Dallas County
Fiber
Arts
Teresa comes from a long line of seamstress
who taught her to sew when she was ten years old. As a fourth grade teacher,
she was inspired by Alabama History to teach her students about the “old
ways”. She said that “During our study
of life in Alabama pre civil war, I came across this idea and used it as an art
project in my classroom.”
Teresa’s “Church Dolls” are made from
scraps of cotton quilting fabric that were left to her by her grandmother, who
made her living making quilts. Other scrap pieces were given to her by a
friend’s mother. Dolls usually take one hour to complete. Besides the dolls,
she makes artful lye soap, burlap gunny sacks and decorative tea towels.
Living in the Black Belt has “made me
research about how people lived in the country making everything themselves”
she stated. Her daughter seems to be learning this quality as well, and
according to Teresa “has the same artful passion of learning about how God has
given us everything in nature to use.”