By Robbie LaFleur

Lila Nelson was the Textile Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum for decades, a premier expert on Norwegian textiles. She was a beloved weaving instructor, a talented weaver, and a mentor and friend to many weavers. Her talents were matched only by her modesty. She was a prolific tapestry weaver, but completely uninterested in seeking gallery recognition, making money by selling her tapestries, or arranging exhibits to display them. Instead she rolled them up and stacked them inside a wooden couch-sized bench in her living room. I was knocked nearly speechless the first time she moved the cushions, opened the lid, and revealed the size of the treasure contained in the chest. So far I have found no one smart enough to have taken a photo of that bench.  

Lila showed her friend Paula Pfaff the bench and her tapestries. Fellow cat lover Paula was taken with a cat tapestry and the quote by Yeats that inspired it. Lila offered it to Paula in exchange for a new handwoven bedside rug. Paula recalled, “I was very very flattered that she wanted to trade and I definitely think I got the best part of the deal.” Paula framed the tapestry with an embroidered nod to the W.B. Yeats poem that inspired Lila’s work. The cat Minneloushe, “Alone, important and wise lifts to the moon his changing eyes.”

When Mary Skoy asked Lila about buying a tapestry, Lila instead suggested that Mary knit her some mittens. Here are the elaborate mittens with a beautiful scalloped edge.

 

The tapestry Mary now cherishes is “A Red Letter Day.” It features a girl on a swing, an image Lila wove at least three times. Lila also enjoyed adding lettering and rune-like shapes to her tapestries.

Mary now has both ends of the barter. “After Lila died, someone gave these back to me, knowing that I would savor the memories.” Indeed, she does. 

We have a record of a good portion of Lila’s tapestry legacy due to her friend Francie Iverson, who enlisted her son Sam Iverson and his friend Sara Moe to visit Lila and photograph the tapestries in her apartment. In exchange, Lila gave a small tapestry to insect-loving Sara–another barter. 

Francie Iverson has a tapestry of New York City’s Central Park, with the city in the background. In exchange, Lila received a bowl made of fabric, with vintage embroidery in the center. 

When Lila began her protest series following the 9/11 bombings of New York City, I really wanted one of her “Terrorist Cat” tapestries. In exchange, she asked me to cater a reception for board members of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, to be held in her home. Of course, I responded. If she had called me any time and asked me to help with a reception, I would have done it happily–and now I would get a tapestry!

Perhaps the most elaborate barter was between Lila and Wendy Stevens from Decorah, Iowa, who now owns the magnificent “Albert the Alligator.” Wendy described “the deal” in detail in her eulogy at Lila’s memorial celebration at the Textile Center of Minnesota. (See: “Lila Nelson Celebration: Wendy Stevens.”) In short, here’s the list of items in exchange for Albert: 4 quarts of maple syrup, 1 pint of honey, 1 pint of raspberry sauce, 2 cups of granola, 1 cup of dried morels, 4 one-pound packages of frozen venison, 2 loaves of homemade bread, 1 packet of basil pesto, 3 containers of homemade cookies, 1 decorative gourd, 1 butternut squash, 3 onions, 2 pounds of carrots, and 10 potatoes. Albert looks like he could eat all that. 

So far, these are the only barters I’ve discovered, but given Lila’s modesty, perhaps there are more. If Lila’s other friends had known about this avenue of tapestry acquisition, I’m SURE there would have been many more. If you own a tapestry by Lila I might not know about, whether obtained by barter or otherwise, let me know.