It Tells My Story

Teresa Duryea Wong is a writer, quilter, and textiles scholar. She is the author of seven books on quilt history and textiles, including Kawaii Appliqué Quilts from Japan, coauthored with Naomi Ichikawa, Sewing and Survival: Native American Quilts from 1880–2022, and Japanese Contemporary Quilts and Quilters: The Story of an American Import. She is a member of the International Quilt Museum advisory board and a contributing writer for Quiltfolk magazine. Carolyn Ducey recently retired as the Ardis B. James Curator of Collections at the International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and currently oversees special projects. She curated numerous exhibitions and contributed to others, including An Evolving Vision: The James Collection, 1997–2022 and American Quilts in the Industrial Age: 1760–1870. Kyra E. Hicks is the author of Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook, This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces, and other books. Sharbreon Plummer is an award-winning public scholar, artist, and curator from southeast Louisiana. She is the founder of AYA Thought Studio and has spent the past fifteen years shaping and facilitating transformative programs and initiatives that center liberation and justice through arts and culture. She specializes in Black art history and material culture, Southern folkways, and craft studies, with an emphasis on textiles. Yvonne Wells is a contemporary artist, quilter, and educator from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is a recipient of the Governor's Arts Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the High Museum of Art, the International Quilt Museum, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, among others.

"Within the legion of great Southern storytellers, Yvonne Wells reigns as queen. Her narrative quilts regale us with stories from the Bible, sociopolitical issues, and history, which she delivers with wit, intellect, and biting humor. Her series The Seven Deadly Sins is a tour de force not to be missed, and l am so pleased the International Quilt Museum has collected the entire series to share with the world's quilt enthusiasts."—Carolyn L. Mazloomi, Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellow and founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network"The stupendously gifted self-taught quilter-magician-visionary Yvonne Wells stitches and sutures kaleidoscopic stories of her own life, mythic figures, portraits, and the complex history of America itself. Wells is one of the greatest artists of the last century."—Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York Magazine"Yvonne Wells definitely has stories to tell. Her colorful quilts can seem simple at first glance, yet on closer examination they reveal deep and profound stories beneath the surface and originality in composition. This stunningly designed book showcases her quilts (both fronts and backs!) and will inspire you to look at them again and again."—Roderick Kiracofe, author, collector, and curator

• Foreword: Discovering Yvonne WellsCarolyn DuceyIntroduction: Yvonne Wells, the StorytellerTeresa Duryea WongVision Without Precedent: Harriet Powers and Yvonne WellsKyra E. HicksPlace and Purpose: Southern Quilting and Black TraditionsSharbreon PlummerSeven Deadly Sins QuiltsYvonne WellsGallery Appendix: Data for Thirty-Four Works in the Yvonne Wells Quilt Collection at the International Quilt MuseumNotesContributors