in, how to tell the truth. It is easy for me to share about my work. It’s much hard than for me to share about myself. I am learning. It becomes easier with practice.
It is easy for me to share about my work. It’s much hard than for me to share about myself.
Terri Jarrett
Typically, the quilts I make incorporate many fabrics, often chosen at random. So, purchasing fabric to fulfill a design vision is a luxury for me. This is one more video for my magnum opus of 2020: Chroma Corona.
I really wanted my quilt to be part of the Lyndon House Arts Center’s 46th Juried Exhibition, mainly because the reception for the last show in 2020 was the last public event I attended before covid changed everything. There are other paths for this quilt. I’ll keep you posted.
I’m working on this blog as part of a class. Our teacher is teaching us to revise, revisit and redo. So, here is attempt number two.
I’m nervous about returning to campus once again when the positivity rate is about 20 percent and the hospitals are full.
This is a short video I created presenting three ideas about quilting: scrap management, knowledge of design principles, and finding a quilting buddy.
I hope it is useful information.
I quilt in honor of my foremothers, who used the needle to tell their stories, to record events in their lives, marriages and births, to warm their families and to feed themselves. Quilts were used to make political statements, raise money, and identify safe places.
A seamstress was one of a few skills a person in bondage could utilize which created a pathway-a means to wealth. Clothing and home goods were highly prized in the the era with many hands employed to create enough for garments for the family.
Black women and men have used the tiniest scraps to create quilts for centuries. They have created appliqued story quilts in the West African tradition. Harriette Powers, a famous quiltmaker, born in bondage, died a free woman and told her own story as well as a Bible story in two quilts preserved by National institutional. I live in the same county where she was kept in bondage.
I quilt to honor the spirt of the needle that is encoded in my DNA, because once I started, I haven’t stopped in 25 plus years. I get grumpy when I skip studio time. After sewing since age six, quilting came easy for me and my bold use of color was mainly out of necessity: I had limited money for fabric when I started quilting. Scrap and eclectic quilts were a great solution. This is my first bed size Blue Ribbon quilt: “All Roads Lead to the Fabric Shop.”
For eight years, when I first married, I had a 6-foot table in the corner of the kitchen, near the wood stove. It was rustic and cramped, I persisted.
Now, I work in a large, airy space with a large design wall, cutting/ironing table and a long-arm sewing machine. I have storage for my fabric, a kitchen and a laundry area. It is liberating to have a space to create and tools to make it easier.
My quilts will be my legacy. My stitches will add just one one stitch to the unending power of the needle. I feel the urgency of Now- to push myself and share my work and my story. Continue to check back to see more of my work.
Subfugio 