Author
By Teresa Duryea Wong. 2021. 65 x 65 inches. Includes over 3,000 tiny bits of improvisational pieced yellow gold fabric. Each piece features its own free-motion quilting motif. “Harvest” was juried into the 2021 Quiltcon exhibition in Phoenix. “Harvest” was also exhibited at the New England Quilt Museum as part of the String Theory exhibition.
Quilt research inside the archives of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. And of course all good quilt study requires a great photo. My research focused on a collection of mid-20th century quilts made in the Great Plains region. You can read more about these quilts and their makers in my new book “Sewing & Survival.”
TEXAS HILL COUNTRY: Lyle Lovett’s famous lyrics “You’re not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway,” speaks to folks like my parents, who are not from Texas, but got here as soon as they could. I’ve been here my whole life.
I was born in Houston and spent my high school years in a small town not far from the Hill Country. True to my Texas roots, I learned to ride horses quite young, second grade in fact. After school let out, we’d run to my friend’s house and take off riding bareback, barefoot, and unsupervised. In junior high, I got my own horse and rode him nearly every day for the next 6 years. In high school, we worshiped Friday-night football and spent Saturday’s riding horses during the day and riding around town at night listening to rock and roll on eight-track tapes.
Quilting was not part of my life until much later, when I met a friend whose exquisite quilts gave me an awakening. I suddenly realized that quilts were art, and I wanted in.
Writing for Quiltfolk has brought me back to my early days as a journalist, and I love interviewing and capturing the stories of creative people! As a quilt researcher and author, I’ve interviewed Texas luminaries such as Karey Bresenhan and Kathleen McCrady, and Quiltfolk brought me back to Kathleen’s story when I got to hang out with her daughter-in-law, Rosie. Heck, thanks to Quiltfolk, I even got to spend an afternoon with Jane Dunnewold. Spoiler alert: we conducted our interview on her couch (which just happens to be upholstered in fabulous Jane Dunnewold fabric).
Traveling for the Hill Country edition also brought me back to the Texas Quilt Museum for a photoshoot with my quilt pals Kathy Moore, Kate Adams, and Suzanne Labry, who also happen to be scholars and authors like me. You’ll meet them too in the story about the Bybee Scholars.
I’ll never leave Texas. It’s my home and part of my identity. Quiltfolk made a brilliant choice to cover the Hill Country first. And when we come back to the Lone Star state for the next Quiltfolk Texas edition, I’ll be along for that ride too.
Quilting Arts Podcast hosts Vivika Hansen DeNegre and Susan Brubaker Knapp recently interviewed me about modern art, antique quilts, social justice, and more! Listen to Episode 27.
I made this quilt in May of 2020, as the pandemic forced many of us to isolate and the death of George Floyd caused outrage, especially in Houston, where I live and where he grew up. As some 60,000 marched in downtown Houston, I did the only thing I knew to do… make a quilt about this moment. “Say Their Names” is an original design with a hand-drawn font. The symbols around the outside circle are meant to be crosses. This quilt has been exhibited around the U.S. with other Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts. It was juried into the Quiltcon 2022 show. The quilt is now part of the permanent collection of the International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Sara Trail and I hosted a new lecture for the Quiltcon 2022 audience in Phoenix, Arizona. We placed the work of the Social Justice Sewing Academy in the broader context of the social justice movement today, and we highlighted three SJSA outreach programs, including the SJSA Remembrance Project. We were joined on stage by a very special guest, Addie Kitchen, the grandmother of Steven Taylor who was killed by police inside a California Walmart.
