Tasha Tudor & the Yankee Pride Quilt
June 26, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Arts & Crafts
The recent announcement of Tasha Tudor’s death, at age 92, brought back memories of my meeting with her years ago. Perhaps some of you have her enchantingly illustrated books, have read them yourself or to your children.
Apparently Tasha didn’t make many quilts, yet her lifestyle was condusive to it. She was involved constantly in the crafts of days ago and lived her life midst them. The cover of the book jacket on Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts, (at least the edition I have) consists of a photo of Tasha working on a quilt in her rocking chair before the fireplace.
Within the book, there are more photos of Tasha with this quilt she called Yankee Pride. It’s one she worked on for years and intended to finish “before I leave this earth.” The photo reminds me of my grandmother sitting before the kitchen woodstove piecing quilts by hand.
Tea Party Memories
My memory consists, not of quilts, but of a tea party with Tasha, when I was an aspiring children’s author just out of college. I studied her art and writing in a children’s literature class and was fascinated by her work. When I had an opportunity to visit at her farmhouse in New Hampshire (the state where I’d moved after college graduation and marriage), I was thrilled.
We spent a quiet afternoon before her fireplace, where she made tea and toast and talked with me about writing. I’d had nothing published yet, and she warned me it wasn’t easy, getting started as a children’s writer and illustrator.
Over the years, I often thought of her and followed her career and move to Vermont. She inspired me to continue as a children’s writer, although my career has branched in many directions. I was pleased when a librarian remarked, upon seeing my illustrations in Tales of Adventure and Discovery, that their delicacy reminded her of Tasha Tudor. (I’d had my doubts that my drawing was very good.)
I like to think that even though we hadn’t met in person again, Tasha Tudor continued inspiring me. Now I see that she also was involved in quiltmaking midst her other crafts of yesteryear.
Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts was written by Tovah Martin with photographs by Richard W. Brown.
Additional information about Tasha Tudor:
http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/news.html
(Amazon image; click on cover for details)
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
