Cherokee Leaf Pounding quilt for Merrill Stewart

After Merrill Stewart saw Bettye’s quilt, “Ode to Calvin,” at the Birmingham Museum of Art, he asked her to make a Cherokee leaf pounding quilt for the offices of Stewart Perry, a commercial construction company in Birmingham.  She and her grandson, Brian, spent the day walking in the woods and around the pond gathering leaves and pounding them on a muslin quilt top. A video made that day shows she and Brian pounding the leaves.  Another video was made the day that she presented it to Merrill Stewart. (Photograph by Don Breland, courtesy of Merrill Stewart)

Detail from Cherokee Leaf pounding quilt (Stewart Perry Campus)

75” L X 58” W (2009)