Memories of Braided Lives: A Family Quilt Collection

Roberson is proud to feature the work of late 1800s and early 1900s rural women.

Member First Look: September 30
Public Opening: October 1

“Memories of Braided Lives” is a exhibition that celebrates the labors of women, and the items they worked and sewed.

Using period objects, photographs, and quilts, “Memories of Braided Lives” reconstructs the quilters’ daily lives and the significance of self expression in lives devoted to domestic industry. Growing up on small dairy farms, these women helped work the fields, chop wood and build fences, as well as tending to their homes and families. They grew vegetable gardens, made soap, cooked, and cared for livestock. They also made quilts.

With palettes of patterned fabric and color, these quilters expressed their creative imaginations through form, movement and rhythm. They filled their work with common images – stars, baskets and birds – drawn from their lives; and with abstract designs which embodied such concepts as a need for repetition and order. Skilled needleworkers and sensitive artists, they combined tradition and personal vision to transform the most ordinary useful household items into works of beauty.