Carolyn - Generations of Reflections

Taos Pueblo Storyteller

My quilt is based on treasured memories of my 3 grandchildren and 2 recently “adopted” Karenni-Burmese grandchildren.  I love the Southwestern pottery style called “Storytellers” and “Singing Mothers,” and am blessed to have a small collection of these clay pieces. Storytellers became famous through the work of Helen Cordero, a Native American from the Cochiti Pueblo near Santa Fe.  In 1964, she made her first clay “storyteller,” based on her grandfather who passed on oral traditions to tribal children.  Cordero soon became famous for her Storyteller pottery.  Many pieces are now in the Smithsonian Native American Museum in Washington, D.C.

Our family had the honor of visiting Cochiti in the 1970’s during their normally “closed” Corn Festival.  We were invited to join our longtime friends from Santa Fe, who had befriended this tribe.  One of the potters and her mother prepared a traditional meal for us.  Afterwards, we were invited into the daughter’s home to see her pottery.  As we left, she graciously gave me a piece she had made.  Thus began my love affair with Storyteller/Singing Mother pottery.

As children, my husband and I remember family stories our grandparents told, and we passed this tradition on to our children and grandchildren.  It was always fun to have little ones jump in bed with us early in the morning with pleas of “tell us another story.”

My quilt was made with hand-painted, batik and cotton fabrics.   In the quilt, I am depicted as the Storyteller surrounded by all 5 of my little ones.  We sit on hand- painted grass filled with flower buds.  A stone path leads from our adobe home to the grassy area.  The oldest boy holds a drum.  The next in line, a girl, props up on one arm against my feet, which are extra large to signify wisdom.  A boy sits in my lap, and I am holding the 2 youngest ones in my arms.  I used 4 layers – a batik, cotton batting, Timtex and a cotton fabric for the back.  The background and grass were free-motion stitched in a zigzag pattern on my new Bernina sit-down longarm.  Tiny pieces of fabric fused with Wonder Under were cut into figural and clothing shapes, colored with pencils and pens, fused in place and stitched with Aurufil thread on my domestic Bernina.  The binding is a Kaffe Fassett print that reminded me of vivid Native American colors and geometric designs.