Countdown to Christmas 7- Fruitcake Lady

from Facebook Page /The Fruitcake Lady

There are not many people who can say they showed Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise how to make fruitcake on TV. Marie Rudisill (1911-2006), known as the Fruitcake Lady was an author, a celebrated cook and a minor TV personality. She was well known on US television as a 90+year old who appeared regularly on "The Tonight Show" hosting an" agony aunt" segment, giving advice on all kinds of life's issues. Her forthright answers and wicked sense of humour endeared her to audiences although she was outspokenly intolerant and irrationally biased.

The Fruitcake Lady's other claim to fame was that she was the aunt of Truman Capote, highly acclaimed author, and this connection was used in her own writing. Her published works included:

Truman Capote , The Story of His Bizarre and Exotic Childhood by an Aunt Who Helped to Raise Him (1983)
Sook's Cookbook : Memories and Traditional Recipes from the Deep South (1989)
Critters, Cafes and Frog Tea: Tales and Treats from the Emerald River (1994)
Fruitcake :Memories of Trumna Capote & Sook (2000)
The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote (2000)
Ask the Fruitcake Lady Everything You Would Already Know If You had Any Sense (2006)

from Wikipedia.

Marie Rudisill became the Fruitcake Lady after she appeared on the Jay Leno show , showing Jay and Mel Gibson how to make a fruitcake in 2000. The family's connection with fruitcake is recalled by Marie in her description of Truman Capote and his older cousin Sook. Together each Christmas, they would bake fruitcakes and send them to various people on their list - not family or close friends, but people they admired, for example Franklin D. Roosevelt.
"I tell you the most fantastic thing about Sook's cooking was her fruitcakes. Really I am not kidding! I mean really!"

from http://bittersoutherner.com/sweet-as-sugar-rude-as-hell/#.VnOHQRV97IU

However, her recollections about Truman Capote's life were not without controversy. Even Harper Lee questioned the veracity of her accounts of their hometown, Monroeville in Alabama. Capote was not so much upset by Rudisill's revelations about his life, but the cruel treatment of his mother, her older sister, in her books. Described as "Sweet as Sugar and Rude as Hell" , the Fruitcake Lady's finest legacy is probably Sook's Cookbook as a contribution to the history of Deep South and its food traditions. Yet her family continued to dominate her writing and thinking .... Rudisill said: "Somebody said to me one time: "Has being Truman Capote's aunt affected your life?'"My God, it sapped my life.

"It's a weird family, I kid you not. But it's a fabulous family. We took care of our own, there's no question about that." And I think this quote just about sums up the wit of the Fruitcake Lady...

PS: I found a funny coincidence when researching this story. Marie Rudisill's trusted co writing companion was a Jim Simmons ( my husband's name!) he co wrote at least 2 of her books.

Tomorrow - we are going on a trip with fruitcake.

Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016 Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

Background Information: Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap. 2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...

Non-Committal Collage Anything Goes

Have you heard of non-committal collage? I hadn't until one of the other participants of the 100 Day Project started doing this each day and showing the results.... Here are Peggy's rules : 1. S elect 9 scraps of paper from collage box/stash 2. Make three different compositions using each scrap at least once. (some pieces can be used more than once) 3. Do not alter the scraps of paper in any way. 4.Do not use glue. 5.Take photo, disassemble and return scraps to box. I thought this would be a fun and quick exercise to do for Tag Tuesday's theme , Anything Goes... so here are my "non-committal collage" tags.... Did you spot the nine pieces? Would you like to suggest some titles? And I repeated the exercise before putting back the 9 scraps of paper, so these are different items. Hope you will try this exercise - it is lots of...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Search This Blog