Bettye Kimbrell (born November 22, 1936) is a master folk artist for

quilting Quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. A ...

, and one of the charter members of the North Jefferson Quilter's Guild in Mount Olive, Alabama. In 1995 Kimbrell won the Alabama Folk Heritage Award, the highest honor for the traditional arts in Alabama. ''Quilter Receives State Heritage Award'' by Anne Kimzey
Retrieved from the Alabama Arts website on December 3, 2009 Kimbrell received national attention in 2008 when she was one of eleven folk artists to receive the

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States.''National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellowship Recipients'' May 21, 2008
Retrieved from the NEA newsroom website on December 3, 3009 Her quilts have been exhibited at the

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

(2008), have toured five cities in Belgium in the "Schatten van/in Mensen" exhibit (2010–11), and were displayed in five cities in China as part of an exhibit sponsored by the United States Embassy (2012-2013).

Her art

Kimbrell is known for her intricate

needlework Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet, worked with a hook, or tatting, worked with a ...

and detailed

.''2008 National Heritage Fellowships: Bettye Kimbrell''
Retrieved from the NEA Life Time Honors website on December 3, 2009 She uses traditional techniques such as trapunto,

broderie perse Broderie perse (French for "Persian embroidery") is a style of appliqué which uses printed elements to create a scene on the background fabric. It was most popular in Europe in the 17th century, and probably travelled from India, as there are so ...

and leaf pounding in her work and creates her own designs along with traditional patterns.Gigi Khalsa, "Bettye Kimbrell’s Leaf Pounding Quilts," ''Quilters Newsletter'', September 13, 2013, http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/blogs/insideqn/2013/09/13/bettye-kimbrells-leaf-pounding-quilts/ .

Biography

Kimbrell grew up with her father and grandparents on a farm in

Fayette County, Alabama Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,321. Its county seat is Fayette. Its name is in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette (or de la Fayette), who aided General George Washin ...

in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She was the oldest of five children. Her grandmother taught her to quilt when she was 10 because she believed "idle hands are the devil's workshop". They made string quilts—using scraps of square fabric for the top, feed and fertilizer sacks for the back, and cotton from their farm for the batting, with string ties every few inches to hold them together. She married Calvin Kimbrell and moved to Mount Olive, Alabama.''Biographies of past recipients of the Alabama Folk Heritage Award: Bettye Kimbrell (1995)''
Retrieved from The Folk Heritage Awards website on December 3, 2009 In the 1960s a friend gave her name to Loveman's Department Store in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

for directing customers to get their quilts finished. Finishing all different types and designs of quilts got Kimbrell interested in quilting as an art and not just as a utilitarian need. In the early 1970s Kimbrell won her first blue ribbon for

and describes this event as the "spark that lit the fire". Before this time she had been raising five children and taking care of her youngest sister, who had

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

, and didn't have time to devote to

as a hobby. In 1979 Kimbrell organized a quilt show for the Mount Olive community center, and out of this event came the North Jefferson Quilter's Guild. Kimbrell has been an active member of Quilt Alabama and has been a master folk artist for the Alabama Folk Council for the Arts' folk arts apprenticeship program. She has also been a featured artist at the Alabama Folklife Festival, the Alabama Sampler portion of the Birmingham festival, City Stages, and the Kentuck Festival in

Northport, Alabama Northport is a city in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in the west central part of the U.S. state, State of Alabama. Located on the Black Warrior River across from downtown Tuscaloosa, it is currently the 21st largest city in Alabam ...

. Kimbrell also has taught quilting classes at the

John C. Campbell Folk School The John C. Campbell Folk School, also referred to as "The Folk School", is located in Brasstown, North Carolina, along the Cherokee County and Clay line. It is a non-profit adult educational organization based on non-competitive learning. Origin ...

Brasstown, North Carolina Brasstown is an unincorporated community located mostly within Clay County, North Carolina, United States, though roughly one third of Brasstown is within the adjacent Cherokee County. Etymology The name, "Brasstown," was given to several historic ...

, and at the Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell in

Nauvoo, Alabama Nauvoo is a town on the northwestern edge of Walker County, Alabama, United States, that extends slightly north into southwestern Winston. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town is 221, down from 284 in 2000. Camp McDowell, the offici ...

. When not working on her own quilts Kimbrell has taken up the challenging work of restoring old quilts.

References

External links

APT's (Alabama Public Television) ''Alabama Craft: Tradition and Innovation''
four episodes with Bettye Kimbrell
''Interview by Mary Eckstein for the NEA''
an interview with Bettye Kimbrell {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbrell, Bettye American textile artists Artists from Alabama Quilters Living people People from Fayette County, Alabama People from Jefferson County, Alabama 1936 births Women textile artists National Heritage Fellowship winners

Her art

Biography

References

Further reading

External links