It Tells My Story is a gorgeously illustrated art book showcasing thirty-four quilts from the Yvonne Wells Collection at the International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Yvonne Wells is an acclaimed artist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, whose narrative quilts are immediately recognizable. Using bright colors and bold designs, Wellss quilts include references to biblical stories, the Civil Rights Movement, and moments from her life. Among the more than ten thousand objects in the International Quilt Museum permanent collection, Wells is the most represented artist.
Essays by quilt historians Teresa Duryea Wong, Carolyn Ducey, Kyra E. Hicks, and Sharbreon Plummer discuss Wells and her place in the art world. It Tells My Story highlights Wellss most beloved quilt series, The Seven Deadly Sins, which Wells describes in her own words. The vibrancy and vitality of Wellss creations are featured throughout the book, including the backs of many of Wellss quilts, which have never been published before, bringing to life the extraordinary work of this renowned quilter.
Teresa Duryea Wong is a writer, quilter, and textiles scholar. She is the author of seven books on quilt history and textiles, including Kawaii Applique 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 Governors 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.
Foreword: Discovering Yvonne Wells
Carolyn Ducey
Introduction: Yvonne Wells, the Storyteller
Teresa Duryea Wong
Vision Without Precedent: Harriet Powers and Yvonne Wells
Kyra E. Hicks
Place and Purpose: Southern Quilting and Black Traditions
Sharbreon Plummer
Seven Deadly Sins Quilts
Yvonne Wells
Gallery
Appendix: Data for Thirty-Four Works in the Yvonne Wells Quilt Collection at the International Quilt Museum
