Rudee Ann Rudd Rodríguez

A young Rudee Ann Rudd Rodríguez improvised on the childhood tradition of setting up a lemonade stand, choosing instead to sell her handmade dolls door to door. It was an ordinary beginning for someone destined to become one of Indiana’s extraordinary fiber artists.

“My embarrassed parents discovered me peddling hand-sewn dolls to willing patrons in the courthouse offices across the street from my father’s dry-cleaning business in Cadiz, Ky.,” says the quilter from Lanesville.

Her mother taught Rudee Ann to sew, a skill she used and enjoyed while making her own clothes. “I’m afraid none of us made teen fashion statements in my little hometown, although I was fortunate to receive Kentucky’s Vogue Sewing Award.”

When she married and moved to Southern Indiana in 1971, she discovered quilt-making and turned to her mother for instruction. “I shared my excitement about the dozens of handmade quilts I had seen raffled at church picnics around the area,” said the Indiana Artisan. “My mother had pieced many quilts as a teenager during the Depression and was pleased to get me started.” To this day, her mother “remains in spirit, as my model of creative drive, inspiration, character, and integrity.”

The work gratifies Rudee Ann’s creative expression. She selects multi-patterned, multi-colored fabrics, the kind best known for the time-honored scrap quilt. Her designs, colors, and patterns draw inspiration from a lifetime of observation, travel, experience, encouragement and practice.

Rudee Ann’s quilts are distinguishable for what she calls “visual layers of surprises. They begin with the excitement of color and shape, followed by the stimulation of juxtaposed color and scale, discovering the relationship of different areas with a piece. They reveal whimsy and, finally, create an entirely new delight by the line of quilting which further elevates design within the overall composition.”

Rudee Ann’s contribution to Indiana art is a far cry from peddling her hand-sewn dolls, yet that determined effort later provided a platform for engaging students in visual arts.

An endowment with the Harrison County Community Foundation funds arts enrichment at the school where Rudee Ann taught for most of her 37-year career in public education. That funding is a result of the Capitalizing Designs Quilt Project, which Rudee Ann originated, developed, and directed, supported by the Indiana Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. The project culminated with 16 major works of art created by more than 100 volunteers in three states, using the original designs by her Corydon Junior High students, and finalized with publication of the book, “Capitalizing Designs.”