"Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Transcriber","Item Type Metadata:OHMS Object","Item Type Metadata:Interview Format","Item Type Metadata:Interview Date","Item Type Metadata:Interview Accession","Item Type Metadata:OHMS Object Text","Item Type Metadata:Interview Indexed","Item Type Metadata:Interview Keyword","Item Type Metadata:Sort Priority","Item Type Metadata:Interview sponsor","Item Type Metadata:Internal note",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured "Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett",,"Barbara Barrett is a quilter in Bastrop, Texas who began quilting in the mid 1990s. She's known how to sew since a young age, and moved to quilting when she took a class. She is an active member of many groups and guilds including the Austin Area Quilt Guild, the Night Bloomers Quilt Bee, the Blockettes Quilt Bee, Loose Threads Quilt Bee and the In Stitches Bee. She also is a member of the International Quilt Association (IQA). ",,,,"November 4, 2011","Melanie Grear",,,audio,,,TX77010-037,,,"Shelly Pagliai","Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett","Houston, Texas","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.
Shelly Pagliali (SP): Barbara, will you tell me about the quilt you brought today? Barbara Barrett (BB): I call this quilt 'Sing a New Song'. It features a large bird in the center that happened by accident. A few years ago, I thought I wanted to make a New York beauty quilt. I got started on all of the arcs that takes and soon decided that I really didn't want to finish that. They sat around for a while on the table and one day they started to look like feathers to me. I put them up on the design wall and a bird came out. I decided he was pretty enough to pretty much stand on his own with a few friends and a little suggestion of nature. The border is interesting. It's made of scraps from a weaver from Taos, New Mexico. She makes garments and sells her scrap bags here at festival. I picked up a couple last year and turned them into a fringed border. It's one of my favorite parts. SP: Why did you choose to bring this quilt to the interview today? BB: This is one of the more recent ones I've made. It kind of represents the way my quilting is changing since I began. My quilting is getting to be more free in design. I think the quilt represents a joy in nature. We've recently moved to the country, so I have nature all around me. I'm more aware of it. I like that it used old things and repurposed them. That made it special for me. It also represents freedom. The bird is having a good time flying in the beautiful batik sky. SP: At what age did you start quiltmaking? BB: Seriously, about the mid 1990's. I've always sewn. I do know as a little girl, my next door neighbor friend and I one summer sewed probably about 100 yards of patchwork, maybe two feet wide. It seemed like miles of it at the time. Then I went on to other sorts of handwork. I found those recently and gave them to her for Christmas and we made a quilt out of them the next year. I didn't start really seriously quilting until about 20 years ago. SP: Did someone teach you or did you learn on your own like that? BB: I took a class. I gave myself a class for my birthday one year. It was hand piecing very traditional blocks. I came home from the class and said 'I'm not going to do this'. Then my parents came to visit once. My mom and I walked outside and it was spring. There were daffodils coming up in the yard and I looked back at the house and I said 'I could make a quilt out of that'. I went back to the shop and bought all of the fabric for that quilt. I put my house in the middle with some flower blocks around it. That was enough to get me hooked and I haven't looked back. Now it's my main passion. SP: How many hours a week do you spend on your quiltmaking? BB: Sometimes none. But a good week is when I can spend about four to five hours a day. I always do handwork at night. Every day I'm doing something, but during the day I'm at the machine or the design wall. A good day would be four to five hours. Some weeks go by where that doesn't happen. SP: Do you belong to any art groups or quilting groups? BB: I belong to the Austin [Texas] Area Quilt Guild and I have for a long time. I belong to a bee with a small group of women that meets on some frequency. For us, it's a month. I belong to the Night Bloomers Quilt Bee [Austin, Texas]. I belong to the Blockettes Quilt Bee, which is a block exchange group [ Austin, Texas]. [inaudible.] About six years ago I moved to Bastrop [Texas] from Austin [Texas]. I belong to the Loose Threads Quilt Bee [Bastrop, Texas] and to the In Stitches Bee [Bastrop, Texas]. I think that's all. SP: Do advances in – BB: - and IQA. I belong to IQA [International Quilt Association]. SP: Have advances in technology influenced your work? BB: To some extent, I've always been a gadget person. I must own about 40 rulers. I did invest in a good sewing machine. I would love to invest in something to make machine quilting better. Someday I will. That's an advancement that I haven't taken advantage of yet. On the computer, I have Electric Quilt 6 and use it sometimes for portions of the design of a quilt, and of course using the computer to communicate, for online research, and even lessons and things like that. It's been a great tool. I'm also trying new threads, which I think have been made better for quilting. SP: What do you think makes a great quilt? BB: I've thought about that one for a long time. At the basic, you have to have excellent workmanship. That's a given. And visual impact. Without that, it's not a great quilt. Beyond that, I think it needs to have a unique or fresh view. I got to thinking because music has been a big part of my life too, how you'll be in the car and hear a song and some songs you just listen to and others you start singing to. As soon as you start singing, your whole mood lifts up and you feel like you've been given a gift. Singing that song makes you joyful inside. I think a great quilt triggers a similar response in you. That's hard to quantify, but you walk by and wonder 'How did she do that? What made her think of that?' It's a fresh approach, a fresh view. Then there are things that make a great quilt to me. It always has to have wonderful color. I don't think that's necessarily true for everyone. For me, I love color. I love symmetry. I love organic things and designs, but those three are more personal. SP: Are there any artists or quiltmakers works that you are particularly drawn to or that influence you in particular? BB: I've been influenced by the artists that pioneered studies of color, like Jinny Beyer and Joen Wolfrom. [loud noise in background.] I've always admired Sally Collins' attention to detail and her precision work. I love Gabrielle Swain's organic, nature-inspired graphic themes. I love Karen Stone's precision piecing and her idea that every block should be beautiful on its own. I like folk art, so Becky Goldsmith has been an influence. Those are ones that come to mind. SP: What's your favorite – BB:- [inaudible name-Ruth McDowell?] because of her organic, nature, joyful, simple creations. Her work makes you wonder 'How'd she do that? What made her think of that?'. SP: What's your favorite technique? BB: I think people would say about me, I love precision piecing. I like folk art. I like wool appliqué. I love hand quilting. Those are my favorites. SP: Why is quiltmaking in your life? BB: The first reason is how social it is. Most of my friends are involved in quiltmaking. Not all, but most. Without those friends, my life would be a lot emptier. The social aspect of quilting and sharing it with friends is super important to me. I guess the second thing would be that it lets me be an artist, or at least be artistic. I think that's in everybody to some extent, but its hard to express with all of the pressures we have today. People don't think of themselves as artistic, and with quilting anyone can be expressive to some extent. It gives me that. SP: Are there any aspects of quilting that you don't particularly enjoy? BB: I hate to baste a quilt [laughing.] Starting a new project is hard. When I'm into it, I'm in the swing of it. Getting off the paper and into the fabric is sometimes hard. Making the commitment to the design is sometimes hard. I think part of that is being trained to visualize the entire piece. I'm trying to un-train myself, to look at individual elements and let them tell you what to do next. I enjoy quilting. Machine quilting is difficult. I'm getting better, but it's still a challenge and sometimes frustrating. But I pretty much enjoy all aspects of it, starting with buying the fabric. SP: Describe your studio or your work space. BB: I'm lucky to have my own space. It's a 20' by 20' foot room. It's got a smooth, easy to use floor. I have a fireplace at one end with two rocking chairs. I have my computer in a corner and a tv in another corner. My sewing machine is in the center with an ironing board at an L to the side. I have a large cutting table with usually too much stuff on it to cut anything out. I have a big design wall. I have a wall of plastic shelving bins that I store all of my fabric in by color. I have tall ceilings, 10'. Pretty high up above the fabric storage I have a clothes rack that runs 20' feet long. I hang my quilts on that above my fabric storage, so I can see them. There's a shelf above that. I collect wooden shelf-sitter animals of all funky types and they're sitting up there looking down at me. I have a door onto a screened in porch that looks out into the back of the property. It's very nice and I'm very lucky to have it. SP: Do you think that having the design wall helps a lot with your creative process? BB: It's absolutely essential. I use it all the time. I use it even before I've cut out the fabric to put things up to see how the colors look. I try to keep most of it available, unlike my cutting table which is almost always unavailable. I put notices along the side, but I try to keep about six by eight feet always open. I put up all of my blocks. I use it constantly. I don't know how anybody could see their project well without one. It's a simple design wall. It's not permanent. I covered two insulation boards with fleece fabric and leaned them up against the wall. It can be taken down or moved if I have to. SP: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? BB: I think they're both wonderful. I enjoy hand quilting more than machine quilting. I think machine quilting has changed the art form on two levels. One, it has changed the type of quilting that people do and made quilting take off in a new direction, more intricate and certainly more intense and part of the design. Another thing is, it's helped people finish quilts. I hand quilt some quilts, I machine quilt some quilts, and I send some of my quilts to a good long arm quilter. There's a role for each of those in your life and it's great to have that much choice. I use what makes sense and I think without machine quilting, a lot fewer quilts would be made. It's put it into people's hands. It's made it more achievable. Because of that, there are more quilts. I think that's great. SP: Are there other quiltmakers in your family? BB: Yes, my sister quilts. My mother quilts. I'm trying to get some of my nieces to quilt. They have taken to it. One, who is an adult, makes some quilts. She has a baby so not as many. The others that are in school have all tried their hand in it from time to time. We're always trying to convert people to quilting. SP: So your habit of quilting doesn't impact your family in a negative way? BB: No. I think that for me and my husband, we each have hobbies we're very involved in. That's good in a marriage, to have individual pursuits. Then to come together at the end of the day and be able to share it. I love sharing it with my mother and sister. It's fun to get my nieces involved. It's been nothing but good, I would say. SP: Have you ever used quilting to get through a difficult time? BB: Yes I have. The first time I remember is after my younger brother died in 1998. I made quilts for his four daughters out of his t-shirts and neckties. That was very healing. They love having something of his to cuddle with. We recently had a big wildfire in Bastrop County [Texas], where I live. It took me awhile to want to sew again. But it was through deciding to sew things for other people in my community that I could enjoy sewing again. That was very healing. I think from everyone I've talked to, and me too, when a tragedy happens, it takes away your desire to quilt for a while, for whatever reason. Usually, the first steps out involve doing something for another person with your quilting. That gives you some purpose in what you're doing, while reawakening the passion you have still hidden in you for it. Then you're back in the groove and can go on from there. SP: Have you ever taken any really long breaks from your quilting? BB: No more than a few months. SP: You mentioned making things for people in your community. Was it quilts or quilted items after the fire or other projects? BB: Sometimes. Right now I'm making a quilt for a firefighter who lost his home. I'm making some placemats for the people who loaned us a place to live. SP: Do any of your quilts reflect your community or where you live? BB: Not specifically. I don't set out to make a Texas quilt. I do tend to make a lot of quilts about trees. I've always loved leaves and the look of forests. Several of my quilts that I think are some of my favorite quilts explore that. I find myself more and more focusing on elements of nature to be expressed somehow in my quilts. I recently made a quilt for one of my nieces that was a garden quilt and had a path going off in the distance. I've made a quilt with trees, called The Forest and The Trees. This one has a lot of leaves quilted in the background. It has the birds and the branches. I've had two quilts in the IQA Show here. They were both nature oriented. I've made a tree quilt for another niece. I find myself drawn to those subjects quite a bit lately. SP: I think that it's interesting, and a lot of other people have commented on it that you've used the woven scraps around the edge of this quilt. Do you use materials like that a lot or do you mainly stick with cotton? BB: I mainly stick with cotton. That was a new experiment for me. When I saw them and touched them, I knew I had to do something with them that could be touched. Color and texture is what turns me on about a quilt. I have done some work in silk, which is beautiful. I learned the hard way some of the lessons about silk. The first block I ever made of silk literally dissolved into a puddle of threads in my lap because I didn't know how to use the grain to cut in the right direction. It just fell apart on me. Silk is beautiful, but I mostly deal with cottons. SP: What do you think makes a quilt appropriate for museum or a special collection? BB: I think museums serve a role to capture the major things happening at a time period. They are a historical tool. I think collecting well-known artists is an appropriate focus for museums, especially now when there is so much to choose from. SP: How do you think that quilts have special meaning for women's history in America? BB: There's a lot written about how quilts have reflected the times that women have lived through. For me, it's a story of evolution and that's what makes quilting so exciting, that it does change. It's always been a way for women to express themselves separate from what they do everyday and to give a voice to what is inside of them. A lot of people in the past have used it to comment on history. That's never been a big thing for me. Quilts are more emotional to me, rather than historical or documentary. I really don't like sad quilts. I don't like quilts that capture a sad event. Quilts should make you feel good. There are enough other ways to remember the tragic events in our life. I think that quilts are to remember the happy things and to bring joy to the people that see them. I'm not personally one to use them to document my times. I'm using them as an expression. SP: Is there anything else you'd like to add to your story before we conclude? What do you think someone viewing the quilt you brought today might conclude about you? BB: On the surface level, they would see what a lot of people see when they first meet me, that I'm kind of meticulous and I pay a lot of attention to detail. I think that if they had never met me, they might say some things that would be different. They don't know me at all, but they would look at this quilt and they would say, 'That person is adventurous. That person has a lot of passion and joy for color and living things. That person takes chances.' People that meet me on a different level, in a different context, might not ever say that, because I think that I am usually thought of as a pretty quiet and reserved person. Yet those things are inside. People that know me a long time know they're there, but quilting gives me a way to express those things. I think that a really healthy thing that other quilters can do with their work, is let it show what they know is inside but may not be so obvious. SP: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? BB: For me, it's been finding my own voice and my own style. There is so much diversity in quilting. You go to a major show like this and you're overwhelmed with the talent that you see. You think you can never do it. I hear so many people walking the show saying 'Well I'm not going to make another quilt again. I could never be this good.' But there's some artist in everybody. If you quilt everyday, you get a daily dose of beauty and it can't help but let you free yourself to take more chances. I think that's what pulls people more than anything, is letting themselves take chances with their work, not knowing where it's going to end up. They may feel like they are uncomfortable or don't have a sense of style. I struggle with that. I'm going to try to focus on smaller pieces and let them grow a little bit more on their own and a little bit less under the control of my brain. I admire organic design and nature designs and I think nature is a pretty strong force, a pretty strong power. You can't control it. Maybe opening yourself up by tackling smaller things and letting them tell you what they want to be. It's a challenge to find your own voice and to feel like you can do it. SP: I'd like to thank Barbara for allowing me to interview her today for the Quilters' S.O.S. Save Our Stories. Our interview concluded at 4:27 pm.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Katie Demery","http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=TX77010-037Barrett.xml ",audio,,," 42011-11-04 Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett TX77010-037BarrettQuilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesThe International Quilt Festival QSOSQuilt AlliancenatureAustin Area Quilt Guilddesign processtechnology in quiltmakingBarbara Ann Bauer BarrettShelly Pagliali1:|8(9)|19(3)|28(5)|41(10)|50(11)|66(8)|75(10)|85(8)|93(7)|101(6)|113(9)|123(10)|132(3)|140(11)|147(6)|158(1)|166(13)|172(3)|181(14)|190(5)|198(12)|204(10)|218(7)|223(6)|227(13)|238(6)|246(11)|253(14)|261(12)|269(9)|275(11)|286(3)|291(9)|297(10)0http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TX77010-037Barrett-1.mp3Otheraudio Interview introduction This is Shelly Pagliali, today's date is November 4th, 2011International Quilt Festival17 Will you tell me about the quilt you brought today? I call this quilt 'Sing a New Song'. It features a large bird in the center that happened by accident.Shelly Pagliali begins by asking Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett about the quilt she brought to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Barrett describes her quilt featuring a bird built out of pieces from an abandoned New York Beauty quilt project. She realized the partial blocks looked like bird feathers. The border is made scraps sold by a weaver from Taos, New Mexico.""Sing a New Song"";arcs;border;fringed border;International Quilt Festival;New York;New York Beauty - quilt pattern;scraps;Taos, New Mexico29.7604, -95.369817Site of the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texashttp://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-037_barrett_01.jpgBarbara Ann Bauer Barrett with her quilt, “Sing a New Song.” Why did you choose to bring this quilt to the interview today? This is one of the more recent ones I've made. It kind of represents the way my quilting is changing since I began. Barrett begins to explain why she decided to bring this quilt to the International Quilt Festival. She goes on to explain how the bird represents joy in nature to her.bird;country;Fabric - Batiks;freedom;Nature;repurposed fabric;symbolism17http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-037_barrett_02.jpgBarbara Ann Bauer Barrett, “Sing a New Song,” detail showing bird constructed from New York Beauty blocks on a batik ground. At what age did you start quiltmaking?; Seriously, about the mid 1990's. I've always sewn.Barrett explains that she didn't start quilting until later in life. She did however, begin sewing as a child and continued into her teen and adult life.handwork;Learning quiltmaking;patchwork;quilt;quilting;sewing17http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-037_barrett_05.jpg Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett, “Sing a New Song,” detail. Learning to quilt I took a class. I gave myself a class for my birthday one year. It was hand piecing very traditional blocks. I came home from the class and said 'I'm not going to do this'.Barbara Ann Bauer Barrett explains how she gave herself classes one year for her birthday and she didn't think she would be able to be a serious quilter. She went on to explain how nature helped inspire her. blocks;fabric;hand piecing;Knowledge transfer;Learning quiltmaking;quilt;quilt making classes;traditional blocks17http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-037_barrett_03.jpgBarbara Ann Bauer Barrett, “Sing a New Song,” detail showing how nature inspires her work. How many hours a week do you quilt?; Sometimes none. But a good week is when I can spend about four to five hours a day. I always do handwork at night.Barrett recounts how some weeks she doesn't spend any time making her quilts. But when she does, she spends a good four to five hours working. Design Wall;handwork;Home sewing machine;machine;Time management17 What art or quilt groups do you belong to?; I belong to the Austin [Texas] Area Quilt Guild and I have for a long time. I belong to a bee with a small group of women that meets on some frequency.Barrett lists the quilt groups she is a part of. She also says where they are based. In addition to guild membership, she participates in several quilting bees. Austin Area Quilt Guild (Austin, TX);Austin, Texas;Bastrop, Texas;Blockettes Quilt Bee (Austin, TX);International Quilt Association (IQA);Loose Threads Quilt Bee (Bastrop, TX);Quilt Guild;Texas quilting bee;The In Stitches Bee;The Night Bloomers Quilt Bee (Austin, TX)30.2672, -97.743117Meeting site of the Austin Area Quilt Guild Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how?; To some extent, I've always been a gadget person. Barrett explains how she has many rulers and a good sewing machine. She explains how she uses the computer software Electric Quilt in her design process. She has experimented with some new threads as well.computer;design process;Electric Quilt;home sewing machine;machine quilting;rulers;Technology in quiltmaking;threads17 What do you think makes a great quilt?; I've thought about that one for a long time. Barrett explains what makes a great quilt. She believes that good workmanship and a good visual impact are just a few things that play into making a great quilt.color;symmetry;visual;workmanship17 Which artists have influenced you?; I've been influenced by the artists that pioneered studies of color, like Jinny Beyer and Joen Wolfrom. Barrett describes how various quilt artists have influenced her own work. Barrett lists quilters who have inspired her throughout the years: Jinny Beyer, Joen Wolfram, Karen Stone, Sally Collins, Becky Goldsmith, Gabrielle Swain, and Caryl Bryer Fallert. artists;Becky Goldsmith;Caryl Bryer Fallert;detail;folk art;Gabrielle Swain;graphic themes;Jinny Beyer;Joen Wolfram;Karen Stone;precision piecing;precision work;Sally Collins17 What are your favorite techniques and materials?; I think people would say about me, I love precision piecing. I like folk art. I like wool appliqué. I love hand quilting. Those are my favorites.Barrett explains to Pagliali some of her favorite techniques when it comes to quilting.applique;Hand quilting;precision piecing;wool17 Why is quiltmaking important to your life?; The first reason is how social it is. Most of my friends are involved in quiltmaking. Not all, but most. Without those friends, my life would be a lot emptier. Barrett explains how her life would feel somewhat empty without quilting. She also explains how it has brought important friendships into her life.artist;artistic;expressive;quilt making;Social quiltmaking activities17 What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy?; I hate to baste a quilt [laughing.] Barrett begins to explain a few things she doesn't particularly like about quilting, or things she finds difficult. She has trouble imagining the entire piece as a whole. She mentions the aspects of quiltmaking, including machine quilting, that she finds frustrating. baste;design process;fabric;machine quilting;piece;project;shopping for fabric;visualize17 Describe your studio/the place that you create.; I'm lucky to have my own space. Barrett explains what her work space looks like. She seems to feel lucky to have such a beautiful studio. She walks Pagliali through the various furnishings and features of the space. cutting table;design wall;fabric;fabric stash;home sewing machine;work or studio space17 Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts?; It's absolutely essential. I use it all the time. Barrett explains how and why a design wall is essential to creating a quilt. She thinks it helps her see the whole project. The wall is moveable and easily dismantled. blocks;cut;cutting table;Design process;Design Wall;fabric;fleece;insulation boards17 How do you feel about machine quilting vs. hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting?; I think they're both wonderful. I enjoy hand quilting more than machine quilting.Barrett explains how she enjoys hand quilting more than machine quilting. Although she believes both are wonderful. She thinks the influx of machine quilting has enabled people to finish quilts were more ease, resulting in more completed quilts. design;Hand quilting;Long arm quilters;Machine quilting17 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them.; Yes, my sister quilts. My mother quilts. I'm trying to get some of my nieces to quilt. Barrett explains how her sister and mother are quilters just like she is. She admits to trying to convert people into quilting, including her nieces. family;mother;sister17 Impact of quilting on her family No. I think that for me and my husband, we each have hobbies we're very involved in. That's good in a marriage, to have individual pursuits.Barrett explains how having different interests in marriage are good for it. Her quilting doesn't have a negative impact on her marriage. Her husband also has hobbies for which he has passion. hobbies;mother;nieces;sister17 Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time?; Yes I have. The first time I remember is after my younger brother died in 1998.Barrett explains how quilting has helped her get through some difficult times in her life, including the death of her brother and a recent wildfire. By sewing for others, she has been able to heal following tragedies.Bastrop County,Texas;desire;healing;Mourning/Grief;Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation;Quilt Purpose – Charity;Quilt Purpose – Mourning;quilts;Quilts as gifts;sew;sewing30.0459, -97.3517 17Bastrop County, Texas In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region?; Not specifically. I don't set out to make a Texas quilt. I do tend to make a lot of quilts about trees.Barrett explains that she doesn't specifically make quilts based off of her community. She really makes them based off of her interests, including nature. She describes several quilts she has made with nature motifs including trees and leaves.background;International Quilt Association (IQA);International Quilt Festival;nature;quilt;Quilt shows/exhibitions;quilted;Texas17http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-037_barrett_04.jpgBarbara Ann Bauer Barrett, “Sing a New Song,” detail, showing a leaf motif in the quilting stitches. On her fabric choices I think that it's interesting, and a lot of other people have commented on it that you've used the woven scraps around the edge of this quilt. Do you use materials like that a lot or do you mainly stick with cotton?Barrett talks about the fabrics she likes to use when quilt making. She prefers cotton, but has experimented with silk.block;cotton;cut;grain;quilt;silk;texture;threads17 What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or special collection? I think museums serve a role to capture the major things happening at a time period. They are a historical tool.Barrett explains how quilts play an important role in our history. And with museums displaying them, we get to experience that history. She thinks it is appropriate for museums to collect quilts. artists;collecting;museums;Quilt history17 In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America?; There's a lot written about how quilts have reflected the times that women have lived through.Barrett explains how she sees a lot of history when she looks at a quilt, but she prefers to express herself in a quilt rather than tell a story about a past event. She does not like sad quilts, but wants quilts to express joy, rather than sorrow. evolution;historical;Quilt history;Quilt Purpose – Personal expression;quilts;story;women17 What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you?; On the surface level, they would see what a lot of people see when they first meet me, that I'm kind of meticulous and I pay a lot of attention to detail. I think that if they had never met me, they might say some things that would be different. Barrett goes on to explain the kind of person she is: meticulous. She tells Pagliali what she hopes people would be able to tell about her when looking at one of her quilts. She thinks her quilts reveal aspects of her personality that some may not see on the surface, but are expressed through quiltmaking. adventurous;color;meticulous;nature;passion;Quilt Purpose – personal expression;quilters;quilting17 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?; For me, it's been finding my own voice and my own style. There is so much diversity in quilting. You go to a major show like this and you're overwhelmed with the talent that you see. You think you can never do it.Barrett explains how the most difficult thing for her is trying to find her own voice and style when creating a quilt. It's challenging to have a voice but if you keep working at it you can find it. She encourages quiltmakers to take chances with their work in order to develop their own personal style. artist;challenge;diversity;nature;nature designs;organic design;pieces;quilt;Quilt shows/exhibitions;quilting;style;talent;work17Oral HistoryBarbara Barrett is a quilter in Basrop, Texas who began quilting in the mid 1990s. She's known how to sew since a young age, and moved to quilting when she took a class. She is an active member of many groups and guilds including the Austin Area Quilt Guild, the Night Bloomers Quilt Bee, the Blockettes Quilt Bee, Loose Threads Quilt Bee and the In Stitches Bee. She also is amember of the International Quilt Association (IQA).Shelly Pagliali (SP): Barbara, will you tell me about the quilt you brought today? Barbara Barrett (BB): I call this quilt 'Sing a New Song’. It features a large bird in the center that happened by accident. A few years ago, I thought I wanted to make a New York beauty quilt. I got started on all of the arcs that takes and soon decided that I really didn’t want to finish that. They sat around for a while on the table and one day they started to look like feathers to me. I put them up on the design wall and a bird came out. I decided he was pretty enough to pretty much stand on his own with a few friends and a little suggestion of nature. The border is interesting. It’s made of scraps from a weaver from Taos, New Mexico. She makes garments and sells her scrap bags here at festival. I picked up a couple last year and turned them into a fringed border. It’s one of my favorite parts. SP: Why did you choose to bring this quilt to the interview today? BB: This is one of the more recent ones I’ve made. It kind of represents the way my quilting is changing since I began. My quilting is getting to be more free in design. I think the quilt represents a joy in nature. We’ve recently moved to the country, so I have nature all around me. I’m more aware of it. I like that it used old things and repurposed them. That made it special for me. It also represents freedom. The bird is having a good time flying in the beautiful batik sky. SP: At what age did you start quiltmaking? BB: Seriously, about the mid 1990’s. I’ve always sewn. I do know as a little girl, my next door neighbor friend and I one summer sewed probably about 100 yards of patchwork, maybe two feet wide. It seemed like miles of it at the time. Then I went on to other sorts of hand work. I found those recently and gave them to her for Christmas and we made a quilt out of them the next year. I didn’t start really seriously quilting until about 20 years ago. SP: Did someone teach you or did you learn on your own like that? BB: I took a class. I gave myself a class for my birthday one year. It was hand piecing very traditional blocks. I came home from the class and said 'I’m not going to do this’. Then my parents came to visit once. My mom and I walked outside and it was spring. There were daffodils coming up in the yard and I looked back at the house and I said 'I could make a quilt out of that’. I went back to the shop and bought all of the fabric for that quilt. I put my house in the middle with some flower blocks around it. That was enough to get me hooked and I haven’t looked back. Now it’s my main passion. SP: How many hours a week do you spend on your quiltmaking? BB: Sometimes none. But a good week is when I can spend about four to five hours a day. I always do handwork at night. Every day I’m doing something, but during the day I’m at the machine or the design wall. A good day would be four to five hours. Some weeks go by where that doesn’t happen. SP: Do you belong to any art groups or quilting groups? BB: I belong to the Austin [Texas] Area Quilt Guild and I have for a long time. I belong to a bee with a small group of women that meets on some frequency. For us, it’s a month. I belong to the Night Bloomers Quilt Bee [Austin, Texas]. I belong to the Blockettes Quilt Bee, which is a block exchange group [ Austin, Texas]. [inaudible.] About six years ago I moved to Bastrop [Texas] from Austin [Texas]. I belong to the Loose Threads Quilt Bee [Bastrop, Texas] and to the In Stitches Bee [Bastrop, Texas]. I think that’s all. SP: Do advances in -- BB: - and IQA. I belong to IQA [International Quilt Association]. SP: Have advances in technology influenced your work? BB: To some extent, I’ve always been a gadget person. I must own about 40 rulers. I did invest in a good sewing machine. I would love to invest in something to make machine quilting better. Someday I will. That’s an advancement that I haven’t taken advantage of yet. On the computer, I have Electric Quilt 6 and use it sometimes for portions of the design of a quilt, and of course using the computer to communicate, for online research, and even lessons and things like that. It’s been a great tool. I’m also trying new threads, which I think have been made better for quilting. SP: What do you think makes a great quilt? BB: I’ve thought about that one for a long time. At the basic, you have to have excellent workmanship. That’s a given. And visual impact. Without that, it’s not a great quilt. Beyond that, I think it needs to have a unique or fresh view. I got to thinking because music has been a big part of my life too, how you’ll be in the car and hear a song and some songs you just listen to and others you start singing to. As soon as you start singing, your whole mood lifts up and you feel like you’ve been given a gift. Singing that song makes you joyful inside. I think a great quilt triggers a similar response in you. That’s hard to quantify, but you walk by and wonder 'How did she do that? What made her think of that?' It’s a fresh approach, a fresh view. Then there are things that make a great quilt to me. It always has to have wonderful color. I don’t think that’s necessarily true for everyone. For me, I love color. I love symmetry. I love organic things and designs, but those three are more personal. SP: Are there any artists or quiltmakers works that you are particularly drawn to or that influence you in particular? BB: I’ve been influenced by the artists that pioneered studies of color, like Jinny Beyer and Joen Wolfrom. [loud noise in background.] I’ve always admired Sally Collins’ attention to detail and her precision work. I love Gabrielle Swain’s organic, nature-inspired graphic themes. I love Karen Stone’s precision piecing and her idea that every block should be beautiful on its own. I like folk art, so Becky Goldsmith has been an influence. Those are ones that come to mind. SP: What’s your favorite -- BB:- [inaudible name-Ruth McDowell?] because of her organic, nature, joyful, simple creations. Her work makes you wonder 'How’d she do that? What made her think of that?'. SP: What’s your favorite technique? BB: I think people would say about me, I love precision piecing. I like folk art. I like wool appliqué. I love hand quilting. Those are my favorites. SP: Why is quiltmaking in your life? BB: The first reason is how social it is. Most of my friends are involved in quiltmaking. Not all, but most. Without those friends, my life would be a lot emptier. The social aspect of quilting and sharing it with friends is super important to me. I guess the second thing would be that it lets me be an artist, or at least be artistic. I think that’s in everybody to some extent, but its hard to express with all of the pressures we have today. People don’t think of themselves as artistic, and with quilting anyone can be expressive to some extent. It gives me that. SP: Are there any aspects of quilting that you don’t particularly enjoy? BB: I hate to baste a quilt [laughing.] Starting a new project is hard. When I’m into it, I’m in the swing of it. Getting off the paper and into the fabric is sometimes hard. Making the commitment to the design is sometimes hard. I think part of that is being trained to visualize the entire piece. I’m trying to un-train myself, to look at individual elements and let them tell you what to do next. I enjoy quilting. Machine quilting is difficult. I’m getting better, but it’s still a challenge and sometimes frustrating. But I pretty much enjoy all aspects of it, starting with buying the fabric. SP: Describe your studio or your work space. BB: I’m lucky to have my own space. It’s a 20’ by 20’ foot room. It’s got a smooth, easy to use floor. I have a fireplace at one end with two rocking chairs. I have my computer in a corner and a tv in another corner. My sewing machine is in the center with an ironing board at an L to the side. I have a large cutting table with usually too much stuff on it to cut anything out. I have a big design wall. I have a wall of plastic shelving bins that I store all of my fabric in by color. I have tall ceilings, 10’. Pretty high up above the fabric storage I have a clothes rack that runs 20’ feet long. I hang my quilts on that above my fabric storage, so I can see them. There’s a shelf above that. I collect wooden shelf-sitter animals of all funky types and they’re sitting up there looking down at me. I have a door onto a screened in porch that looks out into the back of the property. It’s very nice and I’m very lucky to have it. SP: Do you think that having the design wall helps a lot with your creative process? BB: It’s absolutely essential. I use it all the time. I use it even before I’ve cut out the fabric to put things up to see how the colors look. I try to keep most of it available, unlike my cutting table which is almost always unavailable. I put notices along the side, but I try to keep about six by eight feet always open. I put up all of my blocks. I use it constantly. I don’t know how anybody could see their project well without one. It’s a simple design wall. It’s not permanent. I covered two insulation boards with fleece fabric and leaned them up against the wall. It can be taken down or moved if I have to. SP: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? BB: I think they’re both wonderful. I enjoy hand quilting more than machine quilting. I think machine quilting has changed the art form on two levels. One, it has changed the type of quilting that people do and made quilting take off in a new direction, more intricate and certainly more intense and part of the design. Another thing is, it’s helped people finish quilts. I hand quilt some quilts, I machine quilt some quilts, and I send some of my quilts to a good long arm quilter. There’s a role for each of those in your life and it’s great to have that much choice. I use what makes sense and I think without machine quilting, a lot fewer quilts would be made. It’s put it into people’s hands. It’s made it more achievable. Because of that, there are more quilts. I think that’s great. SP: Are there other quiltmakers in your family? BB: Yes, my sister quilts. My mother quilts. I’m trying to get some of my nieces to quilt. They have taken to it. One, who is an adult, makes some quilts. She has a baby so not as many. The others that are in school have all tried their hand in it from time to time. We’re always trying to convert people to quilting. SP: So your habit of quilting doesn’t impact your family in a negative way? BB: No. I think that for me and my husband, we each have hobbies we’re very involved in. That’s good in a marriage, to have individual pursuits. Then to come together at the end of the day and be able to share it. I love sharing it with my mother and sister. It’s fun to get my nieces involved. It’s been nothing but good, I would say. SP: Have you ever used quilting to get through a difficult time? BB: Yes I have. The first time I remember is after my younger brother died in 1998. I made quilts for his four daughters out of his t-shirts and neckties. That was very healing. They love having something of his to cuddle with. We recently had a big wildfire in Bastrop County [Texas], where I live. It took me awhile to want to sew again. But it was through deciding to sew things for other people in my community that I could enjoy sewing again. That was very healing. I think from everyone I've talked to, and me too, when a tragedy happens, it takes away your desire to quilt for a while, for whatever reason. Usually, the first steps out involve doing something for another person with your quilting. That gives you some purpose in what you're doing, while reawakening the passion you have still hidden in you for it. Then you're back in the groove and can go on from there. SP: Have you ever taken any really long breaks from your quilting? BB: No more than a few months. SP: You mentioned making things for people in your community. Was it quilts or quilted items after the fire or other projects? BB: Sometimes. Right now I'm making a quilt for a firefighter who lost his home. I'm making some placemats for the people who loaned us a place to live. SP: Do any of your quilts reflect your community or where you live? BB: Not specifically. I don't set out to make a Texas quilt. I do tend to make a lot of quilts about trees. I've always loved leaves and the look of forests. Several of my quilts that I think are some of my favorite quilts explore that. I find myself more and more focusing on elements of nature to be expressed somehow in my quilts. I recently made a quilt for one of my nieces that was a garden quilt and had a path going off in the distance. I've made a quilt with trees, called The Forest and The Trees. This one has a lot of leaves quilted in the background. It has the birds and the branches. I've had two quilts in the IQA Show here. They were both nature oriented. I've made a tree quilt for another niece. I find myself drawn to those subjects quite a bit lately. SP: I think that it's interesting, and a lot of other people have commented on it that you've used the woven scraps around the edge of this quilt. Do you use materials like that a lot or do you mainly stick with cotton? BB: I mainly stick with cotton. That was a new experiment for me. When I saw them and touched them, I knew I had to do something with them that could be touched. Color and texture is what turns me on about a quilt. I have done some work in silk, which is beautiful. I learned the hard way some of the lessons about silk. The first block I ever made of silk literally dissolved into a puddle of threads in my lap because I didn’t know how to use the grain to cut in the right direction. It just fell apart on me. Silk is beautiful, but I mostly deal with cottons. SP: What do you think makes a quilt appropriate for museum or a special collection? BB: I think museums serve a role to capture the major things happening at a time period. They are a historical tool. I think collecting well-known artists is an appropriate focus for museums, especially now when there is so much to choose from. SP: How do you think that quilts have special meaning for women’s history in America? BB: There’s a lot written about how quilts have reflected the times that women have lived through. For me, it’s a story of evolution and that’s what makes quilting so exciting, that it does change. It’s always been a way for women to express themselves separate from what they do everyday and to give a voice to what is inside of them. A lot of people in the past have used it to comment on history. That’s never been a big thing for me. Quilts are more emotional to me, rather than historical or documentary. I really don’t like sad quilts. I don’t like quilts that capture a sad event. Quilts should make you feel good. There are enough other ways to remember the tragic events in our life. I think that quilts are to remember the happy things and to bring joy to the people that see them. I’m not personally one to use them to document my times. I’m using them as an expression. SP: Is there anything else you’d like to add to your story before we conclude? What do you think someone viewing the quilt you brought today might conclude about you? BB: On the surface level, they would see what a lot of people see when they first meet me, that I’m kind of meticulous and I pay a lot of attention to detail. I think that if they had never met me, they might say some things that would be different. They don’t know me at all, but they would look at this quilt and they would say, 'That person is adventurous. That person has a lot of passion and joy for color and living things. That person takes chances.' People that meet me on a different level, in a different context, might not ever say that, because I think that I am usually thought of as a pretty quiet and reserved person. Yet those things are inside. People that know me a long time know they’re there, but quilting gives me a way to express those things. I think that a really healthy thing that other quilters can do with their work, is let it show what they know is inside but may not be so obvious. SP: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? BB: For me, it’s been finding my own voice and my own style. There is so much diversity in quilting. You go to a major show like this and you’re overwhelmed with the talent that you see. You think you can never do it. I hear so many people walking the show saying 'Well I’m not going to make another quilt again. I could never be this good.' But there’s some artist in everybody. If you quilt everyday, you get a daily dose of beauty and it can’t help but let you free yourself to take more chances. I think that’s what pulls people more than anything, is letting themselves take chances with their work, not knowing where it’s going to end up. They may feel like they are uncomfortable or don’t have a sense of style. I struggle with that. I’m going to try to focus on smaller pieces and let them grow a little bit more on their own and a little bit less under the control of my brain. I admire organic design and nature designs and I think nature is a pretty strong force, a pretty strong power. You can’t control it. Maybe opening yourself up by tackling smaller things and letting them tell you what they want to be. It’s a challenge to find your own voice and to feel like you can do it. SP: I’d like to thank Barbara for allowing me to interview her today for the Quilters’ S.O.S. Save Our Stories. Our interview concluded at 4:27 pm. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio00",yes,,,"Lisa Ellis",,"Austin Area Quilt Guild,Becky Goldsmith,Blockettes Quilt Bee,blocks,design wall,guilds,In Stitches Bee,International Quilt Association (IQA),Karen Stone,Loose Threads Quilt Bee,Night Bloomers Quilt Bee,pictorial quilts,quiltmaking classes,Sally Collins,social quiltmaking activities,Technology in quiltmaking","http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/34602f9880929e355ade2507e6fcdc3f.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/36aec577890749c7a74362d0ecacf25e.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/9cd4fdbb59e1a38c4911dd4aa47ebaf7.jpg","Oral History","International Quilt Festival QSOS",1,0 "Kathi Babcock",,"Kathi Babcock learned how to quilt from a book she got when she was about 19 or 20 around the time of the bicentennial. Her mother taught her how to sew on and she views her quilting as an extension of that. She led the group that made the quilt she brought which they made for the Marquis Lafayette’s birthday. It hug in the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, D.C, and the Musée de Toile de Jouy in France.",,,,"November 5, 2011","Christine Sparta",,,audio,,"Oral History",TX77010-055,,,"Phyllis Jordan","Kathi Babcock","Houston, Texas","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.
Phyllis Jordan (PJ): This is Phyllis Jordan, today's date is November the 5th, 2001; the time is 4:17 and I'm conducting an interview with Kathi Babcock, Kathi with an ""I"" for Quilters' S.O.S.-Save Our Stories, a project of the Alliance for American Quilts. Kathi and I are at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Kathi, will you tell me about the quilt you brought today? Kathi Babcock (KB): Yes ma'am. In 2006 or 2007 our town received an invitation to make a quilt for an exhibit that would be hung in Lafayette, Louisiana in honor of the Marquis Lafayette's 250th birthday or something, I think it was 250. They sent out invitations to towns that had names associated with Lafayette because he did this triumphal tour and apparently a lot of cities in the United States ended up being named after him. I live in La Grange in Fayette county [Texas.] and La Grange was the name of Lafayette's château in France and so we're kind of a double whammy that our town and our county are named for Lafayette. One of the girls in town got really excited about the idea and our town ended up contributing three quilts to the exhibit. I captained this one. There were other people in the group that made blocks but I primarily designed, built, and quilted it and it was exhibited at that exhibit in Lafayette, Louisiana and after that exhibit, it was chosen to go on to, it went to France and it went to six museums in France included the Musée de Toile de Jouy, you know Toile where it was originally made and at that time if you looked on their website, this was the quilt they picked for their website and when that six months was over as it traveled, it came back to the United States and the DAR Museum in Washington, D.C. picked the exhibit up. So it hung at the DAR Museum for a few months before it finally came home to me. It doesn't belong to me, but it's mine and I think I got more than my fifteen minutes of fame out of this one so when they asked us to pick something that represented us, I guess I liked this one best. PJ: Well this has a special meaning, is there anything else you could tell us about it? KB: About this particular quilt? PJ: Right. KB: The guild voted because it belongs to them because I didn't pay for the fabric. Since Karey Bresenhan has built her museum in our town, La Grange, Texas, they voted that we would give it to her to be something that perhaps someday might be hung at that museum and I wasn't at the meeting that day, or I would've said, ""No, I think you should give it to me,"" and yes that's where it's going to go so it's still at my house waiting to be presented to Karey who will become its future owner, or the museum will become its future owner I guess. PJ: Someone looking at this quilt would conclude what about you and your group? KB: One of the things they would conclude about me is that medallion quilts are kind of my favorite form because I have trouble seeing a whole quilt at once but I can build it row by row by row so I like starting with the center and kind of building out from there and both this and my quilt that is in Lone Stars Three are done on a medallion format. Probably a lot of what I do is. I also work primarily in kind of a nineteenth century color pallet. I like reproduction fabrics. I tried to carry out the theme of Lafayette and Washington, I did use a lot of things that weren't, but I think it still has that flavor. I have old taste maybe. PJ: You said, is it hanged, how do you use this quilt? Is it hanging in your home right now? KB: I have an antique fruit ladder, you know an apple orchard ladder in my living room, and it's been, since it came back from it's triumphal tour, it's been hanging there in the living room because I know my time with it is short so I have several places in my house that will accommodate different sized quilts. There's a rod in the dining room that I switch out with quilts of a certain size and the larger ones either hang above my bed or over the fruit ladder in the living room and I rotate them as I get tired of looking at them and want to see something else. This has been there because I know one day I won't get to have it anymore, so I've been enjoying it. PJ: We know what your plans are for this quilt, when you designed this quilt, did you design from the inside and go out? KB: Yes. The center was in a drawer, because I'd made it at a workshop on how to do a mariners compass from some famous quilter that came and did a workshop and the day that we were going to make the quilt, we were going to send to the Lafayette exhibit, there were too many women trying to work on one project and the organizer wasn't organized and I got a little frustrated at the lack of organization and probably because I wasn't in control, so I went home, get this center that was just languishing in a drawer and said, ""Let's make something to go around this."" We started brainstorming. The theme of the quilt was, the theme of the exhibit was to be the friendship of Lafayette and Washington and so we started doing the whole friendship star and you know, what kind of blocks can we come up with that will follow that theme. So yes, it was built from the inside out. PJ: Let's go back to talking about you. Tell us about your interest in quiltmaking. KB: Okay. I've always sewn, always. I sew on the little Featherweight that my mom bought when I was an infant to start making children's clothes and curtains and things. So quilting was just an extension of other sewing, you sew two pieces of fabric together the same way you make pants, and I was in college during those, that whole bicentennial-type time period that magazines had all started showing quilts hung behind your sofa and you know, it just kind of created an awareness that I hadn't been as aware of. I got a couple of books for Christmas one year and started making olive green and gold corduroy quilt patterned pillows and kind of went from there. I was nineteen or twenty and simultaneously started a hand pieced grandmother's flower garden, because that's what people start with and hand appliquéd Baltimore album that I wasn't aware was a Baltimore album because that vocabulary I'm not sure had even been invented yet in 1965, '75 .That was kind of it. I got married when I was young and poor and you can't knit anymore because you can't afford yarn and you can't buy those cool embroidery kits that I used to buy because you can't afford those, but you could afford fifty cent a yard fabric off that remnant table because you were supposed to make quilts out of remnants right? You weren't supposed to buy new fabric, so buying fabric was cheating, but remnants, that made it okay. I could afford that. If you pieced by hand you were pretty slow, so you know quilting was a craft that I could do because I knew how to sew and I could afford no matter what. PJ: Did you learn from one particular person how to quilt? KB: No. I got a book for Christmas and I muddled through. I learned that bias is tricky [laughs.] I learned that polyester's a problem. I learned that when you try to layer things for appliqué if you put a dark fabric under a light fabric you can see it and it doesn't look good. You know, you just learn how to cope with bias and how to deal with shadowing and not to use sheets as your backing fabric, you know you just evolve over time because I didn't just make a quilt and sit back, I started making quilts like crazy. You just learn as you go along. PJ: How many hours a week do you estimate you quilt? KB: My friend asked me that after she saw that question on the list and I said, ""Hm, maybe ten,"" she looked at me and said, ""No you don't,"" it's like, ""Okay, I'll think about that, twenty to forty."" [laughs.] I don't know it depends, it depends on what else is going on that week. The girls meet on Tuesdays and that's at least six hours that we sit and-- PJ: The girls are? KB: The quilting girls in La Grange [Texas.] we go to the Second Baptist Church and we sew for three hours talking as fast as we can and then we stop and eat lunch then we sew for another three hours talking as fast as we can. So every Tuesday that's you know, that's one day, that's six and a couple hours every night while you watch TV and it all starts adding up. PJ: Do you have a memory of your first quilt? KB: Well yeah, my first two quilts were the grandmother's flower garden and the Baltimore album, neither of which have ever been finished, but that's okay. The top of the flower garden is done and it's half quilted, but it's the ugliest quilt known to man and I used some of the remnants to make a car seat for my daughter and when I washed it, one of the fabrics completely disappeared, so one of the fabrics that I used in the quilt is self disintegrating and so I was always a little worried about finishing it after that because, kind of like an antique quilt that the fabrics just. Well this one when first washing it's just going to be gone, and will kind of ruin the effect of a quilt, so I've always threatened my kids that when they graduated from college or something they were going to get that quilt as a gift, but I never made good with that threat. PJ: Are there any other quiltmakers among your family? KB: My mother started quilting after me kind of I was doing it she started doing it. Apparently my great-great-grandmother was quite the quilter and she lived in a very small town in Missouri and lived in the big house in town, it was the combination of her home and the funeral parlor, and you know it was a big house and so she had a room that was large enough that you could leave a quilt frame set up in, so that's where all the ladies in town went. I grew up under my great-grandmother's quilts because they were considered utility quilts because no one in our family valued them. They weren't utility quilts, they were very nicely done quilts, but both my mother and my grandmother considered it a homemade quilt, you know something that the help used rather than the family used, so they were a little bit embarrassed by them. We just, we used them and washed them and used them and washed them and you know some of my earliest memories are the double wedding ring that was on my bed and trying to play games with the patterns of how many of these reds can I find and how many blues and is there another arc somewhere in the quilt that's exactly like this arc and I just, I think quilts are wonderful and I think I always have. Maybe it's in the blood. PJ: How does quiltmaking impact your family? KB: Well there's economically [laughs.] especially after I buy the longarm that I plan to this week. I live, breathe and eat quilts. I go to quilt shows, I hang out with quilting people, I have quilts hanging in my house. We have a quilt museum now that's four blocks away from mine so I am docent and assistant volunteer at that. Since at this point in time it's just my husband and I that live at my house that pretty much has an impact. My children sleep under quilts in their homes in the states where they live, so I create an impact further away. My granddaughter sent me a card, she's almost six, for Halloween and inside it said, ""I love you, Grandma. I love you, Grandma, pajama girl, you are the best quilter."" So as she thinks of me, that's obviously one of the adjectives that she uses to describe me, even when nobody's brought it up. I think when you do something as much as I do quilting, it has an impact [laughs.] I was at the bank a couple of weeks ago, for my church, arranging for monies to be transferred from one place to another and in the middle of doing all of this the lady looked at me and she said, ""Oh, you're the quilter,"" because I live in a little town and you know after we've had a fair, after we've had a quilt show, and the pictures go in the paper, my picture's in the paper. I, it's kind of part of my aura now. I like that. PJ: Tell us, have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? KB: Probably not. I, for the last twenty-five years I've always quilted, so whether I was going through difficult times or good times I was using quilting, so not specifically, no. PJ: Tell us about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking or your teaching. KB: That's one of those thing you would have had to prime me for in advance, because I'm not just thinking of anything. PJ: You would like to pass and we'll get back to it if you think of something? KB: If I think of something, that's a good idea. PJ: Okay. What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? KB: I like a lot of things. I like, even if I did it in a vacuum, obviously I like fabric. I like pattern. I like the process. I'm a little bit of a A.D.D. kind of girl, I have a lot of energy and I've always, I've always used things like knitting or things as a way of calming myself down. I watch television better if I have something in my hands because otherwise I hop up and down a lot. The social aspects have been a whole another wonderful part of it, I do a lot of internet friendship group type things that have been a lot of fun. You come to festival in Houston [Texas.] and you meet up with the lady from Australia that you've been chatting with online for years and she introduces you to this lady from England that she's friends with and so that sort of friendship. The accolades are not too bad when quilts are for picked up for exhibits and you know, you get that call from Karey Bresenhan that says that your quilt is going to be in the book. Those kind of things have been, have been a lot of fun. If it wasn't the quilting itself, the manipulating of fabric, the seeing what it looks like when you put those colors together, if that part wasn't fun, then the rest of it wouldn't follow. PJ: What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy? KB: Putting on a sleeve [laughs.] I pretty much like all of it. I think I always want to be done right after I start and so sometimes, sometimes the lag time as you get something done is a little hard to put up with but I like pretty much all of it. PJ: You said you belong to a group that meets at the Baptist church; do you have any other groups that you belong to? KB: La Grange [Texas.] is a very, for the size of the town La Grange [Texas.] is it's a multi-town guild in La Grange [Texas.] that I belong to and have had some [inaudible.] since I've been in that particular town and I've sought out guilds as I've moved. My husband was in the army so we did a little bit of that. The little Tuesday group is just kind of a social group, from the larger guild. PJ: Have advances in technology influenced your work, and if so, how? KB: Well, you know the first stuff I did, I cut templates out of the bottom of a Kleenex box and traced with a ink pen because I didn't even know about things like pigmas so I, it's come a long way baby. I have a longarm in my living room and I prefer machine quilting to handquilting because I can make more and make more faster, so technology has had a lot to do with it. I love machine quilting and I don't think anybody can look at some of the amazing quilts that are here and go, ""Oh that's machine quilted, oh no it's not really a quilt unless it's hand quilted."" It just, the technological perfection that you can achieve, it just, I think machine quilting is wonderful and so I like, I embrace technology even though I use the sewing machine that my mom bought as I was born as my machine piece of sewing equipment. I still like, that's still technology right? It's not a needle and thread; I'm not much of a handwork girl. PJ: What are your favorite techniques and materials? KB: I'm pretty much a reproduction fabric, I'm a nineteenth century old time girl and although I did just say I don't do much handwork, I love hand applique. I think the best quilts combine a little bit of applique and a little bit of piecing because I think it just, it's kind of like curves need straight lines to compliment them I think. I think the piecing and the appliqué go really well together and the more you put into a quilt, the more interesting it is. I pretty much machine quilter, I like things small, part of that is because you know that whole turning twenty type quilt pattern that you can finish in a day. At the rate I sew, if I sewed like that, I'd have more quilts than I knew what to do with. So I've had to slow down and start getting smaller and more intricate and try to, try to strive for something that's technically difficult and a little bit, a little bit hard just to kind of slow down so that I'm not producing a quilt every three months. After a while, it really does become a question, ""What are you going to do with that one?"" PJ: Describe how your studio or your family or the place that you create? KB: Well I live in an old house, 1894, and back them they built houses, my style of house, has a parlor and a living room and I sew in the parlor, which is basically a large room that doesn't have a closet, so it doesn't have a bedroom, right? It's got my longarm on one side and it's got an armoire with quilts piled in one corner and it's got my desk with my sewing machine on the other and it's got the roll-top desk with a computer on the other side and it's pretty well stuffed to the gills with fabric. It's not tidy, you will never see it tidy I promise and there's always at least three projects going on and it's draped over poles and piled here and it's chaotic and that's how I work. PJ: Tell us how you balance your time. KB: Well I don't have a job. I don't have to work because I'm well taken care of by a spouse who's doing that for me so I don't have to balance a work life. I, if there's a volunteer organization in town, my name's on their list so I balance my life pretty much like everybody else does. There's the things you got to do and there's the things you want to do and you try and squeeze as many want to do's into the what you got to do's as you do, and my husband knows that there's not going to be a hot cooked meal every night for dinner and that at lunch he's on his own and I sew as much as I can. PJ: Do you use a design wall? KB: Rarely. The room that I sew in has seven windows, a door, and pocket doors that no longer open to anything but it still cuts the room up and there's no wall space for a design wall. My longarm's in the room and the closest I come to being able to have a design wall is that I hang things off the pole that stretches across it. I have a homemade little accordion thing that I can fold out if I'm doing something with blocks that I really need to be careful, but usually it's just the floor. You know, I've tried like drawing things out and using design walls and things, and maybe it's because I never plan far enough ahead, you know I'm always just kind of the next border, the next six inches, I've never, I don't have one so I can't use one and I don't think that way because I don't think far enough in advance. PJ: What do you think makes a great quilt? KB: Good design. We talk about that a lot as we walk around festival and like a quilt. Then there's some that look good up close and there's some that look good far away and there's some that are both and I think that's a key element that it has to look good both ways. That the fabrics that are used have to speak to you when you get up close enough to start noticing the details and the overall design of it. It has to look good enough when you step back away and you don't see the small details that you like both. I have this thing about quilts that are flat, I know that the workmanship that does into it shows in that overall flatness of a quilt and so when they hang straight and true, that always makes my heart sing. I appreciate a well hand quilted quilt. I appreciate a well machine quilted quilt. These Japanese ladies with their taupes and their intricate details, wow, those are pretty awesome. You know even when I go into areas that I don't appreciate quite as much, like art quilts, I still think that good design, use of color, balanced imagery, I think all of that I could appreciate those as well. PJ: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection? KB: Well, gosh special collections could be a whole different thing because I can understand a special collection being representing a certain period of time, and so anything that fell into that certain period of time would be appropriate, no matter how ugly or poorly made, I mean if that's what you're collecting. I think a museum piece would need to be something that, that spoke maybe to the greatest number of people. I've never understood opera, myself, and I think there are a lot of us out there, and I think in the same way that there are some art quilts that are so poorly understood or appreciated by, or may be appreciated by a smaller segment of the person who would be coming to see a museum that, it seems to me that a work that anybody coming in off the street, whether they were a quilter or quilt aficionado or just a museum go-er, would be able to look at and say, ""Wow,"" would be the best kind of quilts to include. My quilts, those would be the good, no [laughs.] PJ: [laughs.] KB: In a museum, I'd love it. It was, it was, it was at the DAR. I mean when they called, you know when they call you up and they say, ""Would it be alright if we used your quilt,"" it's like, ""Oh yeah, oh yeah."" PJ: Whose works are you drawn to and why? KB: Gosh. It's changed over the years. In my, in my, in the early nineties when I discovered that there were stores that sold quilt fabric, oh my goodness, and I gave up life as I know it to do quilting pretty much around the clock. I checked out every book that the library had and I was a giant Jinny Beyer fan, she was doing neat things with border prints and mitered corners and I wanted to be Jinny Beyer when I grew up. Then I went through a phase that I was pretty folk arty and red wagon and Linda Brannock and Jan Patek were my heroes. I think I've pretty much come along and I think it's a narrowed focus but it's also a comfort zone, I like antique quilts and I like, and so I probably am not so much focused anymore on any particular maker or artist as I am on antique quilts and some of the things that people are replicating and that sort of design style. I'm looking at each state has had it's quilt days and they come up with a book from those days, those are probably more of what I collect and buy in terms of books than specific authors or quilters. PJ: Do your quilts reflect your community or your region? KB: Nope, nope [laughs.] My part of town, the ladies that I quilt with, no one is interested in doing reproduction-y stuff. I'm not mainstream in that way at all. I had to; I've kind of found my comfort, my circle of friends, my peers in the international community through the internet more than through my part of the world. PJ: What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? KB: Well, gosh I don't know. Are quilts important in American life? They're, I think, I think it's important that we preserve any heritage that we have. I'm glad that quilts continue to grow in value and are recognized as an art form and not just the way my family regarded our family quilts as just you know, useful. I'm glad that they're popular enough that somebody decided they needed to put a museum in La Grange, Texas. But if there's somebody out there that doesn't think they're very important, that's okay with me too. PJ: In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America? KB: I think that women in America have been given the roll of provider of for the home and so we did the sewing, we did the practical tasks of the home and I think it's wonderful to see how just providing for the home some women did more than just sew a few pieces of fabric together to keep their family warm, but did elevate it. Unfortunately those tended to be the women who had the means, who had the free time that could spend it doing that. PJ: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? KB: I'm sorry the first answer that comes to my head is finding enough storage space to stash their fabrics. PJ: [laughs.] KB: [laughs.] Took an Australian lady through my house yesterday and she asked me where my fabric was [laughs.] I was like, ""Well, pick a room,"" [laughs.] ""It's everywhere."" I think keeping it fresh, keeping it interesting, I think that all crafts go through a saturation phase, you know I had a grandmother that did needlepoint after a while, all needlepoints started to kind of look the same and every surface in her house was covered in a needlepointed something or other and you kind of ran out of room for your craft. I think that to attract younger people and to keep the people that are doing it still interested, you need teachers that are coming up with new ideas and fabric makers that, you know if the only fabric that was being made was reproduction fabric, I think that we would be losing quilters by the drove so you know, even what I like. I think continually, kind of recreating it in and of itself and there's been kind of a little bit more emphasis it seems lately in the smaller things, like bags and accessory type quilting projects as opposed to making a quilt. I think that's good. I think you know a little bit of something for everybody. PJ: We've covered most of the questions on this. Is there anything else that you would like to have added to this? KB: I think it's wonderful that there is a forum like Save Our Stories. I don't know that Kathi Babcock is the person whose quilts need to be in the Library of Congress but there are people that are going to be interviewed through this process that people will some day be researching and it will be good to have their words recorded. I think making that history available is a wonderful thing and I'm glad that that was a component of this book and festival this year and it continues to be a part of it. PJ: Well I'd like to thank Kathi Babcock, with a ""I,"" for allowing me to interview her today for the Quilter's S.O.S.-Save Our Stories oral history project. Our interview concluded at 4:54.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Alana Zaskowski",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=TX77010_055Babcock.xml,audio,11/5/2001,,,,,,"Kay Schroeder",,"design process,France,Published work - Quilts,Quilt Purpose - Home decoration,quilt shows/exhibitions",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/ce536e72a7651422051d0e244e2e296f.jpg,"Oral History","Texas QSOS",1,0 "Ricky Tims",,,,,,,,,,,,"Oral History",QSOS-080,,,"Barbara Beck","Ricky Tims",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Elaine Johnson",https://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=QSOS-080.xml,audio,11/3/00,," 5.4 Ricky Tims QSOS-080 Quilt Alliance’s Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories Oral History Project: International Quilt Festival Quilt Alliance Ricky Tims Barbara Beck 2:|33(8)|53(4)|90(9)|111(13)|137(1)|175(4)|203(3)|228(8)|264(2)|292(6)|325(6)|347(10)|374(14)|407(11)|437(3)|462(10)|496(4)|526(8)|561(1)|583(10) 0 https://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/QSOS-080_Tims.mp3 Other audio Oral History Barbara Beck (BB): I' ; m Barbara Beck and we' ; re at the Houston Quilt Festival interviewing Ricky Sims. Wrong? Jo Francis Greenlaw (JFG): It' ; s Ricky Tims. BB: Tims. Ricky Tims (RT): T-i-m-s, it' ; s Tims with one ' ; m,' ; thank you very much. BB: Thank you and it' ; s 3:40, November 3, 2000. I' ; m glad to have you here. RT: Thank you very much. BB: Yes, you make quilts. RT: Yes maam, I do. BB: Tell me about your quilt which quilt did you bring today? RT: Well I--the main quilt I brought for you to see today is a quilt that is a new quilt of mine it' ; s called ' ; The Beat Goes On' ; and you' ; re wanting to see this? BB: Yes, yes we are. Come on and let' ; s spread it out. [rustling from quilt.] Tell me about this quilt. RT: I' ; ll tell you about the design of the quilt first. The design of the quilt is a central heart which is sort of string pieced together in red hand-dyed fabrics. Surrounding that heart is sort of a turquoise blue and chartreuse green ribbon that' ; s just wrapping around it and then there is a rainbow colored ribbon that just flows through the whole surface of the piece. The entire quilt is made from hand-dyed fabrics and then it is quilted with sort of flowers that look like they might have been flowers from the sixties and then stipple quilted in between that. The quilting is mostly metallic threads but not all metallic threads and that' ; s the design of the quilt. The name of the quilt is called ' ; The Beat Goes On' ; and I made this quilt--I began making this quilt eight days after I had quadruple bypass surgery. I had the surgery on April the twenty-fourth of this year, 2000, and eight days later I was working on this quilt and finished the top four days later and then I quilted it. It was to commemorate that significant event in my life. I was home five days after the surgery. I had written my thank you notes and I said, ' ; I' ; m going crazy sitting in this chair, I can sit in my chair and sew.' ; My dad who was also a quilter. Hint-future question--my dad who was also a quilter was there and my mom was there. They were taking care of me as I was recuperating so when I went down into that studio eight days afterwards I did not know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to sew and less than five or ten minutes later I had drawn three or four little stylized hearts and I thought that I' ; d just make a little heart quilt and by noon that day I had pieced the entire center heart. Drew it full size on the freezer paper and started string piecing it onto the paper. Now when I do that technique I typically tear my fabric strips and just organize them so then I can have them all ready to go to just flip and sew, I don' ; t need to have the rotary cutter to do those strips. But every time I would fold the paper back and trim off the seam allowances to the proper size it need to be I would have this little leftover scrap of fabric that was maybe a quarter of an inch wide or something and had these little strings. I would turn around to sew the next one and turn back around and it would be gone, and that' ; s because my dad sat there the entire four days and took every little fabric scrap and put it into the trash. So, I never had one string or one stray thread I had a perfectly clean work area for those four days. And that was pretty fun and I give my mom credit for this quilt too, because while I was working on this she was upstairs making me healthy meals for me to recover from the surgery so I called it the " ; The Beat Goes On" ; obviously because after the surgery and I woke up and came through all of that, ' ; my heart is still beating.' ; Often times my quilts are named after some musical element, not always, but many many times after having grownup as a musician and a professional musician I use musical titles. I was reminded while working on this of the Sonny and Cher song from the sixties " ; The Beat Goes On" ; so that' ; s how it got its title which is also actually trapuntoed into the surface of the quilt. BB: This is just beautiful. RT: Thank you. BB: This is just beautiful. It' ; s just terrific so tell me what are your plans for this quilt? RT: Well the first plan I had for this quilt was to enter it into the show today here at the IQA. [International Quilt Association.] I entered this quilt and my other quilt. I entered two quilts into the show. Only one of them got in. This was the reject from the show. The one that got in won the Pfaff Machine Artistry award for $5000 so you go from here to here ya know you might get one in and you might not get one in but, anyway, that' ; s the story behind this particular quilt. BB: Tell me about when you started quilting? RT: How I got involved in quilting? BB: Yes. RT: I began quilting in 1991 as the result of acquiring a sewing machine from my granny. My granny was my mother' ; s mother. Her name was Bertie Marie Newsom and she lived for years in North Texas in a place called Lake Kickapoo. I was born in Wichita Falls, Texas so I wasn' ; t far from Lake Kickapoo and I spent most of my time with my granny. I loved being at the lake, fishing and swimming, and working in her garden. When I was a child, I remember her sewing on her Kenmore sewing machine. She made nothing that I remember that was fancy in the way of a quilt or a garment. She made practical things and she patched things and she reused things. And when she did make a quilt it was chunks of scraps sewn together usually the filling was done with a wool army blanket and the back might have been a flannel and then she would tie those quilts together and they were very heavy. We used them to sleep under in the cold North Texas winters and we also used them to pull heavy furniture across the floor but in 1991 we are all living in Wichita Falls. My granny had become a widow and we built a house for her across the street from us. In 1979, Wichita Falls had a tornado that tore our neighborhood down and it was after that, that we rebuilt our house but we also rebuilt a house for her that my granny moved into so she lived there from ' ; 79 until ' ; 91. In 1991, I was living in St. Louis, Missouri doing music work there professionally and she had been a widow for several years. She got a phone call-- she' ; s 83 years old--she gets a phone call from a fellow by the name of Pete Hudgeons who lived in Lubbock, Texas. Pete is 87 and he had become a widower and she had not seen this man in at least 15 years and he proposed to her over the phone. And she threw away her cane [laughter.] and she drove four hours to see this man in Lubbock, Texas and they were married exactly two weeks later. After which we had to sell her house and divvy up her belongings amongst her two daughters and four grandchildren. Well, my momma said, ' ; What of your granny' ; s do you want?' ; Well, my granny didn' ; t have nice things and I didn' ; t want to fight over anything so I said, ' ; You let everybody else pick and I' ; ll take what' ; s left over.' ; And what was left over was her Kenmore sewing machine so the Kenmore sewing machine made its way up to St. Louis, Missouri and it sat in the corner of my dining room for a week or two. My mother had shown me how to wind the bobbin. I thought, ' ; well if I know that I should be able to do anything I want to with this sewing machine.' ; So I decided that I would make myself a shirt so I drive off to the Cloth World store and I go in and I start looking at the pattern book for men' ; s clothing. While I' ; m doing this the voice of my granny and the voice of my mother are both coming into my head. When I was a child they would never made me a shirt because they said the shirts were the hardest things you could make. They made dresses for my sister. They made dresses for themselves but they never make shirts that I' ; m aware of. So I decided if I' ; m going to do something I probably should start with something easier. So I turned around and there was a rack of quilt books and one of them was called " ; Learning to Quilt: Quilting for Beginners" ; and it had twenty sampler blocks or traditional quilt blocks. At the time I didn' ; t even know that quilt blocks had names. I didn' ; t know that there was such a thing a name for a quilt block but I bought this book thinking that I could certainly make a quilt a lot easier than I could make a shirt. Nobody ever told me a quilt was hard. And I' ; m thinking to myself that a shirt has shoulders and curves and sleeves and a quilt is just flat so that should be much easier to make. I bought fabric for that quilt I started making it by cutting out templates and drawing around those templates with a Bic ™ pen because I couldn' ; t see a pencil marking and I would do my best to make a quarter of an inch seam allowance. And every one of those blocks ended up being somewhere between eleven and thirteen inches and they were supposed to be twelve. [laughter.]. Well I figured that must be okay because that averages out to be twelve inches and on that same quilt [announcement over the loudspeaker.] and then it came time to sash the quilt and I started putting the vertical sashing in for the rows, the columns I mean, to make the long ones together and I ran out of sashing fabric so I just thought I would go back and get some more of that. When I got back to the store it had been four or five weeks after I started the quilt and of course there' ; s not anymore of that fabric so I have literally maroon sashing going vertically and green sashing going horizontally. [laughter.] Oh, I could keep going with this story if you want to hear more of it. BB: What size was it? RT: It was a full size quilt or queen size ; I didn' ; t measure but like 96 by 80 or something. A big quilt. BB: What was the pattern? RT: It was a sampler quilt. It had twenty different blocks. BB: So you did twenty different blocks? RT: Twenty different blocks and learned the names. Memorized their names and to this day--One of them was a Grandmother' ; s Fan. One was a Shoofly. One was a Friendship Star. One was an Ohio Star. One was a Honeybee block, you know. BB: How long did it take from beginning to end? RT: Well-- BB: You said it was four or five weeks until the sashing. RT: Well yes, but to get the sashing--actually getting the quilt top together was probably more like three or four weeks because I was really loving this. I started reading every quilt magazine I could get my hands on because I loved it so much. I discovered there was such a thing called a rotary cutter and mat which I never even knew existed. And there were other quilt books that taught methods of doing quilts like that so I don' ; t know. I started making other projects even while this one was starting to go on to a quilt frame and get quilted. So it might have taken a year before I finally got around to getting the binding on it after quilting it but in that year I had probably made another good thirty or forty quilts of varying sizes. Some of them were very small. Most importantly I would like to say that, that first quilt is the only quilt that I made from a pattern because my life as a musician had been in the creative part of music. I had been a composition student in college and I love creating so I immediately started adapting my own designs and creating my own quilts ; the second one through now. None, of them are--are-- BB: So, the first one was like the book? RT: Exactly like the book. I think I even put the blocks exactly like the picture in the book. But, past that I went on my own and started doing my own creative type things. And I hand quilted that first quilt. As a matter of fact, it' ; s at home and there are times when I sleep under it but I keep it a little bit more treasured now because I think of it as my first quilt and there' ; ll never be another first quilt. So I take very good care of it. This is a funny story---I' ; ll go ahead and tell you this too. When I hand quilting I did not know a quilter for three months at least and I went into a Ben Franklin store one day looking for fabric and when I got in there, there was this--she wasn' ; t old, but she was an older lady and she was looking at fabrics. And she struck up a conversation with me and she said, ' ; What are you doing back here?' ; and I said, ' ; Well, I' ; m looking for some fabric.' ; And she wanted to know what I was using the fabric for and I said, ' ; I' ; m making a quilt.' ; It was so cute because only a quilter would do this but in one fell swoop she reached into her tote bag and went ' ; whoosh' ; and there was a quilt and she said, ' ; What color border would you put on this one?' ; [laughter.] And I went, ' ; Ma' ; am, I don' ; t know. I don' ; t have a clue.' ; That lady' ; s name was Ponnie Brinkman, P-O-N-N-I-E Brinkman. And she ended up inviting me to the quilt meeting that night. Now I did not know there were going to be so many people there. I was expecting a little quilt frame and several women sitting around it kind of talking and drinking coffee and that sort of thing. And I ended up in a meeting of 250 of those quilters but as a result of getting involved with those quilters in that guild-- while I am self-taught. I learned from them. It' ; s them individually that I' ; ve learned from one on one. I was quilting that quilt and I didn' ; t know how to do anything except what that book said and that was make a running stitch. I stab stitched the quilt for several days, just piercing the needle all the way and then back up. And I was making the stitches exactly like the book. The book did not bother to tell me that the picture they had was a magnified version of the quilt stitch so I' ; m making my stitches about a quarter inch a piece. I hadn' ; t seen quilting stitches ; this was something I had never in my life. Well finally a friend came over one day and said, ' ; I' ; ve watched my aunts quilt and what you' ; re supposed to do is get several stitches on the needle rocking it back and forth and then pull the needle through.' ; And my friend told me in order to do that I was supposed to be using a much bigger needle so I went and bought a four inch needle to try to quilt this quilt with. As you can imagine, I can' ; t get three stitches into this quilt before the needle is stuck in the quilt so I' ; ve got my tool box out--I' ; ve got a pair of pliers. I' ; m doing anything I can to try to quilt this quilt the way it' ; s supposed to be quilted and really that' ; s the roots of how I began as a quilter. And it wasn' ; t until I got into the guild that I started asking people about needles sizes and so on and so on and so forth and I found that really the smaller the needle size the better your quilting stitches will be but I was using a fairly large needle at the beginning of this endeavor. BB: What aspects of quilting do you not enjoy? RT: [long pause.] I used to not enjoy putting on bindings because I felt the quilt was so done. I was so finished it was all quilted and then you would sew on the binding and then you would sew it on the binding and I would sew it on by hand and that could still take me days and days it would seem to get the binding on. I didn' ; t enjoy that. But now I use this machine type binding you' ; ll notice on this quilt. I love putting these bindings on so I really have to tell you there is nothing that I don' ; t like about the quilting process. I love the designs ; the fabrics ; the top. I love the quilting part. I love the binding part. I even love making the sleeves. BB: Tell me--my daughter-in-law thinks you' ; re wonderful-- RT: Okay. BB: She saw you a couple of years ago. Tell me how you came to what--the way you do it--how you put the quilt together? RT: How I put-- BB: You know you draw on the design-- RT: You know what ; there are so many ways to put a quilt together. My philosophy from the beginning was and this is what happened that first year I was reading every magazine I could. If there was a technique I didn' ; t know anything about, I would try that technique. And I wouldn' ; t make a full sized quilt I would just do enough a small piece or something to learn the technique. The more techniques I had in my little bag of tricks when the design came to my mind I could go from that repertoire of tricks to create that quilt so the more you know - the more you can create. I sort of am settled now into only a few things that I' ; ll tend to do. One of them is called " ; Quilting Caveman Style," ; that is not anything other than a name but it means cutting and sewing fabrics using a rotary cutter and mat not planning a seam allowance and not using templates and not measuring anything but just creating an improvisational design and it could be representational. I could make a flower, or a house, or a bird or whatever, a fish, just doing this method but it' ; s not a precise method of sewing. I also do " ; flip and sew" ; method with the design on freezer paper and when I want to be precise and I need to be accurate then I use that particular method. I can do other things but those seem to be the two methods that I tend to use most because I like working with curves. And so the freezer paper helps me with precision curves and the " ; Caveman" ; method I can just create spontaneous curves. BB: Tell me about this other quilt you' ; ve brought. RT: Well I brought things to just spark some questions, I guess. This little quilt is--was done " ; Caveman" ; style. The heart quilt we' ; ve been talking about was done on freezer paper drawn full size and " ; flip and sew," ; let me just say that. This quilt--these squares were just randomly cut and actually they were part of a larger quilt that I had made and there were some leftovers so I just set them together sort of on point and had fun with this quilting design which really can' ; t really describe on tape but it' ; s a non-stop quilt design. The entire--everything inside there is non-stop quilting by the way I did that. BB: Tell me how you did that. RT: Okay, I did this, this, this, and then here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and then the outside ones here, here, here--. BB: And Ricky is going around each flower with his finger showing how it goes. RT: Right. Good and I go on to the outside ones and once I got back to here then I can do these outside ones-- BB: That' ; s lovely. RT: And then these inside ones and then it' ; s done so--and then I can start stippling and so the thing of this--the thing of note on this quilt is the binding once again. I used to hate doing bindings. This is a scalloped binding and it looks like the scallop is a fold that' ; s put on the quilt and then the binding is put on that--[BB: " ; uh, hum." ; ] in actuality the scallop is put onto the binding and the binding is put onto the quilt and I quilt in the ditch between the scallop and the binding. There' ; s a line of stitching you can barely see running right along the edge of that quilt so there' ; s not a single hand stitch anywhere on this or this or the quilt that I won with here at IQA [International Quilt Association.] today. This quilt has a little bit of history that I would like to share-- BB: This is another beautiful quilt flower RT: This is a small quilt--probably a--18 by 24 inches or something like that and its name is " ; Tulip for Chantelle Number Two." ; Yes there is a " ; Chantelle Number One." ; And I' ; m going to tell you the story of Chantelle. When I was in England teaching for the first time in 1997, as I was jet lagged, they drug me to a beginning quilter' ; s class. I wasn' ; t teaching, just observing. These beginners didn' ; t know much about quilting but the next morning the teacher called and said, ' ; One of my students just called and she wanted to know who Chantelle was last night.' ; And she had said ' ; What do you mean who was Chantelle?' ; And she said ' ; Well, Ann brought Chantelle and I thought I met everybody but I didn' ; t meet anyone named Chantelle and right towards the end of the evening you said Ricky brought Chantelle and I still hadn' ; t met this ' ; Chantelle.' ; ' ; And the lady started laughing and laughing and she said, ' ; No, no, no. I said, ' ; Show and tell. Show and tell.' ; ' ; So Ann had brought ' ; show and tell' ; and Ricky had brought ' ; show and tell.' ; Well, the hostess that had arranged my trip to England, I wanted to do something nice for her so I made this quilt or rather a quilt like this one, in my " ; Caveman" ; style. I just cut and sew the pieces randomly, not knowing exactly how they are going to turn out but I ended up having this little three pointed tulip with a stem and two leaves and I ended up giving it to her. And as a joke I called it " ; Tulip for Chantelle." ; Okay so it' ; s a tulip for show and tell, right. When I got home, I wanted one for myself so I made this one so I call it " ; Tulip for Chantelle Number Two." ; Well whenever I had the opportunity to send one of my previous prize winning quilts to England to enter in one of their shows, I thought those ladies would get a real kick if I sent this little piece over just for fun to go with that. About three weeks later I got a phone call and I could not believe that my other quilt, the large quilt had won two blue ribbons at this national show in England but I was stunned whenever I found out that this little quilt had won judge' ; s choice award. And it was only really sent over as a joke for those ladies. It features what has now become one of my trademarks as well and that is called " ; bobbin quilting." ; You will notice that in the flower and in the two frames there is a black sparkly thread and that black thread is really too heavy to go into the top of the machine and work well so it' ; s put in the bobbin and then I have orange thread in the top and quilt with the wrong side of the quilt facing me. Usually people say, ' ; Well then how do you know where to do that?' ; because that fills in those frames. In this case, I quilted in the ditch first from the top with the orange thread all the way around and once I' ; ve outlined all those wavy frames then I can just turn it over and fill in between those. Sometimes I don' ; t want to see that quilting in the ditch stitch so now I use the wash away water soluble thread. Quilt in the ditch again, flip it over. I can still see where to do the bobbin quilting and then when the quilt is wet that all dissolves and you have no idea how it got marked just sew it on the back so I use two different methods to do that. BB: It' ; s lovely, just lovely, it' ; s beautiful. And you have another one there, is there another one? RT: Yes, there' ; s one more here. This small piece is from a new series that I am and becoming more and more well known for that I call " ; Harmonic Convergence." ; Now, we already talked about my closeness in involvement with music so the word " ; harmony" ; would be a musical term but what happened was I was working on the back of quilt one day and I wanted to use some of my hand-dyed fabrics that I didn' ; t like very well. And so I chose two fabrics that were spirals. Now this is something similar to what you' ; d see on a modern pop t-shirt with the spiral going around it. I had two of those and I didn' ; t particularly like them so I figured I could use both of them on the back but when I put them side by side I thought I was looking at two owl' ; s eyes, just kind of going crazy. So I started thinking what could I do to those two pieces of fabric that would break that up and I decided to slice them into strips starting at the center. I had two fabrics laying side by side and then starting at the center I cut a one inch strip and then a one and a half inch strip and then a two inch strip and then a three inch strip going from the inside and to the out. Then I took the skinniest strip of this piece and moved it over into this and I sort of started sorting these pieces into each other and suddenly the spirals were flying into each other and it was amazing. So then I began developing a new idea and I have an entire series of quilts now based on this. I have instruction patterns that people are using to do this series. And this particular piece that I brought is a very basic, simple example of that work. BB: Did you cut this " ; Caveman" ; style? RT: This is done with a rotary cutter, a ruler, and a mat. So this is a one, one and a half, two, two and a half, three inches. It is done precisionally. There is no tearing involved but look if you will you' ; ll notice--to see the two fabrics. Find this fabric and notice that it will just jump over this bar. This is the same fabric now jumping over here and you see yes it is still flowing along. Jump one more. It' ; s still the same fabric moving across and finally it ends with this little piece. But just go the opposite direction and you' ; ll see that this one just moves right into that. So this fabric--these were two little squares and they just fly into each other. BB: That' ; s just lovely-- RT: And in order to create this one little extra seam I cut an inch off of the top. I sliced the quilt and I rotated it 180 degrees and just sewed it right back into the quilt. It' ; s truly the easiest thing and when I teach this class in a day the students will do two pieces more complicated than this but they do two quilt tops in a day. BB: Did you quilt this bobbin-- RT: No, I quilted the rayon threads from the top and what was left over I flipped over and quilted on the back with the metallic thread from the bobbin. BB: Okay, tell me what you think makes a great quilt? [announcement over the loudspeaker.] RT: Well, I probably--You caught me with a question that I have to think about. BB: That' ; s good. RT: I--first and foremost I want that quilt to reach out and grab me visually. I want the overall statement of that quilt to hit me in a big way. I tend to like quilts that have large, powerful, impact of designs as opposed to most traditional quilts that are maybe lots and lots of little blocks that create a kind of lattice work or something overall. I find those beautiful but then they' ; re going to have to do something other than that to create an explosion of design for me. The way they' ; ll use their color or something and then make the overall thing very compacted. That' ; s the number one for me. Second for me, I then am going to want to see pretty much how the workmanship of the quilt is. Is it crisp? Is it clean? Is it neat? Are the stitches good? And is the workmanship good? And all of those kind of things would come secondary to me, the use of color, fabric and so forth. BB: Seems to me--seems to me that you are very good at this and it came to you very quickly. RT: Yes, it did. It did. BB: And you really enjoy it. RT: " ; Simple Gifts" ; is a quilt of mine I made in 1996. It was here at festival in 1996 and won the second prize. It won a second prize in the AQS [American Quilter' ; s Society ; Paducah, Kentucky.] festival. It won best machine quilt at the NQA [National Quilting Association, Inc.] show that year. It' ; s the quilt that won two first prizes in UK. [United Kingdom.] It was selected by one of the panelists last year as her hundred and first choice for the " ; 100 Best Quilts of the 20th Century." ; [special exhibit at International Quilt Festival 1999 and book.] Interestingly enough, I know this is probably sounding like bragging and I don' ; t mean it to because I am so grateful for this incredible thing that found me nine years ago but that quilt was my first large machine quilted quilt. And it won a best machine quilting award at a national show and people say you must have practiced, and practiced and practiced to get there and I didn' ; t. It just came to me. And people say, ' ; How could that happen?' ; I' ; m guessing that having been a pianist since I was three years old I have pretty good eye-hand coordination, so manipulating that quilt under the needle with free motion quilting is very--it just came natural for me because I think of the piano background. This quilt for example with the flowers quilted on it. There is no marking. I don' ; t mark the quilt in any way. I didn' ; t mark this quilt ahead of time, just sew it. That' ; s the way I do it. BB: Tell me how you feel when you' ; re quilting. Tell me how you feel about this whole experience. RT: Well I' ; m working. I like seeing it. I get excited and I sit back and look at it and sometimes I feel I need to give up and then I get inspired again, and then I want to go out and you know, I want to ride my bicycle and take a walk or do something and come back again. I love it. I watch t.v. while I' ; m doing it. It' ; s when I' ; m at home doing it. It is just what I' ; m doing. In light of what I' ; m doing showing quilts at exhibitions and in the way that it has now become my profession, full time, to be lecturing all over the world and giving workshops. I really feel that it would be a waste of me if I didn' ; t give it back And at venues, shows and guilds and so forth that allow me to share what I have back with the world that' ; s where I share. So if my quilt--if that is hanging and it moves somebody--if it inspires somebody then it' ; s doing the job I would want it to do. I truly do not believe that it is not right to gloat over a win. ' ; Aren' ; t I great because I made a wonderful quilt that has been recognized,' ; because the judging process is still subjective. A different set of judges could come up with different quilts to win ; that still have just the same amount of merit to win. So you can' ; t gloat over a win but you also can not beat yourself up and pout if your quilts are not winning awards or you didn' ; t win an award. It doesn' ; t mean the quilt isn' ; t valid. The most important thing for me and the reason I entered the shows is because I want the quilts to be seen. I want people to experience them. That' ; s a way of sharing. BB: Is there anything I haven' ; t asked you that you want to tell us about? RT: I don' ; t know. BB: I think we' ; re running out of time. Unidentified Person (UP): I had a question. I wanted to ask about your father and his quilting? RT: Okay, that' ; s a good question. The same week I began quilting in 1991 sort of by mistake. I called home that weekend and my dad had retired. We thought we would get him into stained glass or something like that but when I called home that weekend and said, ' ; What are you doing dad?' ; He said, ' ; I started making a quilt this week.' ; And he ended up making a traditional broken star quilt with all those diamonds. The finished quilt is 104 inches square, so it' ; s huge. His mother at the age of 85 had made him and his two siblings a broken star quilt so she made three of them. He decided that if she could do that at 85 he could do it at 65 after he retired. He made the top all by himself and he did a wonderful, wonderful job and since then he' ; s made about ten quilts. He doesn' ; t usually hand quilt them himself. He sends them out to have that done. There have been times when my mother has hand quilted them. My dad has tried to hand quilt them but my dad' ; s hands are--well they didn' ; t work that well for him but when it comes to the precision patchwork it' ; s amazing. His quilts are very scrappy. They' ; re very traditional. Many of them are samplers because he would go, ' ; I had fun making this block, now I' ; m going to try this block,' ; and he' ; d have enough blocks to make a quilt so many of his quilts were samplers after that. He and I have worked together. His brain understands it. My dad is 72 now and he is not quilting as much any more now after my mother retired. They' ; re out kind of traveling now. He doesn' ; t have as much time at home by himself but it' ; s been amazing. And then another point of interest since we' ; re saving our stories-- another point of interest is that when my nephew married, a couple of years later they were expecting their first child and as a result of me quilting and my dad quilting, he wanted to make the baby quilt and he did. And now he' ; s involved in quilting and sewing at some level as well. He' ; s made two or three quilts and doesn' ; t think anything about it. He is currently Mr. Mom but before the baby he was a prison guard and my dad was a retired truck driver so the stereotypes are a little bit broken in our family since we have three generations of men quilters and none of the women really quilt. BB: How' ; s granny doing? RT: Good question. I usually get two questions like that. Do I still sew on my granny' ; s sewing machine and is she still alive? My grandmother passed away in 1993. She was married to Pete for two years and Pete passed away one year later. He was 90 and she was 85 when they passed away. Then in 1994, I bought a used sewing machine from a sewing dealer. It was an older model Pfaff. I used my granny' ; s up until that time. So that was three, three and a half years. Then I started on this other sewing machine and now I have more sewing machines so-- BB: Yeah, how many sewing machines do you have? RT: I' ; ve got four, four right now that I can count. They' ; re handy. Is there something else you wanted to ask? UP: I do have many more questions but we' ; re limited to a forty-five minute format. And I' ; m not sure how much time we have. How much time do we have? BB: I' ; m not sure, what time did we start? RT: 3:03 or 3:33 Another Unidentified Person: The first question was asked at 3:33. RT: See, so we have time left. BB: We have a couple more minutes left. UP: I' ; d like to hear about how it was--what it was you did before you became a professional teacher and quilter and what that conversion was like? RT: It--the funny thing about that is that it' ; s not a conversion. It' ; s an add on. People who know me now, know that I have been able to put music and quilting together in one package. As a musician--well I took my first real--well I taught through high school, teaching piano. When I was seventeen years old I had been awarded several musical awards. I was also hired as a conductor of choral music for a church in Wichita Falls. I was seventeen and I worked my way through college doing that and teaching piano and then I became a performing artist. I began working in studios. So I had been doing conducting. I had been doing commercial work and I ended up in St. Louis, Missouri to be a professional recording engineer and music producer. I did the original music for this company. And they did commercials, jingles, small film scores, and whatever. I was writing music professionally and then that company finally--it closed actually and I bought the recording studio and I built a recording studio in my home and continued to work free- lance which basically means I didn' ; t have a job. And it was during that time I started quilting because I had all that extra time on my hands. A year later I was hired as a choral conductor for one of the larger churches in St. Louis, Missouri. I built that program up to the point that when I left that job in 1998 I had an eighty-five voice chorus with about 30 piece orchestra. We had just released our third CD and it was released on a national classical album, doing Vaughn Williams and Rutter and Handel and those wonderful people. I loved conducting. And the first thing I did. And it was during the time that I was there. I was continuing to quilt and starting to teach a little bit more and more and I realized that I could probably do this full time. And I made the break to do that. In the interim I also conducted the most significant night of my life. It was the night I conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and a community chorus of about 85 singers to do a Midwest premier of a choral work that went through the seven stages of grieving. And we benefited three area health organizations that dealt with terminally ill patients. It was a phenomenal night and I literally took every penny I had in retirement and the next night we came back together and I invested in the recording of that event so that the music would continue to heal and give hope and comfort to others, long past the night of the concert. That recording is still doing well. It is something that even if I never did anything else in my life. That was why even during my heart surgery, I did something important in this world, it' ; s okay to go now if I need to. So now I incorporate music in my quilting. All of my quilting lectures incorporate either my piano playing, sometimes singing. I do a presentation called " ; Celebrate the Century," ; it' ; s an historic perspective of music and quilts and in thirty-three minutes you get 250 historical facts, 50 songs and you hear all about quilting and history - decade by decade. So everything is placed in its own decade and it' ; s memorized. I have a sound score that goes underneath of it that I composed with it and there is a slide show that goes on behind it. It' ; s a multi-media extravaganza. And that' ; s what I did for lunch here yesterday so I' ; m able to do my music and the product that I market now besides my fabrics are my CDs, that' ; s recorded that I just told you. I have a solo piano CD. I have the symphony CD that' ; s recorded. And next year I' ; ll probably have more. It' ; s combining two passions - music and quilting and that' ; s pretty much what people know me for. BB: So you like getting up in the morning? RT: Yes, I do. I think of myself as one of the happiest people on the planet. I love traveling. I love meeting people. I love quilting. I love music. I get to do all of that and have a living of it so I do, I count my blessings everyday. I don' ; t take it for granted-- not ever. BB: It' ; s been wonderful talking to you. RT: Thank you, my pleasure. BB: Thank you very much. We' ; ve been talking to Ricky Tims. It is 4:17 PM at the International Quilt Festival, in Houston, Texas. November 3, 2000. All rights to the Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories (QSOS) oral history project, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred from the Quilt Alliance to the University of Kentucky Libraries. Please contact the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History regarding rights pertaining to individual interviews. audio Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. 0 https://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=QSOS-080.xml",,,,,,"quilt show","http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/101e3334675a263ed4d438009640bdf8.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/6fe58f430257a22a729ad9f9f3605971.jpg","Oral History","International Quilt Festival QSOS",1,0 "Georgia Bonesteel",,"Georgia Bonesteel shares the story of her quilt made for the ""Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece"" exhibit, inspired by her aging father, and her early quiltmaking years.",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",AFPBP-33,,,"Karen Musgrave","Georgia Bonesteel","Flat Rock, North Carolina","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.
Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Georgia Bonesteel. Georgia is in Flat Rock, North Carolina and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are doing this interview by telephone. Today's date is March 7, 2008 and it is 2:28 in the afternoon. Georgia thank you for doing this interview with me. We are doing a special Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories because this is based on ""Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece"" exhibit, so Georgia I would like you to talk about your quilt ""A Porsche Problem"" which is in the exhibit. Georgia Bonesteel (GB): Thank you very much Karen for calling me. My quilt is something that I was moved to do because of my father's situation health wise. I would like to tell you that he has Alzheimer's, but he had one of the forms of Alzheimer's. We never could quite figure out what he had, yet he died of congestive heart failure, but because we lived in North Carolina about thirty miles from my parents for about twenty years, I was able to have a close connection with my parents. Pete and I were raising our children close by, so I was very much in touch with what was happening day by day versus living far away. When my father first started getting ill he sensed that he was not right and so we went through that process and had many situations, especially with the car. My father actually loved that car and he had about four or five of those Porsches and drove quite a bit from Chicago to North Carolina because he had a hard time retiring. He was a lawyer in Chicago but wanted to be down on a golf course in Tryon, so he went back and forth with his car. When he got ill it was difficult to take the car away from him. We tried many situations, we even tried having a friend of his who was a policeman come over and talk to him and explain that because he was getting lost, well he wouldn't come home, he would lose his way and we knew it was time, and my father would say, ‘Well yes, I understand you need to take the license away from me because I live here in North Carolina, but South Carolina is just right down the line a little bit, so I will drive in South Carolina.' So he really didn't get it, and the only way we could handle it was that one day my sister just drove the car out of the driveway and took it to Pennsylvania. So in essence, we did take the car keys away from him and it was a sad day, but he got over it. When Ami [Simms.] asked me to do this, to participate in this exhibit it was a natural thing for me, I knew that I would have to do the car and I did this exhibit because I have a lot of admiration for Ami. I actually got to meet her mother one time at one of the Mancuso shows and Ami is a person with an uplifting personality so you enjoy being around her. I find her creativity stimulating. Her website is wonderful. Her stories about her dog and her family are just very good. She is just a welcoming spirit. I wanted to do that for Ami and I wanted to do it as for recognition for my dad also. I had to do the car. We had pictures of the car but it wasn't really a good picture so I went over and found a used car dealership here in town that had the same vintage year that he had and took pictures of it and that helped me to kind of get a sketch of the car. Then when I made the quilt, I did the yellow streaks in it just to kind of give the idea of speed. I hope that shows it, because he did like to drive fast. Then I used the car, it got larger in each of the blocks as it went down and I thought that, until it finally came into full view, and then of course the last block shows the circle on top of the key. KM: So the universal not. GB: The universal not. [laughs.] That is really the story of the quilt, and I'm proud to have it go around the country in different exhibits. I've seen it a couple of times. I did see it at one of the Mancuso shows. Like any exhibit, one of the most interesting parts I think of doing a quilt show is to stand next to other people and hear their comments, especially if they don't realize that you made the quilt, whether it is yours or someone else's, because you really learn the inside of what quilters are thinking. I have often thought that there should be a tape recorder in the back of quilts and then play it later. You would really get some interesting verbalization I think. I think it is a very poignant exhibit. I helped Ami out one year in Houston and stood at her booth. People are so moved by this exhibit. Anytime you have a health problem in your family, especially Alzheimer's and then you see these quilts you have to talk about the person in your family personally. I mean you want to share that story. It's either my aunt or my mother or my father, and then it is like it all happens all over again. That is really my perspective on the exhibit and I'm very proud for Ami and I'm very proud to be a part of it. KM: Tell me about the poem. GB: Oh gosh, yes, the poem, ""There once was a guy from Chicago."" That poem, my mother and father had a close friend, Dr. Graves and Martha Graves. In fact Martha just died last year, she outlived my mother by three years and they were very close and every birthday she would write a poem. She was just a poet and so I have a whole stack of poetry that she wrote about when my dad would have a birthday. One year she wrote a poem about the year he shot his score, his par on the golf course. Then she wrote this poem about daddy's car and so it was a natural to be stitched on top of his block. I was very proud to do that for Martha. KM: It goes: ‘There once was a guy from Chicago Who was quite found of making his ""cah go"" Just a smidgen too fast So he built up a past And is he wanted from Jax to Wells Fargo!' GB: He was wanted from Jacksonville to Wells Fargo. KM: But it is Jax? GB: Jacksonville, I just put Jax. KM: Okay. GB: From Jacksonville to Wells Fargo. KM: That is awesome. GB: [laughs.] Perfect. KM: It is wonderful. What are your plans for this quilt when it comes back? GB: I have to admit that it will probably slip through my fingers. My sister drove the car away, she ended up actually paying my dad for it, I think she got a good price. Then the car ended up going to her son Quinn who has it up in Boston, and when Jill saw this quilt, she said, ‘Oh I bet Quinn would love to have that some day.' So I will probably give that to Quinn. I'm not sure how long the car will last, but I will probably give that to Quinn. KM: One of the things that we had to do as artists in this exhibition was to do the audio part of the CD. Tell me about that experience for you. GB: You know, I will be very honest about it, I can not remember that. KM: It must have been easy for you, because it wasn't easy for me. I remember it. GB: Oh my, well I haven't played it in a long time so I must have just. KM: You probably did very well. GB: I hope so, I hope so, I can not remember, and. KM: Seriously I think that is a good thing because Ami would call me up and say, do it again. [GB laughs.] So you didn't have that experience? GB: No, I think I only did it once so I was lucky in that regard. KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. GB: Oh, Karen it goes back to the Stone Ages now. My quilting started in New Orleans of all places, although as a little girl I have always done patchwork. I was gifted with a lot of energy and I think to keep me out of my mother's hair she would give me needle and thread and so I've always done stitching. I did the doll clothes thing. I guess I was always with a needle and thread going through cloth. It just always intrigued me, and I really didn't have any question about what I would do when I went to college. I went into merchandizing. I should have stayed at Iowa State. I went there for two years, one of the best home ec [Economics.] colleges in the country. I fell in love and then transferred to Northwestern, which was an equally good school, but they did not have a very good home ec department, so I simply graduated with a BA. I was able to get a wonderful job in merchandizing at Marshall Fields and so I've always stayed in touch with cloth and always have been sewing. When we did finally end up moving to New Orleans with the young children I had an opportunity to once again use my sewing capabilities at a department store in the French Quarter which led me into some quilt opportunities. I quilted little evening bags and sold them in the French Quarter for about three years and came into the necktie fabric because of some television work I did. Someone said to me, well these are great little bags that you have made, but they are flat, they don't have any body to them, they have no life and they said what about putting some batting inside, and before I knew it I was quilting with embroidery thread and I had batting in between layers of silk and batting and then fabric. That was basically opened my eyes to quilting because I had to search out little magazines and books that had quilting patterns in them and then we moved to North Carolina I started teaching quilting at our community college. KM: Give me a timeframe. GB: We moved to, we were in New Orleans from about 1970 to 1973, and in 1973 we moved here to North Carolina. Of course being in the Appalachian part of the country, I knew that quilts were popular here. So I just started teaching at our community college, but I was also quilting with a senior ladies group down at the Opportunity House and I learned a lot from those ladies. I learned my stitches weren't small enough, I learned that it was hard to quilt on a standing quilt frame, and then I learned that if you are going to teach twenty ladies how to quilt in an eleven week class, we couldn't make one quilt for each lady, that everyone had to work on their own individually and I realized then that if I broke the making of a large quilt down into sections we could have more satisfaction and see things grow faster. So that was when I started really teaching lap quilting and so those initial three years of teaching at the community college gave me enough samples that I had things to carry with me over to the University of North Carolina Public TV Station. I went over and made an appointment and suggested to them that I could do a How to Sew on Quilting, and I couldn't have done it without those classes that I taught. That was the meat of what I had and so I just did a little TV show. [laughs.] KM: Kind of an understatement there. GB: It was, that really is what it was though. As I look back on those first shows and we had a very simple set. They wouldn't stop the tape if I did something wrong because that cost too much money, and I look at those tapes and there are sometimes when I would pick up the edge of a cardboard if I couldn't find a ruler to draw a straight line [laughs.]. It was very, very crude to begin with but we did get a little more upscale as the years went on. KM: And, there is a lot more there. [GB laughs.] Share the Evolution. I think it is really important. GB: It was an evolution because I was just kind of secluded. I was just so inspired by my students, and after these eleven weeks we would have what I called a quilt in. We would have it at the auditorium, and people that had taken a previous class but hadn't finished would come, and we would spread out the quilts over the chairs and we would all, everyone would come up and talk about their quilt and tell their little story why they made it, and we would take pictures and we were just so happy in ourselves, and then pretty soon the guild started, and people realized, and I think this is happening all over the country, people were saying, ‘Well if classes can do it, then let's get the classes together.' Then let's reach out to the community of people that have quilted over the years and their grandmothers and their sisters came. All of a sudden guilds started emerging around the country. Then people would get wind of my TV show and they would drive up in my driveway thinking I had a shop at my house. We had not bought the hardware store yet, and I'd say, no I'm not selling fabric out of my house. Then I had my first invitation to actually fly out of town with a few of my quilts and talk about what I did. People weren't doing that, at least to my knowledge they weren't. I can remember being excited when Jinny Beyer won that Good Housekeeping Contest and then Hazel Carter had that first quilt show in Virginia and we went up there, and so things started to happen. Then I went to Houston for the first time, so it was a progression that grew, but it was gradual. I think once my shows started airing around the country and my books were published to go with the shows that is when I got really busy. Then we bought the hardware store, so then I was managing a store, writing books and doing TV and traveling. KM: We should really qualify the hardware store, because it was an element of the quilt corner in the hardware store. GB: Yes, right, it was, it was called Bonesteel Hardware and Quilt Corner [website is georgiabonesteel.com and her blog is georgiabonesteel.com/gablog.html.] and people loved that. It was all open; there weren't any walls in between. They would come in and their husband would go over and look at hardware and they would come over, and they just thought that was just wonderful. [laughs.] I was teaching there too, and it was a good thing, it really was. Our children were in college then and so they were pretty much on their own. Well they were, in the early years they were still in high school, because I can remember leaving and still dealing with that kind of situation. My husband was dealing with it also. All of a sudden he was Mr. Georgia Bonesteel and that was not easy for Pete for a while. He had been the breadwinner and then all of a sudden we were getting calls from Oxmoor House to come down for grand celebrations because of so many of thousands of books that had been sold. He dealt with it after a while, but it was hard at first. KM: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? GB: Oh my, I think traveling is difficult. I've slowed down my traveling, especially this year. Last year I was out every month and it used to be I would go out twice a month and then the last five years I've been going out once a month and even that is a challenge. I think that after 9-11, quiltmakers have had to kind of take a different look on not so much the quilts they are making, but how they are getting their story out? How they are dealing with being a professional? The fact that we have restrictions now in the amount of bags we can take and the amount of pounds we can carry, the fact that we have to ship things ahead of time, that has put a new challenge on our profession. Last year I was able to handle it. I think this year, because I have cut back quite a bit, I'm doing different things in the quilt world. My obligation now is with the [Quilters.] Hall of Fame. I am going to do that for two more years. I'm excited for what is happening there and I want to see that progress so I'm helping out once again this year in July. I'm going to teach a class and I'm excited that Helen Kelly is going to be there. That is going to be a very exciting thing for all of us. I'm changing the direction of my quilt life mainly because, I guess partly because of my age, but partly because we have seven grandchildren now and we live on a wonderful piece of property in North Carolina and I love working outside, so I now, I'm in the middle of a Master Gardener Program with Home Extensions people here in North Carolina, so I'm learning about our property and about the soil and about what grows in North Carolina. I have forty hours of volunteer work that is ahead of me with the program before I graduate. I'm doing some different directions in my life which is kind of fun. I still consider myself a professional quilter, but I'm not doing any more taping. My shows are actually being rerun in a different venue all over the country, so I spend a lot of time on the computer everyday because I get so many questions about my shows that are still airing around the country. They are on a new network called Create TV.com. That is the network, and so I have to quiz people as to what show they are watching because after doing twelve CBS series, I'm not sure what actual show they are looking at. However, I am actually thinking new quilt book. It is time. KM: You talk about your husband and his reaction to your quiltmaking, how about the rest of your family. How has it impacted them? GB: They have all been very proud. I think that they are at an age where they are all so involved with their children right now. They will of course someday wreak the benefits of all my quilts. They will have to deal with them. Some of them I am in the process of selling and moving on, but the quilts that I have made specifically for them, I'm going to let them deal with that someday, but they have been very proud. I guess of our three children, Paul our youngest because he is a video producer and helps me with my website and also helped to produce the documentary, ""The Great American Quilt Revival."" [www.quiltrevial.com.] He is the one that is the most involved in my quilt business. I share more with him I think than anyone else. My daughter, because she is a journalist has helped me I think in some of the writing things that I've done, but because she is not a seamstress, she doesn't really understand the actual technique and that sort of thing. I'm going to cultivate these granddaughters. I have four granddaughters and I plan to cultivate them into the next quilt world. [laughs.] KM: Why is quiltmaking important to you? GB: Oh my, because I don't think I'm any different than any of those people that love quiltmaking, I think we look at fabric and the results of what we do of fabric as an extension of ourselves. I think it is a creative outlet. It's a tactical thing that we can hold on to. I think it is something in our lives that we have control of. There are so many things that we don't have control of from the dentist bill to the price of ground beef. That is out of our field, but if you tell us to make a quilt for a reason or just because we bought this beautiful fabric and we know it has be to cut up and put back together into a design. We have control on that from the size to the design to how we make it, whether we hand quilt it or machine quilt it, and I think it is something that we own and that is ours and I guess that is why I think it is so valuable. KM: Tell me about the quilt groups you belong to. GB: Oh my, [laughs.] they are all unique, they are all different. I just met yesterday with a group that we call ourselves ""The Cover Lovers."" That group of ladies actually met through one of my community college classes that I was teaching in garment making and we have been together for twenty-seven years. We have lost three of them, but one of them, Francis Gardenia always said that in North Carolina we have called quilts Kivers. They were always called Kivers. I have always laughingly told them that we can't call our group Kiver Livers, so we will call our group Cover Lovers, so that group is called ""The Cover Lovers."" It is truly a self-help group, in other words we have lost three of our members, we still talk about them every once in a while their name will come up, we have gone through divorces, deaths of children, we have gone through everything together. Yesterday I showed them a quilt I'm doing for AQS [American Quilters Society.] that I have to get done in three weeks. [laughs.] So I took that and we quilted together and we are just all very close. Actually where we met yesterday is a lady that has moved into a retirement condominium and we meet at her house now once a month because she can't leave her husband. We have gone through all of these transformations together and we laugh, I looked at the slides of the group that we have watched our hair color change over the years. [laughs.] So that is one group, then I'm in another group, PTA, that is for Patchwork Talking and Appliqué and you might have heard some of those girls. Linda Cantrell is in that group and Barbara Swinea and Lynne Harrill, Connie Brown and other stimulating professionals. They are movers and shakers, and we have done challenges that have been in AQS. Right now we have an exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum. Two of the ladies just got accepted for AQS and next Thursday we are driving to Pigeon Forge to look at an exhibit, so it is an invigorating group because they are younger and they are very much into making today's quilts. They keep very much on top of what is happening. I'm also in three guilds in the area, the Landrum Guild, the Ashville Guild, and the Western North Carolina Quilters Guild. I can't go to all the meetings because of traveling and other obligations, which is frustrating, but I do keep up with what is happening in the guilds. I think that the guilds are having a hard time across the country right now and I don't know why exactly, whether it is the size, whether they are going to large, or whether the new people that are being voted in are not listening to what is happening with what the people that have formed the guilds have done, whether they are not including them, I'm not sure what is happening. I don't know if you find that is true, Karen. KM: I do, I really do. I do think this is just, I personally have not been able to figure out what it is. GB: Right, I haven't either, but there are things that are happening and I think they are going to have to work a little bit harder on making it come out okay. Things are happening in the guilds. KM: What other changes do you see changing within the quilt world? GB: I guess, one of the biggest things that is happening today is the hand quilting versus machine quilting. I think everyone is talking about it. KM: You have the extension of that, which is longarm quilting. GB: Yes, and the longarm too, so there are the three things, and I don't--I'd prefer not naming names, but I know that one of the quilts that just got rejected for the upcoming AQS show, one of the comments was I can't believe this quilt was rejected because I spent so long hand quilting it. In defense of machine quilting, I think it is, it takes longer to hand quilt, but it is equally challenging to machine quilt some of these quilts and now to compete in the machine quilting you have to really go on another level, I mean it is difficult too, so I don't know why. I sometimes question where it is all going, because it is like, it is making it very different in the quilt world. KM: I think that technology is definitely impacting in a very big way. GB: Yes. KM: In the quilt world. GB: Yes. You have to understand that the people that are making sewing machines, they have put forth all of these opportunities for us and they realize that young people in schools today are very much tech people and so what they are hoping is that this will cross over to sewing machines and so then the new field of people coming out there are challenged to sew and make these things that are going to be awesome and then the people that have done all the hand quilting are saying, ‘well I can't do that.' Maybe it has something to do with the people that are crossing over from slide presentations to PowerPoint presentations. That has become challenging in of itself and now even the people that are doing PowerPoint are being challenged cause if they are taking all of their equipment with them and in many cases they can't take it on board an airplane anymore. They can't take their batteries anymore. I mean it is like where do we go from here, it is difficult. KM: It is evolving. GB: It is evolving. KM: That is what I keep saying to people, it is evolving. GB: It is evolving; right you have to hang in there with it. The bottom line is that it is still very exciting. I just came from an all day experience in a small community way up in northern North Carolina up near Sparta and Wilkesboro. I just had the most glorious day. I talked for four and a half hours and I took a carload of my quilts and to see those happy faces out there, to hear my story, and I have fun stories that went with all of my quilts and stories that related to my parents and to my mother helping me rip out things that were wrong and. My sweet mother, who has been gone now for three years, she spent a week ripping out the first quilt that we ever put on a longarm quilting machine because, and I can't remember whether we had the wrong color thread or the wrong pattern, but she ripped it out and when I picked it up from her, she told me, she was serious about this, she said, ‘I think you can give this sort of quilt to anyone that has been locked up in jail on drugs.' KM: [laughs.] GB: They would never do drugs again. [laughs.] KM: [laughs.] GB: I just loved it. Anyway. KM: Give me timeframe. GB: That was probably five years ago. My mother has been gone three. KM: Okay. GB: Three years, it was about five years ago, and she helped me in so many ways. She was just a good sounding board and oh I miss her so much. She was with it right up to the end and she happened to have a bad fall in her house and broke her collar bone and her shoulder and she gave up. At the end, the last two or three years, she knew it was a struggle to live. She was in a lot of pain, and she was on a lot of pain medicine, but it was a joy to have her close by, it really was, both of my parents. Getting back to my wonderful day in Wellsboro, the day was culminated by a wonderful thing that happened. I had designed a modern teapot quilt for their group. The Sparta Quilt guild pieced this quilt and then had it machine quilted. I had not seen the results and everyone was so excited. I hope this quilt will get some good visual coverage. I hope they will exhibit it in Houston and it will hopefully end up in the museum that they are building up in Sparta, North Carolina. It is a modern quilt and they learned to use my grid grip. I gave them a couple of lessons. They came down here to my studio and then we met in Hickory one day and I gave them lessons on how to use the grid freezer paper and that is how they pieced this quilt, and they said they couldn't have done it without that, and that was a really exciting thing for me to see the end results of that quilt. KM: Tell me about grid freezer paper. GB: Grid Grip. Years ago, I mean this was a long time ago, I would say probably about 1980, '82, someone came to one of my classes and said they read in Quilter's Newsletter that freezer paper with a dry iron will attach to fabric. I said, you have got to be kidding, I mean up until then we had gone from cardboard templates and window templates to plastic templates and I was always frustrated with drawing around a template and I knew there was a way to go a little bit faster in the quilt world. I went over to the hardware side of the store and got a roll of freezer paper. I started working with it and designing on it. It wasn't very long, a month or so, I realized what I needed to continual quarter inch grid on this freezer paper. I need something printed on this. I contacted James River Corporation up in, I thought this was always pretty clever, Parchment, Michigan. [KM laughs.] Isn't that cool? KM: Yeah, that is cool. GB: I bugged the president so long, and I would say listen I've got an idea for you, you've got to do this. He said, ‘Okay I've got a private jet. I'm going to fly down.' He came to our little hardware store and spent a couple of hours with me and I said, here is why, and I showed him why and so they printed a continuous quarter inch grid on rolls of freezer paper and we sold it that way. They would provide it and I would sell it and he would get a little bit of money. I would get a little bit of money and we sold it about two years that way and finally he called me one day and said, ‘Listen this is too much trouble. We are just going to give you the trademark and hand it over to you.' I said, ‘Are you sure you don't want to continue doing this?' I said, ‘You know the nice thing about it is that people still freeze their meat with freezer paper and now they could measure the amount of meat they are freezing.' [KM laughs.] He didn't think that was funny. Then we had for about five years, I had to, I had the rights for this, and then Pete and I would continue doing it, but instead of being on rolls we found a web press up in Waynesville, North Carolina where we would have it printed and it was difficult to do. It was not easy. We would have to order these huge rolls of freezer paper and then we would take it up there in a big truck we would rent and we did that for about five years and finally it is no longer done that way. It is done by Prym Dritz Corporation.. So I sell it and still have an interest in it, but Prym Dritz makes continuous freezer paper that has a quarter inch grid on it, so you can design on it. You have a design tool and a template at the same time, and you can, that is what I use and that is what a lot of people use. In fact, I just sold some to a lady up in Canada. Not everyone knows about it, but yet if you talk to people like Ricky Tims and Caryl Bryer Fallert, they are designing their quilts with freezer paper. The reason the grid for me is so good and for teaching is that the grid is synonymous with the grain line of fabric, so if you design a block with Grid Grip and you code it properly, cut it out and then you iron it on fabric, so that you always align the grid, the straight line with the grain line of the fabric so that you never have bias edges on a block or on a design that you are doing and that is the beauty in what you are working with if you have a grid on it. KM: How do you want to be remembered? GB: Oh my, I told my group in Wilkesboro, someone asked me that or I guess it came up in the course of my conversation, and I said I guess I will always be remembered for the full proof knot, it was one of the things I taught on one of the very first shows, my full proof knot for quilting and dog ears. I don't think anyone has come up with, when you cut off the extension of a triangle, those little things fall off and I have always called them dog ears, but that is kind of in jest, but I think what I would love to be remembered for is probably the comment that people say when they saw me doing patchwork on TV is like, well I can do that, if she can do that, I can do that. I guess that is what I would like to be remembered, that I'm really basically an ordinary quilter that was able to transcribe the fun, the excitement of doing it through a television screen and then many people can say, well I can do that. I guess that is what I would like to be remembered for. You are getting me all very emotional about this Karen. [laughs.] I guess the bottom line is that for many of us quilting is an emotional thing. I guess that is the bottom line. KM: I agree with that. GB: Yes. KM: I do. GB: For what you have done Karen is a wonderful thing. For you to bring that out of so many of us. There is another group that I'm in, it is called The Coffee Clutch group at my store, well I don't have a store anymore, but I do--I'm in touch, I have a little group, a corner down at--it is called My Quilt Shoppe, and there are a group of us that meet once a month and I've turned them onto the Alliance people, they have discovered the Alliance [The Alliance for American Quilts.], the website, and so what you have done is to open up a great window of people that have enjoyed quilting, not only professionally, but other people that have found that world of quilting is just a meaningful part of their lives and we thank you for that. KM: Thank you, it is a meaningful part of my life. It truly is a meaningful part of my life. I think we all have value to the collective. GB: I agree. KM: I don't have professional people who make a living at this, but we have people who don't belong to guilds and just make quilts, and I think that is a wonderful thing. GB: I agree. KM: I want to thank you for taking your time to share. I also want to give you the opportunity to turn to Ami and the ""Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece"" and Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Our involvement in this is a tribute to Ami. GB: Yes I agree. That is the way I feel. Half the reason I did this was that Ami would take this step and do this and go so far with it. We were all so impressed that one day it was the collection, then it was getting around the country, then it was the CD, then it was the book. KM: Now it is a nonprofit. GB: Now it is a nonprofit, I mean it is like there is just no end to it. She hasn't gotten on Oprah yet, but we know she will still be on, that is all there is to it, that is going to be her last step. [laughs.] KM: I think the whole thing is that this is a real tribute to what quiltmaking can do. GB: I agree. KM: Quiltmaking, I think quiltmaking is a changing force and that is what excites me. GB: Right, and even non-quilters who see this exhibit, then they can be turned on to quilting and say, well my goodness look at what that has been done and then they can make a quilt for a cause within their family. It works both ways. KM: It is a win, win for everyone. GB: That is right. KM: Thank you so much for taking your time. GB: You are welcome Karen. The best of luck to you. I hope our paths cross again one of these days. KM: I know they will because I will be at Quilters Hall of Fame again. GB: Okay, we will see you there. KM: Thank you.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Kim Greene",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=AFPBP-33.xml,audio,3/7/08,,,,,,"Meg Cox",,,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/2277a49756878595e35d3dedc96902e4.jpg,"Oral History","Alzheimers Forgetting Piece by Piece QSOS",1,0 "Susan Shie",,"In this interview, Susan Shie discusses at length her quilt ""The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot,"" one in her series of quilts based on tarot cards. This and other of her quilts feature political imagery from the 2008 presidential election. Her support of Barack Obama and the quilt she made featuring him in its imagery are important to understand her perspective on this time period. She also discusses her family, her interest in quilting, and her environmental advocacy. ",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",BOQ-003,,,"Karen Musgrave","Susan Shie","Wooster, Ohio","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.
Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Susan Shie. Susan is in Wooster, Ohio and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today's date is December 15, 2008. It is now 10:18 in the morning, and Susan, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me. Susan Shie (SS): Thank you, Karen. KM: Please tell me about the quilt you selected for the interview, which is ""The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot."" SS: Well I've been doing this series on the ""Kitchen Tarot"" since 1998, and at the beginning and for a long time, the deck wasn't political, and then in 2007 my interest moved to politics a lot more. I'd been getting more political again, but it just got to be more and more so that it was in the work. By 2007 I was putting Obama in my Kitchen Tarot pieces. The deck is 22 major cards now, and I've just begun the 56 minor cards of the 78 total deck. This piece is probably my favorite of the Obama pieces. ""The Potluck"" is my choice for the Kitchen Tarot to represent the World card in the traditional tarot deck, and the concept is Obama and Clinton during the primary election this year, bringing their gifts to the table that is a conceptual potluck meal of national and international, especially international people, because the whole world was watching, not just our presidential election, but also our primary election, and wondering what was going to happen with this Democratic party. And so this piece which, like always in my work, is a spontaneously planned, and then drawn and then written image, became Obama and Clinton carrying in their donations to a potluck meal. As you look at the quilt, at the bottom is a large table with plates set on it for countries around the world. It's not a totally encompassing collection of names of countries. It's just as I thought them up as I worked. Sitting on the table is my archetype figure St Quilta the Comforter, who is becoming more and more important to me, as the world needs more and more healing. She is sort of the hostess of the conceptual potluck, and she is holding a huge bowl of something I've used a lot in my work, which is Peace Porridge. Above her in the very center of the piece is a kitchen sink, and that represents a situation where we are putting in everything, that every effort is needed here. It's like we are getting out the big guns in the kitchen. My image for the big guns is the kitchen sink, because of that old cliché of using everything but the kitchen sink, where here we are using that, too. In fact this card almost was called ""The Kitchen Sink,"" but I decided I really like this concept of a potluck meal and everyone coming together. I didn't want to make this piece be all about Obama. I supported Obama right from the beginning, but I wanted to show this neck-and-neck energy of Obama and Clinton as they progressed through the primary. This piece was made from the beginning of January until the beginning of April in 2008. The primary [race] was not really changing during that time. Nobody was getting ahead significantly. We didn't know who was going to win, and so I put them as equals in this piece, just because these energies are both coming in, and the world is looking at both of them, and we don't know which one is going to take over the Democratic candidacy - let alone which one might become president. I use pies in my work as a symbol for blessings or gifts, and I decided that that is what they would carry in. Obama's pie has the word ""Hope"" written on it, because that was one of his big things, and for Clinton I put ""Faith"" on her pie, because I thought it didn't represent her as a religious icon to people, but rather showed how people have faith in her, her reputation. They knew who she was. They had a lot of faith in her as a woman, as someone bringing things that they could expect. Whereas with Obama, his energy is about change and hope. They are bringing this stuff in, and they really are the only people in the piece except St. Quilta, and two little blessing figures on the wolves that I will get back to, and in the center between Obama and Clinton there is a window. This window has shutters on it, and the figure standing in the window is the image that I brought from the traditional tarot deck World card. Many artists of my Baby Boomer generation have created tarot decks, using their own themes, but they usually reference this classic Waite-Rider deck from the early part of the 20th century. The World card has this figure standing in this position within sort of a frame, and here it became a window. The figure here has that exact pose, but she's holding two wooden spoons, and she's wearing a chef's apron which has the title of the piece on it: ""Card #21 The Kitchen Tarot,"" which is the subtitle. After I painted that large World figure [and I'm drawing with airbrush, very spontaneously.], after I drew her I realized that it looked like my granddaughter who is now four years old, but she was three and a half then. It's a little bit more adult version of her, but I thought this face is more like my granddaughter than often when I attempt drawing Eva. In the end this figure became my ""Obama Girl,"" and I don't know if you know anything about the sort of cultural icon Obama Girl, but there is a young woman who has done a lot of YouTube videos as ""Obama Girl,"" who became sort of a superhero who was doing things to promote Obama. It was all tongue-in-cheek stuff. It was playful, and it was fun, but there was a sexual overtone to it. When I made Eva into the ""Obama Girl,"" I thought, 'Oh no. This maybe isn't good, because I don't want a sexual overtone with my granddaughter obviously.' But I realized at that point in thinking, that ""Obama Girl"" is not just this woman who is doing the YouTube videos with the sexual overtone. ""Obama Girl"" is any woman who is supporting Obama, and when you read the text of this very large quilt (it's 85 inches by 76 inches), you will find out pretty fast that my leaning is very much toward Obama, not toward Clinton, but it is not there in the overall visual images. What I'm saying about the ""Obama Girl"" is that my granddaughter who is four is an ""Obama Girl."" My next door neighbor Olga who is one hundred, now she is one hundred and one, she is an ""Obama Girl."" And anybody in between, anybody can be an ""Obama Girl."" It is just someone who is a woman who is supporting Obama, not buying into that idea, that if you are a feminist, you have to support Clinton. KM: Tell me about why making Obama art is important to you? SS: Because I'm a storyteller, but I'm not anymore just a personal storyteller, I am doing a mixture of diary and social commentary. And I guess back in 2003 there was this shift in my work, from just personal diaries, from a lot of writing on my work about my own life and lives of people around me, and sort of overall cultural events in my life, to opening up to the political issues again. I was making a piece for an exhibition of political art, for which I was invited by the curator. To everybody who was tapped for this show, the curator said, 'I'm not going to censor anything you say.' And this was around the time we were getting ready to go into Iraq the second time, the beginning of 2003. She promised that our work would be hung regardless of what we did. This was license to just open up, and as I opened up, and I was writing about things off the top of my head, and it was a very political piece, I realized in my writing that I had kind of shut down after the killings at Kent State. I wasn't in the crowd at Kent State, when the killings happened in 1970, but I was there the weekend before, when all the trouble started with the students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, with the National Guard there on campus, and I'd just found out I was pregnant. I'd gone to school there in '68 and had dropped out and gotten married. And this was now 1970, and we were on campus, visiting my brother, and I really did not want to lose my baby to tear gas. But we couldn't get out, and they wouldn't let anybody leave campus. I left the next day, the Saturday before the killings happened on Monday, and I knew something really bad was going to happen. And I know that, had I stayed in school during that time, I probably would have been out on that hill protesting that Monday, because as a freshman there, I had joined SDS (Students for Democratic Society), and I had been involved in sit-ins and teach-ins and protests, war protests and protesting the Oakland Police coming to Kent State to recruit from our police academy. A lot of stuff back in 1968, but I'd dropped out and gotten married. When those kids got killed, a lot of people like me sort of gave up for a while about politics, because the message we got was: if you talked your politics, if you did something about it, they might shoot you. They might kill you, and I think that was the message that they wanted us to get. I went underground for a while. I focused on my family, on my baby girl, Gretchen. I didn't get depressed so much about politics. I just disconnected from a lot of that stuff. I did what I could, but I didn't go out and march anymore, and things like that. I was amazed when the war ended, because the protesting had actually turned people around, to understand that we had to save the Vietnamese people. We had to save the American soldiers. We had to get out of that war. But anyway as I was working on this piece in 2003, I realized that I had shut up about my politics, and I realized that if all of us who had these strong feelings weren't presenting them in our own little personal bully pulpits in our own artwork, then we aren't helping. And I decided at that point that my work would become political again. I had been excited about Obama since I saw him give his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. So I had known about Obama for a while, and in 2007 a friend of mine told me that she thought that Obama and the Dalai Lama had a lot in common. And so I got to thinking about that and I made a piece called ""Olama: Two Guys and a Pie,"" and that became my first Obama piece in which I did a lot of research about him. I went to Wikipedia, read his whole biography and did a lot of note taking, and ended up making this very large piece about both of them. When he decided to run for president I just started documenting everything he was doing, and of course a lot of people became pretty much fixated on what he was up to, and I was one of them. And since my work is all about my personal feelings and what I am focused on right now, that just came out in my writing and also in my imagery. KM: What are your plans for ""The Potluck/World""? SS: It's been in several exhibitions already. The next thing it's going to is the Obama Quilters exhibition, that Sue Walen is doing at Montgomery University's Cafritz Center in Silver Spring, Maryland in February and March 2009. That's a challenge quilt exhibition that she started out with forty people, and I think she might be up to sixty. She invited people to contact her, if they wanted to make a piece or had a piece about Obama, and it would be shown, or they'd try to show it in the space they have. I've submitted three pieces for that, knowing that they may not all be shown, especially since my pieces are pretty large. But I'm very excited about that show. Also, ""The Potluck"" is part of my ""Kitchen Tarot"" series so it's going to be part of a deck of twenty-two cards, the actual tarot cards in a deck of major cards called ""The Kitchen Tarot."" However from my ""Kitchen Tarot"" actual deck, I've decided to crop down my pictures to keep the politics out of it, because you don't know who is doing the tarot reading, but traditionally it is not a political thing. So this deck started out in 1998. It was totally apolitical then, and now it's gotten extremely political, and I'm using the magic of Photoshop to crop each political piece down to a good composition of not-political imagery. That works for me, and in a 3½ by 5 inch image card you can't read any of my tiny airpen writing, which is political. I use an airpen and fabric paint to write all over my work, but it is like the size of writing you do in a letter, if you're writing a letter on paper to someone. If you shrink it down from this larger size, the lettering becomes little lines of patterns rather than legible writing. You can't tell there's political stuff in the writing anymore, at that size. It's a form of sabotage to me because it is a very political thing, but hopefully they won't even notice that in the tarot cards, because they won't be able to read the super-tiny writing. Obama and Clinton are cropped out of the Potluck piece for the tarot deck card, and the only thing of this piece that's going to be left of my full quilt in that tarot card is that central figure in the window, which is also in the tradition deck. That's what you'll see in that card: that central figure. This decision allowed me to realize that I could go on doing very political work and my tarot cards, though there was a point where I was afraid that I was going to have to quit doing the tarot deck, because I wasn't going to quit doing the Obama work. I plan to keep doing Obama in my imagery and in my writing as long as he is active in politics. So I thought maybe I have to stop the Kitchen Tarot work now, having made the twenty-two major cards as quilts. After ten years maybe I would stop and just do the more political art. But I really do want to keep going with the Kitchen Tarot, too, so the cropping tool in Photoshop will be actively used to keep the deck apolitical visually. Then if people come and see my work on my website, who are brought into it from ""The Kitchen Tarot,"" they will find out what I'm up to otherwise. KM: What is your website? SS: www.turtlemoon.com. Shie’s Interest in Quilt Making KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. SS: I had a mother who was raised Mennonite, who had roots in the Amish culture. Her grandfather and grandmother jumped over and became Mennonites, so she was raised Mennonite. She and her mother made all their family's clothes and the quilts and things like that. I grew up as a little girl going to church with her on Wednesdays once a month to the Ladies Aid Society at East Chippewa Church of the Brethren, which is a church very similar to the Mennonites. I used to go to this little church near Smithville, Ohio, where at Ladies' Aid, all the women sat around a quilt frame and talked and gossiped and laughed and worked on these quilts to raise money for service work that the church did, outreach to help people, disaster relief, etc. I remember sitting under the quilt frame and watching the left hands and some people's right hands, the hand that is underneath to tell where the quilting is going, to tell when the needle comes down through. I would wonder how on earth they could sew when their hands were holding still. I'm sitting under there like a little kid sitting under a tent. That is my first memory of quilting. As I grew up, I learned to sew as a little girl and made all my clothes with my mother. She made my clothes up through high school, and then I took over, but I made my doll clothes and things that I wanted to make. I took 4-H and home ec and all that, and I was painting as a little girl and doing a lot of writing as a little girl. I worked with clay, too. Later, these things all came together in my art work when I was in college as an art student. In college in the late 70s, a woman named Miriam Schapiro came to my school, the College of Wooster, and did a residency a couple of times, and both times I interacted with her a lot. She was a feminist, and she was running around the country giving lectures, meeting women artists and telling them to take what they are learning from their mothers and put that in their art work if they want to make a feminist statement. She was making the point that all of this beautiful art work we made was art. It wasn't just women's work. I, as a painter, decided to start sewing my paintings. We didn't have the term art quilt back then. This was the late seventies. There wasn't the term art quilt until the mid-eighties. I didn't quite know what to call them. I just called them paintings. I got permission from my prof to stop working on stretched canvas, and that way the other benefit was: I was able to take the work home rolled up in a bag and work on it and bring it back, instead of having to drag a huge, stretched canvas around, which I couldn't do. I had the joy of being able to merge all of these things that I had done since I was a little girl - painting, sewing, writing, and work with clay, while I was embellishing my work quite a bit with clay and beadings. I've gotten away from that now. I'm really back kind of full circle to the paintings, and the only thing different from what I was doing back in my junior high days in my bedroom with the canvas, is that now I'm working on a lighter weight cotton. And I'm merging my sewing and my writing into my paintings. I feel really good about this, because it's like this one form is connecting all of these energies that I like to work with. I'm making what I consider to be time capsules now. If I pull out a quilt from, let's say 2006, and start reading it, it would bring back all of these memories as if I were reading a diary. When I write on my work I'm never copying from a diary. People get that idea, but I'm writing off the top of my head, exactly what is on my mind right then, and I date my entries a lot of times. Almost always. Later on they become interesting to just pop in and look at, but I couldn't stand reading the whole thing at once, nor could I ever stand to do a transcript of one of them. I've had a few art historians get kind of upset with me, because I don't make a transcript of my work. What has become my habit, to make up for that, is that I write notes about what I write. Let's say I write for a half hour with my airpen, and then I turn around, and I have a piece of paper there, and I write down a little sentence about what I just wrote about on the painting. It's a list of the topics that are in that particular art quilt painting. So I can go back now with my newer pieces, and I can reference their topics. I can say, 'Well, this is what was going on, and this is what was going on, and this happened, and I wrote about this.' But that is as close as I'm going to get to doing a transcript, because the time to make a transcript would be the time I could be making some art. That is not going to happen for me. I spend enough time on paperwork! Shie’s Quilting Progress KM: Tell me about the quilting part, the process for you. SS: For a long time I was hand sewing all my quilts from the late seventies on, and then I had a few attempts at machine quilting in 1990, when my husband, Jimmy, and I finally got married after fourteen years. I'd gotten a new sewing machine after our wedding, and I decided to use the sewing machine on my quilts. I thought it would make them go faster, but that was a real failed experiment, because the machine sewing seemed so flat, and I was into dimension. I wanted really beautiful sewing with a good texture, so I pretty much stayed away from machine quilting for a long time. Then in '03, in the beginning of the year, I started working with an airpen, and all my painting life, since I was a child, I had tried to make very sharp, very crisp lines with a brush and had always failed. I never could find anything in the way of a pen or brush of any kind that made thin lines that I liked on a painting. At the end of '02, Jimmy got me an airpen. [www.silkpaint.com.] I didn't know anything about it, and in '03 I started working with that and started to learn to make it behave. It took me about a year to make it work well with the fabric paint. It's a tricky instrument! Now I teach it. I've been teaching it for about five years now in my classes, along with my airbrush and brush painting and quilting work. Anyway, this airpen changed things to the point where I could quit hand sewing over my writing in my quilts, because the crispy little line writing that I could do with the airpen is very rich and very black and very permanent, because it's pigment paint. Now I had the problem that my background hand stitching was getting in the way of my writing. The stitching was too big and causing the writing to be overshadowed, so I decided that maybe it was time for me to go to machine quilting. In '04 I started to. I backed off from hand quilting slowly first, because I'd been doing very elaborate, very dense quilting and a lot of beading, but by '04 I started to back off, to the point where I didn't even want to use the beads anymore. Starting in late 2004, I was taking care of my baby granddaughter for a year and a half, and by 2006 my fingertips were getting very numb. I understand now that part of what was causing it probably was caffeine. Now I know I can't tolerate caffeine very well, and when I have chocolate or especially coffee or caffeinated tea, I get this numbness in my fingers that keeps them from functioning very well for hand work. I think the numbness came from too much hand sewing, too!! So that was kind of a blessing in disguise. It pushed me to going over to the machine sewing. When I had first started to machine sew in 2004 my friends all told me I couldn't do that, the big part of my work was the beading and the hand stitching. I really didn't want to believe that, but it was a lot of peer pressure that seems to be effective with most of us. I was confused about it for a while, but the fingertips' numbness pushed me to switch sewing methods. By 2005 in the middle of the year I had made my first really large piece with the machine quilting and it was sold into John M. Walsh, III's art quilt collection, which was a green light for me. I just decided he could have had any of my quilts he wanted, but he chose that one, so it's all about the painting and the writing, it's not about the sewing and that was it. After that piece I started putting one line of hand stitching all the way around the border edge of all my machine sewn pieces. It is a little nod to my old hand sewing, and it also helps the border edge lay a little flatter, but it is mainly a little bit of an excuse for me to do some hand sewing, and it is just enough. There is no beading in these. I sew one little Buddha boy bead on the corner of each piece, and for a while I've had a little Buddha girl bead that I sew with the Buddha boy. The Buddha boy, I call him my green temple Buddha boy, I put one on each quilt. They are plastic beads from a bead store in Santa Barbara, California, called Beads, and they are just a little, maybe one inch tall, maybe less, green Buddha sitting in lotus style. I started out with 77 of them, when I bought all they had, when I was in the store. I thought I would have this series of 77 pieces with this one bead on them, but as I got near the end of them, I called the store, and I ended up with 200 more of them, and I think I can get more. I can keep making quilts with Buddha boys on them for a long time. It is a little blessing bead and also to me, it is a little bit humorous that you want beads on my work? Okay, here is a bead, but you only get this one. [laughs.] KM: [laughs.] That is cute. SS: He is always there. The Buddha Boy is always that little blessing guy, down in the corner of my work. I want to go back to the Potluck piece just really quick, because I never really talked about the wolves on that and the Buddha girls that are sitting on them. There is just a little more imagery there that I would like to talk about, if that's okay. KM: Sure. SS: There are two wolves, and they're big and they're on a table, and they're yellow dogs. That's another little secret: that the wolves are yellow dog Democrats - someone who would rather vote for a yellow dog than vote for a Republican. So, the yellow dog wolves. One of them says Trust on its body and the other one says Tolerance on its body. They are the guardians of the potluck. They are there to make sure when the world comes together for this potluck, there will be trust and tolerance. Each one of them has a little Buddha girl sitting on its back with a peace symbol on it. She's radiating peace energy. Also there are shutters on the door, or the window that the World figure's in, that Eva figure. On the shutters there are little heads of people in rainbow colors, each one a color of the rainbow, and that's the idea of incorporating people from all of the world, and all races and all cultures coming to this potluck thing. There are six fortune cookies on this piece. Six is a number for success, and I've always loved putting fortune cookies into my work, way back to my early college days. So I put six of them into Potluck, and they ended up, most of their writings are transcripts here. There's a breaking of my own little rule, of not copying things! I was so impressed with Caroline Kennedy's op-ed letter to the New York Times, endorsing Obama for president. On the first fortune cookie I tried to paraphrase, by using some ellipses, leaving out other parts of this letter. And then I realized I could continue this letter on the other fortune cookies. So you progress reading through the fortune cookies, and you read her entire op-ed letter through that. That was sort of a good luck thing for Obama [using fortune cookies for images, as I think of them as good luck symbols.]. Around the large figure in the window there are four symbols in the corners. If you look at the top left corner and go around the corners clockwise, there's a paring knife—and that is my image I’m going to be using as the minor cards of the kitchen tarot and I'm going to have paring knifes instead of swords. Then in the top right have a green pyrex measuring cups and they will be my symbol for the cup suit in my kitchen tarot. As you look at the bottom right there’s a wooden spoon: my symbol for the wand and the bottom left corner there’s a potholder. I’m going to be using potholders as my icon for the for the symbols of coins. KM: Why do you think quiltmakers are embracing Obama so greatly? SS: First of all, I think it is more art quilters than traditional quilters, and there is a difference there. I think that art quilters tend to be more funky, more liberal, probably a lot more Democrat. Traditional quilters are often more conservative, not saying anything bad about traditional quilters. Remember that my mother and grandmother were traditional quilts, but my mom would be an Obama Girl, no doubt. [both laugh.] And my dad would love Obama, too! But anyway, I think traditional quilters aren't telling literal stories in their work for the most part. That is another big difference. They are usually working with beautiful patterns and patchwork or appliqué. They're focusing on the beauty of the image and not telling a story of any kind. I know there are exceptions to that, but that is just a stereotype that I'm throwing out for making this reason. Also it's interesting that when Vicky Mangum sent out a call for quilts for a political exhibition at the International Quilt Festival this last fall. I think it was called ""Political Patchwork."" KM: Yes it was. SS: She sent out calls for quilts and she wanted this to be shown right before the election, and she wanted to have a full representation of both sides. She wanted Republican. She wanted stuff from the primary elections and everything, and her problem was she couldn't find any McCain quilts. And she says to me, 'Where can I get a hold of somebody who is doing a McCain quilt?' I told her that I haven't seen any art quilters doing McCain quilts, and I think this tells you something about these art quilters. They tend to be liberal people who are artists first and quilters second. And they tend to be liberal. So you're going to have a hard time finding McCain art quilters. Maybe there are traditional quilters who are making them. Maybe she found something in the end. I didn't go to Festival, so I didn't see the exhibition. I don't know what she had there, but I just remember that very distinctly that she couldn't find McCain quilters and could find a lot of Obama quilters. I think we are risk takers, people who are interested in forward thinking, we are liberal, some of us are even radical, and we just naturally fall in line with Obama and his energy. KM: You recently moved to using bamboo batting. Tell me a little bit about bamboo batting and why you like it. SS: Just a real quick throw back to why I'm interested in green stuff, or to show that I was, I guess. In 1989 I started a project called The Green Quilts Project, which was an international project for fifteen years in the end. In the beginning I thought it would be forever, but I wore out, and in 2004 I ended it. But you can still find it on my website. There's a link from the bottom of any page on my website to The Green Quilts Project. It stopped in 2004, but you can read some of its history there. My best friend, Robin Schwalb, who's an art quilter from New York City, and I worked on the project together for those fifteen years. Robin made optional hand silk screened labels for the quilts, and you could also make your own labels. We have a big archive of slides of the work. The idea was to use quilting energy in a cosmic sense, as a metaphor, as mental, emotional energy to help heal the world. You'd make your quilt and you didn't have anyone judge whether or not it was a Green Quilt. You'd decide that yourself. So the idea was to incorporate prayer, meditation, energy, whatever you wanted to call it, for healing of the earth, into the making your piece. Most of those quilts were storytelling quilts. It just naturally was that way, there were a few people who put in patchwork, abstract, or geometric quilts, but for the most part they were something that you could look at, and you could tell what was up from the imagery. You could work on anything from the earth in general, down to even a specific person or animal that you wanted to have healing for, or for a species, or for water or air. It could be anything involving the microcosm or the macrocosm of the earth. I quit doing the Green Quilts project in 2004, simply because most of the people who were going to make a Green Quilt had done it. Some artists made a bunch of pieces for the project, but many sent one or two images in slides. it was getting old and I was running out of steam. Like you say: we do too much multitasking. Then we try to simplify, so I ended the project. Fast forward now to 2007. I guess it was this last year, and I was asked to test this bamboo batting that Fairfield Processing was coming out with, because they had read about my Green Quilts Project somewhere and thought I would be a good person to be one of the testers. I just really leaped on this, because I was so excited to have a product that would be more user friendly for the earth. I was using polyester batting before that for a long time, but when I switched to machine quilting, I could go to cotton batting because, even though it was dryer and it would drag, it didn't matter with machine work. I wasn't hand stitching any more, so I had gone over to a cotton batting. Anyway I tested this bamboo batting for them, and I loved it. They had one hundred percent bamboo, they had a batting that was eighty percent bamboo and twenty percent organic cotton, and one that was fifty/fifty bamboo and cotton. And they all handled about the same. It was really interesting. I think that the difference would be: if you had the one hundred percent bamboo, you probably would see no creasing in your quilts after they were folded and unfolded, because bamboo is so flexible, and it bends over, and it unbends so well. This bamboo batting is also interesting, because my husband is an avid fly fisherman and he only fishes with bamboo rods that people he knows make. They are just sort of the snob culture of the elitists of fly fishing, and they're really into these lovely works of art in themselves, these bamboo rods. They're nothing like the ones where you take a piece of bamboo, and you fish with it. It is a whole composition, reconstruction of the bamboo, and it is amazing. But anyway, this was also a way for me to have another connection to my husband. He's working with bamboo, I'm working with bamboo. So that's great. Here are the cool things about the bamboo in terms of the earth. Bamboo is extremely fast growing, probably the fastest growing grass in the world and it's a cross between a grass and a tree, and they can make fiber out of it after one growing season. The thing that I also love about it, like I said, it folds over and doesn't crease like cotton does. Cotton is really crease problematic. You can quilt this stuff six to eight inches apart, which I don't do, but that just shows you how this stuff isn't going to crumble like cotton would. It really holds together well. It is slippery, the needle goes in and out of it very nicely compared to cotton. So the fifty/fifty product that they came out with was a little bit creasy, a little bit of a drag on your needle, but not nearly as much as with cotton batting. I just love that it's renewable and it's naturally anti-bacterial. So they don't put any crud on these batts, don't add any chemical stuff to make it anti-bacterial, which is what they were doing with polyester for a long time. I don't know if they still are. One thing they need to do is to make sure they're getting the bamboo from a fair trade commitment with some farmers who are doing some holistic work with their farming, so they aren't raping the earth. I think we are not there yet. I think China especially is mono-cropping its bamboo, which is really very harmful to the environment. Whenever you mono-crop anything in a big way it is not good. Animals don't eat bamboo, so it is harmful to the ecosystem to only have bamboo growing. I hope they can come up with somebody who is going to grow the bamboo responsibly and be more conscientious of farming a variety of crops together. I'm not a farmer, so I don't have the answers on that. I just know I love working with bamboo batting, and it makes me feel that it's a lot better statement. I also wish somebody would invent some fabric paint that is not petroleum plastic based, because now all we have to work with are fabric paints that work really well, are very beautiful and easy to handle, but they are chemically nasty. And we need something: we need some organic fabric paints, if that's ever going to be possible. In the meantime, I always lecture my students about using up all their paint, wiping their brushes on rags, not on paper towels, not sloshing brushes around in water to clean them, and trying to keep as much of the paint as possible from going back into the water supply which is something that as children we were never taught. I also lecture my students a lot about using a respirator when they're working with the airbrush or they're heat setting any of their fabric paints. They should use a respirator when they are working with any art supplies that have chemical changes that go on or that have fumes. I've been sort of the queen of respirator advocacy since the late '70s I guess, when I was kind of treated like a nit-wit for suggesting to artists that you should wear a respirator. Luckily now it's become a lot more acceptable among students. They are giving it a lot more, they are working with toxins. Less toxins you have to work with the better and I look forward to eco friendly art products becoming a trend more, not just bamboo batting and not just recycled paper. KM: How do you want to be remembered? SS: It's really interesting. I've thought about that a lot because I have such a hard time transitioning from the woman who is known for all the hand work and the beading, to the woman who is hopefully known for the stories and the images of the stories. I've decided that I don't need for anybody to remember that I did all that intense hand sewing or all that beautiful beading. I want those pieces to be saved and archived and remembered, but I want to be remembered as an artist who told stories that made a difference in the world, that helped improve the world. That's what I care about the most for my art. KM: Excellent. Is there anything that you would like to share that I haven't touched upon? SS: No, just that anybody interested in my work can go to my site. I try to keep all my new work posted in the gallery of my website, www.turtlemoon.com if you don't remember the website name just Google ""Susan Shie website"" and it will come up. It's Turtle Moon Studios. I teach at my home and I teach around the world. I teach really strange, but exciting art camps at my house in a program that I describe as a biosphere, where up to five students come and live with my husband and me for a week at a time. We have a five day class that is bracketed by the two travel days. Each student has their own bedroom at our house, and we work in our home studios, with 24 hour access. My home's the only place where I teach airbrush, which is too big and bulky equipment for me to take to other places. And I can't work with a large group of students with airbrush, because it requires too much one-on-one for that. You come here and learn airbrush, airpen, and regular brush painting. And you learn the most important thing that I teach: that everyone is an artist, and that you can draw, and you can write, and you can paint - even though you were probably told, when you were a small child, that you couldn't do those things. Somewhere in between small child and adult, you gave up on drawing, and my message is that drawing is an acquired skill, just like any other acquired skill, like playing piano. I want people to learn that they can express themselves, and they can make art that is valid. And it just happens that I use airpen, airbrush, brush painting, and writing to help you learn that, but it could be a lot of things. I want to be known as the person who helped a lot of people realize their own artist selves and become able to spontaneously work without being so judgmental of themselves. KM: Tell me about your garage door. SS: [laughs.] I haven't put it on my website yet. I have to do that really soon. That is the biggest painting that I have made since I made the high school prom murals that I watched being burned on a bonfire after the prom. [laughs.] It was quite a shock. I think those murals were nine feet tall and I think this one, I haven't measured this, but it is a double garage door and I think it is seventeen feet plus all the frame work around. You know, there is a big frame around the door. I painted that too, so I think in the end it is about eight feet tall and probably about twenty two feet wide including the frame I painted it with the theme in mind, ""Personal Landscapes,"" because my local artist group, WAGE, which is an acronym for Wayne Artists Group Effort, has that theme for our upcoming show. That is my little artists' support group for my area. The theme for our exhibition coming up this January/February is personal landscapes so my personal landscape is my husband Jimmy and me and our house on one side of the garage door, and it bleeds over to my daughter, Gretchen, her husband Mike and their daughter Eva who live in Lakewood, Ohio, an hour from us right up by Lake Erie, and their house. And all of our cats are in the mural, and the houses, the people, and the cats are entwined. And coming up behind Jimmy and me is a giant Barrack Obama head and he is rising over the horizon like a big sun. And next to him what started out to the chimney on our house, ended up being the Statue of Liberty, who is kind of leaning into Obama. I used the best house paint I could find, and I had these Createx liquid pigments that I had bought years and years ago, that I used to make all my colors out of the white house paint. It is hopefully going to hold up longer than my front door painting did. My front door mural is now sitting inside my breezeway, and I have a new door on my front door that is not a mural. That's the first thing you see on my website: that old door mural. When we took it down and put up a regular house door, lots of people thought we'd moved away, we'd died, or something. When I started painting the Obama mural, people would stop, even the first day when all I had done was draw the outlines of it on with a brush, people would stop and say, 'You don't know me, but I'm so happy to see that you're putting art on your house again. I miss your front door mural so much.' This is a very middle class, sedate neighborhood from the late sixties. It's one of those neighborhoods that doesn't have sidewalks, but now the trees are big, and one generation is moving off to nursing homes or dying, and the next generation is coming in with their little kids. So it's one of those kind of neighbors where it is pretty conservative, to be honest, and I was so amazed that all through the making of this mural, which took me a month, people would stop in or people would yell encouragement from their cars. One time some guy just stopped and yelled, 'Go Obama!' [laughs.] I was really happy to hear that in my neighborhood. It has been really nice, because a lot of people have told me that they are so happy to see the art back. I've had people who assumed that if Obama didn't win, I would paint him out and I said, 'No, no! That's never going to happen.' The other day I had a woman who told me that she just knew I painted him in, after he won the election. I said, 'No, no. He was in the composition from the very beginning and he will stay there.' It's a very upbeat piece, full of words and symbols about peace and love, besides stories about all of us. The writing on it is not done with airpen, which would not work on a vertical surface. You have to use airpen with the work lying flat. I used the smallest hand brush that I could, to do the writing, but I had to write fairly large, because I couldn't get a small enough line for tiny writing. And I decided not to use black paint, because I didn't want to make the mural get really dark. So the writing is in colors. They are just enough darker than the background color they're on, that they show up. The weirdest thing about it is that the mural kind of glows, like in the evening and at night when lights hit it, or even walking past it in the daytime. It's got this glow I really can't understand, that must come from this white house paint I used. It's glowing out through the colors I mixed into it, but it's a very beautiful glow that makes me feel like it's got the kind of energy that I talked about with The Green Quilts Project, where I said that what we would be creating a conceptual blanket around the earth with these quilts. There would be this layer of energy where each one of these quilts would be like a storage battery, holding all this good energy, and that the earth could tap into that. I feel like that is what my garage mural means to me, that there is this energy there for hope and change and love and peace. A lot of peace symbols all over it because I'm a pro-peace, anti-war person from way back, and that will never change. That is incorporated in the mural. It doesn't hit you over the head, but it's incorporated into what I hope is a very loving image. KM: I think this is a great way to end and I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to do this interview with me. SS: Thank you, Karen, I am so happy to do it. KM: We are going to conclude our interview at 11:08.",,,"50 minutes 47 seconds ",,,,,,,,,,,,"Kim Greene",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=BOQ-003Shie.xml,audio,05/18/2009,," 5.1 Susan Shie BOQ-003 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories Barak Obama Quilt QSOS Quilt Alliance Barack Obama Politics art quilt Tarot cards environmentalism Susan Shie Karen Musgrave 1:|7(66)|9(112)|11(101)|13(50)|17(98)|19(23)|21(120)|22(76)|26(67)|28(79)|30(6)|34(32)|36(48)|40(96)|42(125)|48(19)|54(2)|56(121)|60(11)|62(91)|66(15)|68(83)|72(88)|76(1)|80(18)|84(24)|86(135)|96(8)|98(72)|102(4)|108(2)|108(150)|112(72)|116(9)|120(14)|122(59)|124(170)|128(75)|130(123)|134(88)|136(105)|140(2)|144(36)|146(31)|150(24)|152(67)|154(54)|156(108)|160(9)|162(114) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/BOQ-003-Shie.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Susan Shie. Susan is in Wooster, Ohio and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. telephone ; wooster ohio 40.825455, -81.931970 17 Wooster, Ohio 25 " ; Potluck Quilt/World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot" ; KM: Please tell me about the quilt you selected for the interview, which is " ; The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot." ; Shie describes her quilt " ; The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot," ; one in her series of quilts based on tarot cards. This one features both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton bringing pies to a potluck attended by the world. Shie details some of the imagery, along with the origins of the Kitchen Tarot series. Barack Obama ; Democratic Party ; Hillary Rodham Clinton ; kitchen ; political quilts ; potluck ; presidential election of 2008 ; Saint Quilta the Comforter ; tarot ; tarot cards 17 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/Shie_OH44691-001_Potluck.jpg Potluck Obama/Clinton Quilt 214 Inspiration behind the quilt I didn't want to make this piece be all about Obama. I supported Obama right from the beginning, but I wanted to show this neck-and-neck energy of Obama and Clinton as they progressed through the primary. Shie explains her reasoning for making her Obama pieces and the impact he has made in her life and others. She explains the imagery in the quilt and the importance of the imagery in a traditional tarot deck. Including the imagery and symbolism of the " ; Obama Girl" ; . 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary ; apolitical ; Barack Obama ; faith ; granddaughter ; Hillary Rodham Clinton ; hope ; pie ; politics ; Rider-Waite tarot deck ; sexuality ; tarot cards ; “Obama girl” 17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU " ; Obama Girl" ; video on youtube 506 The Importance of " ; Obama art" ; to Shie KM: Tell me about why making Obama art is important to you? SS: Because I'm a storyteller, but I'm not anymore just a personal storyteller, I am doing a mixture of diary and social commentary. Shie elaborates on why making the art that she creates is important to her, mentally and emotionally therapeutic. She notes her time attending Kent State University before the massacre and how that effected her mental state. Including how Obama made her open up with talking about politics again. antiwar protest ; art exhibition ; Barack Obama ; Dalai Lama ; family ; Iraq War ; kent state ; Kent State University Massacre ; political art ; political expression ; politics ; pregnant ; Quilt Purpose - Artistic expression ; research ; Vietnam War kent state 17 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/OH44691-001_Shie_a.jpg Susan Shie, Quilt Piece 786 Exhibition, series plan & ; making the piece apolitical KM: What are your plans for " ; The Potluck/World" ; ? SS: It's been in several exhibitions already. The next thing it's going to is the Obama Quilters exhibition, that Sue Walen is doing at Montgomery University's Cafritz Center in Silver Spring, Maryland in February and March 2009. Shie describes the meshing of her love of quilting and tarot card making. She talks about how her plans for her original tarot deck were going to be apolitical at first, so she wouldn't offend anyone (since tarot decks are not political) but as she's progressed over the years she has allowed her deck to get more political. She also discusses her techniques with airpens and photoshop for her quilts/tarot quilts. Airpen ; Barack Obama ; Montgomery College (Silver Springs, Maryland) ; Obama quilts ; Photoshop ; potluck world ; Quilt Purpose – Exhibition ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; Susan Walen ; tarot ; The Cafritz Foundation Arts Center ; “President Obama: A Celebration in Art Quilts” 17 http://www.turtlemoon.com/ Susan Shie's Website 1021 Shie’s Interest in Quilt Making KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. SS: I had a mother who was raised Mennonite, who had roots in the Amish culture. Her grandfather and grandmother jumped over and became Mennonites, so she was raised Mennonite. She and her mother made all their family's clothes and the quilts and things like that. Shie talks about her childhood and how she was introduced to quilting and making art from her kid years to her college years and there onward into college and adulthood. airpen ; Amish ; art student ; childhood ; College of Wooster ; diary ; East Chippewa Church of the Brethren ; feminism ; homemade clothing ; journal ; Ladies Aid Society ; Learning quiltmaking ; Mennonite ; Mennonite quilts ; Miriam Shapiro ; mission work ; sewing ; Smithville, Ohio 40.863572, -81.863725 17 Smithville, Ohio http://www.artnews.com/2015/06/23/miriam-schapiro-pioneering-feminist-artist-dies-at-91/ Obituary of Miriam Sharpo 1345 Shie’s Quilting Progress KM: Tell me about the quilting part, the process for you. SS: For a long time I was hand sewing all my quilts from the late seventies on, and then I had a few attempts at machine quilting in 1990, when my husband, Jimmy, and I finally got married after fourteen years. Shie describes her evolving quilting progress from hand stitching, attempts at machinery quilting finding new ways to incorporate an Airpen as a way to paint fine lines on quilts. She describes her struggles with her personal and various quilting processes. airbrush ; Airpen ; beading ; blessing ; caffeine intolerance ; Embellishment techniques ; granddaughter ; hand quilting ; hand stitching ; Home sewing machine ; humor ; Knowledge transfer ; lotus pose ; machine quilting ; marriage ; painting ; quiltmaking process ; Teaching quiltmaking ; Technology in quiltmaking ; “Buddha Boy” 17 1663 More on the Potluck Quilt I want to go back to the Potluck piece just really quick, because I never really talked about the wolves on that and the Buddha girls that are sitting on them. There is just a little more imagery there that I would like to talk about, if that's okay. KM: Sure. Shie elaborates on her Potluck Quilt design mentioning the symbolism in her personal tarot card decks and tarot quilts, comparing and contrasting traditional tarot works to her customized symbols. Caroline Kennedy ; design ; fortune cookies ; iconography ; New York Times ; op-ed letter ; pairing knife ; Pyrex ; rainbow ; symbolism ; tarot ; wolves ; “Buddha Girl” ; “yellow dog” 17 1856 On Quilt Makers Embracing Obama KM: Why do you think quiltmakers are embracing Obama so greatly? SS: First of all, I think it is more art quilters than traditional quilters, and there is a difference there. I think that art quilters tend to be more funky, more liberal, Shie shares her thought as to why quilt makers may be embracing Obama and his impact on them and as to why more liberal followers will be more creative with their quilting and why conservative follows may be less likely to create outside the traditional-quilting-comfort-zone. Art quiltmaking ; Barack Obama ; Democratic Party ; International Quilt Festival ; John McCain ; liberal ; Quilt Purpose – Exhibition ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; traditional quiltmaking ; Vicky Mangum ; “Obama Girl” ; “Political Patchwork” 17 2036 Bamboo Batting and Green Quilts Project KM: You recently moved to using bamboo batting. Tell me a little bit about bamboo batting and why you like it. SS: Just a real quick throw back to why I'm interested in green stuff, or to show that I was, I guess. In 1989 I started a project called The Green Quilts Project, Shie discusses on her reasoning of why she likes bamboo batting over cotton batting and other variations. Being environmentally friendly is important to Shie, the symbolism involving that to " ; heal the world" ; and the pros to using bamboo batting in general. Including her wishes for more environmentally friendly crafting products. antibacterial ; bamboo batting ; batting/wadding ; China ; eco friendly ; environmentalism ; fabric paint ; fair trade ; Fairfield quilt batting ; Fiber - bamboo ; Fiber – Cotton ; Fiber – Polyester ; Green Quilts Project ; hand quilting ; meditation ; monocropping ; organic ; prayer ; respirator ; Technology in quiltmaking ; toxin 17 http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184& ; context=jstae Blandy, Doug, Kristin G. Congdon, Laurie Hicks, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Don Krug. " ; The Green Quilt: An Example of Collective Eco-Action in Art Education." ; Accessed November 3, 2017. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184& ; context=jstae. 2517 How Shie wants to be remembered KM: How do you want to be remembered? SS: It's really interesting. I've thought about that a lot because I have such a hard time transitioning from the woman who is known for all the hand work and the beading, Shie briefly notes on what she would like to be remembered for after she has moved on in life or in the quilting community. She wants to be remembered as an artist who told stories that has made a difference in the world and she has improved the world. She doesn't want to be remembered as a person who did hand work and beading. beading ; Embellishment techniques ; hand stitching ; improving the world ; stories 17 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/OH44691-001_Shie_b.jpg Shie, Quilt One Piece, detail 2560 Promotion of website and classes KM: Excellent. Is there anything that you would like to share that I haven't touched upon? SS: No, just that anybody interested in my work can go to my site. I try to keep all my new work posted in the gallery of my website, www.turtlemoon.com if you don't remember the website name just Google " ; Susan Shie website" ; Shie talks about her classes and what she is known for within her teachings. airbrush ; Airpen ; biosphere ; drawing ; knowledge transfer ; painting ; Quilt Purpose - Artistic expression ; studio ; Teaching quiltmaking ; Website 17 2691 Shie on her garage door mural KM: Tell me about your garage door. SS: [laughs.] I haven't put it on my website yet. I have to do that really soon. That is the biggest painting that I have made since I made the high school prom murals that I watched being burned on a bonfire after the prom. Shie discusses her painted garage mural and how it has livened up her community and how many people like it. It includes her and her family with Obama being projected like a big sun behind them. It is a staple of unique artwork in her neighborhood. Barack Obama ; cats ; garage door ; Green Quilts Project ; landscape ; mural painting ; Statue of Liberty ; symbolism 17 http://www.turtlemoon.com/gallery08/Garage%20Door%20Mural%20full.htm Susan Shie, Door Mural Oral History In this interview, Susan Shie discusses at length her quilt " ; The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot," ; one in her series of quilts based on tarot cards. This and other of her quilts feature political imagery from the 2008 presidential election. Her support of Barack Obama and the quilt she made featuring him in its imagery are important to understand her perspective on this time period. She also discusses her family, her interest in quilting, and her environmental advocacy. Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' ; S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Susan Shie. Susan is in Wooster, Ohio and I' ; m in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today' ; s date is December 15, 2008. It is now 10:18 in the morning, and Susan, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me. Susan Shie (SS): Thank you, Karen. KM: Please tell me about the quilt you selected for the interview, which is " ; The Potluck/ World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot." ; SS: Well I' ; ve been doing this series on the " ; Kitchen Tarot" ; since 1998, and at the beginning and for a long time, the deck wasn' ; t political, and then in 2007 my interest moved to politics a lot more. I' ; d been getting more political again, but it just got to be more and more so that it was in the work. By 2007 I was putting Obama in my Kitchen Tarot pieces. The deck is 22 major cards now, and I' ; ve just begun the 56 minor cards of the 78 total deck. This piece is probably my favorite of the Obama pieces. " ; The Potluck" ; is my choice for the Kitchen Tarot to represent the World card in the traditional tarot deck, and the concept is Obama and Clinton during the primary election this year, bringing their gifts to the table that is a conceptual potluck meal of national and international, especially international people, because the whole world was watching, not just our presidential election, but also our primary election, and wondering what was going to happen with this Democratic party. And so this piece which, like always in my work, is a spontaneously planned, and then drawn and then written image, became Obama and Clinton carrying in their donations to a potluck meal. As you look at the quilt, at the bottom is a large table with plates set on it for countries around the world. It' ; s not a totally encompassing collection of names of countries. It' ; s just as I thought them up as I worked. Sitting on the table is my archetype figure St Quilta the Comforter, who is becoming more and more important to me, as the world needs more and more healing. She is sort of the hostess of the conceptual potluck, and she is holding a huge bowl of something I' ; ve used a lot in my work, which is Peace Porridge. Above her in the very center of the piece is a kitchen sink, and that represents a situation where we are putting in everything, that every effort is needed here. It' ; s like we are getting out the big guns in the kitchen. My image for the big guns is the kitchen sink, because of that old cliché of using everything but the kitchen sink, where here we are using that, too. In fact this card almost was called " ; The Kitchen Sink," ; but I decided I really like this concept of a potluck meal and everyone coming together. I didn' ; t want to make this piece be all about Obama. I supported Obama right from the beginning, but I wanted to show this neck-and-neck energy of Obama and Clinton as they progressed through the primary. This piece was made from the beginning of January until the beginning of April in 2008. The primary [race] was not really changing during that time. Nobody was getting ahead significantly. We didn' ; t know who was going to win, and so I put them as equals in this piece, just because these energies are both coming in, and the world is looking at both of them, and we don' ; t know which one is going to take over the Democratic candidacy - let alone which one might become president. I use pies in my work as a symbol for blessings or gifts, and I decided that that is what they would carry in. Obama' ; s pie has the word " ; Hope" ; written on it, because that was one of his big things, and for Clinton I put " ; Faith" ; on her pie, because I thought it didn' ; t represent her as a religious icon to people, but rather showed how people have faith in her, her reputation. They knew who she was. They had a lot of faith in her as a woman, as someone bringing things that they could expect. Whereas with Obama, his energy is about change and hope. They are bringing this stuff in, and they really are the only people in the piece except St. Quilta, and two little blessing figures on the wolves that I will get back to, and in the center between Obama and Clinton there is a window. This window has shutters on it, and the figure standing in the window is the image that I brought from the traditional tarot deck World card. Many artists of my Baby Boomer generation have created tarot decks, using their own themes, but they usually reference this classic Waite-Rider deck from the early part of the 20th century. The World card has this figure standing in this position within sort of a frame, and here it became a window. The figure here has that exact pose, but she' ; s holding two wooden spoons, and she' ; s wearing a chef' ; s apron which has the title of the piece on it: " ; Card #21 The Kitchen Tarot," ; which is the subtitle. After I painted that large World figure [and I' ; m drawing with airbrush, very spontaneously.], after I drew her I realized that it looked like my granddaughter who is now four years old, but she was three and a half then. It' ; s a little bit more adult version of her, but I thought this face is more like my granddaughter than often when I attempt drawing Eva. In the end this figure became my " ; Obama Girl," ; and I don' ; t know if you know anything about the sort of cultural icon Obama Girl, but there is a young woman who has done a lot of YouTube videos as " ; Obama Girl," ; who became sort of a superhero who was doing things to promote Obama. It was all tongue-in-cheek stuff. It was playful, and it was fun, but there was a sexual overtone to it. When I made Eva into the " ; Obama Girl," ; I thought, ' ; Oh no. This maybe isn' ; t good, because I don' ; t want a sexual overtone with my granddaughter obviously.' ; But I realized at that point in thinking, that " ; Obama Girl" ; is not just this woman who is doing the YouTube videos with the sexual overtone. " ; Obama Girl" ; is any woman who is supporting Obama, and when you read the text of this very large quilt (it' ; s 85 inches by 76 inches), you will find out pretty fast that my leaning is very much toward Obama, not toward Clinton, but it is not there in the overall visual images. What I' ; m saying about the " ; Obama Girl" ; is that my granddaughter who is four is an " ; Obama Girl." ; My next door neighbor Olga who is one hundred, now she is one hundred and one, she is an " ; Obama Girl." ; And anybody in between, anybody can be an " ; Obama Girl." ; It is just someone who is a woman who is supporting Obama, not buying into that idea, that if you are a feminist, you have to support Clinton. KM: Tell me about why making Obama art is important to you? SS: Because I' ; m a storyteller, but I' ; m not anymore just a personal storyteller, I am doing a mixture of diary and social commentary. And I guess back in 2003 there was this shift in my work, from just personal diaries, from a lot of writing on my work about my own life and lives of people around me, and sort of overall cultural events in my life, to opening up to the political issues again. I was making a piece for an exhibition of political art, for which I was invited by the curator. To everybody who was tapped for this show, the curator said, ' ; I' ; m not going to censor anything you say.' ; And this was around the time we were getting ready to go into Iraq the second time, the beginning of 2003. She promised that our work would be hung regardless of what we did. This was license to just open up, and as I opened up, and I was writing about things off the top of my head, and it was a very political piece, I realized in my writing that I had kind of shut down after the killings at Kent State. I wasn' ; t in the crowd at Kent State, when the killings happened in 1970, but I was there the weekend before, when all the trouble started with the students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, with the National Guard there on campus, and I' ; d just found out I was pregnant. I' ; d gone to school there in ' ; 68 and had dropped out and gotten married. And this was now 1970, and we were on campus, visiting my brother, and I really did not want to lose my baby to tear gas. But we couldn' ; t get out, and they wouldn' ; t let anybody leave campus. I left the next day, the Saturday before the killings happened on Monday, and I knew something really bad was going to happen. And I know that, had I stayed in school during that time, I probably would have been out on that hill protesting that Monday, because as a freshman there, I had joined SDS (Students for Democratic Society), and I had been involved in sit-ins and teach-ins and protests, war protests and protesting the Oakland Police coming to Kent State to recruit from our police academy. A lot of stuff back in 1968, but I' ; d dropped out and gotten married. When those kids got killed, a lot of people like me sort of gave up for a while about politics, because the message we got was: if you talked your politics, if you did something about it, they might shoot you. They might kill you, and I think that was the message that they wanted us to get. I went underground for a while. I focused on my family, on my baby girl, Gretchen. I didn' ; t get depressed so much about politics. I just disconnected from a lot of that stuff. I did what I could, but I didn' ; t go out and march anymore, and things like that. I was amazed when the war ended, because the protesting had actually turned people around, to understand that we had to save the Vietnamese people. We had to save the American soldiers. We had to get out of that war. But anyway as I was working on this piece in 2003, I realized that I had shut up about my politics, and I realized that if all of us who had these strong feelings weren' ; t presenting them in our own little personal bully pulpits in our own artwork, then we aren' ; t helping. And I decided at that point that my work would become political again. I had been excited about Obama since I saw him give his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. So I had known about Obama for a while, and in 2007 a friend of mine told me that she thought that Obama and the Dalai Lama had a lot in common. And so I got to thinking about that and I made a piece called " ; Olama: Two Guys and a Pie," ; and that became my first Obama piece in which I did a lot of research about him. I went to Wikipedia, read his whole biography and did a lot of note taking, and ended up making this very large piece about both of them. When he decided to run for president I just started documenting everything he was doing, and of course a lot of people became pretty much fixated on what he was up to, and I was one of them. And since my work is all about my personal feelings and what I am focused on right now, that just came out in my writing and also in my imagery. KM: What are your plans for " ; The Potluck/World" ; ? SS: It' ; s been in several exhibitions already. The next thing it' ; s going to is the Obama Quilters exhibition, that Sue Walen is doing at Montgomery University' ; s Cafritz Center in Silver Spring, Maryland in February and March 2009. That' ; s a challenge quilt exhibition that she started out with forty people, and I think she might be up to sixty. She invited people to contact her, if they wanted to make a piece or had a piece about Obama, and it would be shown, or they' ; d try to show it in the space they have. I' ; ve submitted three pieces for that, knowing that they may not all be shown, especially since my pieces are pretty large. But I' ; m very excited about that show. Also, " ; The Potluck" ; is part of my " ; Kitchen Tarot" ; series so it' ; s going to be part of a deck of twenty-two cards, the actual tarot cards in a deck of major cards called " ; The Kitchen Tarot." ; However from my " ; Kitchen Tarot" ; actual deck, I' ; ve decided to crop down my pictures to keep the politics out of it, because you don' ; t know who is doing the tarot reading, but traditionally it is not a political thing. So this deck started out in 1998. It was totally apolitical then, and now it' ; s gotten extremely political, and I' ; m using the magic of Photoshop to crop each political piece down to a good composition of not-political imagery. That works for me, and in a 3½ by 5 inch image card you can' ; t read any of my tiny airpen writing, which is political. I use an airpen and fabric paint to write all over my work, but it is like the size of writing you do in a letter, if you' ; re writing a letter on paper to someone. If you shrink it down from this larger size, the lettering becomes little lines of patterns rather than legible writing. You can' ; t tell there' ; s political stuff in the writing anymore, at that size. It' ; s a form of sabotage to me because it is a very political thing, but hopefully they won' ; t even notice that in the tarot cards, because they won' ; t be able to read the super-tiny writing. Obama and Clinton are cropped out of the Potluck piece for the tarot deck card, and the only thing of this piece that' ; s going to be left of my full quilt in that tarot card is that central figure in the window, which is also in the tradition deck. That' ; s what you' ; ll see in that card: that central figure. This decision allowed me to realize that I could go on doing very political work and my tarot cards, though there was a point where I was afraid that I was going to have to quit doing the tarot deck, because I wasn' ; t going to quit doing the Obama work. I plan to keep doing Obama in my imagery and in my writing as long as he is active in politics. So I thought maybe I have to stop the Kitchen Tarot work now, having made the twenty-two major cards as quilts. After ten years maybe I would stop and just do the more political art. But I really do want to keep going with the Kitchen Tarot, too, so the cropping tool in Photoshop will be actively used to keep the deck apolitical visually. Then if people come and see my work on my website, who are brought into it from " ; The Kitchen Tarot," ; they will find out what I' ; m up to otherwise. KM: What is your website? SS: www.turtlemoon.com. KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. SS: I had a mother who was raised Mennonite, who had roots in the Amish culture. Her grandfather and grandmother jumped over and became Mennonites, so she was raised Mennonite. She and her mother made all their family' ; s clothes and the quilts and things like that. I grew up as a little girl going to church with her on Wednesdays once a month to the Ladies Aid Society at East Chippewa Church of the Brethren, which is a church very similar to the Mennonites. I used to go to this little church near Smithville, Ohio, where at Ladies' ; Aid, all the women sat around a quilt frame and talked and gossiped and laughed and worked on these quilts to raise money for service work that the church did, outreach to help people, disaster relief, etc. I remember sitting under the quilt frame and watching the left hands and some people' ; s right hands, the hand that is underneath to tell where the quilting is going, to tell when the needle comes down through. I would wonder how on earth they could sew when their hands were holding still. I' ; m sitting under there like a little kid sitting under a tent. That is my first memory of quilting. As I grew up, I learned to sew as a little girl and made all my clothes with my mother. She made my clothes up through high school, and then I took over, but I made my doll clothes and things that I wanted to make. I took 4-H and home ec and all that, and I was painting as a little girl and doing a lot of writing as a little girl. I worked with clay, too. Later, these things all came together in my art work when I was in college as an art student. In college in the late 70s, a woman named Miriam Schapiro came to my school, the College of Wooster, and did a residency a couple of times, and both times I interacted with her a lot. She was a feminist, and she was running around the country giving lectures, meeting women artists and telling them to take what they are learning from their mothers and put that in their art work if they want to make a feminist statement. She was making the point that all of this beautiful art work we made was art. It wasn' ; t just women' ; s work. I, as a painter, decided to start sewing my paintings. We didn' ; t have the term art quilt back then. This was the late seventies. There wasn' ; t the term art quilt until the mid-eighties. I didn' ; t quite know what to call them. I just called them paintings. I got permission from my prof to stop working on stretched canvas, and that way the other benefit was: I was able to take the work home rolled up in a bag and work on it and bring it back, instead of having to drag a huge, stretched canvas around, which I couldn' ; t do. I had the joy of being able to merge all of these things that I had done since I was a little girl - painting, sewing, writing, and work with clay, while I was embellishing my work quite a bit with clay and beadings. I' ; ve gotten away from that now. I' ; m really back kind of full circle to the paintings, and the only thing different from what I was doing back in my junior high days in my bedroom with the canvas, is that now I' ; m working on a lighter weight cotton. And I' ; m merging my sewing and my writing into my paintings. I feel really good about this, because it' ; s like this one form is connecting all of these energies that I like to work with. I' ; m making what I consider to be time capsules now. If I pull out a quilt from, let' ; s say 2006, and start reading it, it would bring back all of these memories as if I were reading a diary. When I write on my work I' ; m never copying from a diary. People get that idea, but I' ; m writing off the top of my head, exactly what is on my mind right then, and I date my entries a lot of times. Almost always. Later on they become interesting to just pop in and look at, but I couldn' ; t stand reading the whole thing at once, nor could I ever stand to do a transcript of one of them. I' ; ve had a few art historians get kind of upset with me, because I don' ; t make a transcript of my work. What has become my habit, to make up for that, is that I write notes about what I write. Let' ; s say I write for a half hour with my airpen, and then I turn around, and I have a piece of paper there, and I write down a little sentence about what I just wrote about on the painting. It' ; s a list of the topics that are in that particular art quilt painting. So I can go back now with my newer pieces, and I can reference their topics. I can say, ' ; Well, this is what was going on, and this is what was going on, and this happened, and I wrote about this.' ; But that is as close as I' ; m going to get to doing a transcript, because the time to make a transcript would be the time I could be making some art. That is not going to happen for me. I spend enough time on paperwork! KM: Tell me about the quilting part, the process for you. SS: For a long time I was hand sewing all my quilts from the late seventies on, and then I had a few attempts at machine quilting in 1990, when my husband, Jimmy, and I finally got married after fourteen years. I' ; d gotten a new sewing machine after our wedding, and I decided to use the sewing machine on my quilts. I thought it would make them go faster, but that was a real failed experiment, because the machine sewing seemed so flat, and I was into dimension. I wanted really beautiful sewing with a good texture, so I pretty much stayed away from machine quilting for a long time. Then in ' ; 03, in the beginning of the year, I started working with an airpen, and all my painting life, since I was a child, I had tried to make very sharp, very crisp lines with a brush and had always failed. I never could find anything in the way of a pen or brush of any kind that made thin lines that I liked on a painting. At the end of ' ; 02, Jimmy got me an airpen. [www.silkpaint.com.] I didn' ; t know anything about it, and in ' ; 03 I started working with that and started to learn to make it behave. It took me about a year to make it work well with the fabric paint. It' ; s a tricky instrument! Now I teach it. I' ; ve been teaching it for about five years now in my classes, along with my airbrush and brush painting and quilting work. Anyway, this airpen changed things to the point where I could quit hand sewing over my writing in my quilts, because the crispy little line writing that I could do with the airpen is very rich and very black and very permanent, because it' ; s pigment paint. Now I had the problem that my background hand stitching was getting in the way of my writing. The stitching was too big and causing the writing to be overshadowed, so I decided that maybe it was time for me to go to machine quilting. In ' ; 04 I started to. I backed off from hand quilting slowly first, because I' ; d been doing very elaborate, very dense quilting and a lot of beading, but by ' ; 04 I started to back off, to the point where I didn' ; t even want to use the beads anymore. Starting in late 2004, I was taking care of my baby granddaughter for a year and a half, and by 2006 my fingertips were getting very numb. I understand now that part of what was causing it probably was caffeine. Now I know I can' ; t tolerate caffeine very well, and when I have chocolate or especially coffee or caffeinated tea, I get this numbness in my fingers that keeps them from functioning very well for hand work. I think the numbness came from too much hand sewing, too!! So that was kind of a blessing in disguise. It pushed me to going over to the machine sewing. When I had first started to machine sew in 2004 my friends all told me I couldn' ; t do that, the big part of my work was the beading and the hand stitching. I really didn' ; t want to believe that, but it was a lot of peer pressure that seems to be effective with most of us. I was confused about it for a while, but the fingertips' ; numbness pushed me to switch sewing methods. By 2005 in the middle of the year I had made my first really large piece with the machine quilting and it was sold into John M. Walsh, III' ; s art quilt collection, which was a green light for me. I just decided he could have had any of my quilts he wanted, but he chose that one, so it' ; s all about the painting and the writing, it' ; s not about the sewing and that was it. After that piece I started putting one line of hand stitching all the way around the border edge of all my machine sewn pieces. It is a little nod to my old hand sewing, and it also helps the border edge lay a little flatter, but it is mainly a little bit of an excuse for me to do some hand sewing, and it is just enough. There is no beading in these. I sew one little Buddha boy bead on the corner of each piece, and for a while I' ; ve had a little Buddha girl bead that I sew with the Buddha boy. The Buddha boy, I call him my green temple Buddha boy, I put one on each quilt. They are plastic beads from a bead store in Santa Barbara, California, called Beads, and they are just a little, maybe one inch tall, maybe less, green Buddha sitting in lotus style. I started out with 77 of them, when I bought all they had, when I was in the store. I thought I would have this series of 77 pieces with this one bead on them, but as I got near the end of them, I called the store, and I ended up with 200 more of them, and I think I can get more. I can keep making quilts with Buddha boys on them for a long time. It is a little blessing bead and also to me, it is a little bit humorous that you want beads on my work? Okay, here is a bead, but you only get this one. [laughs.] KM: [laughs.] That is cute. SS: He is always there. The Buddha Boy is always that little blessing guy, down in the corner of my work. I want to go back to the Potluck piece just really quick, because I never really talked about the wolves on that and the Buddha girls that are sitting on them. There is just a little more imagery there that I would like to talk about, if that' ; s okay. KM: Sure. SS: There are two wolves, and they' ; re big and they' ; re on a table, and they' ; re yellow dogs. That' ; s another little secret: that the wolves are yellow dog Democrats - someone who would rather vote for a yellow dog than vote for a Republican. So, the yellow dog wolves. One of them says Trust on its body and the other one says Tolerance on its body. They are the guardians of the potluck. They are there to make sure when the world comes together for this potluck, there will be trust and tolerance. Each one of them has a little Buddha girl sitting on its back with a peace symbol on it. She' ; s radiating peace energy. Also there are shutters on the door, or the window that the World figure' ; s in, that Eva figure. On the shutters there are little heads of people in rainbow colors, each one a color of the rainbow, and that' ; s the idea of incorporating people from all of the world, and all races and all cultures coming to this potluck thing. There are six fortune cookies on this piece. Six is a number for success, and I' ; ve always loved putting fortune cookies into my work, way back to my early college days. So I put six of them into Potluck, and they ended up, most of their writings are transcripts here. There' ; s a breaking of my own little rule, of not copying things! I was so impressed with Caroline Kennedy' ; s op-ed letter to the New York Times, endorsing Obama for president. On the first fortune cookie I tried to paraphrase, by using some ellipses, leaving out other parts of this letter. And then I realized I could continue this letter on the other fortune cookies. So you progress reading through the fortune cookies, and you read her entire op-ed letter through that. That was sort of a good luck thing for Obama [using fortune cookies for images, as I think of them as good luck symbols.]. Around the large figure in the window there are four symbols in the corners. If you look at the top left corner and go around the corners clockwise, there' ; s a paring knife—and that is my image I’m going to be using as the minor cards of the kitchen tarot and I' ; m going to have paring knifes instead of swords. Then in the top right have a green pyrex measuring cups and they will be my symbol for the cup suit in my kitchen tarot. As you look at the bottom right there’s a wooden spoon: my symbol for the wand and the bottom left corner there’s a potholder. I’m going to be using potholders as my icon for the for the symbols of coins. KM: Why do you think quiltmakers are embracing Obama so greatly? SS: First of all, I think it is more art quilters than traditional quilters, and there is a difference there. I think that art quilters tend to be more funky, more liberal, probably a lot more Democrat. Traditional quilters are often more conservative, not saying anything bad about traditional quilters. Remember that my mother and grandmother were traditional quilts, but my mom would be an Obama Girl, no doubt. [both laugh.] And my dad would love Obama, too! But anyway, I think traditional quilters aren' ; t telling literal stories in their work for the most part. That is another big difference. They are usually working with beautiful patterns and patchwork or appliqué. They' ; re focusing on the beauty of the image and not telling a story of any kind. I know there are exceptions to that, but that is just a stereotype that I' ; m throwing out for making this reason. Also it' ; s interesting that when Vicky Mangum sent out a call for quilts for a political exhibition at the International Quilt Festival this last fall. I think it was called " ; Political Patchwork." ; KM: Yes it was. SS: She sent out calls for quilts and she wanted this to be shown right before the election, and she wanted to have a full representation of both sides. She wanted Republican. She wanted stuff from the primary elections and everything, and her problem was she couldn' ; t find any McCain quilts. And she says to me, ' ; Where can I get a hold of somebody who is doing a McCain quilt?' ; I told her that I haven' ; t seen any art quilters doing McCain quilts, and I think this tells you something about these art quilters. They tend to be liberal people who are artists first and quilters second. And they tend to be liberal. So you' ; re going to have a hard time finding McCain art quilters. Maybe there are traditional quilters who are making them. Maybe she found something in the end. I didn' ; t go to Festival, so I didn' ; t see the exhibition. I don' ; t know what she had there, but I just remember that very distinctly that she couldn' ; t find McCain quilters and could find a lot of Obama quilters. I think we are risk takers, people who are interested in forward thinking, we are liberal, some of us are even radical, and we just naturally fall in line with Obama and his energy. KM: You recently moved to using bamboo batting. Tell me a little bit about bamboo batting and why you like it. SS: Just a real quick throw back to why I' ; m interested in green stuff, or to show that I was, I guess. In 1989 I started a project called The Green Quilts Project, which was an international project for fifteen years in the end. In the beginning I thought it would be forever, but I wore out, and in 2004 I ended it. But you can still find it on my website. There' ; s a link from the bottom of any page on my website to The Green Quilts Project. It stopped in 2004, but you can read some of its history there. My best friend, Robin Schwalb, who' ; s an art quilter from New York City, and I worked on the project together for those fifteen years. Robin made optional hand silk screened labels for the quilts, and you could also make your own labels. We have a big archive of slides of the work. The idea was to use quilting energy in a cosmic sense, as a metaphor, as mental, emotional energy to help heal the world. You' ; d make your quilt and you didn' ; t have anyone judge whether or not it was a Green Quilt. You' ; d decide that yourself. So the idea was to incorporate prayer, meditation, energy, whatever you wanted to call it, for healing of the earth, into the making your piece. Most of those quilts were storytelling quilts. It just naturally was that way, there were a few people who put in patchwork, abstract, or geometric quilts, but for the most part they were something that you could look at, and you could tell what was up from the imagery. You could work on anything from the earth in general, down to even a specific person or animal that you wanted to have healing for, or for a species, or for water or air. It could be anything involving the microcosm or the macrocosm of the earth. I quit doing the Green Quilts project in 2004, simply because most of the people who were going to make a Green Quilt had done it. Some artists made a bunch of pieces for the project, but many sent one or two images in slides. it was getting old and I was running out of steam. Like you say: we do too much multitasking. Then we try to simplify, so I ended the project. Fast forward now to 2007. I guess it was this last year, and I was asked to test this bamboo batting that Fairfield Processing was coming out with, because they had read about my Green Quilts Project somewhere and thought I would be a good person to be one of the testers. I just really leaped on this, because I was so excited to have a product that would be more user friendly for the earth. I was using polyester batting before that for a long time, but when I switched to machine quilting, I could go to cotton batting because, even though it was dryer and it would drag, it didn' ; t matter with machine work. I wasn' ; t hand stitching any more, so I had gone over to a cotton batting. Anyway I tested this bamboo batting for them, and I loved it. They had one hundred percent bamboo, they had a batting that was eighty percent bamboo and twenty percent organic cotton, and one that was fifty/fifty bamboo and cotton. And they all handled about the same. It was really interesting. I think that the difference would be: if you had the one hundred percent bamboo, you probably would see no creasing in your quilts after they were folded and unfolded, because bamboo is so flexible, and it bends over, and it unbends so well. This bamboo batting is also interesting, because my husband is an avid fly fisherman and he only fishes with bamboo rods that people he knows make. They are just sort of the snob culture of the elitists of fly fishing, and they' ; re really into these lovely works of art in themselves, these bamboo rods. They' ; re nothing like the ones where you take a piece of bamboo, and you fish with it. It is a whole composition, reconstruction of the bamboo, and it is amazing. But anyway, this was also a way for me to have another connection to my husband. He' ; s working with bamboo, I' ; m working with bamboo. So that' ; s great. Here are the cool things about the bamboo in terms of the earth. Bamboo is extremely fast growing, probably the fastest growing grass in the world and it' ; s a cross between a grass and a tree, and they can make fiber out of it after one growing season. The thing that I also love about it, like I said, it folds over and doesn' ; t crease like cotton does. Cotton is really crease problematic. You can quilt this stuff six to eight inches apart, which I don' ; t do, but that just shows you how this stuff isn' ; t going to crumble like cotton would. It really holds together well. It is slippery, the needle goes in and out of it very nicely compared to cotton. So the fifty/fifty product that they came out with was a little bit creasy, a little bit of a drag on your needle, but not nearly as much as with cotton batting. I just love that it' ; s renewable and it' ; s naturally anti-bacterial. So they don' ; t put any crud on these batts, don' ; t add any chemical stuff to make it anti-bacterial, which is what they were doing with polyester for a long time. I don' ; t know if they still are. One thing they need to do is to make sure they' ; re getting the bamboo from a fair trade commitment with some farmers who are doing some holistic work with their farming, so they aren' ; t raping the earth. I think we are not there yet. I think China especially is mono-cropping its bamboo, which is really very harmful to the environment. Whenever you mono-crop anything in a big way it is not good. Animals don' ; t eat bamboo, so it is harmful to the ecosystem to only have bamboo growing. I hope they can come up with somebody who is going to grow the bamboo responsibly and be more conscientious of farming a variety of crops together. I' ; m not a farmer, so I don' ; t have the answers on that. I just know I love working with bamboo batting, and it makes me feel that it' ; s a lot better statement. I also wish somebody would invent some fabric paint that is not petroleum plastic based, because now all we have to work with are fabric paints that work really well, are very beautiful and easy to handle, but they are chemically nasty. And we need something: we need some organic fabric paints, if that' ; s ever going to be possible. In the meantime, I always lecture my students about using up all their paint, wiping their brushes on rags, not on paper towels, not sloshing brushes around in water to clean them, and trying to keep as much of the paint as possible from going back into the water supply which is something that as children we were never taught. I also lecture my students a lot about using a respirator when they' ; re working with the airbrush or they' ; re heat setting any of their fabric paints. They should use a respirator when they are working with any art supplies that have chemical changes that go on or that have fumes. I' ; ve been sort of the queen of respirator advocacy since the late ' ; 70s I guess, when I was kind of treated like a nit-wit for suggesting to artists that you should wear a respirator. Luckily now it' ; s become a lot more acceptable among students. They are giving it a lot more, they are working with toxins. Less toxins you have to work with the better and I look forward to eco friendly art products becoming a trend more, not just bamboo batting and not just recycled paper. KM: How do you want to be remembered? SS: It' ; s really interesting. I' ; ve thought about that a lot because I have such a hard time transitioning from the woman who is known for all the hand work and the beading, to the woman who is hopefully known for the stories and the images of the stories. I' ; ve decided that I don' ; t need for anybody to remember that I did all that intense hand sewing or all that beautiful beading. I want those pieces to be saved and archived and remembered, but I want to be remembered as an artist who told stories that made a difference in the world, that helped improve the world. That' ; s what I care about the most for my art. KM: Excellent. Is there anything that you would like to share that I haven' ; t touched upon? SS: No, just that anybody interested in my work can go to my site. I try to keep all my new work posted in the gallery of my website, www.turtlemoon.com if you don' ; t remember the website name just Google " ; Susan Shie website" ; and it will come up. It' ; s Turtle Moon Studios. I teach at my home and I teach around the world. I teach really strange, but exciting art camps at my house in a program that I describe as a biosphere, where up to five students come and live with my husband and me for a week at a time. We have a five day class that is bracketed by the two travel days. Each student has their own bedroom at our house, and we work in our home studios, with 24 hour access. My home' ; s the only place where I teach airbrush, which is too big and bulky equipment for me to take to other places. And I can' ; t work with a large group of students with airbrush, because it requires too much one-on-one for that. You come here and learn airbrush, airpen, and regular brush painting. And you learn the most important thing that I teach: that everyone is an artist, and that you can draw, and you can write, and you can paint - even though you were probably told, when you were a small child, that you couldn' ; t do those things. Somewhere in between small child and adult, you gave up on drawing, and my message is that drawing is an acquired skill, just like any other acquired skill, like playing piano. I want people to learn that they can express themselves, and they can make art that is valid. And it just happens that I use airpen, airbrush, brush painting, and writing to help you learn that, but it could be a lot of things. I want to be known as the person who helped a lot of people realize their own artist selves and become able to spontaneously work without being so judgmental of themselves. KM: Tell me about your garage door. SS: [laughs.] I haven' ; t put it on my website yet. I have to do that really soon. That is the biggest painting that I have made since I made the high school prom murals that I watched being burned on a bonfire after the prom. [laughs.] It was quite a shock. I think those murals were nine feet tall and I think this one, I haven' ; t measured this, but it is a double garage door and I think it is seventeen feet plus all the frame work around. You know, there is a big frame around the door. I painted that too, so I think in the end it is about eight feet tall and probably about twenty two feet wide including the frame I painted it with the theme in mind, " ; Personal Landscapes," ; because my local artist group, WAGE, which is an acronym for Wayne Artists Group Effort, has that theme for our upcoming show. That is my little artists' ; support group for my area. The theme for our exhibition coming up this January/February is personal landscapes so my personal landscape is my husband Jimmy and me and our house on one side of the garage door, and it bleeds over to my daughter, Gretchen, her husband Mike and their daughter Eva who live in Lakewood, Ohio, an hour from us right up by Lake Erie, and their house. And all of our cats are in the mural, and the houses, the people, and the cats are entwined. And coming up behind Jimmy and me is a giant Barrack Obama head and he is rising over the horizon like a big sun. And next to him what started out to the chimney on our house, ended up being the Statue of Liberty, who is kind of leaning into Obama. I used the best house paint I could find, and I had these Createx liquid pigments that I had bought years and years ago, that I used to make all my colors out of the white house paint. It is hopefully going to hold up longer than my front door painting did. My front door mural is now sitting inside my breezeway, and I have a new door on my front door that is not a mural. That' ; s the first thing you see on my website: that old door mural. When we took it down and put up a regular house door, lots of people thought we' ; d moved away, we' ; d died, or something. When I started painting the Obama mural, people would stop, even the first day when all I had done was draw the outlines of it on with a brush, people would stop and say, ' ; You don' ; t know me, but I' ; m so happy to see that you' ; re putting art on your house again. I miss your front door mural so much.' ; This is a very middle class, sedate neighborhood from the late sixties. It' ; s one of those neighborhoods that doesn' ; t have sidewalks, but now the trees are big, and one generation is moving off to nursing homes or dying, and the next generation is coming in with their little kids. So it' ; s one of those kind of neighbors where it is pretty conservative, to be honest, and I was so amazed that all through the making of this mural, which took me a month, people would stop in or people would yell encouragement from their cars. One time some guy just stopped and yelled, ' ; Go Obama!' ; [laughs.] I was really happy to hear that in my neighborhood. It has been really nice, because a lot of people have told me that they are so happy to see the art back. I' ; ve had people who assumed that if Obama didn' ; t win, I would paint him out and I said, ' ; No, no! That' ; s never going to happen.' ; The other day I had a woman who told me that she just knew I painted him in, after he won the election. I said, ' ; No, no. He was in the composition from the very beginning and he will stay there.' ; It' ; s a very upbeat piece, full of words and symbols about peace and love, besides stories about all of us. The writing on it is not done with airpen, which would not work on a vertical surface. You have to use airpen with the work lying flat. I used the smallest hand brush that I could, to do the writing, but I had to write fairly large, because I couldn' ; t get a small enough line for tiny writing. And I decided not to use black paint, because I didn' ; t want to make the mural get really dark. So the writing is in colors. They are just enough darker than the background color they' ; re on, that they show up. The weirdest thing about it is that the mural kind of glows, like in the evening and at night when lights hit it, or even walking past it in the daytime. It' ; s got this glow I really can' ; t understand, that must come from this white house paint I used. It' ; s glowing out through the colors I mixed into it, but it' ; s a very beautiful glow that makes me feel like it' ; s got the kind of energy that I talked about with The Green Quilts Project, where I said that what we would be creating a conceptual blanket around the earth with these quilts. There would be this layer of energy where each one of these quilts would be like a storage battery, holding all this good energy, and that the earth could tap into that. I feel like that is what my garage mural means to me, that there is this energy there for hope and change and love and peace. A lot of peace symbols all over it because I' ; m a pro-peace, anti-war person from way back, and that will never change. That is incorporated in the mural. It doesn' ; t hit you over the head, but it' ; s incorporated into what I hope is a very loving image. KM: I think this is a great way to end and I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to do this interview with me. SS: Thank you, Karen, I am so happy to do it. KM: We are going to conclude our interview at 11:08. 2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.netBOQ-003Shie.xml BOQ-003Shie.xml ",yes,"Barack Obama",,"Martha Sielman",,"Barack Obama,Politics","http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/551d4306ca4d98ef73894c3de579dcc6.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/1d58c80a440934192b7ca04400c6c435.jpg","Oral History","Barack Obama Quilt QSOS",1,0 "Sherri Lynn Wood",,"Sherri Lynn Wood discusses her involvement in bereavement quilting. She goes into how and why she started her quilting journey in her 20s, selling quilts at a local farmer's market in Durham, North Carolina, before focusing on more spiritual and therapeutic aspects of quiltmaking. She describes how she juggles time between her art, her activism with End of Life issues, and a part time job. The interview ends with Sherri Lynn Wood reminiscing over how she would like to be remembered and how she feels about being a part of the quilting community. ",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",CA94130-001,,,"Karen Musgrave","Sherri Lynn Wood","San Francisco, California",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Kim Greene",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=CA94130-001Wood.xml,audio,3/7/09,," 5 Sherri Lynn Wood CA94130-001Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesCalifornia QSOSQuilt Alliancebereavementtherapeutic aspects of quiltmakingSan Francisco, CArecyclingSherri Lynn WoodKaren Musgrave0http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/CA94130-001-Wood.mp3Otheraudio Introduction, explanation of bereavement quilts from mother's clothing. This is Karen Musgrave and I'm conducting a Quilters' S.O.S. Save Our Stories inverview with Sherri Lynn Wood. Sherri is in San Francisco, California and I am in Napperville, Illinoise so we are conducting this interview over the telephone.Karen Musgrave introduces herself and Sherri Lynn Wood. Sherri Lynn explains the process behind the quilts she worked on with her mother's clothes after her passing. She describes the process of going through her mother's clothes with her family and making the quilts for them.bereavement quilts;clothing;grief;interview;Karen Musgrave;Mourning/Grief;Naperville, Illinois;QSOS;Quilt Purpose - Mourning;Quiltmaking for family;San Francisco, California;Sherri Lynn Wood;telephone interview;The MacDowell Colony37.7749, -122.419419San Francisco, California where Sherri Lynn Wood is locatedhttp://daintytime.net/about/bio/Bio of Sherri Lynn Wood on her personal site. Importance of Hand Work to her Quilts Now you hand quit them? Yeah, I do hand quilt all of my quilts. to me that is a big part of the process. For me improvisational quilt making has become like a spiritual practice.Wood talks about hand quilting and its significance to her. She then talks about piecing together her quilts and the way that she works with clothing to make each quilt fit the clothing it is made out of. She discusses the emotional and spiritual effects quilting has on her, as she finds it a meditative practice.clothing;fashion;Hand piecing;hand quilting;handwork;Improvisational piecing;meditation;memories;patterns;quilt;Quilt memory;Quilt Purpose - Memorial;Quilt Purpose - Therapy;quiltmaking process;recycling;spiritual17http://daintytime.net/workshops/Sherri Lynn Wood's workshops Quiltmaking Techniques and Process Are they machine done or hand done? They are a combination. There is a lot of machine piecing. I try to do as much machine piecing as possible, but there is a a lot of hand work too, because the neckline of a shirt or a frilly edge of a piece of lace or handkerchief, if I want to keep the integrity of those details then I have to hand applique the detail onto some other piece rather than doing a pieced in seam.Musgrave asks if Wood's quilts are machine done or hand done. Sherri Lynn responds that she uses a mixture of both and when she uses which. She then talks about fitting together the pieces and sections of her quilts. applique;composition;details;hand done;Hand piecing;Home sewing machine;machine done;puzzle17 On her choice to reuse and recycle materials , starting to do workshops to helping other make quilts and bereavement quilts, quilting as a comfort and reminder What else can I say? I used to make lots of wall hangings and decorative pieces and narrative pieces and I got very interested in how materials carry language and stories rather than images. I also moved away from an art practice that was more object based to an art practice that was more service based, to develop a process of grief facilitation, bereavement and life transition work with quilt making.Wood talks about using recycled materials and fabric she already has for her quilts. She describes moving away from an art practice that is “object based” to one that is “service based,” which is reflected in her choice to repurpose materials rather than purchase new ones. She then talks about a quilting workshop she participated in Penland, North Carolina. She goes in depth about helping other people with making bereavement quilts or and other types quilts what it means for the herself and the people she teaches to work through their grief or issues through the quilts.9-11;art;Art quiltmaking;bereavement quilts;comforting;creation;decorating;DIY;expression;fabric;freedom;grief;Home sewing machine;Penland School of Crafts;Penland, North Carolina;recycling;scrap quilting;sewing;transformation;workshop35.5616, -82.0741920School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina where Sherri Lynn worked in 2001. http://www.passagequilts.comThe Passage Quilts project Sherri Lynn mentions Origins of interest in quiltmaking Tell me about your interest in quilt making. When and how did you being? I started making quilts for friends as gifts when I was in grad school right out of college, I was probably like 24, 25. I had sewn all my life and I just started making these simple checkerboard quilts and they came out real pretty and just with my color combinations or stuff and I really enjoyed it and I thought I would love to make these and try to sell them. I did.Wood talks about starting her interest in quilting in her 20s and giving them as gifts to friends. She goes on to talk about selling her quilts at a farmers market and how that affected her. She mentions several quilting art exhibits that inspired her when she was starting out. She says that her quilts are an ongoing, long-term creative project for her and a means of connecting artistic practice to her emotions.African American quilts;Arrowmont School of Craft;art;beginning;bereavement quilts;community;crafting;crochet;emotion;farmers marked;improvisational quilting;interest;involvement;Masters of Fine Arts;Nancy Crow;Passage Quilts;Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation;Quilt Purpose - Personal income;quiltmaking class;sculpture;stitching35.9049, -79.046919UNC Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina where Sherri Lynn was inspired by an exhibition called ""Who'd A Thought It""http://daintytime.net/2013/04/03/a-visit-with-eli-leon-and-his-quilts-part-1/ Blog post by Sherri Lynn about Eli Leon On her balance of time How do you balance your time? Karen Musgrave asks Sherri Lynn how she is able to balance her time. Sherri talks about her job and how she she balances her time between quilt making and her art. She also discusses how she is able to fund and sell her art. She says that she always comes back to quilting, even when she is doing other things. art;balance;money;parish administrator;quilt making;Quilt Purpose - Personal income;St. Gregory's Episcopal Church;time37.7633, -122.401720St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, San Francisco, California where Sherri Lynn is a parish administratorhttp://www.saintgregorys.org/St. Gregory's Church San Francisco Involvement in quilt groups Do you belong in any art or quilt groups? I don't at the moment, I've only been in San Francisco since July and I have gone to the local quilters' guild a few times. I did join the Northern California Quilt Association mainly because I want to teach more so I wanted to make those connections. It is a networking thing. When I first started quiltmaking, I was active in the local guild in Durham, North Carolina.Wood discusses not currently belonging to any quilting or art groups, but that she does often go to events and impromptu things and values networking with other quiltmakers and crafters. She then talks about groups she belonged to in the past prior to moving to San Francisco. She says that she currently belongs to more professional groups dealing with end of life issues than to quilt groups. art groups;Bay Area Care;Durham, North Carolina;End of Life Network;mending parties;quilt groups;quilters guild;San Francisco;social crafting;stitch and chatter groups;women's groups35.9940, -78.898617Durham, North Carolina where Sherri Lynn was active in a local guild when she first started quiltinghttp://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/CA94130-001_Wood.jpgOne of Sherri Lynn's quilts On her hopes for her legacy as a quiltmaker How do you want to be remembered? Wood describes wanting to be remembered by her quilts and the legacy her quilts will provide. She then talks about Passage Quilts being used with the death and bereavement processes. She is working with therapists in hopes that quilting will be more accepted as a form of therapeutic grieving. bereavement;culture;death;grief;history;legacy;memory;Passage Quilts;Quilt Purpose - Therapy;remember;therapeutic17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/CA94130-001_Wood.jpgSherri Lynn Wood with one of her quilts and another project Power of quiltmaking as metaphor and importance of quiltmaking community Is there anything else you would like to share before we conclude? This interview finishes up with Wood talking about being happy to be a quiltmaker and be a part of the quiltmaking community, while viewing her work as a form of activism. She views quiltmaking as a powerful metaphor. She goes on to say that she is both and artist and a quiltmaker. She finishes up by saying that she finds quilt making both powerful and joyous. activist;African American quilts;art;artist;community;Gee's Bend;healer;powerful32.080358, -87.28172317Gee's Bend (also known as Boykin), Alabama, home to a renowned community of quiltmakers who have inspired Wood. http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/ Quilts of Gee's BendOral HistorySherri Lynn Wood discusses her involvement in bereavement quilting. She goes into how and why she started her quilting journey in her 20s, selling quilts at a local farmer's market in Durham, North Carolina, before focusing on more spiritual and therapeutic aspects of quiltmaking. She describes how she juggles time between her art, her activism with End of Life issues , and a part time job. The interview ends with Sherri Lynn Wood reminiscing over how she would like to be remembered and how she feels about being a part of the quilting community. No transcript.2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio0http://quiltalliance.net/cms/http://quiltalliance.net/cms/collections/show/15",Yes,,,"Kay Schroeder",,"bereavement quilts,clothing,emotion,grief,mourning,recycling","http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/fa91559e93dc9307172ce2d03a294862.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/3b4f773c5178ba1a60b6bb8d30150465.jpg","Oral History","California QSOS",1,0 "Duncan Slade",,"In this interview, quilt artist Duncan Slade explains to Karen Musgrave how Nuveen Inc. commissioned a quilt for their headquarters in Chicago. The result was ""Waterfall,"" a very large piece that incorporated digital and traditional quilting techniques. Slade also explains his place between the art and quilt worlds and his relationship with his co-worker and wife, Gayle Fraas. He ends the interview with his views on the importance of finding the right venue for artistic quilts and how his work changes him, but emphasizes his absence of ego. ",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",ME04556-001,,,"Karen Musgrave","Duncan Slade","Robert M. MacNamara Foundation, Westport Island, Maine. ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Kim Greene",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=ME04556-001Slade.xml,audio,10/20/08,,,Yes,,,"Kay Schroeder",,"art quilt,design process,digital technique,Esprit,Exhibition,September 11,Workspace/studio",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/2e917930a81daad8ffe942d7d5f8a0f5.jpg,"Oral History","Maine QSOS",1,0 "Carolyn Mazloomi",,"Carolyn Mazloomi talks about her quilt 'He Stands on the Shoulders of Many', a story quilt made for the 2009 exhibit ""Quilts for Obama"" at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, as well as the Women of Color Quilters' Network, which Mazloomi founded in 1985.",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",OH45069-001,,,"Karen Musgrave","Carolyn Mazloomi",,"**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I'm conducting a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Carolyn Mazloomi. Carolyn is in West Chester, Ohio, and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today's date is April 21, 2009. It is now 9:03 a.m. Carolyn, thank you for taking time out of your day to do this interview with me. Please tell me about your quilt ""He Stands on the Shoulders of Many."" Carolyn Mazloomi (CM): That quilt was inspired by the Selma to Montgomery March that occurred in 1965. When I think about being a citizen in this country I think about the right to vote because that is one of the greatest treasures of being an American, that freedom and that right to vote. It was because of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march that there was legislation that got African Americans the right to vote. That Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights lasted three weeks and one of the turning points of that march was what we call ""Bloody Sunday."" ""Bloody Sunday"" occurred March 7, 1965, when there were 600 civil rights marchers that headed out east of Selma, Alabama, on US Route 80 and they only got six blocks. There was a bridge, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and when they approached that bridge to cross, the state and local lawmen attacked the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. They drove them back into Selma and that was a big turning point for the civil rights movement because there was a lot of media there and across the nation local well national television shows were interrupted with a broadcast of what was happening in Selma, Alabama. It was the first time America, the nation, got an opportunity to see really what was going on with the civil rights workers and people were horrified that these marchers were beaten down like they were. Initially this march started out with 600 people, but by the time three weeks later when they actually got a court order to set out to Montgomery [Alabama.] there were over 3,200 people and then they ended up, the final count was 25,000 marchers. Twenty-five thousand people from all over the country came to join in that march and that would not have happened had not the news been broadcast across the nation that people were being brutalized just for attempting this civil rights march. That was a catalyst of this voting rights act so that was the inspiration for my quilt because when I talk about the President [Barack Obama.] standing on the shoulders of many, it took the sacrifice of many African Americans, not only during this period in our history but from slavery until this period in our history., many sacrifices, politically and socially to get to this point that we have an African American elected to the highest elected office of the land. That was the inspiration and in particularly I think about Congressman John Lewis because I vividly remember seeing him as a young person watching this on television, seeing him get hit in the head by state troopers and mauled by the dogs and now this man is a United States Congressman and he was one of the inspirations for that piece as well because he is a very gentle, very gentle spiritual soul who had been through so much and indeed the President stands on many shoulders. When I started out making the quilt I wanted a map in the quilt to indicate geographically the route of the march and the quilt is appliquéd, is hand and machine quilted. Very seldom now I have the opportunity to make quilts because I'm so busy doing other things, however, it was important to me to participate in this particular exhibition because of the occasion. KM: Tell me more about the exhibition. CM: Roland Freeman called me initially when he had the idea of an exhibition [""Quilts for Obama: An Exhibit Celebration of our 44th President"" at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.] and asked me if I would find quilters to participate in the exhibition. I suggested that the quilts be in small format because the quilters only had a month to make the quilts and it was during the Christmas holiday and Thanksgiving holiday and people were really, really busy and didn't have that much time. I looked to members of the Women of Color Quilters Network to pool artists who might be interested in the project and who that I knew could create work in a short period of time that would be during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I told Roland Freeman after I got the list together and contacted everybody that he was getting the best of the best, the best that Women of Color Quilters Network had to offer. One of the things too that I asked for artists when making these quilts, I told them that this is not just about the physical image of President Obama. I didn't want to see 44 quilts that are portraits of the President because this exhibition that they were creating for was about more than the image of one man. Actually it was about the journey of African Americans as they weave their way through the social and political politics of this country. It is about the journey, it was about the journey of African Americans in this country from the slave ships to the White House. I wanted them to address that story, because that's how President Obama was able to be the president. We've been through so much in this country socially and politically and economically and every strata, every facet of this country being African American and African American culture is woven through it so I wanted to see the artists address this history and they did not disappoint me. The quilts are some of the best works to ever come out of the Women of Color. KM: Is ""He Stands on the Shoulders of Many"" typical of your style? CM: That quilt is typical of my style. I enjoy making story quilts. I enjoy making narrative quilts. I find the work more interesting if I have a theme or a story in which to work from, some theme that I want to address in my quilts. Usually the quilts are either based on something political, of a political nature or they address issues that are close to my heart. Personal issues that I enjoy, such as music. My quilts either deal with music, jazz particularly, or women's issues because I'm very much involved in both. KM: What are your plans for this quilt? CM: I have no plans for it. [laughs.] It's been in the show and I've received the quilt back maybe a month or two ago. I have no plans to show it again. That's that. It is here and it will be in my collection. I collect quilts. I have over 700 of them [KM remarks ""wow.""] and not mine, [laughs.] but I have over 700 quilts. That quilt is historically important to me so I probably will just keep it in my collection. KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. CM: My interest in quiltmaking has been more from the aspect of an organizer. 25 years ago I founded the Women of Color Quilters Network and that's been my life work and the making of ""He Stands on the Shoulders of Many"" was a departure for me because the past four or five years I haven't been able to make that many quilts because I've been involved with running the Women of Color Quilters Network and that's like a full time job, so it doesn't leave time for much of anything else. I started the organization as a means to let African American quiltmakers know about the cultural significance as well as the monetary value of their quilts. We started out with nine people and over the years it's grown tremendously. One of the things that we do is present quilts, quilt exhibitions to museums around the country. We give workshops around the country to children and youth, try to interest them in learning to quilt because when you think in terms of the quilt population of African American quilts within the realm of quilting in this country, there are not that many of us so it is important to me to try and interest young people in learning how to quilt. That is very important, because I think about the future. KM: You mentioned Women of Color Quilters Network, do you belong to any other art or quilt groups? CM: I am on the board of the Studio Art Quilt Associates. I'm a member of a local quilt guild here in my city, West Chester, Ohio. I'm a member of the Women's Caucus of the Arts. The American Quilting Association. I'm sorry the National Quilting Association. That's it so far as quilting organizations. KM: Why is it important to you to belong to these groups? CM: I'm interested in communing with other quiltmakers. I'm interested in learning more about quiltmaking. The Women of Color Quilters Network is about preservation. Outside of that with other groups I'm interested in the camaraderie, I'm interested in learning. I have never had time, I've never had the opportunity to really take any quilt classes. I'm totally self-taught so I enjoy reading about techniques, I enjoy being around people that utilize new techniques and I can see pretty much what's going on and hopefully take away something that I can utilize in my own work. It's about learning and it's about camaraderie. I often say in my travels, and I travel across the country at least once a week. I never meet a stranger in the quilt community. Quilters are very special people. It doesn't matter what region of the country you are in or what group of people, quilters are just very special folks. You don't know any strangers. KM: You curate, you write, you lecture, you collect, what is your favorite thing to do? CM: My favorite thing to do is curate shows and write the books that accompany the shows. I think it is important for the sake of history to have these shows and especially have the books that commemorate these exhibitions because it is like a footprint that, especially for the network, for the African American quilter, like a footprint on the canvass of American quiltmaking. It documents our participation in American quiltmaking and that is very important to me, it means everything to see that African American quilters are duly recorded in history, quilt history as being active participants. Especially I'm interested in the maker of contemporary quilts within the African American community because prior to ten years ago there was not that much emphasis on the contemporary quilts made within the African American community, most of the emphasis was on improvisational quilts. It is very important for me to see that these contemporary quilters carve out a niche in history for themselves to make their presence known and to let people know that African American quilting is more than improvisational quilting. We as a community participate or rather make all types of quilts, not just improvisational quilts. There are people that make traditional American Patchwork and appliqué quilts, as well as art quilts and the improvisational quilts. That has to be documented and it has to be written about so I see myself as an instrument to make that happen. This is how I like to spend my time and it is my favorite thing to do. KM: Whose works are you drawn to and why? CM: I have many favorite quilters and of course I think, well for the most part there are American quilters. I admire the quilts of Gwen Magee from Jackson, Mississippi, the stories that she addresses, the issues that she addresses in her quilts are important and they make people stop and think, as well as being well crafted. Her quilts are impeccable, the technique impeccable. I like the quilts of Marion Coleman, again these are narrative quilts. Again, she is one that tackles issues and I like to see that and they are well crafted. Another favorite quilter is Penny Sisto who is not only, she is a dear friend as well and I always look forward to seeing new quilts by Penny Sisto because they are very dramatic, visually dramatic as well as being seeped in stories. Both she and Gwen Magee, and then there are two young quilters within the Women of Color Quilters Network, Carolyn Crump and-- [door bell rings.] Oh my gosh did you hear that? KM: I did. CM: Just one moment. KM: That is okay, go ahead. [laughs.] CM: I'm expecting an exhibition bag. KM: Go right ahead. CM: Gosh. Okay, I have someone to take care of that. I'm sorry. KM: That is okay. You had Carolyn Crump. CM: Yes. They are serious art quilters that make abstract work, they both dye and paint their fabrics, they use all types of interesting techniques. Carolyn Crump's work is three dimensional and just mind boggling in it's form. She has not been exhibited that much but hopefully within the next eighteen months she will have several major exhibitions and her work will be introduced on a national level. Both she and Sonji Hunt I think are going to do very well, very well in the quilt world because their work is so unusual. So unusual, so I think people are going to be in for some big surprises with these two young folks. Those are my five favorites. KM: That is a wonderful list too. You mentioned collecting quilts and that you have more than 700 quilts. What criteria do you use for purchasing a quilt for your collection? CM: Most of the quilts are African American made quilts and they are African American contemporary quilts but then on the other side I collect all types of quilts, everybody's quilts but most of them are African American. The quilt has to touch my spirit, it has to speak to me. I have to be able to live with it. I rotate the hanging of the quilts in my home and in my studio and when I can wake up and look at it first thing in the morning and want to see it all day long then I know okay that's the quilt for me. I have to be able to live with it. It has to touch my spirit. It has to mean something to me. That's the criteria. I have no criteria in so far as technique. I don't look for particular artists, the quilt has to speak to me. That's the criteria. It is a totally, it is a spiritual thing. I have a wide range of quilts. I have quilts by Faith Ringgold as well as most of the major artists within the Women of Color Quilters Network. There are few favorite artists like Marion Coleman and Faith Ringgold and Carolyn Crump. For my favorite artists I may have several of their quilts. It's like candy. It is like chocolate. [KM laughs.] I can't have just one. I think that's my personality too, compulsive. I can't have just one of anything. My favorite quilters I may have several of their quilts or dozens. [both laugh.] It just depends. KM: You mentioned your studio, so describe your studio. CM: My studio is in my home on the lower level. It's 1,100 square feet and I have. It serves not only as my studio space but my husband calls it ""My Art Gallery"" because I have many of my favorite paintings downstairs and the work that I love I have to live with it, I want to see it, I want to be surrounded by it. I want to see it first thing when I wake up in the morning. I want to live with it because it makes me happy. In my studio I have not only quilts but I have my favorite paintings up as well and my sewing machine that I'm sort of; I'm compulsive about organization as well, so everything has to be in its place and all the fabrics are arranged according to color. I guess like every other quilter, we are very picky about our studio space and how it looks and how it's arranged that it can work best for what we do. My studio is like my sanctuary as well. My office space is on that level as well. There is one corner for my computer and books and whatnot. I could actually live there and not come up for air for a couple of weeks. [laughs.] It truly is a sanctuary. It's an environment that I enjoy. The quilts are scattered out all over my home. KM: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? CM: For the art quilters it's acceptance of the art form within the larger art community. I think that is a challenge for some quilters. Different groups though have different challenges. The Women of Color Quilters Network and the African American quilters that belong to that organization have a totally different set of challenges and that is just the acceptance of the work period. Any kind of work that they produce if it is not improvisational work. The challenges vary with the group, it depends on the objectives, organizations, and the objectives of the quilters themselves. KM: How have you seen things change in the 25 years that the Women of Color Quilters Network has been around? CM: There have been lots of changes in so far as first of all technology has brought so much to the quilt world, introducing new tools and new ways of doing things, new materials that are all incorporated into quilts and quiltmakers using these tools and materials to create quilts so that has been huge. It's made quiltmaking easier and technically more challenging and it's brought about a more sophisticated type of quilts, a different kind of quilts. I think the greatest change has been in technology. Then the again another change is seeing more quilts in museums. It's now like old hat. 25 years ago you didn't see that many in museums that would devote entire gallery to quilt exhibitions or space for quilt exhibitions and now you see that a lot and it's become quite normal to see the country's museums have quilt exhibitions. KM: Why are quilts and quiltmakers important to you? CM: Quilts are important because, physical quilts are important to me because they give me joy, they bring me joy, they bring me joy. That's the first thing and then the second thing I think about the historical aspect of quilts. I'm interested in recording that history, that is important to record quilt history because it gives us a window into American society, families and lives and social structure of people living here in this country. It is fascinating and it's important. That's what is important and then the quiltmakers themselves, people. There is just a wide variety of people that I've met and everybody brings something interesting to the table so that's been an interesting point for me, meeting quilters of all races, gender across the country and sharing that common love of quiltmaking. KM: You talked about quilts speaking to you. What do you think makes a quilt artistically powerful? CM: The first thing I look at are the images in the quilts. I look at the image and the colors speak to me, color combinations speak to me and I look at the craftsmanship. The first thing I see, I see the image. The next thing I see is the color. Then I'm going to hone in closer and look at the technique. The graphics grab me first. If the quilt, as a buyer, as a collector, if the quilt is not well made I don't care how strong the graphics are, then that's not a quilt I'm going to take home. KM: What are you working on right now? CM: [laughs.] Currently I'm writing three books, two of which are behind schedule. Actually one is two years behind schedule so I'm writing these three books, I'm curating two new exhibitions, I'm in the process of organizing those exhibitions now so the next year and a half is pretty full for me with the books and the exhibitions. I started my own publishing company three years ago and initially I started out wanting this company just to publish the books for the Network, for the Network exhibitions, however it is not panning out like that, we are starting to do more books for other folks so that is keeping me pretty busy too. All the publications are quilt related though so that is a good thing. I find myself doing everything but making quilts and that kind of makes me sad but maybe when I finish all of my projects I can come back around full circle to where I started and that's making quilts. KM: How do you balance your time? CM: [laughs.] That is a good question. How do I balance time? There is no balance. [both laugh.] There is no balance. I wish I could find a balance. You just do what you have to do and if things fall short you just try and catch up with it the next day. A nice happy balance and a happy medium for me would be the inclusion of making more quilts and having time to actually sit down and sew but it is not like that, so all I can do right now is just curate shows and write books and then there is a lot of traveling in between that. Those two events, these two jobs just kind of consume my life right now so there is nothing else. I don't find that there is any balance in life. I often say there is no such thing as a ""super woman"" and there isn't. I feel I can't do it all, but I try and do the best that I can with the jobs that I do and balancing family in between all this other, all the other things. KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking and your involvement in quilts? CM: [laughs.] I have three sons and they are all grown and they appreciate my quilts and my husband appreciates my quilts. They've always appreciated my quilts. I'm sure all of them wish that I had more time for them because I travel so much, as well as being involved with the books and the exhibitions, so I'm sure they wish I had more time for them. I can't say that they are selfish like that because that is not selfish, that is just human nature as the nature of family. They do recognize the importance of quiltmaking in my life and they appreciate my quilts so I'm lucky in that aspect, they appreciate my quilts and cherish them and recognize them as art works, important art works. KM: How do you want to be remembered? CM: My legacy and so forth with quiltmaking will be the founding of the Women of Color Quilters Network and finding a recording the contributions of African American quiltmakers to American quiltmaking, especially for the contemporary African American quiltmaker. It's important for me that I do everything that I can to record their works, to exhibit their works so that they have a place in quilt history. KM: Is there anything that you would like to share that we haven't touched upon before we conclude? CM: Not really. I probably will think of a hundred things when we hang up. [laughs.] KM: Isn't that human nature. CM: I can't think of anything right now. KM: Do you think of yourself more as an artist or a quiltmaker or do you even make a distinction? CM: I don't make a distinction. I've never really made a distinction. To me there is the big brew-ha-ha between the definition of art and quilts and craft and quilts that doesn't enter into my realm because I think everything we create if it is a feast to the eyes, it's art. I don't make a separation. I've always looked at quilters as artists because they are creating. I don't care whether it's traditional or art quilts or contemporary quilts or improvisational quilts, everybody, every artist that's made those quilts, they are artists, they are creating art. There is no difference between those words. It's just a play on words. We are all artists and that's how I see it and that's how I've seen it since day one. KM: I think this is a great way to conclude. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to share with me, and we are going to conclude our interview at 9:49.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Kim Greene",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=OH45069-001Mazloomi.xml,audio,4/21/09,,,,,,"Susan Quinn",,"legend,Quilt history,Women of Color Quilters Network",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/e75ee5255d74c7db327b445f368017a8.jpg,"Oral History","Ohio QSOS",1,0 "Barbara Brackman",,"Barbara Brackman is a quilt historian who specializes in designing reproduction prints for Moda. She maintains a internet presence through her blog, where she shares her knowledge of historic fabric and quilts. In this interview, she recounts to Meg Cox how she began as a quilter by discovering historical quilt patterns. She has been inspired by Civil War era quilts in part because of the local history of her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas.  Quiltmaking has played a significant social role in her life, and she has continued to be active in three different quilting groups, including one that has met for forty years. in addition to collecting quilts as she has room, she also collects digital images of quilts and vintage fabrics.",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",KS66049-001,,,"Meg Cox","Barbara Brackman","Moda Fabrics Headquarters, Dallas, Texas ","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Meg Cox (MC): This is Meg Cox and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. Save our Stories interview with Barbara Brackman. We are at the Moda Fabric's Headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The date is March 5, 2011 and the time is 9:32 a.m. [papers shuffle.] So, Barbara, tell me about what you brought to talk about in this interview. Barbara Brackman (BB): I wanted to bring something that really has created some kind of a change in my life, and so I brought just a few Kansas City Star quilt patterns. They're old newsprint from the 1930's. Why I brought them is because I found them in a thrift store when I was probably twenty years old and I went 'Ooh, you could make a lot of different quilts if you had enough patterns.' There were probably fifty in this package and in a plastic bag. I probably paid a quarter and then I just absolutely became enthralled with them. I sorted them in all the ways you can sort things. It's like when you're a little kid and your mother says, 'Here, play with the thread.' And you sort it by color and you sort it by size. I sorted them alphabetically. I sorted them by stars. I sorted them by squares. Pretty soon I became a junkie. [MC laughs.] I had to have more patterns and so I was a thrift store and antique store haunter at that time and so I would find them occasionally, but then I realized I didn't actually have to have the pattern, I just had to have a picture of the pattern. They hadn't invented the photocopy machine so I started putting patterns on index cards and sorting them in the same way I sorted the newsprint. So it really changed my life completely. Had I not found this package of quilt patterns I might have gone on to sort completely different things. [laughter.] The problem is I am a compulsive sorter. [laughter.] MC: That's amazing. Now, were you quilting at the time? BB: Yes, but I was working full time. I taught Special Ed, well, no, I guess I was in college at that time. It was something I kept thinking, 'I'm going to have time to make these quilts in the future. I'm going to get to do that pretty soon.' So this was my file of things I would get to make in the future. MC: So, what was your first quilt that you ever made? BB: It was about that time, let me see, the first one, my mother had been ill and I was nineteen, I was in college and my grandmother came to stay with us to take care of my mother. Everyone in college had quilts, but I was from New York City and so were my mother and grandmother. We were in Kansas and we didn't have quilts in the family and my grandmother was completely confounded by this whole thing, because she was a different-cultural grandmother. So she was living with us and I said, 'We're going to make a quilt because you're a grandma and I'm a granddaughter.' [laughter.] She said, 'Okay, fine with me.' And so she pretended she knew what we were doing, but she didn't, so I got Carrie Hall's book from the library and we picked a very hard pattern called Rob Peter to pay Paul, that probably has forty pieces. She didn't know a thing. I didn't know anything about templates or making the triangles the same size and the best thing was when it came to quilting it. I read Carrie Hall's book. It said she used thread and you did a stab stitch. I used six-strand embroidery thread to quilt it and I didn't split it because my grandmother, honestly, knew nothing. And so she'd watch me and she'd kind of shake her head. She just went, 'Well, just let her do what she wants.' So the whole thing was a horrible grandmother story. [laughter.] My grandmother was a fine woman but not a seamstress. So that was the first one and then the second one, because I didn't have any advice, I did a Lone Star, [laughter.] and that was hysterical because I drafted my own pattern and I didn't realize there are sixty degree diamonds and there also the 45 degree diamonds. I made eight arms for the Lone Star and only six fit together because I'd used the wrong diamond. [laughter.] So, that was the second one and then my sister got that one and she--and, also, Carrie Hall said you use old clothes, in her book and I had a vast assortment of polyester doubleknits [laughter.] in my wardrobe, in my sister's wardrobe and in my grandmother's wardrobe, and so it was a little bit wonky and stretchy. [laughter.] And then people said, 'How did you get into the lecture business?' Someone asked me, one time, to talk about my journey in quilting and I told these stories which are semi-hysterical because they're pathetic. And so people laughed and I thought, 'Well, this is a career, too, telling the true story with a little over dramatization, about my career in quilting.' Well this went on for years and finally other people, who came from a home-ec background and a seamstress background, gave me advice. And then I fell in with, actually, really fabulous quiltmakers and they showed me how to use a rotary cutter and a ruler. Now, I did learn the template thing, but for many, many years I did all my piecing by hand, with a pencil line matching things up, sitting in airports putting little triangles together, and enjoyed that no end. I have not made all the quilts I want to make yet. I still have many patterns that are sort of in my file. I'm going to do that one next. But it all started out with these newspaper clippings that somebody cut out of the newspaper in the 1930's. MC: We see you get a lot of pleasure out of it and still do and there's more you want to make. What do you find pleasing about it, you think? BB: About making quilts, well it's the fabric. It's all pattern. I just love pattern, whether it's the quilt pattern, whether it's the pattern on the fabric. I've done research on cowboy boot patterns. For hobbies I've done vast indexes of folk art in the world. These are my entertainment. I think it's the pattern in the fabric and the pattern in the quilt and balancing them. The sewing is the minor part. I'm not a person who really enjoys sewing. I've never been too coordinated as you can see by the stories of the first quilts, and it's still sometimes a struggle to get things to lay flat and points to meet. It's the planning and the seeing how it turns out, which is always different than the plan. MC: What takes you from one to the next? Is it the research first, like your studying a certain period and you think I want to make that quilt? Or, is it a technique or what is the thing, or is it the fabric, itself? BB: A terrible thing happens to a person when their hobby becomes their job. But, it's still my hobby so I have two sets of quilts and people, when they see my own quilts, they go, 'That doesn't look like you.' Well, that doesn't look like what you think I am, but the real me, my under-graduate degree is in art education so I took a lot of studio art courses and so when I'm making something for myself I'm inspired by pattern around me. I'm inspired by graphics that are contemporary and then graphics that are antique. So, what I'm working on right now, I'm doing a lot of small things, postcards, and I'm doing a lot of visual interpretation of traditional religious iconography. I'm doing a lot of shrines for myself, Photoshopping. I do a lot of digital taking, holy cards, don't tell my grandmother, and making them specifically for quilters. So, St. Thomas is the patron saint of mathematics so I Photoshopped him with a triangle and a ruler and a rotary cutter. I just pray to him every morning that I won't make any mistakes. [laughter.] So, I try to translate those into fabric and make those into things that are maybe twelve inches square. Now, no one ever sees these because-- MC: Where are they? BB: In my house. [both speak at once, inaudible.] I put them up and then I often give them to Alliance [The Alliance for American Quilts.] or to a charitable cause like AQS [American Quilting Society.] when they have an auction. And people go, 'Oh, that doesn't look like the Barbara Brackman I would think of.' Well, that's what I make for fun. We were talking the other day about binding. I don't bind them. I mean I just zig-zag the edges so that they're very free. So then, the person who has to work for a living and loves her job 'll sit all day interpreting an antique quilt in fabrics that we've designed for Moda that are reproductions and I do a lot of interpreting the past and those are very interesting to me, but it's like I'm living two lives. It's a work job and a fun job and I think that the fun job, the night-time, day-off job has to be very different, because I don't think I could be making conventional quilts to entertain myself much, when I make quilts during the day. [unidentified person speaks inaudibly.] Or at least I'm designing quilts. MC: Do you sleep under a quilt that you-- BB: No, I don't. It's because I have a bad dog [laughter.] and I also live in a bad climate, so I sleep under a down coverlet with a very washable duvet cover so when she comes in the house muddy. I did for many years and I have quilts on the wall. I have quite a book collection, of new and old quilts, and storage is always a problem. Quilts kept on the wall mostly. MC: When you toggle back and forth when you make quilts that you make for your own pleasure, so you've also worked on a lot of books and you've done a lot of project books, so do you do the quilting for those? Or do you send those out? BB: Oh, very rarely. MC: Do you just-- BB: I can't get everything done that I would want to. I used to have quite a crew of sewers. I had a pattern company called The Sunflower Pattern Co-operative and it was co-operative in that nearly everybody in my sewing group worked for it. They designed patterns and then they also did contract sewing. But we haven't been selling patterns. My partner moved to Kentucky. My partner, Karla moved to Kentucky and so Kansas and Kentucky are too far to really continue doing business. So we half-heartedly think we're still in business. Nothing's getting done. Through Moda, if I design a quilt, then Moda contracts out the piecing and then the quilting to their contractors here. And it's always such a wonderful thing to design something and then see it finished without having to put a stitch in it. [laughter.] I love that part of it. When I do a book, I haven't done a book in a couple of years, I usually try to put one or two of my own actual quilts in there, that I have finished down to the binding and the sleeve. MC: So, you can do it all. BB: Oh, I can, not well, but I can do it all. MC: When it comes to the technology, you mentioned Photoshopping and rotary cutters, what about the other things that you have in your arsenal, the tools that you use, the technology that you use, how do you design, like Corel Draw or EQ, or any of that, and what about your machine? Do you [both speak at once, inaudible.] BB: Well, I am still a collector. That would be on my grave, obsessive-compulsive, but put it to a good cause. The computer just crashed because I had too many pictures on it, so now I'm collecting pictures. For my entertainment, I will sit for an hour and go through the auctions, look at the quilts. I have certain things I am collecting. One thing is a quilt that actually has a date on it. I have a little routine every day, looking for dated quilts on the on-line auctions. Then I save three photos, the over all, the shot of the date, so I can prove to myself that's actually the date, and then a detail to show the fabrics. And I have hundreds and hundreds of those. I save everything as large as I can, which is the cause of the recent crash, but I also have enormous files of things that amuse me, images that amuse [hisssing sound.] me, religious images, holy cards, icons, things like that. What I do is I manipulate those things and I wanted learn how to get good at Photoshop for two or three reasons. One is I would have to sew less if I could really do a convincing mock-up of a quilt, and so that was one of my early intentions. But, also, I've been scanning photographs for The Alliance, the Kansas Quilt Projects Slides, and they are thirty years old, twenty-five to thirty years old, and they have really shifted color and they've really lost a lot of color. They all shift yellow, don't they, when they, so I have to re-color and then, because they get very thin, I have to work on the contrast and so I wanted to get good at that and I put a hundred up on The Alliance's web site, the Quilt Index, but I have 12,900 to go and I want to get better [hissing sound.] because they don't look good, so I've been on hiatus from scanning. I don't want to do the actual scanning but I probably always would have to be doing the colorizing. So, I wanted to get good at that and then the idea of Photoshopping Zsa Zsa Gabor's head onto a holy card [laughter.] cracked me up. I've a very juvenile sense of humor. I'd always wanted to paint that but I couldn't paint that well [laughter.] and so I continue to amuse myself no end by manipulating photos from different genres, so I did the Gabor sisters as a three-face. Only people over a certain age know who the heck they are. Now, someone said, 'You could have picked the Kardashian sisters.' but I said, 'I don't know who they are.' [laughter.] So I have these enormous files and I'm thinking that's about the major thing I do as far as technology, right now. I do a lot of Word, do a lot of Word Publisher, but it's mostly Photoshop, and now it's to the point where I take the picture off the Index and many times quilt pictures are a slant because you're standing to the side to get the whole thing in and I know now how to square it up and flatten it out and improve it. [snapping sound.] And I look at any photograph in a magazine and I think I can make that square. I [hissing sound.] I can fix that up. So the whole world is all illusional now, to me, [laughter.] so much better than it is in real life. [laughter.] MC: That is true. In terms of the way you use quilting in your life, has quilting ever helped you get through a difficult time. Is there an emotional component? BB: Of course everyone has difficult times in their lives, so, illnesses, well, see the one, start when my mother was dying and my grandmother was there and we had something to share, whether we were actually sharing anything or not. She was just watching. But through divorces, through very bad illness and through my own illnesses, you know, when sometimes you break your ankle and they say no weight on it for six weeks. Sewing certainly gets you through those times. I find I shift in what I'm sewing because my boyfriend was very sick last year and so I found paper piecing. I did paper-pieced pineapples. That's all I did, no thinking, just sew, sew, sew, sew, sew. I started out with four inches and I went to six inches and then I went to eight inches and got better, so I didn't ever get to the twelve inches, which was good. [laughter.] I found paper piecing, which is something I always would have thought of as rather dull, you know to have it all so predictable, was very therapeutic because it didn't take any real thinking, but it occupied your mind. Definitely I think it's therapeutic as many people have said. MC: What do you think makes a great quilt? We could talk a day about that. BB: Oh, what makes a great quilt. For me personally, it's fabric. I love the graphics and I'll look at an Amish quilt and I'll go, 'Wow, that contrast is great. That design, that composition is great.' But then I just move right on because they're solids, who cares? [laughter.] We have a quilt behind us right now and I guess I'm a microscopic focuser here. I focused in on the blue and the brown fabric and thought wait a minute, what's that shift there and color and I thought was that accidental, so I could stand here all day and look at the quilt that's behind us because it's from 1840 and, in fact, that particular piece is a rainbow print, which is deliberately shaded from light to dark and from brown to blue. There I am going oh, man, I've never seen one just like that. I have a very good visual memory. I have a terrible auditory memory but an excellent visual memory. So I try to file those just like the pictures in Photoshop on my computer. I try and file that away in the blues and say now remember that. Remember how that blue absolutely turned to brown and that was not an accident. So for me a great quilt is the great fabric. MC: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection or something like that? BB: An interesting thought. I've written some guidelines for the museums I volunteer at and I think regionalism for the particular museum. If it's a national museum of American history it's American. If it's the Lyon County Historical Society, it's Lyon County, Kansas. I think regionalism is very important. If someone's going to give you an English quilt that has no provenance at all that has to do with the county or the area I think the quality of the quilt, the condition, whether or not it's an unusual version of a common style, or else an uncommon style. That's the thing we always have to be very, in fact sometimes break people's hearts an say, 'It's a lovely yo-yo quilt, but we don't have any room for more than one in our collection and storage is a problem. So I think each museum should have a collecting focus, which they do, and that you'll take a quilt, maybe, that's in very bad condition if it has a connection to the community and a good story that will back it up. I know right now we're going through a difficult time because museums are in such bad shape for funding. When I scan every day when I'm scrolling around for quilts that are for sale, I see that they are being de-accessioned from some pretty impressive collections. It's really heartbreaking, very upsetting, but it's because I know what, if they asked me at the two museums in Kansas that I advise, what should we get rid of, we need money, we don't have storage, I would say, 'It's a pretty quilt, but it has nothing to do with Lyon County, Kansas or Lawrence, Kansas or we know nothing about it and if we sold it, it would bring a better price than one that's in worse condition that has local thing, so let's get rid of the pretty one.' Then it goes back into the community to a collector who pays a nice price and then in twenty-five years it'll go to another museum when she decides she wants to de-accession her collection. So it's a collecting focus that everyone should have, every museum should have, and then it has to be adjusted. But I know at Spencer Museum of Art [University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.] where I advise, at the Kansas Museum of History were I advise, we have two different goals. One is history and one is art. So I'll say, 'This is a fabulous story but the quilt is not a work of art, it's a common type of quilt. I think it would be better off at the history museum.' And then the other way around, this is a fabulous quilt with no provenance. I think maybe that should go over to the other museum. So, what makes a great museum quilt depends on the museum. MC: What about your personal collection? Do you have certain criteria? BB: Sixty dollars, sixty dollar criterion. [laughter.] I am a sixty-dollar quilt buyer. I have spent, I would guess I've spent up to $500 if it had great fabric. It's mainly I don't have storage. I have a one bedroom house, tiny little Victorian house and so, occasionally I will buy them on impulse if they're under sixty dollars, and then sell them for fifty, buy high, sell low is my theory. [laughter.] What I'm looking for, because I'm in the business of fabric, I'm looking for fabric. I'm looking for a charm quilt, or I'm looking for a chintz quilt that has a large piece of chintz with a whole repeat so I can copy it. MC: So it might be for inspiration for your own-- BB: Mostly for inspiration. That's the only way I can justify it. I buy a lot of fabric in isolation. I buy a lot of blocks and a lot of big repeats of chintz backs or something, [inaudible.] backs that I can then use to make fabric out of. The whole on-line auction thing has really gone down the tubes. People aren't putting stuff up any more because people aren't buying. There was a time, when I stuck to that sixty dollar rule and I could get 1830 quilts for thirty-nine dollars because sometimes they're in terrible shape. Sometimes they're downright ugly and sometimes the person is selling them, often doesn't know what they have, and they take a really terrible picture. So someone that just scrolls through and goes, 'Ooh that looks like it's from the 1950's.' Oddly I don't even want it and I'll be the only bidder. Those days are gone. Those days are gone. So I'm a very, I have to really keep it to what I can store in my house and so it's much better for me to spend my money on yardage. I'll spend a lot more on a piece of fabric than I'll spend on a quilt, which is the converse of most people. MC: Some of the quilts you make, yourself, sound like they're pretty contemporary with the Photoshop and all that, do you collect that type of quilt as well, or not so much? BB: No, oh Lord, that would be wonderful though. I have a few contemporary quilts that I've purchased in the charity auctions and things, and I'll pay more than sixty dollars, but they fit on the wall. They don't require folding up and good storage and tissue stuffing and things like that. Deciding that you're going to live small, which was sort of a political thing for me, and it's a functional thing, too. It means that you do not have storage and you cannot collect what you want, except for pictures. That's another reason why I'm so interested in pictures. MC: Of the contemporary quiltmakers, are there some that really speak to you? BB: Oh, yes. There're many contemporary quiltmakers [inaudible.] who knock me out. Laura Wasilowski, you know, the whole Chicago School of Fusing, with the idea of, just the freedom of that technique, the color that they use. Now, in my fabric business, I'm the reproduction person, so I'm stuck in natural dyes. Black cotton is not something I ever get to do because it's in the future from the Civil War, so lime green, vivid magenta, those are things that I don't ever get to do, so when I buy fabric that's what I buy. And when I look at quilts I'm saving them into an inspiration file. It'll be some of the real bright colors and the real interesting use of some of the bold graphic fabrics people are doing today. MC: You mentioned the Civil War thing which you've written a lot about, is it that you're fascinated by that period historically or is it the fabric that speaks to you first and foremost? BB: Through my life, now I have no history in my background, no history education, I've plenty of history in my background. When I started out I lived in this wonderful little town. One day I realized it was a very important place in the Civil War. I have to put this in--- Missourians came over and burned it in 1863. We're still mad. [laughter.] During the Civil War it was a very important location as to events leading up to the war and then during the war that burning of the [various unidentified noises.] town was just kind of a union rallying point. When I realized the history there I started getting interested in the Civil War because I wanted to know who owned my house. When I bought the house when I was twenty-five I could see the people who had owned it, those were names that I had heard of. So that's how I became interested in the Civil War. Since I have no real historical education, I thought I'm going to work backwards and so I have gradually been working backwards into the Civil War. I want to be able to go out onto the street and know what that street looked like in 1862 before they burned it. I feel pretty confident about that now, in that town and in Kansas I understand it very well. Then I started working backwards. So I was fascinated by the Civil War for many years and I read every woman's diary that I could find for those years and because I'm a compulsive collector I saved notebooks full of any quotes, I would write this down in longhand, any quotes they might refer to something interesting about their lives, their fight with their husband, their bad children, things we can relate to, their depressions, their illnesses, their experiences just in trying to live lives as women that were so constrained, but also about slavery, and about abolition, about political causes from the Civil War, and then any references to textiles and quilting. I got into this, really, thinking I bet these women talked about quilting. Well, they didn't that much but they do talk about fashion, especially in their letters and so I would write those things down. I have probably, well, three feet of notebooks that are full of these papers-full. That's one way I got interested in writing about the Civil War. I knew a lot more about the Civil War and how women lived through it than most formal historians do because they're not reading diaries and letters and they're not reading women's diaries and letters. That's how I got into the Civil War. Now I've been working backwards and I've got into the 1840's. So I spent years reading nothing but New England diaries and literature about the New England literati, the people that were so influential, the Hawthorn's and the Peabody's. Spent years reading them. Then I worked my way back into the 1820's which isn't got a lot of information. Then I jumped over to England and now I'm complete obsessed with the Regency period in England. [hissing sound.] I know every piece of gossip, and I tell you, you want to know gossip, you want to know some baaad lives, bad choices people made, the English Regency [laughter.] is the era. Now I'm stuck in about 1780 in England. I know a lot about, yeah it states although there certainly isn't the documentation, so I guess I have to work back until the colonial period but that looks kind of cold and bleak [laughter.] to me, and so all I can think of is Thanksgiving pictures of cold people eating. [laughter.] very, very small dishes of turkey. That's a prejudice that I want to get over so I'll have to go backwards. I live in a small town which has not a great town library, adequate, but it has a university library and they have great collections, so I'll just go through the number, the Dewey Decimal System or whatever. Some of the books I read are so obtuse they're still on the Dewey Decimal System and when I try to check them out they glare at me and go, you know, 'I have to put this in the system. Nobody's checked it out since 1948.' But we do have wonderful books so I have access to whole worlds and people say, 'You live in a little town, don't you get bored?' No, I live in Regency England right now [laughter.] and I'm never bored. MC: That's wonderful. It sort of prompted me to think about technology and the question of technology and quilts. Because you deal with all these historical quilts, you make them, you study them and you create patterns, how do you feel about the whole thing about making quilts today and hand versus machine versus long-arming and first of all how do you feel about it. And second of all, is it appropriate to use these older materials in these older quilts. Should you be sort of be making them the way they were made at the time they were made? Do you have any thoughts on that? BB: I'm a rebel. You can do whatever you want. I never give it a thought and I never have in my whole life. I started out making quilts. There were people who had, I took Home-ec for one semester, they just suggested I go into something else. [laughter.] My father didn't want me in Home-Ec. anyway. He was really supportive of me anyway, 'I think you should just take a business course. Forget that stuff.' So I just have always just have gone, 'Whatever.' It's functional, do what you want. I've documented, I worked for Quilters Newsletter [Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.] for many years and that was one of our big issues. 'Caryl Bryer Fallert won a prize with a machine-quilted quilt. You know, we have to write an editorial about it. What do you think?' Uh, well, let her do whatever she wants. So, there's just no opinion there. It just seems to me, I'm a visual person and I'm certainly not a nit-picker and people have asked me to judge contests at fairs. 'Oh, no, you don't want me judging, because I'll just go for the visuals. I will not check that binding and make sure that the batting extends to the edge.' MC: Or count the stitches. BB: Yes. I just don't care personally. People want to get into an argument about it and I'm not a very judgmental person, so I don't want anybody throwing stones at me, let me tell you that. MC: This is kind of an over-arching question. Why is quiltmaking important to your life? BB: Why is quiltmaking important to my life? That's a very good question. Social, I think if I didn't have my quilting groups I probably would have quit making quilts. I would be still making art but my life is very much built on my women friends. I have three quilting groups that I belong to, so Wednesday begins a grueling couple of days, Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, three different groups. Now some of them only meet every other week, but what that grew out of, as I say earlier, we used to have a pattern business, these same people and so it was our meetings. It was our business meetings and we'd be sewing and we'd be working on projects together. Then as the business sort of faded away it just became social and we invited more people. As more people retired from their other businesses, we invited other people in. So I always have to have hand sewing for those things. I always have to have something I can be doing by hand and there's prep-work weekend for that grueling Wednesday-Thursday schedule. Then because they're so interested in quilting, many of them, we keep up on the tools and the equipment. We're constantly trying to find things that are going to make our lives easier, better, and of course, the fabric. I can always bring in something or other, something that I'm working on and that keeps everybody talking about fabric. I think it really is mostly social that keeps me in there. I know I would always be doing something artistic, but it's strange how the computer, using the computer graphics, has really replaced a lot of the creativity needs in my life. There's problems with that in that I don't get up and pretty soon, every day, I have to quit because I've stared at it for six hours and you've got to change your eye focus. Time to walk the dog. I think it's mostly social right now. MC: So, these groups that you're in, do you sew when you're there. Is it mostly show-and-tell, is it mostly social-- BB: It's all of those things. Show-and-tell, it's eating, it's champagne. Champagne for breakfast. I have to be busy, keep busy, and many of them do. One friend never does any prep-work and always comes in and says, 'Does anyone have anything for me to do?' So I like to even keep her busy. She's a great binder. If you get it pre-sewn, she'll bind it. She's a circle gluer. [hissing sound.] If she would do her own prep-work she could have made twenty quilts in the past couple of years, but she just can't sit there without having something to do. That's the way I am, too, so I do a lot of hand appliqué right now. We're always looking for the never-ending appliqué because then you won't have to do much prep and it's a tragedy after three years when it's done. [hissing sound, laughter.] MC: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community. BB: Well, that's social life and you know my community and many of the same people I've been sewing with for, I hate to say it, almost forty years, meeting at night every other week. We started out, years ago, the first group, and we made several group quilts, the first that really sticks in my mind is our Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue quilt, which is in the Quilt Index, in which we killed her. We hated her. We hated her because we’re anti-sentimentalists. We are just not amused by big-eyed children, unless they're real children. We lived in an era of Walter Keane paintings and Sunbonnet Sue just fit right in there. Everybody was gaga over her at our guild meetings so my friend Laurie Metzinger said at one time she'd like to see that little girl dead. [laughter.] So I took her and I drew her and I pushed her over on her side and I put a big rock on her chest and Laurie laughed so hard, this was during a guild meeting that we almost got thrown out. [laughter.] So we just took some Sunbonnet Sue patterns and we turned them over and we turned them on their face, turned them on their head, dropped things on them. That quilt entertained us no end. We got many people to work on it. Then we did a second one and then we said, 'All right, people are starting to attach meaning to this. They're starting to say that we were feminists, which we were, but that we were making this because we [laughter.] were feminist and we wanted to show that Sunbonnet Sue in her traditional role. We weren't thinking that. We were trying to kill her, squash her, flatten her out. It was anti-sentiment. So my friend, Nadra, says, 'Well, maybe should do a quilt that nobody can find any meaning in it at all.' This was in 1975, maybe '80. So she said, 'Every day I drive by a store, in Olathe, Kansas, called the Julian Flaming Furniture. It's been driving me crazy. What do you think they have in there?' Apparently Julian Flaming was someone's name. So then the idea was to imagine what was inside the Julian Flaming Furniture store. That's meaningless. It's total Dada. [laughter.] So we started that thirty years ago and it lagged, but about six months ago I got the blocks out and I said, 'We're finishing this thing, because thirty years is too long.' So here's what I've been working on night and day for the past six months, is trying to get people who were seven years old when we started it the first time, to make a few blocks. They had some things they wanted to set on fire [hissing.] and then we got it to the quilter. It just came back from the quilter last Wednesday. It's beautiful and I wanted to bring it. I thought that could be a good talismanic object, but I knew that my friend, Georgeanne, who never has anything to do it, so I would present it in the proper Tom Sawyer pattern, and she'd say, 'I'll take it. I'll bind it. I'll bring it back.' So she's got it right now. So this is a thirty-year project, so that's the way my quilts reflect my community. The ones that I'm working on as my art is that it's Tom Sawyerism. I try to get everybody involved. MC: Where will that quilt go. BB: Well, I don't know. You're thinking which museum discipline. Now that MSU, Michigan State University does have our first Sunbonnet Sue quilt, now we thought this was so amusing thirty years ago. So now that I can look on the web, you type Flaming Furniture. [laughter.] Every twenty-year old who's got his apartment and a six-pack of beer has poured gasoline on his couch and set it on fire. I've taken a picture of him, sitting there, drinking a beer. That's exactly the same sense of humor. [laughter.] I don't know, it's adolescent and it's like putting Zsa Zsa Gabor, of course, on a holy card. It's adolescent humor. So where would it go. I don't know. It's not even back from the quilter. Once it's back we hope to show it in our guild show this April and then we will undoubtedly will drag it around for a while some people are still out there giving lectures and, of course, I'll put it on my blog. Probably, since they're all invigorated after finishing a thirty-year project, someone will get another idea next week. 'Well, you know, we could do that one we talked about years ago.' I do love community working and I love art group projects. They said, 'We got it out, you know, and I put it together with scraps of stuff we had left from other projects.' They said, 'Did it turn out the way you thought?' and I said, 'No, I really hoped I could make it pretty.' [laughter.] But it's a lot of furnitures, overstuffed furniture with little appliqué flames coming out of it. There's just nothing you can do. [laughter.] It's got an Eames chair and someone did the kitchen sink. There's some very nice things in it. I think it's just downright ugly. Actually it's a concept. [sharp rattle.] We'll see what people can make of this and say, 'Now these women are deeply worried about fire insurance.' [laughter.] It's totally meaningless. MC: I can't wait to see it. What is the importance of quilts in American life? BB: Zilch. [laughter.] You know, I'm from a social services background. I'm a liberal. There are a lot more problems in American life than quilts. I do think the quilts are a touchstone to our ancestors and I am a historian. I'm a family genealogist. I love the way they connect us to the past. It's a luxury to be able to have that kind of touch with the past, to be able to have the money as a nation to save them in museum collections, to have the luxury as women and men to make them, to indulge ones selves in buying that much fabric and putting that much work into something, a handmade object. That's the importance of it, is that it reflects a lot, but I don't know, I'm a myth buster. It's something I can't say, but I can do it. They will come and go, as my grandmother always said, 'We had some of those, but when we had some money we got rid of them.' That attitude's going to come back. We have no family quilts at all and she said, 'As soon as we got two nickels to rub together we went out of the handmade blanket business, Barbara.' So, I think they have importance as to what they mean and how they reflect our ability to appreciate them. When you read world news, you know, and people are leaving countries because, it always breaks my heart and I know if you are collectors you people have to leave Tripoli, you can take what's on your back and one armful. You don't have room for that quilt or anything else that's important to you. So, I always think 'Well, if I had to get out what would I'd take, I guess the dachshund, the fat dachshund that would fill up my arms and I would like to have the hard drive but it's going to have to go, so very little gets to go. So I do think that we are in a unique position and that we are now able to reflect back on all that and to not have the attitude my grandmother has that a handmade blanket is a reflection of poverty. We have the respect for them. MC: So it sounds like you're saying you think that the ebb and flow of quilting, that it's going to run down again, we're going to go through those sallow periods again? BB: It must be inevitable. I don't know. As when my aunt said, and I had an abundance of aunts and when I quit teaching, that reliable job with a pension they kept telling me about, and I said, 'Oh, I'm in the quilt business now, I just go around and lecture.' And they said, 'Oh, you better have a fall-back idea.' I've never needed the fall-back idea but I think we can't predict the future. There was a period about ten years ago everyone was going into knitting, [laughter.] but knitting, there's just so many handmade sweaters a small child can have. [laughter.] And so grandmas, quit mothers, they did it, so I just don't know. I think people will always be doing something creative but what that will be, I can't predict the future. I'm very pleased that it's been going on, I've been in this business for thirty years. That's a luxury, too. I've been able to support myself really well for thirty years. Ebb and flow, I'm a historian. MC: It's not going to ebb in your life, though, for you. BB: No, because I'm retired. I just got my first social security check. MC: So that means more quilting, more-- BB: Well, more time to Photoshop I fear. MC: Well, to wrap up, in terms of your journeys with quilts and your discovery with quilts, what would your dream be, for your next-- BB: Oh, well, my dream with quilts. I would like to have more storage space. That is my [laughter.] eternal, you know, if you live in a small house you look at those people who have those little aluminum barns in their backyard and you go, 'Man, I could fill one of those with something. I wouldn't put the quilts out there, but if I put, like the pantry out there, [laughter.] I could put shelves in the pantry. I could put quilts in there. So my dream would be to have more storage space. I have had a [laughter.] a studio down town which I rented with friends and that's where we kept things for years. We lost our lease. The parking was horrible, the stairs were terrible and so I remodeled my garage to do that, but the garage is full, totally full. That studio was totally full, so more room for a better collection. Recently Moda sent me to look at a beautiful swatch book from 1835 and I thought if I were the richest woman in the world I would buy swatch books and I would have a room to keep them in and a curator to take care of them and I would come in every day and she would, with white gloves, turn the pages for me. [laughter.] What do you think of that one? So that would be my ideal. The realities are, if I had them I'd drop them and the dog would [inaudible.]. I'm very bad. It's not a museum at my house so I really don't want to have those kind of valuable things. I do love the access to them. As far as making quilts, I have time to make quilts. I have time. I have two studios, one in the house, one bedroom, the only bedroom in the house. I'm sleeping in the living room, abandon the dining room because who has people over any more. So that's the living room or the giant TV room and so I have an inside studio and then an outside studio and the outside one tends to be more storage for the swatches that I do have and a lot of the quilts. I do have the time to make the quilts. People say you're going to retire. What are you going to do? I hope to paint and draw more. They're messy. One of the reasons I got into quilting, I think, when I was just out of art school, was you can pick up a quilt and sew. You can't pick up an oil painting. You have to have the outfit on to do the oil painting. You have to have the big area and so I don't think I'll ever oil paint again but I'd love to go back to more watercolor and tempera and things like that. MC: Thank you so much for letting us do this and talk to you and absolutely fascinating and truly fun, so this concludes the interview with Barbara Brackman and the time is now 10:18 a.m. Thank you.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Eleanor Wilkinson",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=KS66049-001Brackman.xml,audio,3/5/2011,," 5 Barbara Brackman KS66049-001Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesKansas QSOSQuilt Alliancereproduction fabricsantique quiltsKansas City Star PatternsSun Sets on Sunbonnet SueBarbara BrackmanMeg Cox1:|8(10)|20(12)|39(5)|53(3)|65(10)|79(4)|93(2)|103(10)|119(10)|138(4)|153(2)|172(7)|184(6)|194(12)|210(7)|222(10)|237(5)|253(4)|264(13)|277(9)|290(13)|305(18)|325(3)|337(8)|350(15)|361(13)|374(6)|386(12)|401(7)|415(14)|433(1)|445(4)|459(12)|474(11)|487(12)|500(1)|516(5)|527(14)|541(3)|552(3)|564(4)|579(1)|597(10)|609(7)|620(12)0http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/KS66049-001Brackman.mp3Otheraudio0 Introduction This is Meg Cox and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. Save our Stories interview with Barbara Brackman. We are at the Moda Fabric's Headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The date is March 5, 2011 and the time is 9:32 a.m. The interviewer, Meg Cox introduces herself and shares what project is doing this interview for. The interviewer begins a discussion with Barbara Brackman.Dallas, Texas;Moda Fabric's Headquarters;Quilters's Save our Stories32.928849, -96.91425617Moda Fabric Headquartershttps://storefront.unitednotions.com/storefrontCommerce/redirect.do?page=zCompanyInfoModa Fabrics website41 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today.; I want to bring something that really created some change in my life and so I brought just a few Kansas City Star quilt patterns. They are all newsprint from the 1930's.Brackman recalls discovering Kansas City Star quilt patterns at a thrift store when she was in her twenties. She was enthralled with certain patterns and even drew sketches of the patterns; she found more at thrift and antique stores, and began organizing and categorizing them.Index Cards;Kansas City Star Quilt Patterns;Newsprint;Published work – Patterns;Thrift Store17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/KS66049-001BrackmanA.jpgBarbara Brackman with Kansas City Star quilt patterns157 On making her first quilt So, what was your first quilt that you ever made?Brackman recalls approaching her grandmother about making quilts and they started quilting together. Her grandmother pretended she knew about quilting but did not really, so Barbara went to the library and learned quilting from Carrie Hall's and Rose Kretsinger’s book, “The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America.” Brackman made an eight-pointed Lone Star quilt, but made mistakes in measuring it and made six 45 degree diamonds rather than 8 sixty degree diamonds. She then talks about the techniques she used over the years and how she enjoyed it since the beginning.1930s Newspaper Clippings;45 degree diamonds;Carrie A. Hall;college;Fiber – Polyester;Lone Star - quilt pattern;New York City;Polyester double-knits;quiltmaking process;Rob Peter to Pay Paul - quilt pattern;Rotary cutter;Six-Strand Embroidery Thread;Stab Stitch;Templates;Thread;“The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America"" by Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger (1935)17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/Hall_Kretiziner_romance.jpgCarrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger, “The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America"" (1935). Brackman drew inspiration from this book in making her first quilt. 350 What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking?; Well it's the fabric. It's all pattern. I just love pattern, whether it's the quilt pattern, whether it's the pattern on the fabric. Brackman recounts how she likes the patterns in quiltmaking, whether the pattern printed on the fabric or the quilt pattern itself. She is inspired by patterns and graphics that are both contemporary and antique. She is less interested in the process of sewing a quilt itself. She mentions that she puts the quilts in her house and gives them away to quilt organizations and charities. She also collects both new and quilts. Adobe Photoshop;American Quilt Study Group (AQSG);Cowboy Boots;Folk Art;Kansas;Karla Menaugh;Kentucky;Moda;Pattern;Quilt Purpose - Charity;quiltmaking process;Religious Iconography;Rotary cutter;Sewing;shrines;St. Thomas;Sunflower Pattern Co-operative;Technology in quiltmaking17https://www.etsy.com/shop/SunflowerPatternCoopSunflower Patter Co-operative, Brackman’s quilt pattern company.670 Inspiration, tools, and technology When it comes to the technology, you mentioned Photoshopping and rotary cutters, what about the other things that you have in your arsenal, the tools that you use, the technology that you use, how do you design, like Corel Draw or EQ, or any of that, and what about your machine? Brackman emphasizes that she is a collector and that among the things she collects are photographs of antique quilts she finds on online auction sites. She has scanned photographs and frequently uses Photoshop. However, she also uses other programs, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher. She tells an amusing account of her effort to Photoshop Zsa Zsa Gabor’s face onto a holy card. Adobe Photoshop;auction;Digital Scanning;Gabor sisters;holy cards;Kansas Quilt Project;Microsoft Publisher;Microsoft Word;Quilt Alliance;Quilt Index;quiltmaking process;religious iconography;scan;State quilt documentation project;Technology in quiltmaking;Zsa Zsa Gabor17http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?collection=Kansas%20State%20Historical%20SocietyKansas Quilt Project on the Quilt Index892 Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time; What makes a great quilt? Of course everyone has difficult times in their lives, so, illnesses, well, see the one, start when my mother was dying and my grandmother was there and we had something to share, whether we were actually sharing anything or not.Brackman talks about that during times of difficulty including illness, death, and divorce, she would sew. When her boyfriend was sick, she sewed paper-pieced pineapples and found it to be therapeutic. Additionally, she talks about in some length how fabric makes a great quilt.1840 Quilt;Amish Quilt;antique quilt;death;divorce;grandmother;grieving;illness;mother;Paper Piecing;Paper-Pieced Pineapples;Photoshop;Rainbow fabric print;recovery;Sewing;solid colored fabric171044 What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection; What about your personal collection? I think regionalism for the particular museum. If it's the National Museum of American History it's American. If it's the Lyon County Historical Society, it's Lyon County, Kansas. I think regionalism is very important. If someone's going to give you an English quilt that has no provenance at all that has to do with the county or the area I think the quality of the quilt, the condition, whether or not it's an unusual version of a common style, or else an uncommon style.Brackman goes over the importance of quilts’ provenance for historical society or museum collections, in relation to quilts’ regional origins or historical value. She talks about the issues of museums choosing to accession quilts; they should consider how common or uncommon a quilt is, as well as if it has a relationship to the region or relates to the mission of the museum. Additionally, Brackman talks about how both historical societies and museums handle quilt donations quite differently. For her personal collection, Brackman lives by a $60 maximum rule for quilts, while contrasting her habit of buying fabrics for more. She buys quilts for inspiration for patterns and fabric design, so she can make one herself. Brackman laments the decline of online quilt auctions.1830 Quilts;antique quilts;Charm Quilt;Chintz Quilt;De-accession;English Quilt;Fabric;Kansas Museum of History;Lyon County Historical Society (Lyon County, Kansas);museum;online auction;Provenance;quilt collector;regionalism;Smithsonian National Museum of American History;Spencer Museum of Art (University of Kansas)38.959676, -95.24460417Spencer Museum of Arthttp://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalSearch&module=collection&fulltext=quiltThe Spencer Museum of Art’s quilt holdings1331 Do you collect contemporary quilts? No, oh Lord, that would be wonderful though. I have a few contemporary quilts that I've purchased in the charity auctions and things, and I'll pay more than sixty dollars, but they fit on the wall. Brackman states that she does not collect many contemporary quilts because she lives in a small house and storage is an issue. However, she does like contemporary styles, such as Laura Wasilowski's Chicago School of Fusing. However, Brackman specializes in Civil War reproduction fabrics.Bold fabric graphics;Chicago School of Fusing;Civil War;Contemporary quilts;Fabric - Reproduction;Laura Wasilowski;Photograph collections;Quilt Purpose - Charity;Quilt Purpose - Home Decoration;reproduction quilts;Storage issues17http://artfabrik.com/thread-u-cation-thursday-herringbone/Wasilowski, Laura. “Artfabrik | Hand-Dyed Fabrics and Threads and Art Quilts by Laura Wasilowski.” Thread-U-Cation Thursday: Herringbone, October 5, 2017. http://artfabrik.com/.1433 Fascination with Civil War era quilts You mentioned the Civil War thing which you've written a lot about, is it that you're fascinated by that period historically or is it the fabric that speaks to you first and foremost?Brackman remembers she first became interested in the Civil War through living in Lawrence, Kansas, a town central to the conflict with Missourians in 1863. She looked through diaries and letters of women to get an idea of their lifestyles. From the Civil War, Brackman worked backwards to earlier time periods and expressed interest in eras that include the 1840s New England literature and the English Regency. As for her thoughts on technology used today for quilting, she thinks that people can do whatever they want to make great quilts, and does not judge quiltmaking technique.1780s England;1820s English Regency;1840s New England literature;Caryl Bryer Fallert;Civil War fashion;Civil War locations;Dewey Decimal System;Home economics;Lawrence, Kansas;machine quilting;primary sources;Quilters Newsletter Magazine;quiltmaking process;University of Kansas;Women's diaries38.959053, -95.26397517Lawrence, Kansas, Brackman's hometown and the site of the 1863 Lawrence Massacre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_massacreLawrence massacre (Civil War attack in 1863)1831 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? Social, I think if I didn't have my quilting groups I probably would have quit making quilts. I would be still making art but my life is very much built on my women friends.Brackman explains that she makes quilts to help keep a social circle and find methods to improve the quality of quilts. She belongs to three different quilting groups. Brackman mentions that they mostly do “show and tell” of their works in progress, but sometimes there is work for people to do with the quilting group. Brackman brings up that she tries to have hand sewing to do at these meetings.applique;Binding;Circle gluing;Hand applique;hand sewing;Pattern Business;Quilt fabric;quilt guild;social aspects of quiltmaking;technology in quiltmaking172014 In what ways do your quilts reflect your community. That's social life and you know my community and many of the same people I've been sewing with for, I hate to say it, almost forty years, meeting at night every other week. Brackman recounts how her quilting group had been together for decades and how they have made several group quilt projects. The quilt in particular that spoke out to her was the “Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue” quilt. The group did not like the ubiquitous Sunbonnet Sue quilt pattern depicting a featureless female character engaged in typically female activities. So they made a quilt that depicted violent deaths of Sunbonnet Sue. Although some speculated that the quilt represented the group's feminism, it actually had more to do with their “un-sentimentaility,” according to Brackman. The quilt is now in the Michigan State University Museum collection. Brackman also talks about how another group project, “Julian Flaming Furniture,” lagged on for thirty years until they finished it recently with another generation of quiltmakers participating. Brackman planned on taking it to the guild show in April and take it to some lectures on quilts. She ends by saying that she enjoys doing community projects.applique;Dada;feminism;Guild activities;Julian Flaming Furniture;Laurie Metzinger;Michigan State University Museum;Personal Blog;Quilt Index;Quilt shows/exhibitions;Sunbonnet Sue -- quilt pattern;talisman;Tom Sawyer -- quilt pattern;Walter Keane Paintings;“Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue” quilt42.731550, -84.48173717Michigan State University Museumhttp://www.museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_2001.158.01.html“The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue,” Seamsters Union Local #500, Lawrence, Kansas, 1979, 62"" x 78"", Cotton, velvet, polyester batting. MSU Museum Accession 2001:158.1, Photo by Pearl Yee Wong, all rights reserved by MSU Museum.2326 What is the importance of quilts in American life? Zilch. [laughter.] You know, I'm from a social services background. I'm a liberal. There are a lot more problems in American life than quilts. Brackman thinks that even though quilts represent a much smaller role in American life than some of the big problems facing society, quilts allow others to connect people to the past. She recollects recent news involving the turmoil in Tripoli and what she would take with her if she had to leave in a hurry away from danger, since quilts are very hard to transport in life threatening conditions. Thus, Brackman has respect for quilts and does not agree with her grandmother that they are only a reflection of poverty. Brackman emphasizes how we cannot predict the future and she was quite fortunate to be as successful as she has been in the quilt business.current events;Dachshund;Family Genealogy;History;Knitting;pension;Poverty;professional quiltmaker;retirement;Tripoli, Libya172556 On her dreams for her future with quilts Oh, well, my dream with quilts. I would like to have more storage space. Brackman dreams about having more storage space for her quilts. She mentions the studio she rented and she did not like the place. So she moved her quilts to the garage, but her garage is full. If she could do it, she would buy and keep antique swatch books in a room, along with a curator to help her out. However, she stores them in the places she has available in her house and contemplates trying out drawing and painting.1835 Swatch book;Curator;Moda;Storage space;Tempura;Watercolors;Work or Studio space17http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/Barbara Brackman's blog on quiltsOral HistoryBarbara Brackman is a quilt historian who specializes in designing reproduction prints for Moda. She maintains a internet presence through her blog, where she shares her knowledge of historic fabric and quilts. In this interview, she recounts to Meg Cox how she began as a quilter by discovering historical quilt patterns. She has been inspired by Civil War era quilts in part because of the local history of her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Quiltmaking has played a significant social role in her life, and she has continued to be active in three different quilting groups, including one that has met for forty years. in addition to collecting quilts as she has room, she also collects digital images of quilts and vintage fabrics.Meg Cox (MC): This is Meg Cox and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. Save our Stories interview with Barbara Brackman. We are at the Moda Fabric's Headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The date is March 5, 2011 and the time is 9:32 a.m. [papers shuffle.] So, Barbara, tell me about what you brought to talk about in this interview. Barbara Brackman (BB): I wanted to bring something that really has created some kind of a change in my life, and so I brought just a few Kansas City Star quilt patterns. They're old newsprint from the 1930's. Why I brought them is because I found them in a thrift store when I was probably twenty years old and I went 'Ooh, you could make a lot of different quilts if you had enough patterns.' There were probably fifty in this package and in a plastic bag. I probably paid a quarter and then I just absolutely became enthralled with them. I sorted them in all the ways you can sort things. It's like when you're a little kid and your mother says, 'Here, play with the thread.' And you sort it by color and you sort it by size. I sorted them alphabetically. I sorted them by stars. I sorted them by squares. Pretty soon I became a junkie. [MC laughs.] I had to have more patterns and so I was a thrift store and antique store haunter at that time and so I would find them occasionally, but then I realized I didn't actually have to have the pattern, I just had to have a picture of the pattern. They hadn't invented the photocopy machine so I started putting patterns on index cards and sorting them in the same way I sorted the newsprint. So it really changed my life completely. Had I not found this package of quilt patterns I might have gone on to sort completely different things. [laughter.] The problem is I am a compulsive sorter. [laughter.] MC: That's amazing. Now, were you quilting at the time? BB: Yes, but I was working full time. I taught Special Ed, well, no, I guess I was in college at that time. It was something I kept thinking, 'I'm going to have time to make these quilts in the future. I'm going to get to do that pretty soon.' So this was my file of things I would get to make in the future. MC: So, what was your first quilt that you ever made? BB: It was about that time, let me see, the first one, my mother had been ill and I was nineteen, I was in college and my grandmother came to stay with us to take care of my mother. Everyone in college had quilts, but I was from New York City and so were my mother and grandmother. We were in Kansas and we didn't have quilts in the family and my grandmother was completely confounded by this whole thing, because she was a different-cultural grandmother. So she was living with us and I said, 'We're going to make a quilt because you're a grandma and I'm a granddaughter.' [laughter.] She said, 'Okay, fine with me.' And so she pretended she knew what we were doing, but she didn't, so I got Carrie Hall's book from the library and we picked a very hard pattern called Rob Peter to pay Paul, that probably has forty pieces. She didn't know a thing. I didn't know anything about templates or making the triangles the same size and the best thing was when it came to quilting it. I read Carrie Hall's book. It said she used thread and you did a stab stitch. I used six-strand embroidery thread to quilt it and I didn't split it because my grandmother, honestly, knew nothing. And so she'd watch me and she'd kind of shake her head. She just went, 'Well, just let her do what she wants.' So the whole thing was a horrible grandmother story. [laughter.] My grandmother was a fine woman but not a seamstress. So that was the first one and then the second one, because I didn't have any advice, I did a Lone Star, [laughter.] and that was hysterical because I drafted my own pattern and I didn't realize there are sixty degree diamonds and there also the 45 degree diamonds. I made eight arms for the Lone Star and only six fit together because I'd used the wrong diamond. [laughter.] So, that was the second one and then my sister got that one and she--and, also, Carrie Hall said you use old clothes, in her book and I had a vast assortment of polyester doubleknits [laughter.] in my wardrobe, in my sister's wardrobe and in my grandmother's wardrobe, and so it was a little bit wonky and stretchy. [laughter.] And then people said, 'How did you get into the lecture business?' Someone asked me, one time, to talk about my journey in quilting and I told these stories which are semi-hysterical because they're pathetic. And so people laughed and I thought, 'Well, this is a career, too, telling the true story with a little over dramatization, about my career in quilting.' Well this went on for years and finally other people, who came from a home-ec background and a seamstress background, gave me advice. And then I fell in with, actually, really fabulous quiltmakers and they showed me how to use a rotary cutter and a ruler. Now, I did learn the template thing, but for many, many years I did all my piecing by hand, with a pencil line matching things up, sitting in airports putting little triangles together, and enjoyed that no end. I have not made all the quilts I want to make yet. I still have many patterns that are sort of in my file. I'm going to do that one next. But it all started out with these newspaper clippings that somebody cut out of the newspaper in the 1930's. MC: We see you get a lot of pleasure out of it and still do and there's more you want to make. What do you find pleasing about it, you think? BB: About making quilts, well it's the fabric. It's all pattern. I just love pattern, whether it's the quilt pattern, whether it's the pattern on the fabric. I've done research on cowboy boot patterns. For hobbies I've done vast indexes of folk art in the world. These are my entertainment. I think it's the pattern in the fabric and the pattern in the quilt and balancing them. The sewing is the minor part. I'm not a person who really enjoys sewing. I've never been too coordinated as you can see by the stories of the first quilts, and it's still sometimes a struggle to get things to lay flat and points to meet. It's the planning and the seeing how it turns out, which is always different than the plan. MC: What takes you from one to the next? Is it the research first, like your studying a certain period and you think I want to make that quilt? Or, is it a technique or what is the thing, or is it the fabric, itself? BB: A terrible thing happens to a person when their hobby becomes their job. But, it's still my hobby so I have two sets of quilts and people, when they see my own quilts, they go, 'That doesn't look like you.' Well, that doesn't look like what you think I am, but the real me, my under-graduate degree is in art education so I took a lot of studio art courses and so when I'm making something for myself I'm inspired by pattern around me. I'm inspired by graphics that are contemporary and then graphics that are antique. So, what I'm working on right now, I'm doing a lot of small things, postcards, and I'm doing a lot of visual interpretation of traditional religious iconography. I'm doing a lot of shrines for myself, Photoshopping. I do a lot of digital taking, holy cards, don't tell my grandmother, and making them specifically for quilters. So, St. Thomas is the patron saint of mathematics so I Photoshopped him with a triangle and a ruler and a rotary cutter. I just pray to him every morning that I won't make any mistakes. [laughter.] So, I try to translate those into fabric and make those into things that are maybe twelve inches square. Now, no one ever sees these because-- MC: Where are they? BB: In my house. [both speak at once, inaudible.] I put them up and then I often give them to Alliance [The Alliance for American Quilts.] or to a charitable cause like AQS [American Quilting Society.] when they have an auction. And people go, 'Oh, that doesn't look like the Barbara Brackman I would think of.' Well, that's what I make for fun. We were talking the other day about binding. I don't bind them. I mean I just zig-zag the edges so that they're very free. So then, the person who has to work for a living and loves her job 'll sit all day interpreting an antique quilt in fabrics that we've designed for Moda that are reproductions and I do a lot of interpreting the past and those are very interesting to me, but it's like I'm living two lives. It's a work job and a fun job and I think that the fun job, the night-time, day-off job has to be very different, because I don't think I could be making conventional quilts to entertain myself much, when I make quilts during the day. [unidentified person speaks inaudibly.] Or at least I'm designing quilts. MC: Do you sleep under a quilt that you-- BB: No, I don't. It's because I have a bad dog [laughter.] and I also live in a bad climate, so I sleep under a down coverlet with a very washable duvet cover so when she comes in the house muddy. I did for many years and I have quilts on the wall. I have quite a book collection, of new and old quilts, and storage is always a problem. Quilts kept on the wall mostly. MC: When you toggle back and forth when you make quilts that you make for your own pleasure, so you've also worked on a lot of books and you've done a lot of project books, so do you do the quilting for those? Or do you send those out? BB: Oh, very rarely. MC: Do you just-- BB: I can't get everything done that I would want to. I used to have quite a crew of sewers. I had a pattern company called The Sunflower Pattern Co-operative and it was co-operative in that nearly everybody in my sewing group worked for it. They designed patterns and then they also did contract sewing. But we haven't been selling patterns. My partner moved to Kentucky. My partner, Karla moved to Kentucky and so Kansas and Kentucky are too far to really continue doing business. So we half-heartedly think we're still in business. Nothing's getting done. Through Moda, if I design a quilt, then Moda contracts out the piecing and then the quilting to their contractors here. And it's always such a wonderful thing to design something and then see it finished without having to put a stitch in it. [laughter.] I love that part of it. When I do a book, I haven't done a book in a couple of years, I usually try to put one or two of my own actual quilts in there, that I have finished down to the binding and the sleeve. MC: So, you can do it all. BB: Oh, I can, not well, but I can do it all. MC: When it comes to the technology, you mentioned Photoshopping and rotary cutters, what about the other things that you have in your arsenal, the tools that you use, the technology that you use, how do you design, like Corel Draw or EQ, or any of that, and what about your machine? Do you [both speak at once, inaudible.] BB: Well, I am still a collector. That would be on my grave, obsessive-compulsive, but put it to a good cause. The computer just crashed because I had too many pictures on it, so now I'm collecting pictures. For my entertainment, I will sit for an hour and go through the auctions, look at the quilts. I have certain things I am collecting. One thing is a quilt that actually has a date on it. I have a little routine every day, looking for dated quilts on the on-line auctions. Then I save three photos, the over all, the shot of the date, so I can prove to myself that's actually the date, and then a detail to show the fabrics. And I have hundreds and hundreds of those. I save everything as large as I can, which is the cause of the recent crash, but I also have enormous files of things that amuse me, images that amuse [hisssing sound.] me, religious images, holy cards, icons, things like that. What I do is I manipulate those things and I wanted learn how to get good at Photoshop for two or three reasons. One is I would have to sew less if I could really do a convincing mock-up of a quilt, and so that was one of my early intentions. But, also, I've been scanning photographs for The Alliance, the Kansas Quilt Projects Slides, and they are thirty years old, twenty-five to thirty years old, and they have really shifted color and they've really lost a lot of color. They all shift yellow, don't they, when they, so I have to re-color and then, because they get very thin, I have to work on the contrast and so I wanted to get good at that and I put a hundred up on The Alliance's web site, the Quilt Index, but I have 12,900 to go and I want to get better [hissing sound.] because they don't look good, so I've been on hiatus from scanning. I don't want to do the actual scanning but I probably always would have to be doing the colorizing. So, I wanted to get good at that and then the idea of Photoshopping Zsa Zsa Gabor's head onto a holy card [laughter.] cracked me up. I've a very juvenile sense of humor. I'd always wanted to paint that but I couldn't paint that well [laughter.] and so I continue to amuse myself no end by manipulating photos from different genres, so I did the Gabor sisters as a three-face. Only people over a certain age know who the heck they are. Now, someone said, 'You could have picked the Kardashian sisters.' but I said, 'I don't know who they are.' [laughter.] So I have these enormous files and I'm thinking that's about the major thing I do as far as technology, right now. I do a lot of Word, do a lot of Word Publisher, but it's mostly Photoshop, and now it's to the point where I take the picture off the Index and many times quilt pictures are a slant because you're standing to the side to get the whole thing in and I know now how to square it up and flatten it out and improve it. [snapping sound.] And I look at any photograph in a magazine and I think I can make that square. I [hissing sound.] I can fix that up. So the whole world is all illusional now, to me, [laughter.] so much better than it is in real life. [laughter.] MC: That is true. In terms of the way you use quilting in your life, has quilting ever helped you get through a difficult time. Is there an emotional component? BB: Of course everyone has difficult times in their lives, so, illnesses, well, see the one, start when my mother was dying and my grandmother was there and we had something to share, whether we were actually sharing anything or not. She was just watching. But through divorces, through very bad illness and through my own illnesses, you know, when sometimes you break your ankle and they say no weight on it for six weeks. Sewing certainly gets you through those times. I find I shift in what I'm sewing because my boyfriend was very sick last year and so I found paper piecing. I did paper-pieced pineapples. That's all I did, no thinking, just sew, sew, sew, sew, sew. I started out with four inches and I went to six inches and then I went to eight inches and got better, so I didn't ever get to the twelve inches, which was good. [laughter.] I found paper piecing, which is something I always would have thought of as rather dull, you know to have it all so predictable, was very therapeutic because it didn't take any real thinking, but it occupied your mind. Definitely I think it's therapeutic as many people have said. MC: What do you think makes a great quilt? We could talk a day about that. BB: Oh, what makes a great quilt. For me personally, it's fabric. I love the graphics and I'll look at an Amish quilt and I'll go, 'Wow, that contrast is great. That design, that composition is great.' But then I just move right on because they're solids, who cares? [laughter.] We have a quilt behind us right now and I guess I'm a microscopic focuser here. I focused in on the blue and the brown fabric and thought wait a minute, what's that shift there and color and I thought was that accidental, so I could stand here all day and look at the quilt that's behind us because it's from 1840 and, in fact, that particular piece is a rainbow print, which is deliberately shaded from light to dark and from brown to blue. There I am going oh, man, I've never seen one just like that. I have a very good visual memory. I have a terrible auditory memory but an excellent visual memory. So I try to file those just like the pictures in Photoshop on my computer. I try and file that away in the blues and say now remember that. Remember how that blue absolutely turned to brown and that was not an accident. So for me a great quilt is the great fabric. MC: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection or something like that? BB: An interesting thought. I've written some guidelines for the museums I volunteer at and I think regionalism for the particular museum. If it's a national museum of American history it's American. If it's the Lyon County Historical Society, it's Lyon County, Kansas. I think regionalism is very important. If someone's going to give you an English quilt that has no provenance at all that has to do with the county or the area I think the quality of the quilt, the condition, whether or not it's an unusual version of a common style, or else an uncommon style. That's the thing we always have to be very, in fact sometimes break people's hearts an say, 'It's a lovely yo-yo quilt, but we don't have any room for more than one in our collection and storage is a problem. So I think each museum should have a collecting focus, which they do, and that you'll take a quilt, maybe, that's in very bad condition if it has a connection to the community and a good story that will back it up. I know right now we're going through a difficult time because museums are in such bad shape for funding. When I scan every day when I'm scrolling around for quilts that are for sale, I see that they are being de-accessioned from some pretty impressive collections. It's really heartbreaking, very upsetting, but it's because I know what, if they asked me at the two museums in Kansas that I advise, what should we get rid of, we need money, we don't have storage, I would say, 'It's a pretty quilt, but it has nothing to do with Lyon County, Kansas or Lawrence, Kansas or we know nothing about it and if we sold it, it would bring a better price than one that's in worse condition that has local thing, so let's get rid of the pretty one.' Then it goes back into the community to a collector who pays a nice price and then in twenty-five years it'll go to another museum when she decides she wants to de-accession her collection. So it's a collecting focus that everyone should have, every museum should have, and then it has to be adjusted. But I know at Spencer Museum of Art [University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.] where I advise, at the Kansas Museum of History were I advise, we have two different goals. One is history and one is art. So I'll say, 'This is a fabulous story but the quilt is not a work of art, it's a common type of quilt. I think it would be better off at the history museum.' And then the other way around, this is a fabulous quilt with no provenance. I think maybe that should go over to the other museum. So, what makes a great museum quilt depends on the museum. MC: What about your personal collection? Do you have certain criteria? BB: Sixty dollars, sixty dollar criterion. [laughter.] I am a sixty-dollar quilt buyer. I have spent, I would guess I've spent up to $500 if it had great fabric. It's mainly I don't have storage. I have a one bedroom house, tiny little Victorian house and so, occasionally I will buy them on impulse if they're under sixty dollars, and then sell them for fifty, buy high, sell low is my theory. [laughter.] What I'm looking for, because I'm in the business of fabric, I'm looking for fabric. I'm looking for a charm quilt, or I'm looking for a chintz quilt that has a large piece of chintz with a whole repeat so I can copy it. MC: So it might be for inspiration for your own-- BB: Mostly for inspiration. That's the only way I can justify it. I buy a lot of fabric in isolation. I buy a lot of blocks and a lot of big repeats of chintz backs or something, [inaudible.] backs that I can then use to make fabric out of. The whole on-line auction thing has really gone down the tubes. People aren't putting stuff up any more because people aren't buying. There was a time, when I stuck to that sixty dollar rule and I could get 1830 quilts for thirty-nine dollars because sometimes they're in terrible shape. Sometimes they're downright ugly and sometimes the person is selling them, often doesn't know what they have, and they take a really terrible picture. So someone that just scrolls through and goes, 'Ooh that looks like it's from the 1950's.' Oddly I don't even want it and I'll be the only bidder. Those days are gone. Those days are gone. So I'm a very, I have to really keep it to what I can store in my house and so it's much better for me to spend my money on yardage. I'll spend a lot more on a piece of fabric than I'll spend on a quilt, which is the converse of most people. MC: Some of the quilts you make, yourself, sound like they're pretty contemporary with the Photoshop and all that, do you collect that type of quilt as well, or not so much? BB: No, oh Lord, that would be wonderful though. I have a few contemporary quilts that I've purchased in the charity auctions and things, and I'll pay more than sixty dollars, but they fit on the wall. They don't require folding up and good storage and tissue stuffing and things like that. Deciding that you're going to live small, which was sort of a political thing for me, and it's a functional thing, too. It means that you do not have storage and you cannot collect what you want, except for pictures. That's another reason why I'm so interested in pictures. MC: Of the contemporary quiltmakers, are there some that really speak to you? BB: Oh, yes. There're many contemporary quiltmakers [inaudible.] who knock me out. Laura Wasilowski, you know, the whole Chicago School of Fusing, with the idea of, just the freedom of that technique, the color that they use. Now, in my fabric business, I'm the reproduction person, so I'm stuck in natural dyes. Black cotton is not something I ever get to do because it's in the future from the Civil War, so lime green, vivid magenta, those are things that I don't ever get to do, so when I buy fabric that's what I buy. And when I look at quilts I'm saving them into an inspiration file. It'll be some of the real bright colors and the real interesting use of some of the bold graphic fabrics people are doing today. MC: You mentioned the Civil War thing which you've written a lot about, is it that you're fascinated by that period historically or is it the fabric that speaks to you first and foremost? BB: Through my life, now I have no history in my background, no history education, I've plenty of history in my background. When I started out I lived in this wonderful little town. One day I realized it was a very important place in the Civil War. I have to put this in--- Missourians came over and burned it in 1863. We're still mad. [laughter.] During the Civil War it was a very important location as to events leading up to the war and then during the war that burning of the [various unidentified noises.] town was just kind of a union rallying point. When I realized the history there I started getting interested in the Civil War because I wanted to know who owned my house. When I bought the house when I was twenty-five I could see the people who had owned it, those were names that I had heard of. So that's how I became interested in the Civil War. Since I have no real historical education, I thought I'm going to work backwards and so I have gradually been working backwards into the Civil War. I want to be able to go out onto the street and know what that street looked like in 1862 before they burned it. I feel pretty confident about that now, in that town and in Kansas I understand it very well. Then I started working backwards. So I was fascinated by the Civil War for many years and I read every woman's diary that I could find for those years and because I'm a compulsive collector I saved notebooks full of any quotes, I would write this down in longhand, any quotes they might refer to something interesting about their lives, their fight with their husband, their bad children, things we can relate to, their depressions, their illnesses, their experiences just in trying to live lives as women that were so constrained, but also about slavery, and about abolition, about political causes from the Civil War, and then any references to textiles and quilting. I got into this, really, thinking I bet these women talked about quilting. Well, they didn't that much but they do talk about fashion, especially in their letters and so I would write those things down. I have probably, well, three feet of notebooks that are full of these papers-full. That's one way I got interested in writing about the Civil War. I knew a lot more about the Civil War and how women lived through it than most formal historians do because they're not reading diaries and letters and they're not reading women's diaries and letters. That's how I got into the Civil War. Now I've been working backwards and I've got into the 1840's. So I spent years reading nothing but New England diaries and literature about the New England literati, the people that were so influential, the Hawthorn's and the Peabody's. Spent years reading them. Then I worked my way back into the 1820's which isn't got a lot of information. Then I jumped over to England and now I'm complete obsessed with the Regency period in England. [hissing sound.] I know every piece of gossip, and I tell you, you want to know gossip, you want to know some baaad lives, bad choices people made, the English Regency [laughter.] is the era. Now I'm stuck in about 1780 in England. I know a lot about, yeah it states although there certainly isn't the documentation, so I guess I have to work back until the colonial period but that looks kind of cold and bleak [laughter.] to me, and so all I can think of is Thanksgiving pictures of cold people eating. [laughter.] very, very small dishes of turkey. That's a prejudice that I want to get over so I'll have to go backwards. I live in a small town which has not a great town library, adequate, but it has a university library and they have great collections, so I'll just go through the number, the Dewey Decimal System or whatever. Some of the books I read are so obtuse they're still on the Dewey Decimal System and when I try to check them out they glare at me and go, you know, 'I have to put this in the system. Nobody's checked it out since 1948.' But we do have wonderful books so I have access to whole worlds and people say, 'You live in a little town, don't you get bored?' No, I live in Regency England right now [laughter.] and I'm never bored. MC: That's wonderful. It sort of prompted me to think about technology and the question of technology and quilts. Because you deal with all these historical quilts, you make them, you study them and you create patterns, how do you feel about the whole thing about making quilts today and hand versus machine versus long-arming and first of all how do you feel about it. And second of all, is it appropriate to use these older materials in these older quilts. Should you be sort of be making them the way they were made at the time they were made? Do you have any thoughts on that? BB: I'm a rebel. You can do whatever you want. I never give it a thought and I never have in my whole life. I started out making quilts. There were people who had, I took Home-ec for one semester, they just suggested I go into something else. [laughter.] My father didn't want me in Home-Ec. anyway. He was really supportive of me anyway, 'I think you should just take a business course. Forget that stuff.' So I just have always just have gone, 'Whatever.' It's functional, do what you want. I've documented, I worked for Quilters Newsletter [Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.] for many years and that was one of our big issues. 'Caryl Bryer Fallert won a prize with a machine-quilted quilt. You know, we have to write an editorial about it. What do you think?' Uh, well, let her do whatever she wants. So, there's just no opinion there. It just seems to me, I'm a visual person and I'm certainly not a nit-picker and people have asked me to judge contests at fairs. 'Oh, no, you don't want me judging, because I'll just go for the visuals. I will not check that binding and make sure that the batting extends to the edge.' MC: Or count the stitches. BB: Yes. I just don't care personally. People want to get into an argument about it and I'm not a very judgmental person, so I don't want anybody throwing stones at me, let me tell you that. MC: This is kind of an over-arching question. Why is quiltmaking important to your life? BB: Why is quiltmaking important to my life? That's a very good question. Social, I think if I didn't have my quilting groups I probably would have quit making quilts. I would be still making art but my life is very much built on my women friends. I have three quilting groups that I belong to, so Wednesday begins a grueling couple of days, Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, three different groups. Now some of them only meet every other week, but what that grew out of, as I say earlier, we used to have a pattern business, these same people and so it was our meetings. It was our business meetings and we'd be sewing and we'd be working on projects together. Then as the business sort of faded away it just became social and we invited more people. As more people retired from their other businesses, we invited other people in. So I always have to have hand sewing for those things. I always have to have something I can be doing by hand and there's prep-work weekend for that grueling Wednesday-Thursday schedule. Then because they're so interested in quilting, many of them, we keep up on the tools and the equipment. We're constantly trying to find things that are going to make our lives easier, better, and of course, the fabric. I can always bring in something or other, something that I'm working on and that keeps everybody talking about fabric. I think it really is mostly social that keeps me in there. I know I would always be doing something artistic, but it's strange how the computer, using the computer graphics, has really replaced a lot of the creativity needs in my life. There's problems with that in that I don't get up and pretty soon, every day, I have to quit because I've stared at it for six hours and you've got to change your eye focus. Time to walk the dog. I think it's mostly social right now. MC: So, these groups that you're in, do you sew when you're there. Is it mostly show-and-tell, is it mostly social-- BB: It's all of those things. Show-and-tell, it's eating, it's champagne. Champagne for breakfast. I have to be busy, keep busy, and many of them do. One friend never does any prep-work and always comes in and says, 'Does anyone have anything for me to do?' So I like to even keep her busy. She's a great binder. If you get it pre-sewn, she'll bind it. She's a circle gluer. [hissing sound.] If she would do her own prep-work she could have made twenty quilts in the past couple of years, but she just can't sit there without having something to do. That's the way I am, too, so I do a lot of hand appliqué right now. We're always looking for the never-ending appliqué because then you won't have to do much prep and it's a tragedy after three years when it's done. [hissing sound, laughter.] MC: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community. BB: Well, that's social life and you know my community and many of the same people I've been sewing with for, I hate to say it, almost forty years, meeting at night every other week. We started out, years ago, the first group, and we made several group quilts, the first that really sticks in my mind is our Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue quilt, which is in the Quilt Index, in which we killed her. We hated her. We hated her because we're anti-sentimentalists. We are just not amused by big-eyed children, unless they're real children. We lived in an era of Walter Keane paintings and Sunbonnet Sue just fit right in there. Everybody was gaga over her at our guild meetings so my friend Laurie Metzinger said at one time she'd like to see that little girl dead. [laughter.] So I took her and I drew her and I pushed her over on her side and I put a big rock on her chest and Laurie laughed so hard, this was during a guild meeting that we almost got thrown out. [laughter.] So we just took some Sunbonnet Sue patterns and we turned them over and we turned them on their face, turned them on their head, dropped things on them. That quilt entertained us no end. We got many people to work on it. Then we did a second one and then we said, 'All right, people are starting to attach meaning to this. They're starting to say that we were feminists, which we were, but that we were making this because we [laughter.] were feminist and we wanted to show that Sunbonnet Sue in her traditional role. We weren't thinking that. We were trying to kill her, squash her, flatten her out. It was anti-sentiment. So my friend, Nadra, says, 'Well, maybe should do a quilt that nobody can find any meaning in it at all.' This was in 1975, maybe '80. So she said, 'Every day I drive by a store, in Olathe, Kansas, called the Julian Flaming Furniture. It's been driving me crazy. What do you think they have in there?' Apparently Julian Flaming was someone's name. So then the idea was to imagine what was inside the Julian Flaming Furniture store. That's meaningless. It's total Dada. [laughter.] So we started that thirty years ago and it lagged, but about six months ago I got the blocks out and I said, 'We're finishing this thing, because thirty years is too long.' So here's what I've been working on night and day for the past six months, is trying to get people who were seven years old when we started it the first time, to make a few blocks. They had some things they wanted to set on fire [hissing.] and then we got it to the quilter. It just came back from the quilter last Wednesday. It's beautiful and I wanted to bring it. I thought that could be a good talismanic object, but I knew that my friend, Georgeanne, who never has anything to do it, so I would present it in the proper Tom Sawyer pattern, and she'd say, 'I'll take it. I'll bind it. I'll bring it back.' So she's got it right now. So this is a thirty-year project, so that's the way my quilts reflect my community. The ones that I'm working on as my art is that it's Tom Sawyerism. I try to get everybody involved. MC: Where will that quilt go. BB: Well, I don't know. You're thinking which museum discipline. Now that MSU, Michigan State University does have our first Sunbonnet Sue quilt, now we thought this was so amusing thirty years ago. So now that I can look on the web, you type Flaming Furniture. [laughter.] Every twenty-year old who's got his apartment and a six-pack of beer has poured gasoline on his couch and set it on fire. I've taken a picture of him, sitting there, drinking a beer. That's exactly the same sense of humor. [laughter.] I don't know, it's adolescent and it's like putting Zsa Zsa Gabor, of course, on a holy card. It's adolescent humor. So where would it go. I don't know. It's not even back from the quilter. Once it's back we hope to show it in our guild show this April and then we will undoubtedly will drag it around for a while some people are still out there giving lectures and, of course, I'll put it on my blog. Probably, since they're all invigorated after finishing a thirty-year project, someone will get another idea next week. 'Well, you know, we could do that one we talked about years ago.' I do love community working and I love art group projects. They said, 'We got it out, you know, and I put it together with scraps of stuff we had left from other projects.' They said, 'Did it turn out the way you thought?' and I said, 'No, I really hoped I could make it pretty.' [laughter.] But it's a lot of furnitures, overstuffed furniture with little appliqué flames coming out of it. There's just nothing you can do. [laughter.] It's got an Eames chair and someone did the kitchen sink. There's some very nice things in it. I think it's just downright ugly. Actually it's a concept. [sharp rattle.] We'll see what people can make of this and say, 'Now these women are deeply worried about fire insurance.' [laughter.] It's totally meaningless. MC: I can't wait to see it. What is the importance of quilts in American life? BB: Zilch. [laughter.] You know, I'm from a social services background. I'm a liberal. There are a lot more problems in American life than quilts. I do think the quilts are a touchstone to our ancestors and I am a historian. I'm a family genealogist. I love the way they connect us to the past. It's a luxury to be able to have that kind of touch with the past, to be able to have the money as a nation to save them in museum collections, to have the luxury as women and men to make them, to indulge ones selves in buying that much fabric and putting that much work into something, a handmade object. That's the importance of it, is that it reflects a lot, but I don't know, I'm a myth buster. It's something I can't say, but I can do it. They will come and go, as my grandmother always said, 'We had some of those, but when we had some money we got rid of them.' That attitude's going to come back. We have no family quilts at all and she said, 'As soon as we got two nickels to rub together we went out of the handmade blanket business, Barbara.' So, I think they have importance as to what they mean and how they reflect our ability to appreciate them. When you read world news, you know, and people are leaving countries because, it always breaks my heart and I know if you are collectors you people have to leave Tripoli, you can take what's on your back and one armful. You don't have room for that quilt or anything else that's important to you. So, I always think 'Well, if I had to get out what would I'd take, I guess the dachshund, the fat dachshund that would fill up my arms and I would like to have the hard drive but it's going to have to go, so very little gets to go. So I do think that we are in a unique position and that we are now able to reflect back on all that and to not have the attitude my grandmother has that a handmade blanket is a reflection of poverty. We have the respect for them. MC: So it sounds like you're saying you think that the ebb and flow of quilting, that it's going to run down again, we're going to go through those sallow periods again? BB: It must be inevitable. I don't know. As when my aunt said, and I had an abundance of aunts and when I quit teaching, that reliable job with a pension they kept telling me about, and I said, 'Oh, I'm in the quilt business now, I just go around and lecture.' And they said, 'Oh, you better have a fall-back idea.' I've never needed the fall-back idea but I think we can't predict the future. There was a period about ten years ago everyone was going into knitting, [laughter.] but knitting, there's just so many handmade sweaters a small child can have. [laughter.] And so grandmas, quit mothers, they did it, so I just don't know. I think people will always be doing something creative but what that will be, I can't predict the future. I'm very pleased that it's been going on, I've been in this business for thirty years. That's a luxury, too. I've been able to support myself really well for thirty years. Ebb and flow, I'm a historian. MC: It's not going to ebb in your life, though, for you. BB: No, because I'm retired. I just got my first social security check. MC: So that means more quilting, more-- BB: Well, more time to Photoshop I fear. MC: Well, to wrap up, in terms of your journeys with quilts and your discovery with quilts, what would your dream be, for your next-- BB: Oh, well, my dream with quilts. I would like to have more storage space. That is my [laughter.] eternal, you know, if you live in a small house you look at those people who have those little aluminum barns in their backyard and you go, 'Man, I could fill one of those with something. I wouldn't put the quilts out there, but if I put, like the pantry out there, [laughter.] I could put shelves in the pantry. I could put quilts in there. So my dream would be to have more storage space. I have had a [laughter.] a studio down town which I rented with friends and that's where we kept things for years. We lost our lease. The parking was horrible, the stairs were terrible and so I remodeled my garage to do that, but the garage is full, totally full. That studio was totally full, so more room for a better collection. Recently Moda sent me to look at a beautiful swatch book from 1835 and I thought if I were the richest woman in the world I would buy swatch books and I would have a room to keep them in and a curator to take care of them and I would come in every day and she would, with white gloves, turn the pages for me. [laughter.] What do you think of that one? So that would be my ideal. The realities are, if I had them I'd drop them and the dog would [inaudible.]. I'm very bad. It's not a museum at my house so I really don't want to have those kind of valuable things. I do love the access to them. As far as making quilts, I have time to make quilts. I have time. I have two studios, one in the house, one bedroom, the only bedroom in the house. I'm sleeping in the living room, abandon the dining room because who has people over any more. So that's the living room or the giant TV room and so I have an inside studio and then an outside studio and the outside one tends to be more storage for the swatches that I do have and a lot of the quilts. I do have the time to make the quilts. People say you're going to retire. What are you going to do? I hope to paint and draw more. They're messy. One of the reasons I got into quilting, I think, when I was just out of art school, was you can pick up a quilt and sew. You can't pick up an oil painting. You have to have the outfit on to do the oil painting. You have to have the big area and so I don't think I'll ever oil paint again but I'd love to go back to more watercolor and tempera and things like that. MC: Thank you so much for letting us do this and talk to you and absolutely fascinating and truly fun, so this concludes the interview with Barbara Brackman and the time is now 10:18 a.m. Thank you. 2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio0http://quiltalliance.net/cms/http://quiltalliance.net/cms/collections/show/34",Yes,,,"Kay Schroeder",,"Civil War,Cowboy Boot patterns,Hand applique,Hand Sewing,Kansas City Star Patterns,legend,Photoshop,Quilt history,quilt revival,reproduction fabric,Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue quilt",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/d72b387f3163c0a7ba1e7f76fafe5ce6.jpg,"Oral History","Kansas QSOS",1,0 "Victoria Findlay Wolfe ",,"In this interview with quiltmaker and philanthropist, Victoria Findlay Wolfe and interviewer Meg Cox discuss how her upbringing in Minnesota attracted her to quilts, as well as how she uses quilts to connect with the community. Wolfe runs an online collaborative quilting website called Fifteen Minutes of Play, and discusses the use of quilting as a charitable resource. Wolfe also explains her love of the process of quilting, and how the her community projects and the process of quiltmaking provide her with fulfillment. The interview was recorded live at a meeting of the NYC Metro Modern Quilters Guild at Wolfe's home in Manhattan.",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",NY10018-001,,,"Meg Cox","Victoria Findlay Wolfe ","Manhattan, New York City, New York","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Meg Cox (MC): This is the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories interview with Victoria Findlay Wolfe. We are at her loft apartment in New York City. Tell me about the quilt you’ve brought today to talk about. Victoria Findlay Wolfe (VFW): The quilt that I’d like to talk about is the one hanging over here behind us called “Everything but the Kitchen Sink.” I started it about 15 years ago. I was an occasional quilter, and then I became a mother. There was at a point where I was making a lot of quilts and children’s clothes for my daughter Beatrice. I wanted to make her quilts when she was a baby. But I would never make the perfect quilt for her. I ended up making her about 20 quilts. None of the quilts were ever good enough for my daughter, so I cut them all up and accumulated many orphan blocks along the way from doing so. I was looking at quilts but not really knowing much about making a quilt. The only quilts I had in my house were the crazy quilts my grandmother made. And so that’s how this quilt started, I was trying to mimic what my grandmother did. Mimicking what her process was. Because it was the only thing I knew, from watching her quilt as a child. MC: So you brought this because it speaks to how you became involved with quilting? VFW: It was definitely the start of the obsession with quilting. I had started, if you look at the bottom of that quilt, there is a 14″ strip across the bottom, where I was looking at my grandmother’s work and I was trying to duplicate what she did by using the sewing machine instead of by hand. I got so bored and frustrated trying to do it. It wasn’t my way, so I needed to figure out how to do what she did, but in my own way, so I couldn’t I get frustrated. I couldn’t at the time, and so I put it away in a box for about 12 years. In 2009 I pulled it out and that’s when I had accumulated so many more orphan blocks and then just started playing with it, adding them all into one quilt. MC: What do you think that this quilt says about you? If someone came upon this quilt, what do you think it says about you as a quilter? VFW: That’s kind of hard. I hope they see the learning curve and passion. When I look at that quilt, I see everything that I have learned for about 15 years. I learned techniques that I have never done before. There’s probably about a hundred Y seams in that quilt. Difficult seams. That’s the only way to do it, just go for it. Applique is something that I had not done since junior high school. It’s my learning process, in that quilt, trying to do letters, applique, using up antique blocks I’ve collected. Everything I had went into it, along with my everyday life. Maybe it says, I’m open to the life throws at me? I’m a painter by trade previously so I was trying to figure out the color balance and make it all work. It’s been a complete learning experience so it kind of sums up a wide portion of my life including getting married, having a family, moving to New York, it accumulates everything. MC: How do you use this quilt? VFW: It sits on my bed. It’s the one quilt that I am so attached to, I’d garb it from a burning building. It’s not going anywhere, it’s staying here, it wont’ be sold. It gets used and loved. MC: So your interest in quilting was originally sparked by your grandmother? VFW: Yes, definitely, and by the basic needs of growing up on a farm. My father had an upholstery business in Minnesota and I grew up on a farm in MN. My mother was a seamstress for Fingerhut for a while. I don’t know if anyone knows Fingerhut out here. But that’s why my grandma had all theses quilts made out of polyester double-knit. My grandmother was a crazy-quilter. In MN you had about five of these quilts on your bed, because it’s cold and we did not have heat in our house. We heated our house with wood stoves. So we would have about five of these quilts on our bed and they stayed there all night long. The weight of them is unforgettable and comforting. MC: Was she the only family member who quilted? VFW: No, My mother would make quilts periodically, only after a relative got married, but then she was more of a seamstress. When I started sewing, I had one of those Barbie sewing machines that had a glue cartridge that you would put in and it would put glue dots on the fabric. That really worked well (laughter). Then I moved up from there gradually and would steal my father’s scraps and upholstery sample books. I’d sew them together on my mother’s Singer. I remember him teaching me how to do a blind stitch and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world because you couldn’t tell there was a seam on the outside finishing it up. I thought it was pretty cool cause it looked like my Dad’s work then. MC: Did you ever make a quilt for the Barbie? VFW: I’m sure I did but I don’t remember. MC: So your first quilt memory was probably the polyester quilts on the bed? VFW: Yes and they were heavy. MC: So how much time do you spent quilting now? How big a part of your life is it? VFW: All day all night. My husband’s up in Canada right now, so I would stay up all night if I could. No, really, I sew all day. All day long. I sew when my daughter goes to school, I sew, when she comes home, I quilt when she goes to bed. It’s an obsession, I know and accept that. it is all related to my need to create. MC: Would you talk a little bit about the modern quilt movement and how you seemed to be involved with that? VFW: That’s kind of interesting. I was a little bit clueless to it. It had been around for about six months. Hadn’t heard anything about it. And a friend of mine Amy Drucker, said how come we don’t have this in New York. We need a guild. Let’s do this. Want to do this? Okay and 20 minutes later our site was up and within an hour we had like 20 members. That was 1-1/2 years ago. So within 20 minutes we got all these people on the site and it has grown very rapidly. We have been meeting here in the apt. We have over 150 members on line. We are working on a new web site, The challenge has not been getting more people, new people come each meeting, and community is a big part of it. MC: How do you define, for you, what is it about? VFW: For me personally it’s keeping all the rules open. I consider myself a very traditional quilter. I’ve done it since I was very young. I know patchwork and how to sew by hand but at the same time, as an artist, I want to try different things and I think maybe the modern movement is incorporating that more for everybody, that it’s okay to do your own thing. I think it is all-inclusive, it includes the art quilter, the beginner quilter, the traditional quilter who wants to try something new. The fabric designers are a big part of it, the more color I can get, the happier I am. MC: Can you talk a little bit about your creative process. Were you conscious of that for a long time? VFW: Yeah. We had a talk the other day about how or about why the process was more important to you or the finished object was more important. To me as an artist it is definitely the process. It’s all about starting the quilt, and discovering where it’s going. I rarely have a plan when I start something. I start with one little piece and I let it grow organically. I don’t ever now where I’m going with it, the adventure of it is what excited me. It’s like when I’m working on a painting I’ll start small in the center, and then it gets big as I fill in the canvas… MC: So with a quilt do you start with the color, do you start with the pattern. What is your impulse? VFW: It could be anything. Sometimes it’s a memory of somebody, a memory of my grandmother. This quilt, “Grandmother’s Rocking Chair”, This quilt actually started out as a traditional style quilt with squares, and the orange blocks. I couldn’t make it just be that traditional quilt, I had to see what would happen if I… then played out all the options that made me think of my grandmother. It was just too normal, so I started playing and the next thing I knew I had something completely different. About my grandmother, from watching her sew, sitting in her rocking chair. That would be the inspiration. Or like I said, looking at my grandmother’s quilt for inspiration, a color combination or Anytime I’d say I would never do a purple and gold quilt, those are my high school colors, I hated those colors, as soon as I said that, I made five quilts with those colors. So that is a great inspiration or a starting off point to a great challenge. MC: So you challenge yourself? VFW: Always challenge. I love a challenge. That’s one of the things I love to do most. Sometimes if I’m doing a commissioned quilt, I ask people to give me a word and that will send me off on a tangent. MC: That’s a great segue. How did you get involved in the commission business and do you have your own personal style or how does it work? VFW: It’s been mostly word of mouth. A lot of my painting commissions have spilled over into quilts because they want to know what I am doing with quilts. They are confused at first until they see them and then they want one. I don’t always get a lot of information. I had one person wanted a red quilt. That was the inspiration. So I cleaned all my stash of every red I had. When I do a commission, there’s no deposit required. If after I make the quilt, if they want to purchase it after it’s made, great! It’s okay with me! but I’m just as happy to keep it if they don’t. It’s a win/win either way. MC: And I know as well that you started a community project for quilts. You really are living and breathing quilting. Could you talk a little bit about that? How that got started and where that is now? VFW: That was kind of funny. The blog world is a very interesting place. Those of us who quilt have more quilts than we need. I had some extra quilts lying here and I had a friend who worked with a program called Basics, in the Bronx, who worked with getting homeless families back into transitional housing here in the city. I asked him one day: Do you need any quilts? Thinking I could give him two or three that I had lying around. And he turned around and said: Do you have 700? That was not what I expected him to say, not in my wildest dreams. . So I said, hmmm, I don’t know, let me see what I can do. So I designed a house block and asked people on my blog to make them and send them to me and I would make a couple quilts for them. well a couple blocks turned into, 500 quilt blocks and that turned into 60 quilts, which we then auctioned off and raised over $30,000 for them. MC: You auctioned them of for the organization? VFW: Yes, basically by auctioning off the quilts for them at an organization fundraiser. Then, that had been so successful, that we turned it into an ongoing quilt drive. And so now, we opened it up where you could send in completed quilts. We’ve received over 350 quilts. And we’ve had event days where we go up to the Bronx to each of the different housing units and we hand the quilts to the families in the program. It’s an extremely emotional and fabulous day. We have another round of that coming up, to collect more quilts. And it turns into something bigger than I had set out to do. One needs to always think bigger. MC: Would you talk about, what is the most pleasing aspect of quilting to you? VFW: It’s the process and giving back. It’s just so fun watching all these little pieces come together. I can’t throw anything away. So I save all my little pieces and they grow from nothing into something. That’s what I love. It’s not even so much the finished product. I think by the time I put it on my lap and fix the binding I’m done and I’m onto the next project. From the beginning to the end. And giving them away is even better, good for the soul. MC: Have advances in technology affected your work? What about the tools that you use? VFW: Not much other than my rotary cutter and my scissors. I’ve dabbled a bit on Spoonflower, working with fabric design and that’s always interesting. I’m happy to participate and try a new tool. I feel kind of traditional with my quilts so I have to push myself further into other areas yet. Just when I say I will never do something, I need that boost to try something new, new technology can help me do that. MC: What about fabrics? Where are you looking for fabric? VFW: Anywhere. Clothes. Fabric shops. All the stores. All my friends. MC: What are you favorite techniques? VFW: I used to think that I would never pick up applique ever ever again in my life, but I actually love it. So I’ve been tending to do even more of that, but scrap piecing, my heart belongs to scrap piecing… MC: We are in this big loft in your living area that we’ve taken over and so people cannot really tell that behind this wall and behind this quilt is your studio space where you work. So since we can’t see it, would you describe it for us? VFW: It’s a mess. That sums it up. It’s a couple tables set up in the space, set up for working with all these quilts. I have my tall cutting table and lots of windows all around and lots of fabrics. And one Juki sewing machine. MC: Now you were talking earlier about this building being in the garment district and what it was like when you got here. Would you share some of that? VFW: When we moved into this building the neighboring building that we looked into was still a sweat shop. The history of this area is that is all it was, it was all the sweat shops, as we are part of the garment center. Our building once was also. It just seems kind of funny now that I sit here sewing all day, I joke, that I get so much done because of the spirits of past garment workers. So when people come here and see all the quilts, it’s not me, it’s all the sewing energy of the workers, it’s kind of interesting. MC: Would you tell me if you’ve ever used quilts or quilting to get through a difficult time in your life? VFW: Not specifically…It’s mostly joyous times. Anytime there is a baby in the family there is a quilt being made. Anytime I can share and give something away. I do obsess over a particular quilt I’d like to make. I haven’t made this yet, but I do want to make a quilt for when I die. Is that terrible? MC: Why is that? VFW: Growing up in MN I attended a Native American funeral. Their tradition is to sit with the body for a three days and the body is always wrapped in a quilt. And I thought it would be incredibly personal and special if I made that quilt. I’m happy with a pine box and a quilt. That’s it. I don’t know what that quilt would be. I cannot even decide what to quilt for own my bed, but I think about it all the time. MC: I want to talk a little bit about aesthetics in your work and beyond. What do you think makes a great quilt? VFW: I think all quilts are great. I think that whatever process anyone takes to make something, that’s their process to be respected. We all make for different reasons, and with different processes. There are no ugly quilts. It depends if you are making it for some particular reason that you think you have to strive to do something. If someone doesn’t like what I’ve done. It’s ok. I like that it can just be what it is. Anytime I see a quilt top in an antique store I know someone poured everything they had into it. They worked so hard to make it. And I usually come home with those quilts. I respect the person and their process for making it. MC: What are the works you are drawn to? Are there quilt makers that you admire or are there other types of quilts that you might see in a museum that might pull you in? VFW: I think it’s the ones in the flea markets that I am crazy about. The ones that get passed on out of the family. I love thinking about who that was who sat and put all those pieces together. I find I want to know the story behind the quilt. A quilt needs to be loved. MC: What artists have influenced you? VFW: I am doing a Matisse quilt right now. It’s not the first one I’ve done. So he is the biggest inspiration. Monet, the colors. Kandinsky, the bright colors. And a lot of modern art. I like the parallel a lot between some of the modern quilting now and some of the more traditional modern contemporary painters such as Ellsworth Kelly. Big bold patterns. Amish quilts are modern and contemporary no matter when they were made. Simple. Elegant. MC: How do you start with that? Is it looking at a painting. Are you inspired by that? Is it kind of a cut out? VFW: The cut outs are the easiest thing. It’s just a challenge. I don’t plan, drawing it all out. I just start cutting fabric. Picking up little pieces and just star sewing bits together to resemble whatever it is I’m looking at. They are always free form, whatever happens with them happens. They are what they are. It’s a work in progress and it is fun to do. MC: How do you feel about machine quilting? Do you do your own machine quilting? How do you finish quilts? VFW: Yes I do machine quilt. I struggle a bit with it, But I find it’s building my patience as my skills grow. I don’t have time to hand quilt all my own quilts. I do use long armers. If I have a quilt I really, really love, I have to quilt it myself. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I’m learning slowly to add new designs each time I quilt a quilt. I just have a regular straight stitch home machine. No long arm. MC: So you’re not one of those dedicated quilters____________? VFW: They are all straight stitch, My Juki’s are fast, simple, and great work horse machines! MC: Why is quilt making important to life? VFW: I like that they (quilts) are going to be around for a lot longer than I am. I like that my daughter is watching me. I know that I am passing it onto her. I enjoy that the quilts will stay in the family. She is 11, which may change later in life! MC: In what ways do you think your quilts reflect your community or your region? VFW: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that. I don’t know. MC: What do you think is the importance of quilts in American life? VFW: The utilitarian aspect of them, from what they’ve grown from out of necessity, using what they have been to begin with. It’s all true now again. Whether it’s being green, using up what you have and not being wasteful. Everything that quilts started with is as true then as it is now. We must be resourceful not wasteful. MC: Where do you see yourself going as a quilter? Do you have goals, do you take it as it comes? VFW: I take it as it comes. I don’t obsess on making a perfect quilt. I’m not sure I can do that, I’m not sure I want to do that. I prefer to learn from each quilt that I do and move onto the next and see what happens. I have felt recently that my work is sort of changing, or perhaps I’m just growing. But I think it’s just being more open to more possibilities and going back and learning and trying other things that I haven’t done before. Building my tool set of quilter skills. I let it happen and see where it will lead me I am doing a lot more handwork than I ever have done before. I’m curious to see where that goes. MC: Are you teaching others as well? I have started teaching a little bit, yes. I have a teaching website where I show what I do. I show my process, what I do and a lot of people have enjoyed playing along with that and using that also as a way of building something from nothing and using that to start them and that’s been fun to watch other people get enjoyment from that as well. MC: Would you like to be a style maker, a taste maker, a leader in the art of quilting? VFW: I don’t think so, I just want to be a quilter. I just love to do it. I have to “make” being an artist. Whether I’m painting or drawing or making a quilt, or making dinner or learning how to do something else. It’s always about making. I need to do that. It’s all about the process to me. Being a tastemaker or leader in quilting seems less important, I just need to make. If that other stuff comes with what I’m doing, then that tells me I’m in the right place doing what I need to be doing. One of my sites, 15 minutes of play started from that. Being a mom when you have no time for yourself sometimes you only have 15 minutes, just for your sanity as an artist. I needed to do something at least 15 minutes a day for myself. So that is a constant that I keep with me all the time. I do need to make constantly. If I have 15 minutes, I’ll take it. MC: Constitutional imperative. So is that 15 minutes to play, is that what it’s called? VFW: www.15minutesplay.com MC: And that is still active? VFW: Yes, very much so. We have about 100 players on the site. We are constantly challenging each other and giving each other inspiration and supporting each other. Giving each other feedback. Just playing and seeing what happens. You don’t always have to have a plan where you’re going, it’s fine if you have a plan, but often it’s been when people are trying to find a new way, that they tap into their creative process. If you’re looking at something in a different way, you may find new answers to the What if questions… That’s kind of what we’ve been doing. MC: That’s interesting because you are about the making but you are also about making of communities. Are the players, have they become your community? VFW: Definitely. It’s become my community as well as the Modern Guild. It’s all about community. People come together and want to share what they’re doing and get feedback and get praise for all the hard work they’ve put into something. The amount of people that I’ve met through blogs and the amount of friends through the guild, finding like minded people, there is just nothing better than that. Having people around who get what you’re doing and want to do the same thing. You see the same spark in their eye. And you know that they get it. It’s great. MC: So 15 minutes play is not just quilting? VFW: Yes, it is just quilting. Well, quilting and community. Sharing, bonding…and different challenges to work in different ways. MC: Could you share some of those challenges that you think were the most interesting? VFW: Well we just had a solids, strictly solids challenge. Some people had not done that! We used artwork & paintings as inspiration, and they used only solid fabrics and made quilts from the swapped fabric, that was one of the challenges recently. We also challenged people to come up with a tutorial for a quilt block, and focused on specific color challenges as well. MC: It sounds like fun. How much time do they have to complete the challenge? VFW: Usually about a month. MC: What do you think is the biggest challenge that is affecting quilters today? VFW: I don’t know how to answer that. It’s is such a personal thing for everybody. People are having issues with being labeled a certain type of quilter instead of just being inclusive and appreciating craft. I think that’s what I hear the most of all now, especially in the modern quilt world now. Everyone is trying to find their place. It’s all mixed up, it’s awkward. Can’t we all just be quilters? MC: Well, I would like to thank Victoria for letting us conduct this interview today. We are concluding this interview at 8:25 pm. ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Ellen November",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=NY10018-001Wolfe.xml,audio,08-05-2011,," 5 Victoria Findlay Wolfe NY10018-001Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesModern Quilt Guild QSOSQuilt AllianceQuiltmaking purpose - charityModern Quilt GuildManhattan, New York City, New YorkFifteen Minutes of PlayVictoria Findlay WolfeMeg Cox1:|2(4)|6(10)|17(3)|34(2)|45(2)|60(11)|74(8)|91(8)|104(10)|116(14)|130(17)|144(9)|160(13)|172(2)|187(5)|198(8)|212(4)|227(9)|239(13)|252(11)|266(5)|281(6)|290(13)|304(7)|317(10)|327(3)|340(9)|352(19)|374(13)|389(2)|406(2)|414(13)0http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/NY10018-001FindlayWolfe.mp3Otheraudio Introduction Everybody can hear me ok?Interviewer Meg Cox introduces the Quilters S.O.S. interview, which is being recorded live at Wolfe's home in Manhattan, in front an audience comprised of the New York Modern Quilt Guild. Modern Quilt Guild;New York City, New York17 Discussion of quilt titled ""Everything but the Kitchen Sink"" Tell us about the quilt your brought here to talk aboutWolfe discusses her first quilt, ""Everything But the Kitchen Sink"". She explains how she slowly learned how to quilt by branching off from children's clothes that she would make for her daughter, and how she drew inspiration from her grandmother's quilts. This quilt is the one that has great meaning to Wolfe because it is comprised of ""orphan"" blocks she acquired along the way, which shows her improvisational quiltmaking roots and many techniques she has learned over the years. ""Y"" seams;Antique quilts;applique;children's clothing;Color theory;Crazy quilts;daughter;first quilt;grandmother;hobby;Knowledge transfer;Learning quiltmaking;Painting;Scrap quilts17 Wolfe's use of her first quilt; involvement in Modern Quilt Guild How do you use this quilt in your life?Wolfe explains that she continues to use her first quilt on her bed. She shares her Minnesota roots, growing up on a farm, where her father worked as an upholsterer and her mother was employed as a seamstress. She recalls learning to sew as a child, making Barbie clothes and stealing scraps from her father. Art quilts;Barbies;blind stitch;father;Fiber - Polyester;Finger Hut;Learning quiltmaking;Minnesota;Modern Quilt Guild;New York City Modern Quilters;polyester double knit;Quilt guild;Quilt Purpose - Bedcovering;Quilt Purpose - Utilitarian;seamstress;upholsterer;use17http://www.nycmetromodquilters.com/New York City Modern Quilters Challenging preconceived tastes towards quilts So you challenge yourself? Wolfe discusses how she works on a commission basis making quilts to sell. She uses unlikely colors together or colors she wouldn't normally use in order to challenge herself. Wolfe explains that she became inspired through her friend, and the fact that she and many of her friends/colleagues had collections of quilts that were actually too large for them. She offered to donate some to her friend, and to her surprise he said he needed 700 of them. She proceeded to ask people on her block to help her collect them.Challenge;commission;Quilt Purpose - Charity;Quilt Purpose - Personal income40.837048, -73.86543317Garment District, Manhattan, New York Cityhttp://bumblebeansbasics.com/Bumble Beans Basics, Wolfe's charity which gives quilts to people in need. Modern technology and work space Have advances in technology affected your work, I mean, what about the tools that you use?Wolfe explains that modern technology hasn't really changed her quilt making process. The most ""modern"" technology she uses is her rotary cutter and her scissors. She has also designed custom fabric through the online vendor, Spoonflower. She also describes her work space in her New York City loft, which she characterizes as a ""mess.""applique;Garment District, New York City;Quiltmaking process;Rotary cutter;Scissors;Spoonflower;Sweatshop;Technology in quiltmaking;Work or Studio space17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/NY10018-001FindlayWolfeC.jpgDetail, ""Everything but the Kitchen Sink,"" by Victoria Findlay Wolfe Quilting as a coping mechanism Have you ever used quilts and quilting to get through a difficult time? What makes a great quilt? What kinds of quilt makers are you drawn to?Wolfe explains that her quilting mostly comes from joyous times. For example, whenever a baby is born or a friend gets married a quilt in being made in celebration. However, Wolfe states that eventually she wants to make a quilt for when she dies, citing a Native American tradition. In Wolfe's opinion, every quilt is great and there are no ugly quilts. Again, she references the process of quilt making being just as important as the end result. She also mentions how she will buy virtually any antique quilt, because someone put so much love and work into it. Wolfe loves finding quilts in flea markets, because those quilts contain a mystery about how, when, and where they were made and who they were made by.Celebration;Coping Mechanism;Creativity;death;Native American;Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation;Quilt Purpose - Mourning;Quilt Purpose - Wedding17 Inspirations for her quilts/ thoughts on hand vs machine quilting What are the other works and quilt makers you are drawn to? Do you like to finish quilts on your own?Wolfe loves finding quilts in flea markets, because those quilts contain a mystery about how, when, and where they were made and who they were made by. Wolfe has also been highly influenced by painters such as Monet and Matisse. Wolfe states that she is a ""hesitant"" machine quilter, in that she needs it because she doesn't have the time to hand sew all of her quilts. She enjoys using a long arm quilting machine, but she prefers to hand sew. For example, when creating a favorite quilt she feels the need to hand sew the entire quilt.Amish quilts;Antique quilts;Claude Monet;Ellsworth Kelly;Flea Markets;Hand quilting;Henri Matisse;Long arm quilting;Long arm quilting machine;modern art;Mystery;Wassily Kandinsky17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/NY10018-001FindlayWolfeB.jpgDetail, ""Everything but the Kitchen Sink,"" by Victoria Findlay Wolfe Importance of quilt making in life Why is quilt making important to your life? How do you think you have influenced the quiltmaking community? What is the effect quilts have on American life? Where do you see yourself going as a quilter?To Wolfe, quilts will leave a legacy behind her and that they provide a positive influence in her daughter's life by creating memories around these quilts. Wolfe explains that she doesn't know how her quilts affect the community. This shows that quilters probably focus on the art much more than they focus on the effect of it. Wolfe explains that quilts are popular due to their utilitarian aspect and that they can be used with whatever resources are available. She also appreciates that the function and purpose of quilts is as true now as it was in the past. Wolfe explains that she takes quilting on a day-by-day basis, and that she prefers to use each quilt as a learning experience and not necessarily as a constant striving for perfection.American Quilter's Society (AQS);daughter;Generational quiltmaking;legacy;mother;quilting goals17http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/NY10018-001FindlayWolfeA.jpgVictoria Findlay Wolfe in front of her quilt, ""Everything but the Kitchen Sink."" Teaching quilting and online collaboration Are you teaching others as well? I have 100 players on the site and we're constantly challenging one another and giving each other feedback and just playing and seeing what happens.Wolfe explains that she created a website, ""15 Minutes of Play,"" that helps people learn how to quilt and share their projects among each other. She enjoys seeing others enjoy the process of quilting as well. Online quilt communities;Quilt tutorials;Quilt Website;Teaching quiltmaking17www.15minutesplay.comWolfe's ""15 Minutes of Play"" website Biggest challenge facing quiltmakers today So what do you think is the biggest challenge affecting quilt makers today? Wolfe explains that there are personal obstacles for every quiltmaker individually, and that there seems to be an issue with people being labeled as a certain type of quilter, such as ""modern"" or ""art quilter."" Art quilts;Challenge;Modern Quilt Guild;quilt styles;Quiltmaking17https://vfwquilts.com/Wolfe's websiteOral HistoryIn this interview with quiltmaker and philanthropist, Victoria Findlay Wolfe and interviewer Meg Cox discuss how her upbringing in Minnesota attracted her to quilts, as well as how she uses quilts to connect with the community. Wolfe runs an online collaborative quilting website called Fifteen Minutes of Play, and discusses the use of quilting as a charitable resource. Wolfe also explains her love of the process of quilting, and how the her community projects and the process of quiltmaking provide her with fulfillment. The interview was recorded live at a meeting of the NYC Metro Modern Quilters Guild at Wolfe's home in Manhattan.Meg Cox (MC): This is the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories interview with Victoria Findlay Wolfe. We are at her loft apartment in New York City. Tell me about the quilt you’ve brought today to talk about. Victoria Findlay Wolfe (VFW): The quilt that I’d like to talk about is the one hanging over here behind us called “Everything but the Kitchen Sink.” I started it about 15 years ago. I was an occasional quilter, and then I became a mother. There was at a point where I was making a lot of quilts and children’s clothes for my daughter Beatrice. I wanted to make her quilts when she was a baby. But I would never make the perfect quilt for her. I ended up making her about 20 quilts. None of the quilts were ever good enough for my daughter, so I cut them all up and accumulated many orphan blocks along the way from doing so. I was looking at quilts but not really knowing much about making a quilt. The only quilts I had in my house were the crazy quilts my grandmother made. And so that’s how this quilt started, I was trying to mimic what my grandmother did. Mimicking what her process was. Because it was the only thing I knew, from watching her quilt as a child. MC: So you brought this because it speaks to how you became involved with quilting? VFW: It was definitely the start of the obsession with quilting. I had started, if you look at the bottom of that quilt, there is a 14″ strip across the bottom, where I was looking at my grandmother’s work and I was trying to duplicate what she did by using the sewing machine instead of by hand. I got so bored and frustrated trying to do it. It wasn’t my way, so I needed to figure out how to do what she did, but in my own way, so I couldn’t I get frustrated. I couldn’t at the time, and so I put it away in a box for about 12 years. In 2009 I pulled it out and that’s when I had accumulated so many more orphan blocks and then just started playing with it, adding them all into one quilt. MC: What do you think that this quilt says about you? If someone came upon this quilt, what do you think it says about you as a quilter? VFW: That’s kind of hard. I hope they see the learning curve and passion. When I look at that quilt, I see everything that I have learned for about 15 years. I learned techniques that I have never done before. There’s probably about a hundred Y seams in that quilt. Difficult seams. That’s the only way to do it, just go for it. Applique is something that I had not done since junior high school. It’s my learning process, in that quilt, trying to do letters, applique, using up antique blocks I’ve collected. Everything I had went into it, along with my everyday life. Maybe it says, I’m open to the life throws at me? I’m a painter by trade previously so I was trying to figure out the color balance and make it all work. It’s been a complete learning experience so it kind of sums up a wide portion of my life including getting married, having a family, moving to New York, it accumulates everything. MC: How do you use this quilt? VFW: It sits on my bed. It’s the one quilt that I am so attached to, I’d garb it from a burning building. It’s not going anywhere, it’s staying here, it wont’ be sold. It gets used and loved. MC: So your interest in quilting was originally sparked by your grandmother? VFW: Yes, definitely, and by the basic needs of growing up on a farm. My father had an upholstery business in Minnesota and I grew up on a farm in MN. My mother was a seamstress for Fingerhut for a while. I don’t know if anyone knows Fingerhut out here. But that’s why my grandma had all theses quilts made out of polyester double-knit. My grandmother was a crazy-quilter. In MN you had about five of these quilts on your bed, because it’s cold and we did not have heat in our house. We heated our house with wood stoves. So we would have about five of these quilts on our bed and they stayed there all night long. The weight of them is unforgettable and comforting. MC: Was she the only family member who quilted? VFW: No, My mother would make quilts periodically, only after a relative got married, but then she was more of a seamstress. When I started sewing, I had one of those Barbie sewing machines that had a glue cartridge that you would put in and it would put glue dots on the fabric. That really worked well (laughter). Then I moved up from there gradually and would steal my father’s scraps and upholstery sample books. I’d sew them together on my mother’s Singer. I remember him teaching me how to do a blind stitch and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world because you couldn’t tell there was a seam on the outside finishing it up. I thought it was pretty cool cause it looked like my Dad’s work then. MC: Did you ever make a quilt for the Barbie? VFW: I’m sure I did but I don’t remember. MC: So your first quilt memory was probably the polyester quilts on the bed? VFW: Yes and they were heavy. MC: So how much time do you spent quilting now? How big a part of your life is it? VFW: All day all night. My husband’s up in Canada right now, so I would stay up all night if I could. No, really, I sew all day. All day long. I sew when my daughter goes to school, I sew, when she comes home, I quilt when she goes to bed. It’s an obsession, I know and accept that. it is all related to my need to create. MC: Would you talk a little bit about the modern quilt movement and how you seemed to be involved with that? VFW: That’s kind of interesting. I was a little bit clueless to it. It had been around for about six months. Hadn’t heard anything about it. And a friend of mine Amy Drucker, said how come we don’t have this in New York. We need a guild. Let’s do this. Want to do this? Okay and 20 minutes later our site was up and within an hour we had like 20 members. That was 1-1/2 years ago. So within 20 minutes we got all these people on the site and it has grown very rapidly. We have been meeting here in the apt. We have over 150 members on line. We are working on a new web site, The challenge has not been getting more people, new people come each meeting, and community is a big part of it. MC: How do you define, for you, what is it about? VFW: For me personally it’s keeping all the rules open. I consider myself a very traditional quilter. I’ve done it since I was very young. I know patchwork and how to sew by hand but at the same time, as an artist, I want to try different things and I think maybe the modern movement is incorporating that more for everybody, that it’s okay to do your own thing. I think it is all-inclusive, it includes the art quilter, the beginner quilter, the traditional quilter who wants to try something new. The fabric designers are a big part of it, the more color I can get, the happier I am. MC: Can you talk a little bit about your creative process. Were you conscious of that for a long time? VFW: Yeah. We had a talk the other day about how or about why the process was more important to you or the finished object was more important. To me as an artist it is definitely the process. It’s all about starting the quilt, and discovering where it’s going. I rarely have a plan when I start something. I start with one little piece and I let it grow organically. I don’t ever now where I’m going with it, the adventure of it is what excited me. It’s like when I’m working on a painting I’ll start small in the center, and then it gets big as I fill in the canvas… MC: So with a quilt do you start with the color, do you start with the pattern. What is your impulse? VFW: It could be anything. Sometimes it’s a memory of somebody, a memory of my grandmother. This quilt, “Grandmother’s Rocking Chair”, This quilt actually started out as a traditional style quilt with squares, and the orange blocks. I couldn’t make it just be that traditional quilt, I had to see what would happen if I… then played out all the options that made me think of my grandmother. It was just too normal, so I started playing and the next thing I knew I had something completely different. About my grandmother, from watching her sew, sitting in her rocking chair. That would be the inspiration. Or like I said, looking at my grandmother’s quilt for inspiration, a color combination or Anytime I’d say I would never do a purple and gold quilt, those are my high school colors, I hated those colors, as soon as I said that, I made five quilts with those colors. So that is a great inspiration or a starting off point to a great challenge. MC: So you challenge yourself? VFW: Always challenge. I love a challenge. That’s one of the things I love to do most. Sometimes if I’m doing a commissioned quilt, I ask people to give me a word and that will send me off on a tangent. MC: That’s a great segue. How did you get involved in the commission business and do you have your own personal style or how does it work? VFW: It’s been mostly word of mouth. A lot of my painting commissions have spilled over into quilts because they want to know what I am doing with quilts. They are confused at first until they see them and then they want one. I don’t always get a lot of information. I had one person wanted a red quilt. That was the inspiration. So I cleaned all my stash of every red I had. When I do a commission, there’s no deposit required. If after I make the quilt, if they want to purchase it after it’s made, great! It’s okay with me! but I’m just as happy to keep it if they don’t. It’s a win/win either way. MC: And I know as well that you started a community project for quilts. You really are living and breathing quilting. Could you talk a little bit about that? How that got started and where that is now? VFW: That was kind of funny. The blog world is a very interesting place. Those of us who quilt have more quilts than we need. I had some extra quilts lying here and I had a friend who worked with a program called Basics, in the Bronx, who worked with getting homeless families back into transitional housing here in the city. I asked him one day: Do you need any quilts? Thinking I could give him two or three that I had lying around. And he turned around and said: Do you have 700? That was not what I expected him to say, not in my wildest dreams. . So I said, hmmm, I don’t know, let me see what I can do. So I designed a house block and asked people on my blog to make them and send them to me and I would make a couple quilts for them. well a couple blocks turned into, 500 quilt blocks and that turned into 60 quilts, which we then auctioned off and raised over $30,000 for them. MC: You auctioned them of for the organization? VFW: Yes, basically by auctioning off the quilts for them at an organization fundraiser. Then, that had been so successful, that we turned it into an ongoing quilt drive. And so now, we opened it up where you could send in completed quilts. We’ve received over 350 quilts. And we’ve had event days where we go up to the Bronx to each of the different housing units and we hand the quilts to the families in the program. It’s an extremely emotional and fabulous day. We have another round of that coming up, to collect more quilts. And it turns into something bigger than I had set out to do. One needs to always think bigger. MC: Would you talk about, what is the most pleasing aspect of quilting to you? VFW: It’s the process and giving back. It’s just so fun watching all these little pieces come together. I can’t throw anything away. So I save all my little pieces and they grow from nothing into something. That’s what I love. It’s not even so much the finished product. I think by the time I put it on my lap and fix the binding I’m done and I’m onto the next project. From the beginning to the end. And giving them away is even better, good for the soul. MC: Have advances in technology affected your work? What about the tools that you use? VFW: Not much other than my rotary cutter and my scissors. I’ve dabbled a bit on Spoonflower, working with fabric design and that’s always interesting. I’m happy to participate and try a new tool. I feel kind of traditional with my quilts so I have to push myself further into other areas yet. Just when I say I will never do something, I need that boost to try something new, new technology can help me do that. MC: What about fabrics? Where are you looking for fabric? VFW: Anywhere. Clothes. Fabric shops. All the stores. All my friends. MC: What are you favorite techniques? VFW: I used to think that I would never pick up applique ever ever again in my life, but I actually love it. So I’ve been tending to do even more of that, but scrap piecing, my heart belongs to scrap piecing… MC: We are in this big loft in your living area that we’ve taken over and so people cannot really tell that behind this wall and behind this quilt is your studio space where you work. So since we can’t see it, would you describe it for us? VFW: It’s a mess. That sums it up. It’s a couple tables set up in the space, set up for working with all these quilts. I have my tall cutting table and lots of windows all around and lots of fabrics. And one Juki sewing machine. MC: Now you were talking earlier about this building being in the garment district and what it was like when you got here. Would you share some of that? VFW: When we moved into this building the neighboring building that we looked into was still a sweat shop. The history of this area is that is all it was, it was all the sweat shops, as we are part of the garment center. Our building once was also. It just seems kind of funny now that I sit here sewing all day, I joke, that I get so much done because of the spirits of past garment workers. So when people come here and see all the quilts, it’s not me, it’s all the sewing energy of the workers, it’s kind of interesting. MC: Would you tell me if you’ve ever used quilts or quilting to get through a difficult time in your life? VFW: Not specifically…It’s mostly joyous times. Anytime there is a baby in the family there is a quilt being made. Anytime I can share and give something away. I do obsess over a particular quilt I’d like to make. I haven’t made this yet, but I do want to make a quilt for when I die. Is that terrible? MC: Why is that? VFW: Growing up in MN I attended a Native American funeral. Their tradition is to sit with the body for a three days and the body is always wrapped in a quilt. And I thought it would be incredibly personal and special if I made that quilt. I’m happy with a pine box and a quilt. That’s it. I don’t know what that quilt would be. I cannot even decide what to quilt for own my bed, but I think about it all the time. MC: I want to talk a little bit about aesthetics in your work and beyond. What do you think makes a great quilt? VFW: I think all quilts are great. I think that whatever process anyone takes to make something, that’s their process to be respected. We all make for different reasons, and with different processes. There are no ugly quilts. It depends if you are making it for some particular reason that you think you have to strive to do something. If someone doesn’t like what I’ve done. It’s ok. I like that it can just be what it is. Anytime I see a quilt top in an antique store I know someone poured everything they had into it. They worked so hard to make it. And I usually come home with those quilts. I respect the person and their process for making it. MC: What are the works you are drawn to? Are there quilt makers that you admire or are there other types of quilts that you might see in a museum that might pull you in? VFW: I think it’s the ones in the flea markets that I am crazy about. The ones that get passed on out of the family. I love thinking about who that was who sat and put all those pieces together. I find I want to know the story behind the quilt. A quilt needs to be loved. MC: What artists have influenced you? VFW: I am doing a Matisse quilt right now. It’s not the first one I’ve done. So he is the biggest inspiration. Monet, the colors. Kandinsky, the bright colors. And a lot of modern art. I like the parallel a lot between some of the modern quilting now and some of the more traditional modern contemporary painters such as Ellsworth Kelly. Big bold patterns. Amish quilts are modern and contemporary no matter when they were made. Simple. Elegant. MC: How do you start with that? Is it looking at a painting. Are you inspired by that? Is it kind of a cut out? VFW: The cut outs are the easiest thing. It’s just a challenge. I don’t plan, drawing it all out. I just start cutting fabric. Picking up little pieces and just star sewing bits together to resemble whatever it is I’m looking at. They are always free form, whatever happens with them happens. They are what they are. It’s a work in progress and it is fun to do. MC: How do you feel about machine quilting? Do you do your own machine quilting? How do you finish quilts? VFW: Yes I do machine quilt. I struggle a bit with it, But I find it’s building my patience as my skills grow. I don’t have time to hand quilt all my own quilts. I do use long armers. If I have a quilt I really, really love, I have to quilt it myself. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I’m learning slowly to add new designs each time I quilt a quilt. I just have a regular straight stitch home machine. No long arm. MC: So you’re not one of those dedicated quilters____________? VFW: They are all straight stitch, My Juki’s are fast, simple, and great work horse machines! MC: Why is quilt making important to life? VFW: I like that they (quilts) are going to be around for a lot longer than I am. I like that my daughter is watching me. I know that I am passing it onto her. I enjoy that the quilts will stay in the family. She is 11, which may change later in life! MC: In what ways do you think your quilts reflect your community or your region? VFW: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that. I don’t know. MC: What do you think is the importance of quilts in American life? VFW: The utilitarian aspect of them, from what they’ve grown from out of necessity, using what they have been to begin with. It’s all true now again. Whether it’s being green, using up what you have and not being wasteful. Everything that quilts started with is as true then as it is now. We must be resourceful not wasteful. MC: Where do you see yourself going as a quilter? Do you have goals, do you take it as it comes? VFW: I take it as it comes. I don’t obsess on making a perfect quilt. I’m not sure I can do that, I’m not sure I want to do that. I prefer to learn from each quilt that I do and move onto the next and see what happens. I have felt recently that my work is sort of changing, or perhaps I’m just growing. But I think it’s just being more open to more possibilities and going back and learning and trying other things that I haven’t done before. Building my tool set of quilter skills. I let it happen and see where it will lead me I am doing a lot more handwork than I ever have done before. I’m curious to see where that goes. MC: Are you teaching others as well? I have started teaching a little bit, yes. I have a teaching website where I show what I do. I show my process, what I do and a lot of people have enjoyed playing along with that and using that also as a way of building something from nothing and using that to start them and that’s been fun to watch other people get enjoyment from that as well. MC: Would you like to be a style maker, a taste maker, a leader in the art of quilting? VFW: I don’t think so, I just want to be a quilter. I just love to do it. I have to “make” being an artist. Whether I’m painting or drawing or making a quilt, or making dinner or learning how to do something else. It’s always about making. I need to do that. It’s all about the process to me. Being a tastemaker or leader in quilting seems less important, I just need to make. If that other stuff comes with what I’m doing, then that tells me I’m in the right place doing what I need to be doing. One of my sites, 15 minutes of play started from that. Being a mom when you have no time for yourself sometimes you only have 15 minutes, just for your sanity as an artist. I needed to do something at least 15 minutes a day for myself. So that is a constant that I keep with me all the time. I do need to make constantly. If I have 15 minutes, I’ll take it. MC: Constitutional imperative. So is that 15 minutes to play, is that what it’s called? VFW: www.15minutesplay.com MC: And that is still active? VFW: Yes, very much so. We have about 100 players on the site. We are constantly challenging each other and giving each other inspiration and supporting each other. Giving each other feedback. Just playing and seeing what happens. You don’t always have to have a plan where you’re going, it’s fine if you have a plan, but often it’s been when people are trying to find a new way, that they tap into their creative process. If you’re looking at something in a different way, you may find new answers to the What if questions… That’s kind of what we’ve been doing. MC: That’s interesting because you are about the making but you are also about making of communities. Are the players, have they become your community? VFW: Definitely. It’s become my community as well as the Modern Guild. It’s all about community. People come together and want to share what they’re doing and get feedback and get praise for all the hard work they’ve put into something. The amount of people that I’ve met through blogs and the amount of friends through the guild, finding like minded people, there is just nothing better than that. Having people around who get what you’re doing and want to do the same thing. You see the same spark in their eye. And you know that they get it. It’s great. MC: So 15 minutes play is not just quilting? VFW: Yes, it is just quilting. Well, quilting and community. Sharing, bonding…and different challenges to work in different ways. MC: Could you share some of those challenges that you think were the most interesting? VFW: Well we just had a solids, strictly solids challenge. Some people had not done that! We used artwork & paintings as inspiration, and they used only solid fabrics and made quilts from the swapped fabric, that was one of the challenges recently. We also challenged people to come up with a tutorial for a quilt block, and focused on specific color challenges as well. MC: It sounds like fun. How much time do they have to complete the challenge? VFW: Usually about a month. MC: What do you think is the biggest challenge that is affecting quilters today? VFW: I don’t know how to answer that. It’s is such a personal thing for everybody. People are having issues with being labeled a certain type of quilter instead of just being inclusive and appreciating craft. I think that’s what I hear the most of all now, especially in the modern quilt world now. Everyone is trying to find their place. It’s all mixed up, it’s awkward. Can’t we all just be quilters? 2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio0http://quiltalliance.net/cms/http://quiltalliance.net/cms/collections/show/48",Yes,,,"Meg Cox",,"15 minutes of play,charity,Hand applique,hand quilting,improvisation,Manhattan,Modern Quilt Guild,New York,quilt donations",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/cdd73f76e341ffed197efe404f756ac5.jpg,"Oral History","Modern Quilt Guild QSOS",1,0 "Melanie Testa",,"In this interview recorded live in front of an audience at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, Amy Milne, executive director of the Quilt Alliance since 2006, interviewed artist, author, teacher, agent provocateur, and firebrand Melanie Testa about her history as a quiltmaker. Testa shares her story of how she began to explore the possibilities of approaching, making and creating her own quilt art in a figure drawing studio. Testa recounts how she was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology to now being a member in the Manhattan Quilters Guild, and on her love of teaching. Testa also discusses her advocacy for birds in decline such as the Northern Pintail and her quest to bring awareness through her quilt art on this issue.",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",TX77010-004,,,"Amy Milne","Melanie Testa","International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas","**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Amy Milne (AM): Okay, hi. This is Amy Milne interviewing Melanie Testa for Quilters' S.O.S.--Save Our Stories which is a project of The Alliance for American Quilts. And we're here at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. And it's November 5, 2010 and it's 1:22PM. Melanie, tell us about the quilt you chose to bring for the interview. Melanie Testa (MT): I chose a quilt named ""Repose."" And I--this is a really pivotal quilt for me. I learned a lot and I engaged with this image in several ways prior to committing it. And it really opened up the possibility--the possibilities of how I approach making and creating my quilt art. So, you know a few years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to draw using my sewing 1:00 machine. And I met a fine artist who was organizing a figure drawing studio. And which is a little different than a drawing class. A studio's--just a group of people meet--they rent--you know they pay a person to come and pose and everyone draws separately of one another. So you teach yourself. And so I met this fine artist who was organizing a figure drawing studio and I asked him, 'Do you mind if I bring my sewing machine?' And he said, 'No,' and I said, 'You realize that a sewing machine makes noise?' And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'And do you think you might wanna ask your fellow participants whether or not that might bother them?' [AM laughs.] And he said, 'No, I think you should just bring it.' So I said, 'Okay.' And I did that for close to 3 months--2 or 3 months. And I--every 2:00 week--or every week that I felt like lugging my machine to the figure drawing studio. I would bring it. I also draw on paper, and some of the drawings that I did during that period were in a journal that I keep. And the image for ""Repose"" was drawn in my journal originally but from that same session--drawing studio session--that I engaged in. So the original drawing I kept it in just plain simple pencil sketch that is was and then I started playing with it in my journal, and experimenting with it in paint on paper, and then collaging and that sort of thing. So I would just transfer that, drawing to a different page 3:00 and experiment a little more and so this actual quilt is--was originally done in a five by eight inch journal--it opens up to ten by eight of course--but--and I recreated it and you know exactly as you can, and that kind of thing. So, and I was really in a sort of a really exuberant learning phase, and taking everything I possibly could in. And so I sat myself down during that period and just asked myself, you know, 'How come your journals are so expressive and intuitive and flow, how come they have such a flow? Why don't your quilts have that same sort of feel?' So I sat myself down and I made a list and I put two columns. And on 4:00 the left hand side was journaling, and on the right hand side was quilting. And I listed every technique that I used on the pages of my journals. And then I made an equivalent list of what the possibilities might be in fiber. And so I used paint, which on fiber for me is dye. I used tracing paper to transfer a design from one page to another, and the equivalent in fabric is organza. I used resists, which you know you can preserve a layer of paper in its original color by using either a paper it's called frisket. It comes in two types, it's liquid or paper. And the equivalent for it in cloth is either freezer paper or soy wax. 5:00 So I established my direct equivalent between the two, and then I sought out the means to learn the lapses in my textile knowledge. So I began taking classes in thickened dyes--using thickened dyes so that I could use it like paint. And just went on the adventure of trying to make my quilts more like my journals--which is still an approach that I engage in. So I do see them as more of a--I see them more like paintings. This image is actually much simpler than the way that I currently work, but it was the image that really made me see the possibility of similarities in the way I work. 6:00 AM: So when you--I want to go back to when you went to the figure drawing session. You were drawing with your sewing machine as the model was posing? MT: Correct. AM: So you weren't drawing with a sketchbook and then going back with the sewing machine? MT: So yeah, what I did was I would take a--I took a piece of fabric before class, or you know the studio session, I would sew with my feed dogs down a grid in like 2 inch intervals of directions. And then when I sat in front of the machine you know it's--I just brought the machine, I didn't bring a table. And it was sort of, it was a very--sort of a strange setting 'cause it was a clay/oil studio. So I would put my machine down on the sturdiest table available, and drape the piece of fabric over the head of the machine and use 7:00 the grid that I had sewn on prior to class along with my fingers to plot out where--if the shoulder is two inches away from the elbow and two inches away from that. So you know I would sort of put my finger on one spot and plot where I wanted the machine to go and I would do my curves and flows as I saw. And I learned that contour drawing--which is not lifting your pencil, or in this case your needle, from the work--worked much better than any other approach. That you know I mean 'cause you only--in a figure drawing session you have warm ups that are like 30 seconds, and then you move to 2 minutes and then 5 minutes and then 20 minutes. And then it goes back to 2 minutes again. So like you build your skills up, and then back up, and then build them up again. So I didn't want like 8:00 loose threads getting in my way, and changing of colors or that sort of thing. So I dropped my feed dogs, I figured out how to continuously draw and you know like shadows would become a second line that I never had to take the needle out of the fabric. AM: How did your--the fellow-- MT: Well you know-- AM: Fellow classmates--I mean fellow [MT laughs.] session mates respond? MT: It was--it was kinda hard, you know like my first few sessions they would like--we would finish a session and then they'd like all come over to me and I'd be like, 'You know what, I'm doing stick figures over here, can you please leave me alone?' [AM and MT both laugh.] You know it's just like, 'You know what, I'm a little embarrassed with--I'm not really good yet. Can you please leave me alone?' But--and then as I progressed--you know and they couldn't help themselves, they just couldn't help themselves. And as I progressed they would all just gather around me at the end of it. And I think for me the most interesting thing was you know the man who was organizing the studio 9:00 he--very--Thomas Sweeney, great guy. He is also an architect. So his drawing skills are just amazing. He had no fear of hands, no fear of feet--you know and hands and feet are the hardest thing. If you look at drawings of even master artists, they often tend to leave out the hands or will make the hands the study. So it was really nice to see and evaluate his drawing skills and try to incorporate some of the ideas into my own approach. Not that I ever really did hands until the sewing machine--but I have gotten better at it. AM: So [pauses for 3 seconds.] what--so you still own this quilt. MT: I do. AM: And do you--and it has special meaning for you because it sort of marked 10:00 that milestone of the turning point of how you thought about your quilts, but do you have any special plans for it? I mean, do you sell your work? MT: I do. I would love for it to get bought. I would love--you know I have no special attachment to my work once it's finished. I would--I do appreciate what I've done and I learn from what I do, but it's really in the making that I find contentment. So yeah I would love to sell it. I would love to place it in its final home. And until then I'm okay with owning it. AM: What do you think this quilt in particular says about you as an artist to an audience? MT: It's a hard question--that I like to draw. And I think in the quilting world that drawing is not the first thing that comes to mind. So I think that's a striking element. I have attention to detail. I'm a little bit--if you, you know 11:00 get a detail shot of the quilting you'll see that it's pretty intense. So I have obsessive compulsive tendencies--not in a diagnosed sort of way or anything. But I can't get away from myself, you know and I--even if I try to tell myself to back away from the intensity I can't. AM: Let's move to just sort of more--a little bit more--questions about how quiltmaking fits into your life. So, were any of your family members quiltmakers? MT: No. My grandmother on my father's was a piece maker. AM: Wow. MT: And she worked in factories for her entire life. She did buy me my first sewing machine. She was illiterate. She came from Italy and she was just amazed 12:00 at my ability to read a pattern. And I love her to death. She's my patron saint. So--but she was never a quilter, she was a sewer. And I now own her sewing machine-- AM: Cool. MT: --that she bought new. AM: So when--so what's your first memory of a quilt? Were there quilts in your home growing up? MT: No. I at age 19 decided I wanted a hobby and decided it would be quilting. I went and we have a local art center in my hometown, and I went and I looked at their catalog and there was a woman giving a class on Log Cabin, Rose of Sharon 13:00 and Grandmother's Flower Garden. And I fell in love, I just fell in love. And I can remember--you know I mean at 19 years old it was one hundred and twenty five dollars, it was a six week class, I knew I would need a whole bunch of supplies--and you know I mean that was all major for me. And luckily there was a beautiful quilt shop in my hometown and Sunday was always a family day, and my mom and I would go after dinner and go shopping and get stuff, and I fell in love with conversational prints in the fabric store, and decided that I wanted to go to school for that. And it took me another 8 years after that point to go to school. To you know focus myself and create a portfolio. And I got--the 14:00 interesting thing is you know I wanted to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology for textile design. So I read the rules and the rules said you could bring 15 pieces of art, they had to be-- they're up to eleven by seventeen inches, they should be focused on drawing, and you make your appointment and you go for your interview and you show your portfolio and then you sit down and you draw, in our case, some laurel leaves. So I said--and I'm always an overachiever. I always have to out-do. So I made my own portfolio case, I made my own blouse and skirt, I wore a woven scarf that I had done and you know I did get in and they were actually kind of surprised. Apparently a lot of people who 15:00 go to FIT use the textile design department to get into the backdoor of the fashion design department. AM: Wow. MT: And so they had--they were surprised to see that I actually wanted to go for textile design. And they said, 'It's really uncalled for that we'd tell you this at this point, but we've accepted you.' Right then and there. So it was a very exciting-- AM: Yeah. MT: It was a very exciting day. And I had been married for 3 years and my husband was helping me and we just went and celebrated. It was great. AM: That's so great. So what were you doing in between time? Were you still making work? I mean when you were making--obviously making work-- MT: Uh huh. AM: Starting when you were 19. And you were-- MT: I have always had sewing or cloth related jobs. I didn't--my first job wasn't, but you know I mean you figure yourself out and my second job I worked 16:00 in a furniture factory. And I sewed the skirts and pillows for our sofas. And then I moved and became a sample cutter for a women's fashion sample room. And that was an amazing experience. I--at that point I was doing a lot more clothing, I was sewing a lot more clothing and not as engaged in quilting. I love to learn by osmosis, just being around and drinking it up. So I learned a lot. And I still like to make clothing for myself. I learned how to, you know fuss patterns, and move and shift, and make sure that the seams are where they ought to be. So I learned of that just by looking at the pattern makers make patterns and the seamstresses sew the clothing. And that job sent me away to go 17:00 to college. AM: Wow. So how many hours a week would you say you quilt, or a day, would you say you quilt? This is your full time job now? MT: Yes. So, at least 30 hours if not more. And when I'm in the middle of a project I'll just sew every day until it's done. I just recently started a piece and I'm right there with it. And if I weren't here in Houston I would be there and completing the piece. AM: So describe your studio for us. MT: I live in Brooklyn, New York. I wouldn't really consider what I have to be a studio. I--my apartment, my husband and I live in 550 square feet of space. And 18:00 we have one measly little stinking closet that takes up too much room for what it's worth. And my sewing room is in what would be a walk-in closet, were we normal people. So my dye studio is one third of what would be our living room--if we were again normal people. So I have a retractable clothesline that extends the width of my living room. And that is where I hang my pieces as I am dye painting them. And I am an extremely organized person--I don't really think of myself that way, but when I invite people into my home--I have a private student right now--and she looked at me in complete awe and said, 'Where did you learn to be so organized?' 'Well it's just because I love peg boards.' [AM and 19:00 MT laugh.] And so I have a work table in my kit--not my kitchen-- in my living room, that is 2 feet by 4 feet. And when I need that to be larger I put a padded surface that is actu--I think it is 32 by 42 inches--so that extends the work surface of my table. And I collect plexiglass. I piece the background with monoprinted, so I have a piece of plexiglass that is just slightly larger than this piece of work. And I collect it so I have quite a few pieces of it. And I just figure it out. And I'm also a sort of a fastidious person and a neat person. So I do not want to look at my stuff or the things that I use to make. 20:00 So I need to be organized. But it's also you know, after I got out of school I went to--and this is probably what hooked me--I got a job as a vintage poster restoration artist, and we worked on posters that were anywhere from 300 to 50,000 dollars. And when you do that you need to be organized, and you need to work within time constraints, and I was the person who organized the studio, and so I'm sure that helped me to figure it out. AM: Right, valuable experience. So how does that impact your family life, the fact that you're workspace is at home, and-- MT: It's--you know my husband is a beautiful man. [AM laughs.] He is. And he 21:00 encourages me every step of the way. And he--I wouldn't be able to do any of this were it not for him and his faith in me. And I--you know I mean I have to say at one point he looked at me and he said 'You know Melanie, everything you have said you will do, you have done--' AM: Wow. MT: --'so whatever you want to do, just keep doing it.' AM: Wow. MT: So I--you know he does everything he can. He has a full time job--and I'm not saying that I pay our bills, you know I supplement our income--and he has a full time job. He loves to cook. He prefers to do laundry--although now that we don't have our washer and dryer I do go to the laundromat. And you know so we're truly a team. And we don't have children, so I--we just work. And he's a bit 22:00 more of a neat freak than I am, he has some military background. So but he has--you know I mean we've both committed to living a city lifestyle, so he doesn't look at my workspace, and he doesn't see the mess. Where I'm always like trying to work around and try to clean stuff up so that he doesn't have to look at it--it's not his worry anymore, he's let it go. AM: So have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time in your life-- MT: Sure. AM: Of quiltmaking? MT: Yeah. When I was 17 years old I hitchhiked across country. And I [MT pauses for 2 seconds.] I smoked marijuana [AM and MT both laugh.] and [MT laughs.] off the record? [AM laughs.] On the record? I don't know. And you know I got a 23:00 little lost. So when I returned back to Connecticut I decided that an addictive lifestyle wasn't--or a negatively addictive lifestyle--wasn't something that worked for me. So I think what I ended up doing was replacing a negative addiction with a positive one. 'Cause now I honestly use art making to clarify my mind. And it is very meditative that--it's an active meditation. You know I can really--when I'm sitting and machine quilting I'm just empty. And I'm not--you know I'm not going in the flutter of the montauk and so I use it everyday. AM: So do you share that when--I know you do a lot of teaching, and do you--how 24:00 much of that mindset or that experience do you share with your students? MT: I'm pretty much an open book. I don't, you know I don't really--I love to teach. And I [pause for 2 seconds.] I think that teaching is about [pause for 2 seconds.] removing individuals' inhibitions. It's not actually about trans--you know giving information even. I think it's really about just removing the inhibitions, making them possible, available, ready. And of course I mean I am--it is a focused thing and I do--you know I do soy wax batik classes, and right now teaching freezer paper resist with paint, and tomorrow I'll be teaching stamping--with again with paint on cloth. So I mean I do have a focused 25:00 thing but really the first things are just to you know make everyone feel comfortable enough to say okay. And--excuse me--that's the major impediment to most anyone's creative process. So--I don't know if I answered the question-- AM: Yeah! MT: But that's what I think that teaching really boils down to. AM: Yeah I think that definitely. Is there anything about the process of making your quilts that you don't enjoy? [MT laughs and then AM begins to laugh.] MT: I absolutely hate sewing the sleeves on. The sleeves and you know, I appreciate--I like doing the borders--like this one doesn't actually have a border I finished it differently than most any other quilt I do. But yeah, the edging--I shouldn't call it a border it's an edging. I like that it's sort of meditative, but it seems like the more shows I enter the more they're asking for 26:00 very specific things. They want two sleeves on the top, and now I've decided that I like a sleeve with a weight on the bottom to really make it hang flat. And so it's just--it feels interminable. [AM laughs.] AM: So do you belong to any like guilds or quilt groups? Crit groups? MT: I am really happy to say that I am a member of--I am a new member of the Manhattan Quilt Guild. AM: Oh cool. MT: Which is a small group of focused, intentional quilt artists. Paula Nadelstern is a member, Robin Schwab is a member and--oh my god there's this woman named Erin Wilson--I love her. Her work is amazing. And it's nothing I would ever do, but she showed us just one strip of a 36 inch quilt. Right now 27:00 she and her mate have bought a plot of land and they're building a home on it. And so she is really architecturally focused. Each 3 inch square almost seemed like a little architectural drawing pieced, not really--I don't know how she does it, it's amazing. And she's young--I think she's 33 years old. And she's been in this guild that I was just invited into for 7 years. AM: Wow. MT: Fantastic. AM: What other--I think we covered that section so I wanna go on and ask you, are there other people you find inspiring? And it could be a quiltmaker, it could be any artist. Where do you find inspiration? MT: All over the place. And now that I live in New York City you know I mean it's-- I'm inundated with all of this. So when I was making ""Repose"" I had gone 28:00 to a Helen Frankenthaler show retrospective--I don't know if it was a retrospective-- at the Yale Museum of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. And I just fell in love with the intensity of color that she is able to build up using wood blocks. And so she was the person who started me off really using a lot of monoprinting and building of layers in my quilts. So this is the background--the background is monoprinted, and in a really--you know over the course of these last couple years been pushing that in my work--layering one color because the intensity of color and the texture of it. So you sort of get windows into--it's not just like painting a flat layer of color, it's just amazing. 29:00 AM: It really blends itself to the fabric. MT: You're right. MT: So Helen Frankenthaler is fantastic. I--there's so many artists. I--and you know of course continued to journal. And I just saw a bunch of Degas sketchbooks at The Morgan in Manhattan. And it's just amazing. I'm marveled at peoples' ability to draw. I just marvel at it. AM: Yeah. [pause for 4 seconds.] Here are some questions about the sort of design aspects and craftsmanship about quiltmaking. What do you think makes a great quilt? MT: I think that color is your main draw. And then from there your viewer is taken in by your composition and what you're trying to convey. So I think that 30:00 color is the intuitive, you know, connection. And then all else happens after that. AM: [Pause for 5 seconds.] Do you have any feeling about how to--machine quilting versus hand quilting? Do you do both? MT: I do, absolutely. I love the times I like to work quite small. And you know it--I [MT laughs.] the only way that I--the only thing I have ever found that I have been able to make for my husband are merit badges. And so these little things are circles, little like 2 inch circles, and he early on started calling me a hippo--a hippo! [AM and MT laugh.] And so I make the hippo in lots of situations. I've made the hippo on a merit badge as a drummer. I made the hippo 31:00 as a grogg drinking hippo. I've made him as a little flying bird in a nest. And I will sew these onto the inside of David's jackets, or on the inside of his briefcase so that it's not a public display of affection. So those are just 2 inches, and of course they're predominantly hand sewn. And--but I also, you know I mean I sell a lot of small works. And I--they're just easier to place than larger works. And so I can really put time into working by hand in a smaller piece. I love every aspect of what I do. From, you know, creating the image to collaging it to machine sewing it--like we see in ""Repose."" So, I mean as I said 32:00 I am a process person. So as for as long as I am engaged in the making, it is satisfying to me. AM: [Pause for 4 seconds.] Do you think your quilts reflect anything about your community? Or your--where you live? Or-- MT: I am a birder. I like to bird. I love birds. And I just recently I was [pause for 2 seconds.] surfing the Internet and I came across of a list of birds in the climb. And these birds are not extinct yet, but they show marked [pause 33:00 for 2 seconds.] decrease in numbers. So, I was sitting in front of the computer and looking through and these are common birds. These are birds that we know whether or not we know them. And I just--a chill went through my body, and I said this is something I can do. I can help. And I have just embarked on a --I will make one piece of art for each of the top 20 birds on the list. And I have 1 of 19 complete. So the one that I have, I have with me. It is a Northern Pintail and its numbers have decreased by 77% in 40 years. AM: Wow. MT: So what I'm trying to do is as I make each of the pieces I am acquiring the information that people can utilize in order to help their local communities to 34:00 see the need. And as I progress I would also like to have some press releases in birding magazines. And I would like to get a traveling show with all of the information so that--and I hope you know when I'm finished with the project that I might also have it travel in the quilting realm. Because this is a major community that might also be affected by my mission. AM: Good, interesting. MT: Interesting. AM: So what do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? And even more specifically in women's history? Did you think about that when you make you quilts? MT: I definitely feel I--yes. I definitely feel as though my work in particular 35:00 is female oriented, or from a female perspective. Like, I know it's a quilt and all, and I know that there are male quilters, I think if we were to figure out how to flatten them out and compare them to fellow artists who were both male and female, that you could just tell that this particular artist is female. So and I mean I know the tradition of our craft and I know the place that I have in it. So yes I absolutely think about it and I struggle with it in terms of you know I mean I would very much like to--it's very difficult to enter into the fine art world making quilts, and I've been told by gallery owners, you know 36:00 where they don't know what to do with this, I don't know what to do with fiber. And it--you know my response at that is, 'You hang it on the wall. That's what you do with it.' [MT laughs.] So you know I do feel the challenges in a lot of different ways. AM: What keeps you from--because you do draw and paint and--what keeps you, why is quiltmaking? Why is the quilt form important to you versus-- MT: Well you know, I mean I do have a--you know at one point--and I hate this question. [AM laughs.] I hate it. This man--and oh I hated his work. He was--he was really good, he was a landscape painter, but he always bordered an oil painting--big, big oil paints--and he always borders these beautiful paintings in burgundy. And he wrote like a letter to this poet in the bord-- in the 37:00 burgundy border. And it's just like 'Ugh! Why?' And he looked at me one say and he asked me the question I hate, 'Why quilts?' And I looked at him and I was just disgusted. [AM laughs.] And I said, 'Why oil?' [MT and AM laugh.] Do you know? AM: Yeah. MT: And I mean, basically that is I could not imagine not using the sewing machine after painting in my work. I couldn't imagine it. You know the drawing the thread up through the machine and all the different parts and, you know threading that needle, drawing that bobbin thread up and passing--I just couldn't imagine it. AM: So something about the tool, the process, using that tool in particular-- MT: From start to finish. AM: Yeah. MT: I mean I get the best of all worlds because I get to use a paintbrush and I get to use a machine, a sewing machine. AM: Yeah. MT: So-- 38:00 AM: I think I'll end with this question and then I'll let you add if there's other things you want to cover we can. What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? MT: We're an aging community. And I would love to figure out how to mentor or support younger people in committing to this as an art form. I also--you know I think we are, we are women and I think one of the hardest most difficult things is to place our art in context. You know it's fantastic to have to support of you know the quilt festivals and the quilt shows, but we also all need to learn 39:00 to put our best foot forward and have great editing skills. And you know as I teach I really struggle with--I do not put forward my negative work. So my students who are very much beginners see this most beautiful thing without seeing all the struggle and you know pain and swearing that go into making the mistakes that inform professional approach. So I very much appreciate being able to see everyone's work and I would like for us all to learn those editing skills as we proceed. AM: Is there anything else you'd like to say or cover? MT: Hmm, I don't know. I just love what I do and I love connecting with my 40:00 viewer. And conveying you know--and I love--it's fantastic to teach. Because I love, you know it's really an exchange. And you know when people come to me and say, 'Oh my God I love your work it's great.' But it's always--for me it's always like, 'You too can do this.' And so it's like a--you know it gives back and it--and I give too. So I think it's just amazing that you know I'm able to teach, and I'm able to write magazine articles, and I'm able to write my book, and I can do all of these things and place myself In this artistic realm. And just--you know for as much as I was talking about, you know, putting your best foot forward and I--it's also just good for women to have the chance to show 41:00 that first imperfect piece. So you know I mean I don't want to take away from what we need to do to heal as a culture within an art society. So you know for me it's all about encouragement. You know and sometimes I too, like because I only put my best foot forward people say, 'Oh, well you can draw.' AM: Right. MT: Do you know? And so my response to that is, 'Well I have been drawing for 15 years.' And so you know I'm--on day one it wasn't so hot. [MT and AM laugh.] Do you know? And it's interesting as I continue to teach--you know 'cause we live 42:00 in such a small house, we haven't lived in a small apartment for this long--as I teach I--my first sketch books are in storage. And so I can't show anyone my worst work. You know because it doesn't--it's not available to me because I no longer need it, but it's there. You know I mean--and we need to, like take away the fear of making the mistakes because this is a creative journey, it's not--you know you don't--it's not--you know you're not going to be perfect right out of the box. AM: Right. MT: This is a, 'Oh I screwed up,' and then, 'How do I fix this? How do I stick with this and learn this challenge?' You know and I think that is much more important to learn--that commitment to its end. You know I have one quilt that I 43:00 made that, it's called ""Wandering in the Garden,"" and it's a nude from the back, and her hand is, you know, beside her. It's a beautiful little rendition of a hand. And when I printed it on the cotton and then went ahead and printed it on the organza, the organza--the thumb shifted and there was no way the I could pull the organza, and tug the organza--I couldn't make it match, I couldn't make it neat. And so there was a blur, you know and the imagery just didn't--so my first response of course is to swear, and to stand there and pull out my hair. And then my second response is, 'Well, you can figure this out.' You know and it's in figuring out that you become better. So if a new artist can commit to the middle part, you know to the uncomfortable, to the fixing, that is a 44:00 stepping beyond measure. And that's, you know, that's--I would love to support people at that juncture. AM: That's such good advice. Well, um-- MT: Oh and can I say one more thing? AM: Yeah! MT: ""Wandering in the Garden""-- that hand--it got into Quilting Arts Magazine, that's what they photographed for the detail. So um, I don't know, I think it was in a summer issue a few years ago, it's a purple background. So when you see it, just try to figure out what my mistake was. [AM and MT laugh.] Please. And email me when you figure it out. AM: So it's a challenge at the end of the interview. [MT laughs.] That was really fun. We should do that every time. Well I'd like to thank Melanie Testa very much for allowing us to interview you for the Quilter’s SOS Save our Stories Project of the Alliance for American quilts. It remains November 5th 2010 and it is 2:07pm. MT: Thank you.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Sarah Godoshian",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=TX77010-004-testa.xml,audio,11/5/2010,," 5 Melanie Testa TX77010-004Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesInternational Quilt Festival QSOSQuilt Allianceart quiltBrooklyn, New YorkManhattan Quilters GuildFashion Institute of TechnologyMelanie TestaAmy Milne1:|11(5)|21(1)|29(9)|37(7)|45(12)|53(2)|68(10)|78(15)|98(3)|111(8)|125(2)|139(2)|152(13)|161(14)|170(14)|193(11)|202(1)|216(11)|225(5)|233(19)|244(9)|260(12)|275(7)|284(5)|294(2)|310(1)|325(16)|341(8)|350(12)|366(14)|377(1)|385(10)|394(14)|406(12)|421(5)|429(9)|442(14)|466(2)|476(12)|487(8)|496(2)|506(10)|519(13)|529(11)0http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/TX77010-004Testa.mp3Otheraudio Interview Introduction Okay, hi. This is Amy Milne interviewing Melanie Testa for Quilters' S.O.S., Save Our Stories which is a project of The Alliance for American Quilts.Interviewer Amy Milne introduces Melanie Testa for Quilter' S.O.S, Save Our Stories which is a project of The Alliance for American Quilts to the live audience at the International Quilt Festival held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX.Houston, Texas;International Quilt Festival;Melanie Testa;QSOS;Quilt Alliance;Quilters' SOS;Save Our Stories29.7521422,-95.360030417George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.https://www.facebook.com/QuiltFestival/Social Media Face Book page for the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX Tell us about the quilt you chose to bring for the interview. I chose a quilt named ""Repose."" And I--this is a really pivotal quilt for me. I learned a lot and I engaged with this image in several ways prior to committing it. And it really opened up the possibility--the possibilities of how I approach making and creating my quilt art. Testa shares why she chose to bring in the quilt ""Repose"". She says it a pivotal quilt for her because she learned a lot and engaged with this image in several ways prior to committing it. This quilt really opened up the possibilities of how she approached making and creating her quilt art. She decided she wanted to learn how to draw using her sewing machine. For two or three months, she brought her machine to a figure drawing studio where she drew with the machine while the other participants used more traditional media. drawing;Fabric dyeing;figure drawing studio;freezer paper resist;Home sewing machine;journal;pivotal quilt;quilt art;Quilt Purpose - Artistic expression;quiltmaking process;Repose;tracing paper17http://quiltindex.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/20/49/14-31-DB7-1-TX77010-004TestaA.jpgMelanie Testa with her quilt ""Repose"" at The International Quilt Festival QSOS, International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, 2010-11-05 On drawing with her sewing machine as the model was posing. So when you--I want to go back to when you went to the figure drawing session. You were drawing with your sewing machine as the model was posing?Testa describes how she wasn't drawing with a sketchbook but using the sewing machine to 'draw' her designs. She then goes on to describe how her classmates were in awe of what she was doing and would just gather around her because it was so interesting a process. Testa explains it was artist Thomas Sweeney's studio and it was nice to see and incorporate his drawing skills to incorporate some of those ideas into her own approach.architect;clay/oil studio;color;contour drawing;curves and flows;feed dogs;figure drawing;grid;Home sewing machine;master artists;plot;quiltmaking process;Thomas Sweeney17http://www.sweeneysgrocery.com/Thomas Sweeney's Website: A Painting and Making Studio Do you have any special plans for this quilt? Do you sell your work?; What do you think this quilt in particular says about you as an artist to an audience? I do. I do. I would love for it to get bought. I would love--you know I have no special attachment to my work once it's finished. I would--I do appreciate what I've done and I learn from what I do, but it's really in the making that I find contentment. Testa discusses how she would love for this quilt and others to be sold as she doesn't have attachment to her work once it's finished. She also explains it's really in the making that she finds contentment. She would want her audience to see her attention to detail and the intensity she feels when quilting. attention to detail;contentment;drawing;Quilt Purpose - Personal income17http://melanietesta.com/Melanie Testa's website showcasing her art Were any of your family members quiltmakers? No, my grandmother on my father's side was a piece maker. Testa recounts how her grandmother gave Testa her first sewing machine. Her grandmother was not a quiltmaker but she considers her grandmother her patron saint. factory work;grandmother;Home sewing machine;illiterate;Italy;pattern;piece maker;piecing43.062170, 12.4203426Italy where Testa's grandmother originated from What's your first memory of a quilt? Were there quilts in your home growing up? No. I at age 19 decided I wanted a hobby and decided it would be quilting. I went and we have a local art center in my hometown, and I went and I looked at their catalog and there was a woman giving a class on Log Cabin, Rose of Sharon and Grandmother's Flower Garden. Testa discusses how she started quilting as a hobby and her first glimpse was with a local women giving a class on Log Cabin, Rose of Sharon and Grandmother's Flower Garden patterns. (American quilt pattern names reflect the experiences of women as they helped settle the American frontier). She was 19 and just fell in love with the class. She recalls her mom and her shopping for supplies in the local quilt shop and how she fell in love with the prints and wanted to go to school for it. She applied, read the rules and made her own portfolio case, her own clothes, and even a woven scarf for the needed 15 items. She was accepted into the textile design department at Fashion Institute of Technology. She also recalls some of the early jobs she had.(FIT) Fashion Institute of Technology;Fabric - Conversation Prints;Fabric/Quilt shops;fashion industry;furniture factory;Grandmother's Flower Garden - quilt pattern;Log Cabin - quilt pattern;pattern making;portfolio;quiltmaking classes;Rose of Sharon - quilt pattern;sample cutter;sewing clothing;textile design40.748077, -73.99595417Fashion Institute of Technology where Testa studied textile designhttps://www.fitnyc.edu/Fashion Institute of Technology’s, State University of New York website How many hours a week do you quilt?; Describe your studio for us. Yes. So, at least 30 hours if not more. And when I'm in the middle of a project I'll just sew every day until it's done. I just recently started a piece and I'm right there with it. Testa explains that she works about 30 hours of week in her home studio in her small apartment. She has a sewing room and a dye studio along with a retractable clothesline through her living room. She has to be very organized and just loves peg boards and also collects Plexiglass. She credits a job she had as a vintage poster restoration artist with her development of organizational and time management skills.apartment;Brooklyn, New York;dye studio;Fabric dyeing;Houston,Texas;monoprinted;private student;restoration artist;sewing room;Work or Studio space40.676533, -73.94310211Testa's studio is in her apartment where she lives in Brooklyn, New York https://www.dharmatrading.com/featured/433/Testa's work with dye painting as a featured artist on Dharma Trading Company How does quiltmaking impact your family? It's--you know my husband is a beautiful man. [AM laughs.] He is. And he encourages me every step of the way. And he--I wouldn't be able to do any of this were it not for him and his faith in me. Testa describes how her husband is her biggest supporter. They are both committed to living a city lifestyle so the work space in the apartment isn't bothersome to him because he's just as neat as she is. Brooklyn, New York;city life;household tasks;marriage;military;urban;Work or Studio space17 - Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? Sure. Yeah. When I was 17 years old I hitchhiked across country. And I smoked marijuana and off the record? On the record? I don't know. And you know I got a little lost.Testa discusses how she hitchhiked across country when she was 17 years old and recalls that she ""got a little lost"" in her lifestyle, and regularly smoked marijuana. Upon returning home to Connecticut she decided to replace her negative addiction with a positive one, using her art making to clarify her mind.addiction;Connecticut;hitchhiking;machine quilting;meditative;Quilt making;Quilt Purpose - Meditation/relaxation.41.615003, -72.645754 7Connecticut On her philosophy of teaching. I'm pretty much an open book. I don't, you know I don't really--I love to teach. And I think that teaching is about removing individuals' inhibitions. I'm pretty much an open book. Testa explains that she views her role as a teacher as creating a space where her students can remove their inhibitions. She thinks it's a very focused thing and teaches freezer paper resist with paint and also teaches stamping on paint cloth. She just wants to make everyone feel comfortable and not impede their creative process. She states that she loves teaching.batik;cloth;creative process;freezer paper resist;inhibitions;paint;resist;stamping;Teaching quiltmaking17http://melanietesta.com/teaching-schedule/Testa's in-person workshop schedule What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy? I absolutely hate sewing the sleeves on. The sleeves and you know, I appreciate--I like doing the borders--like this one doesn't actually have a border I finished it differently than most any other quilt I do. Testa explains how she likes borders more than sewing hanging sleeves on. She thinks edging is more meditative. However, quilt exhibitions require very specific sleeve types, which frustrates her. borders;edging;meditative;Quilt shows/exhibitions;quilt sleeve17 Do you belong to any guilds or quilt groups? I am really happy to say that I am a member of--I am a new member of the Manhattan Quilters Guild. Which is a small group of focused, intentional quilt artists. Paula Nadelstern is a member, Robin Schwab is a member and -- oh my god there's this women named Erin Wilson--I love her. her work is amazing.Testa belongs to the Manhattan Quilt Guild is and amazed with some of the women's work. In particular, Erin Wilson, whose work is architecturally focused. architectural;drawing pieced;Erin Wilson;Manhatten Quilters Guild;Paula Nadelstern;Robin Schwab40.783890, -73.960196 14Manhattan, New Yorkhttp://manhattanquiltersguild.com/Testa belongs to Manhattan Quilters Guild Sources of inspiration. What other--I think we covered that section so I wanna go on and ask you, are there other people you find inspiring? And it could be a quiltmaker, it could be any artist. Where do you find inspiration? Testa fell in love with the intensity of color that artist Helen Frankenthaler was able to build up using wood blocks. Frankenthaler inspired her and she starting to use a lot of monoprinting and building layers in her quilts. She does continue to journal and cites an exhibition of Degas sketchbooks she saw at the Morgan in Manhatten as another inspiration. Edgar Degas;Helen Frankenthaler;inspiration;layering;layers;monoprinting;texture;The Morgan Library & Museum;wood blocks;Yale Museum of Art41.308794, -72.92952917Yale University Art Galleryhttp://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/helen/biographyHelen Frankenthaler Foundation website - Biography What do you think makes a great quilt? How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting? In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? I think that color is your main draw. And then from there your viewer is taken in by your composition and what you're trying to convey. To Testa, color and composition are the main draws that make a great quilt. She fondly talks about how she hand sews merit badges with little hippos on her husband's things, such as his clothes and his briefcase. She loves every aspect of what she does from working by hand on smaller pieces or machine sewing like her quilt ""Repose."" The entire quilting process is satisfying to her. Testa also recounts how as a birder, she is particularly interested in birds in decline, such as the Northern Pintail. She is making artwork for each of the 20 most endangered bird species to raise awareness about what people can do to help. birding;collaging;color;composition;endangered species;Hand quilting;hand sewn;hippos;Machine quilting;Northern Pintail17https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pintail/id Northern Pintail found on All About Birds, The Cornell of Lab of Ornithology website What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America? I definitely feel I--yes. I definitely feel as though my work in particular is female oriented, or from a female perspective. Like, I know it's a quilt and all, and I know that there are male quilters, I think if we were to figure out how to flatten them out and compare them to fellow artists who were both male and female, that you could just tell that this particular artist is female. Testa discusses that she feels her work is definitely from a female perspective. She would like to compare her quilts with both her female and male fellow artists and see if one can see a difference. She also explains how sometimes galleries don't know what to do with her 'art', when they just see a quilt. artists;challenges;female perspective;Female quiltmakers;fine art;gallery;Gender in quiltmaking;male quiltmakers17 Why is the quilt form important to you? Well you know, I mean I do have a--you know at one point--and I hate this question. I hate it. This man--and oh I hated his work. He was--he was really good, he was a landscape painter, but he always bordered an oil painting--big, big oil paints--and he always borders these beautiful paintings in burgundy. Testa states that she hates being asked why the quilt is her chosen medium. She recalls a male oil painter asking her ""Why quilts?"" and she responded, questioning him, ""Why oil?"" She goes on to explain she couldn't imagine not using her sewing machine after painting her work. She acknowledges that there is just something about the process of quiltmaking that draws her to it.borders;home sewing machine;landscape painter;oil painting;Painting;quiltmaking process17 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?; Is there anything else you'd like to say or cover? We're an aging community. And I would love to figure out how to mentor or support younger people in committing to this as an art form. Testa explains the biggest challenge of quiltmakers is that they are an aging community. She thinks it is hard for quiltmakers, who are predominantly women, to place their art in context. One must have great editing skills, by which she means the ability to show one's best work. She also loves what she does and feels like she gives back and it's amazing that she can teach and write books and magazines that places her in the artistic realm. It's all about encouragement and removing the fear of making mistakes because it's a creative journey. She recounts how she has a mistake on her piece ""Wandering in the Garden"" but says this is how we learn and become better by figuring out the mistakes and moving forward. aging;art form;context;drawing;editing;Gender in quiltmaking;International Quilt Festival;Quilt shows/exhibitions;Teaching quiltmaking17http://quiltindex.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/20/49/14-31-DB8-1-TX77010-004TestaB.jpgTesta's ""Wandering in the Garden"" hand at The International Quilt Festival QSOS,International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, 2010-11-05Oral HistoryIn this interview recorded live in front of an audience at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, Amy Milne, executive director of the Quilt Alliance since 2006, interviewed artist, author, teacher, agent provocateur, and firebrand Melanie Testa about her history as a quiltmaker. Testa shares her story of how she began to explore the possibilities of approaching, making and creating her own quilt art in a figure drawing studio. Testa recounts how she was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology to now being a member in the Manhattan Quilters Guild, and on her love of teaching. Testa also discusses her advocacy for birds in decline such as the Northern Pintail and her quest to bring awareness through her quilt art on this issue.Amy Milne (AM): Okay, hi. This is Amy Milne interviewing Melanie Testa for Quilters' S.O.S.--Save Our Stories which is a project of The Alliance for American Quilts. And we're here at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. And it's November 5, 2010 and it's 1:22PM. Melanie, tell us about the quilt you chose to bring for the interview. Melanie Testa (MT): I chose a quilt named ""Repose."" And I--this is a really pivotal quilt for me. I learned a lot and I engaged with this image in several ways prior to committing it. And it really opened up the possibility--the possibilities of how I approach making and creating my quilt art. So, you know a few years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to draw using my sewing machine. And I met a fine artist who was organizing a figure drawing studio. And which is a little different than a drawing class. A studio's--just a group of people meet--they rent--you know they pay a person to come and pose and everyone draws separately of one another. So you teach yourself. And so I met this fine artist who was organizing a figure drawing studio and I asked him, 'Do you mind if I bring my sewing machine?' And he said, 'No,' and I said, 'You realize that a sewing machine makes noise?' And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'And do you think you might wanna ask your fellow participants whether or not that might bother them?' [AM laughs.] And he said, 'No, I think you should just bring it.' So I said, 'Okay.' And I did that for close to 3 months--2 or 3 months. And I--every week--or every week that I felt like lugging my machine to the figure drawing studio. I would bring it. I also draw on paper, and some of the drawings that I did during that period were in a journal that I keep. And the image for ""Repose"" was drawn in my journal originally but from that same session--drawing studio session--that I engaged in. So the original drawing I kept it in just plain simple pencil sketch that is was and then I started playing with it in my journal, and experimenting with it in paint on paper, and then collaging and that sort of thing. So I would just transfer that, drawing to a different page and experiment a little more and so this actual quilt is--was originally done in a five by eight inch journal--it opens up to ten by eight of course--but--and I recreated it and you know exactly as you can, and that kind of thing. So, and I was really in a sort of a really exuberant learning phase, and taking everything I possibly could in. And so I sat myself down during that period and just asked myself, you know, 'How come your journals are so expressive and intuitive and flow, how come they have such a flow? Why don't your quilts have that same sort of feel?' So I sat myself down and I made a list and I put two columns. And on the left hand side was journaling, and on the right hand side was quilting. And I listed every technique that I used on the pages of my journals. And then I made an equivalent list of what the possibilities might be in fiber. And so I used paint, which on fiber for me is dye. I used tracing paper to transfer a design from one page to another, and the equivalent in fabric is organza. I used resists, which you know you can preserve a layer of paper in its original color by using either a paper it's called frisket. It comes in two types, it's liquid or paper. And the equivalent for it in cloth is either freezer paper or soy wax. So I established my direct equivalent between the two, and then I sought out the means to learn the lapses in my textile knowledge. So I began taking classes in thickened dyes--using thickened dyes so that I could use it like paint. And just went on the adventure of trying to make my quilts more like my journals--which is still an approach that I engage in. So I do see them as more of a--I see them more like paintings. This image is actually much simpler than the way that I currently work, but it was the image that really made me see the possibility of similarities in the way I work. AM: So when you--I want to go back to when you went to the figure drawing session. You were drawing with your sewing machine as the model was posing? MT: Correct. AM: So you weren't drawing with a sketchbook and then going back with the sewing machine? MT: So yeah, what I did was I would take a--I took a piece of fabric before class, or you know the studio session, I would sew with my feed dogs down a grid in like 2 inch intervals of directions. And then when I sat in front of the machine you know it's--I just brought the machine, I didn't bring a table. And it was sort of, it was a very--sort of a strange setting 'cause it was a clay/oil studio. So I would put my machine down on the sturdiest table available, and drape the piece of fabric over the head of the machine and use the grid that I had sewn on prior to class along with my fingers to plot out where--if the shoulder is two inches away from the elbow and two inches away from that. So you know I would sort of put my finger on one spot and plot where I wanted the machine to go and I would do my curves and flows as I saw. And I learned that contour drawing--which is not lifting your pencil, or in this case your needle, from the work--worked much better than any other approach. That you know I mean 'cause you only--in a figure drawing session you have warm ups that are like 30 seconds, and then you move to 2 minutes and then 5 minutes and then 20 minutes. And then it goes back to 2 minutes again. So like you build your skills up, and then back up, and then build them up again. So I didn't want like loose threads getting in my way, and changing of colors or that sort of thing. So I dropped my feed dogs, I figured out how to continuously draw and you know like shadows would become a second line that I never had to take the needle out of the fabric. AM: How did your--the fellow-- MT: Well you know-- AM: Fellow classmates--I mean fellow [MT laughs.] session mates respond? MT: It was--it was kinda hard, you know like my first few sessions they would like--we would finish a session and then they'd like all come over to me and I'd be like, 'You know what, I'm doing stick figures over here, can you please leave me alone?' [AM and MT both laugh.] You know it's just like, 'You know what, I'm a little embarrassed with--I'm not really good yet. Can you please leave me alone?' But--and then as I progressed--you know and they couldn't help themselves, they just couldn't help themselves. And as I progressed they would all just gather around me at the end of it. And I think for me the most interesting thing was you know the man who was organizing the studio he--very--Thomas Sweeney, great guy. He is also an architect. So his drawing skills are just amazing. He had no fear of hands, no fear of feet--you know and hands and feet are the hardest thing. If you look at drawings of even master artists, they often tend to leave out the hands or will make the hands the study. So it was really nice to see and evaluate his drawing skills and try to incorporate some of the ideas into my own approach. Not that I ever really did hands until the sewing machine--but I have gotten better at it. AM: So [pauses for 3 seconds.] what--so you still own this quilt. MT: I do. AM: And do you--and it has special meaning for you because it sort of marked that milestone of the turning point of how you thought about your quilts, but do you have any special plans for it? I mean, do you sell your work? MT: I do. I would love for it to get bought. I would love--you know I have no special attachment to my work once it's finished. I would--I do appreciate what I've done and I learn from what I do, but it's really in the making that I find contentment. So yeah I would love to sell it. I would love to place it in its final home. And until then I'm okay with owning it. AM: What do you think this quilt in particular says about you as an artist to an audience? MT: It's a hard question--that I like to draw. And I think in the quilting world that drawing is not the first thing that comes to mind. So I think that's a striking element. I have attention to detail. I'm a little bit--if you, you know get a detail shot of the quilting you'll see that it's pretty intense. So I have obsessive compulsive tendencies--not in a diagnosed sort of way or anything. But I can't get away from myself, you know and I--even if I try to tell myself to back away from the intensity I can't. AM: Let's move to just sort of more--a little bit more--questions about how quiltmaking fits into your life. So, were any of your family members quiltmakers? MT: No. My grandmother on my father's was a piece maker. AM: Wow. MT: And she worked in factories for her entire life. She did buy me my first sewing machine. She was illiterate. She came from Italy and she was just amazed at my ability to read a pattern. And I love her to death. She's my patron saint. So--but she was never a quilter, she was a sewer. And I now own her sewing machine-- AM: Cool. MT: --that she bought new. AM: So when--so what's your first memory of a quilt? Were there quilts in your home growing up? MT: No. I at age 19 decided I wanted a hobby and decided it would be quilting. I went and we have a local art center in my hometown, and I went and I looked at their catalog and there was a woman giving a class on Log Cabin, Rose of Sharon and Grandmother's Flower Garden. And I fell in love, I just fell in love. And I can remember--you know I mean at 19 years old it was one hundred and twenty five dollars, it was a six week class, I knew I would need a whole bunch of supplies--and you know I mean that was all major for me. And luckily there was a beautiful quilt shop in my hometown and Sunday was always a family day, and my mom and I would go after dinner and go shopping and get stuff, and I fell in love with conversational prints in the fabric store, and decided that I wanted to go to school for that. And it took me another 8 years after that point to go to school. To you know focus myself and create a portfolio. And I got--the interesting thing is you know I wanted to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology for textile design. So I read the rules and the rules said you could bring 15 pieces of art, they had to be-- they're up to eleven by seventeen inches, they should be focused on drawing, and you make your appointment and you go for your interview and you show your portfolio and then you sit down and you draw, in our case, some laurel leaves. So I said--and I'm always an overachiever. I always have to out-do. So I made my own portfolio case, I made my own blouse and skirt, I wore a woven scarf that I had done and you know I did get in and they were actually kind of surprised. Apparently a lot of people who go to FIT use the textile design department to get into the backdoor of the fashion design department. AM: Wow. MT: And so they had--they were surprised to see that I actually wanted to go for textile design. And they said, 'It's really uncalled for that we'd tell you this at this point, but we've accepted you.' Right then and there. So it was a very exciting-- AM: Yeah. MT: It was a very exciting day. And I had been married for 3 years and my husband was helping me and we just went and celebrated. It was great. AM: That's so great. So what were you doing in between time? Were you still making work? I mean when you were making--obviously making work-- MT: Uh huh. AM: Starting when you were 19. And you were-- MT: I have always had sewing or cloth related jobs. I didn't--my first job wasn't, but you know I mean you figure yourself out and my second job I worked in a furniture factory. And I sewed the skirts and pillows for our sofas. And then I moved and became a sample cutter for a women's fashion sample room. And that was an amazing experience. I--at that point I was doing a lot more clothing, I was sewing a lot more clothing and not as engaged in quilting. I love to learn by osmosis, just being around and drinking it up. So I learned a lot. And I still like to make clothing for myself. I learned how to, you know fuss patterns, and move and shift, and make sure that the seams are where they ought to be. So I learned of that just by looking at the pattern makers make patterns and the seamstresses sew the clothing. And that job sent me away to go to college. AM: Wow. So how many hours a week would you say you quilt, or a day, would you say you quilt? This is your full time job now? MT: Yes. So, at least 30 hours if not more. And when I'm in the middle of a project I'll just sew every day until it's done. I just recently started a piece and I'm right there with it. And if I weren't here in Houston I would be there and completing the piece. AM: So describe your studio for us. MT: I live in Brooklyn, New York. I wouldn't really consider what I have to be a studio. I--my apartment, my husband and I live in 550 square feet of space. And we have one measly little stinking closet that takes up too much room for what it's worth. And my sewing room is in what would be a walk-in closet, were we normal people. So my dye studio is one third of what would be our living room--if we were again normal people. So I have a retractable clothesline that extends the width of my living room. And that is where I hang my pieces as I am dye painting them. And I am an extremely organized person--I don't really think of myself that way, but when I invite people into my home--I have a private student right now--and she looked at me in complete awe and said, 'Where did you learn to be so organized?' 'Well it's just because I love peg boards.' [AM and MT laugh.] And so I have a work table in my kit--not my kitchen-- in my living room, that is 2 feet by 4 feet. And when I need that to be larger I put a padded surface that is actu--I think it is 32 by 42 inches--so that extends the work surface of my table. And I collect plexiglass. I piece the background with monoprinted, so I have a piece of plexiglass that is just slightly larger than this piece of work. And I collect it so I have quite a few pieces of it. And I just figure it out. And I'm also a sort of a fastidious person and a neat person. So I do not want to look at my stuff or the things that I use to make. So I need to be organized. But it's also you know, after I got out of school I went to--and this is probably what hooked me--I got a job as a vintage poster restoration artist, and we worked on posters that were anywhere from 300 to 50,000 dollars. And when you do that you need to be organized, and you need to work within time constraints, and I was the person who organized the studio, and so I'm sure that helped me to figure it out. AM: Right, valuable experience. So how does that impact your family life, the fact that you're workspace is at home, and-- MT: It's--you know my husband is a beautiful man. [AM laughs.] He is. And he encourages me every step of the way. And he--I wouldn't be able to do any of this were it not for him and his faith in me. And I--you know I mean I have to say at one point he looked at me and he said 'You know Melanie, everything you have said you will do, you have done--' AM: Wow. MT: --'so whatever you want to do, just keep doing it.' AM: Wow. MT: So I--you know he does everything he can. He has a full time job--and I'm not saying that I pay our bills, you know I supplement our income--and he has a full time job. He loves to cook. He prefers to do laundry--although now that we don't have our washer and dryer I do go to the laundromat. And you know so we're truly a team. And we don't have children, so I--we just work. And he's a bit more of a neat freak than I am, he has some military background. So but he has--you know I mean we've both committed to living a city lifestyle, so he doesn't look at my workspace, and he doesn't see the mess. Where I'm always like trying to work around and try to clean stuff up so that he doesn't have to look at it--it's not his worry anymore, he's let it go. AM: So have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time in your life-- MT: Sure. AM: Of quiltmaking? MT: Yeah. When I was 17 years old I hitchhiked across country. And I [MT pauses for 2 seconds.] I smoked marijuana [AM and MT both laugh.] and [MT laughs.] off the record? [AM laughs.] On the record? I don't know. And you know I got a little lost. So when I returned back to Connecticut I decided that an addictive lifestyle wasn't--or a negatively addictive lifestyle--wasn't something that worked for me. So I think what I ended up doing was replacing a negative addiction with a positive one. 'Cause now I honestly use art making to clarify my mind. And it is very meditative that--it's an active meditation. You know I can really--when I'm sitting and machine quilting I'm just empty. And I'm not--you know I'm not going in the flutter of the montauk and so I use it everyday. AM: So do you share that when--I know you do a lot of teaching, and do you--how much of that mindset or that experience do you share with your students? MT: I'm pretty much an open book. I don't, you know I don't really--I love to teach. And I [pause for 2 seconds.] I think that teaching is about [pause for 2 seconds.] removing individuals' inhibitions. It's not actually about trans--you know giving information even. I think it's really about just removing the inhibitions, making them possible, available, ready. And of course I mean I am--it is a focused thing and I do--you know I do soy wax batik classes, and right now teaching freezer paper resist with paint, and tomorrow I'll be teaching stamping--with again with paint on cloth. So I mean I do have a focused thing but really the first things are just to you know make everyone feel comfortable enough to say okay. And--excuse me--that's the major impediment to most anyone's creative process. So--I don't know if I answered the question-- AM: Yeah! MT: But that's what I think that teaching really boils down to. AM: Yeah I think that definitely. Is there anything about the process of making your quilts that you don't enjoy? [MT laughs and then AM begins to laugh.] MT: I absolutely hate sewing the sleeves on. The sleeves and you know, I appreciate--I like doing the borders--like this one doesn't actually have a border I finished it differently than most any other quilt I do. But yeah, the edging--I shouldn't call it a border it's an edging. I like that it's sort of meditative, but it seems like the more shows I enter the more they're asking for very specific things. They want two sleeves on the top, and now I've decided that I like a sleeve with a weight on the bottom to really make it hang flat. And so it's just--it feels interminable. [AM laughs.] AM: So do you belong to any like guilds or quilt groups? Crit groups? MT: I am really happy to say that I am a member of--I am a new member of the Manhattan Quilt Guild. AM: Oh cool. MT: Which is a small group of focused, intentional quilt artists. Paula Nadelstern is a member, Robin Schwab is a member and--oh my god there's this woman named Erin Wilson--I love her. Her work is amazing. And it's nothing I would ever do, but she showed us just one strip of a 36 inch quilt. Right now she and her mate have bought a plot of land and they're building a home on it. And so she is really architecturally focused. Each 3 inch square almost seemed like a little architectural drawing pieced, not really--I don't know how she does it, it's amazing. And she's young--I think she's 33 years old. And she's been in this guild that I was just invited into for 7 years. AM: Wow. MT: Fantastic. AM: What other--I think we covered that section so I wanna go on and ask you, are there other people you find inspiring? And it could be a quiltmaker, it could be any artist. Where do you find inspiration? MT: All over the place. And now that I live in New York City you know I mean it's-- I'm inundated with all of this. So when I was making ""Repose"" I had gone to a Helen Frankenthaler show retrospective--I don't know if it was a retrospective-- at the Yale Museum of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. And I just fell in love with the intensity of color that she is able to build up using wood blocks. And so she was the person who started me off really using a lot of monoprinting and building of layers in my quilts. So this is the background--the background is monoprinted, and in a really--you know over the course of these last couple years been pushing that in my work--layering one color because the intensity of color and the texture of it. So you sort of get windows into--it's not just like painting a flat layer of color, it's just amazing. AM: It really blends itself to the fabric. MT: You're right. MT: So Helen Frankenthaler is fantastic. I--there's so many artists. I--and you know of course continued to journal. And I just saw a bunch of Degas sketchbooks at The Morgan in Manhattan. And it's just amazing. I'm marveled at peoples' ability to draw. I just marvel at it. AM: Yeah. [pause for 4 seconds.] Here are some questions about the sort of design aspects and craftsmanship about quiltmaking. What do you think makes a great quilt? MT: I think that color is your main draw. And then from there your viewer is taken in by your composition and what you're trying to convey. So I think that color is the intuitive, you know, connection. And then all else happens after that. AM: [Pause for 5 seconds.] Do you have any feeling about how to--machine quilting versus hand quilting? Do you do both? MT: I do, absolutely. I love the times I like to work quite small. And you know it--I [MT laughs.] the only way that I--the only thing I have ever found that I have been able to make for my husband are merit badges. And so these little things are circles, little like 2 inch circles, and he early on started calling me a hippo--a hippo! [AM and MT laugh.] And so I make the hippo in lots of situations. I've made the hippo on a merit badge as a drummer. I made the hippo as a grogg drinking hippo. I've made him as a little flying bird in a nest. And I will sew these onto the inside of David's jackets, or on the inside of his briefcase so that it's not a public display of affection. So those are just 2 inches, and of course they're predominantly hand sewn. And--but I also, you know I mean I sell a lot of small works. And I--they're just easier to place than larger works. And so I can really put time into working by hand in a smaller piece. I love every aspect of what I do. From, you know, creating the image to collaging it to machine sewing it--like we see in ""Repose."" So, I mean as I said I am a process person. So as for as long as I am engaged in the making, it is satisfying to me. AM: [Pause for 4 seconds.] Do you think your quilts reflect anything about your community? Or your--where you live? Or-- MT: I am a birder. I like to bird. I love birds. And I just recently I was [pause for 2 seconds.] surfing the Internet and I came across of a list of birds in the climb. And these birds are not extinct yet, but they show marked [pause for 2 seconds.] decrease in numbers. So, I was sitting in front of the computer and looking through and these are common birds. These are birds that we know whether or not we know them. And I just--a chill went through my body, and I said this is something I can do. I can help. And I have just embarked on a --I will make one piece of art for each of the top 20 birds on the list. And I have 1 of 19 complete. So the one that I have, I have with me. It is a Northern Pintail and its numbers have decreased by 77% in 40 years. AM: Wow. MT: So what I'm trying to do is as I make each of the pieces I am acquiring the information that people can utilize in order to help their local communities to see the need. And as I progress I would also like to have some press releases in birding magazines. And I would like to get a traveling show with all of the information so that--and I hope you know when I'm finished with the project that I might also have it travel in the quilting realm. Because this is a major community that might also be affected by my mission. AM: Good, interesting. MT: Interesting. AM: So what do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? And even more specifically in women's history? Did you think about that when you make you quilts? MT: I definitely feel I--yes. I definitely feel as though my work in particular is female oriented, or from a female perspective. Like, I know it's a quilt and all, and I know that there are male quilters, I think if we were to figure out how to flatten them out and compare them to fellow artists who were both male and female, that you could just tell that this particular artist is female. So and I mean I know the tradition of our craft and I know the place that I have in it. So yes I absolutely think about it and I struggle with it in terms of you know I mean I would very much like to--it's very difficult to enter into the fine art world making quilts, and I've been told by gallery owners, you know where they don't know what to do with this, I don't know what to do with fiber. And it--you know my response at that is, 'You hang it on the wall. That's what you do with it.' [MT laughs.] So you know I do feel the challenges in a lot of different ways. AM: What keeps you from--because you do draw and paint and--what keeps you, why is quiltmaking? Why is the quilt form important to you versus-- MT: Well you know, I mean I do have a--you know at one point--and I hate this question. [AM laughs.] I hate it. This man--and oh I hated his work. He was--he was really good, he was a landscape painter, but he always bordered an oil painting--big, big oil paints--and he always borders these beautiful paintings in burgundy. And he wrote like a letter to this poet in the bord-- in the burgundy border. And it's just like 'Ugh! Why?' And he looked at me one say and he asked me the question I hate, 'Why quilts?' And I looked at him and I was just disgusted. [AM laughs.] And I said, 'Why oil?' [MT and AM laugh.] Do you know? AM: Yeah. MT: And I mean, basically that is I could not imagine not using the sewing machine after painting in my work. I couldn't imagine it. You know the drawing the thread up through the machine and all the different parts and, you know threading that needle, drawing that bobbin thread up and passing--I just couldn't imagine it. AM: So something about the tool, the process, using that tool in particular-- MT: From start to finish. AM: Yeah. MT: I mean I get the best of all worlds because I get to use a paintbrush and I get to use a machine, a sewing machine. AM: Yeah. MT: So-- AM: I think I'll end with this question and then I'll let you add if there's other things you want to cover we can. What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? MT: We're an aging community. And I would love to figure out how to mentor or support younger people in committing to this as an art form. I also--you know I think we are, we are women and I think one of the hardest most difficult things is to place our art in context. You know it's fantastic to have to support of you know the quilt festivals and the quilt shows, but we also all need to learn to put our best foot forward and have great editing skills. And you know as I teach I really struggle with--I do not put forward my negative work. So my students who are very much beginners see this most beautiful thing without seeing all the struggle and you know pain and swearing that go into making the mistakes that inform professional approach. So I very much appreciate being able to see everyone's work and I would like for us all to learn those editing skills as we proceed. AM: Is there anything else you'd like to say or cover? MT: Hmm, I don't know. I just love what I do and I love connecting with my viewer. And conveying you know--and I love--it's fantastic to teach. Because I love, you know it's really an exchange. And you know when people come to me and say, 'Oh my God I love your work it's great.' But it's always--for me it's always like, 'You too can do this.' And so it's like a--you know it gives back and it--and I give too. So I think it's just amazing that you know I'm able to teach, and I'm able to write magazine articles, and I'm able to write my book, and I can do all of these things and place myself In this artistic realm. And just--you know for as much as I was talking about, you know, putting your best foot forward and I--it's also just good for women to have the chance to show that first imperfect piece. So you know I mean I don't want to take away from what we need to do to heal as a culture within an art society. So you know for me it's all about encouragement. You know and sometimes I too, like because I only put my best foot forward people say, 'Oh, well you can draw.' AM: Right. MT: Do you know? And so my response to that is, 'Well I have been drawing for 15 years.' And so you know I'm--on day one it wasn't so hot. [MT and AM laugh.] Do you know? And it's interesting as I continue to teach--you know 'cause we live in such a small house, we haven't lived in a small apartment for this long--as I teach I--my first sketch books are in storage. And so I can't show anyone my worst work. You know because it doesn't--it's not available to me because I no longer need it, but it's there. You know I mean--and we need to, like take away the fear of making the mistakes because this is a creative journey, it's not--you know you don't--it's not--you know you're not going to be perfect right out of the box. AM: Right. MT: This is a, 'Oh I screwed up,' and then, 'How do I fix this? How do I stick with this and learn this challenge?' You know and I think that is much more important to learn--that commitment to its end. You know I have one quilt that I made that, it's called ""Wandering in the Garden,"" and it's a nude from the back, and her hand is, you know, beside her. It's a beautiful little rendition of a hand. And when I printed it on the cotton and then went ahead and printed it on the organza, the organza--the thumb shifted and there was no way the I could pull the organza, and tug the organza--I couldn't make it match, I couldn't make it neat. And so there was a blur, you know and the imagery just didn't--so my first response of course is to swear, and to stand there and pull out my hair. And then my second response is, 'Well, you can figure this out.' You know and it's in figuring out that you become better. So if a new artist can commit to the middle part, you know to the uncomfortable, to the fixing, that is a stepping beyond measure. And that's, you know, that's--I would love to support people at that juncture. AM: That's such good advice. Well, um-- MT: Oh and can I say one more thing? AM: Yeah! MT: ""Wandering in the Garden""-- that hand--it got into Quilting Arts Magazine, that's what they photographed for the detail. So um, I don't know, I think it was in a summer issue a few years ago, it's a purple background. So when you see it, just try to figure out what my mistake was. [AM and MT laugh.] Please. And email me when you figure it out. AM: So it's a challenge at the end of the interview. [MT laughs.] That was really fun. We should do that every time. Well I'd like to thank Melanie Testa very much for allowing us to interview you for the Quilter’s SOS Save our Stories Project of the Alliance for American quilts. It remains November 5th 2010 and it is 2:07pm. MT: Thank you. 2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio0http://quiltalliance.net/cms/http://quiltalliance.net/cms/collections/show/31",yes,,,"Katherine Dossman",,"Alliance for American Quilts,Brooklyn,Contour drawing,Fashion Institute of Technology,female perspective,hand quilting,home sewing machine,International Quilt Festival,machine quilting,Manhattan Quilters Guild,Meditation/relaxation,New York,Restoration artist,Teaching",http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/41f67e34326ed9b7ef8a19f887cff36b.jpg,"Oral History","International Quilt Festival QSOS",1,0 "Margery Hedges",,,,,,,,,,audio,,,TX77010-065,,,"Sally Creegey","Margery Hedges",,"**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Sally Creegey (SC): I know everybody gives me trouble, you're like Jackie O or Margery O. Margery O Hedges (MH): Nothing wrong with that. SC: I was reading a story about people giving their children names that were worn out. MH: Worn out? [laughs.] SC: Yeah, it is kind of funny. Margery, tell me about this lovely cowgirl quilt. MH: Well, the reason I brought this quilt is because this was the quilt that got me on the road I'm on now, to doing art quilts. I guess to step back a little, I've been quilting since the early 80's basically we bought a big four poster bed and I decided this needs something traditional so I didn't know how to make a quilt but I went to a fabric store and picked up a pattern. I fell in love with the Texas lone star. I bought the fabric and went home and did it. Back then, for all I knew, the only way to quilt a quilt was by hand so I bought a big hoop and quilted it by hand. It took me about six months. That was kind of the beginning, very traditional stuff. I didn't quilt very much for about 20 years because I was working, probably like a lot of people. I had a young daughter and everything. I started coming to these festivals and I started taking classes, and I kind of think of this as quilting university. I mean, where can you go and get access to all of these wonderful teachers and I fell in love with the pictorial quilts. So I decided I wanted to try and make one to see if I could enter it. I started this in 2003 and it's basically based on my daughter, she grew up as a barrel racer. She's in the center, she says she doesn't look like that, but I said 'It's an artistic version of you'. She's in the center, and then I just came up with other things the cowgirl could do. That's where the source of this came. Low and behold it was entered in 2004, and that was when I got bitten by the desire to make these and when somebody asks me what I do I tell them I'm a competitive quilter. This is where it all started and I've been really blessed because I've had quilts entered in every year since then, actually two are entered in this year. No big money yet, but I'm still there, I'm still going. This is the one that started me, doing what I do. SC: Does this go up some place in your home? MH: As big as it is, I really don't have a wall to hang it on. So it is stored but every once in a while I will bring it out because it means a lot to me. SC: It's really lovely. What about the brands? MH: I do a lot of researching, what brands look like. I actually ended up getting a little pamphlet that had brands that had been used in Texas. That's where I got the different ones I put on there. SC: Fun. So you used machine embroidery on it and you painted the faces? MH: Yeah. They're so small there's not much you can do. I painted the faces and machine appliquéd everything. SC: That's really great. What does your daughter think? MH: She likes it. She doesn't think it looks like her. SC: You made this when? MH: I started in 2003 and it took about six months at least to do it. Then I entered it into the 2004 Festival. SC: Do you still make pictorial quilts? MH: Yeah, that's when I started to do pictorial quilts. That's what I've been doing ever since. I love that. That's my thing. SC: People, animals, tress? MH: I do some landscapes but I do mostly people and animals. I love to do animals, that's what my passion is. SC: Fun, that's fabulous. What do you think your personality is reflected in doing this? MH: I don't know. I do like things to have an attitude, like my animals. You don't necessarily see it in this, but in the future things that I have done. I try to have them be a little bit different. I always feel like when you do either an animal or person, at least one of the people should be looking straight at the viewer. I think that's where your eyes go first and then look at the rest of it. I just want to make people stop and say 'Woah' and then walk in closer, something to catch their eye. SC: Tell me a little bit about the evolution of the quilt you have in the museum. MH: I started doing more things that have to do with experiences I've had. Of course, this obviously was. Basically, that one is an autobiographical one because the child in the center is me. When I was young, I was so fascinated with fairy tales and I used to get in trouble because I'd be reading them at night with the flashlight and I'd get in trouble with my mom. I just loved fairy tales, which was my first real experience in reading a lot. That's why I thought I needed to do a quilt about that. The hardest thing was choosing the fairy tales because there are so many that you love but I had to narrow it down because it kept growing and growing and I reached the point where it wouldn't even fit on my design wall, I had to stop somewhere. That's pretty much an autobiographical quilt for me. It means a lot to me, I miss it. I saw it at the museum and thought how much I missed that quilt. SC: Does it have a place in your home? MH: Yes, it does. We actually have a room with my grandparents' twin beds and quilts that my grandmother made with the same pattern that was on the little girls bed. It kind of coordinates and it's fantastic. SC: Fabulous. Your grandmother, was that where your quilting background came from? MH: I really wasn't aware or had a collection of my grandmother's quilts until after I started doing it because they were still alive and were using them. I knew that my grandmother quilted but I didn't have any experience, she didn't teach me and we never talked about it but after I started quilting I appreciated what she had done. I do have her quilts now and they're definitely keepsakes. I appreciate what she did. SC: Did it skip a generation? MH: Kind of. My mother loved embroidery, hand work and she was also an artist. But she didn't do quilts. That whole incident where we bought the bed, I just thought I needed to start making traditional quilts. SC: What's your quilt process? Where do you start? MH: I usually have ideas for a couple of years before they actually happen. I'm usually thinking of the figures, what I want to do. I start out with the name, like ""The Little Girl"" was the first thing. I didn't know what fairy tales I was going to do, I just started with her and then I started researching fairy tales. I started re reading fairy tales. I forgot some of them are violent and crazy. But I started re reading a lot of fairy tales to remember what the stories were. It just kind of grows from there and then I never know what the border is going to be. It just has to evolve. You start with a central idea and then you just move out. SC: Do you sketch? MH: I sketch when I finally decide what the central person or animal is that's going to be drawn. I usually do it on a piece of paper and put it on my design wall. As I actually go ahead and make it with fabric and then I go out and do more drawings. It just grows. SC: Do you ever end up with any piecing? Is there any traditional piecing in your quilts? MH: A lot of times, like on this, sometimes I'll do a virtual border. I do like to do a combination because there are a lot of blocks of really cool things. Sometimes I'll maybe have a border inside and then just have a binding to the outside. It's like a virtual border because it's something that goes around. I kind of like that, because a lot of the pictorial things you usually don't have a frame, sometimes they just go to the end and you got a binding. But sometimes I like to put frames within the quilt, in a more traditional piecing thing. SC: Like the quilt on your bed in the middle of the story book quilt? The little flower garden? MH: Yeah, and the fun about that was designing them so they had the perspective. I actually used a computer program and put the design on it where you can actually tilt things. Technology today is amazing. You can do things you couldn't do by just eye. I used that to design the ones that are on the top of the bed so I could get the narrow perspective. There are all sorts of wonderful tools today. SC: What other kind of tools have you incorporated into your work? MH: Let me think. Well of course you know they have all of the fusing stuff now-a-days to help you hold things in place until you can actually stitch on them. Computers, too. Say you have a drawing and you want to increase the size. You can posterize things. A lot of people go to fed ex or Kinko's and have them blow their picture up, but I never know how big for sure I want it so I may have to do it multiple times, so I actually have a computer program that you can tell it to posterize and it just prints out a number of 8.5 by 11 pictures and you put them all together and it fits like a puzzle. That's how I do mine because I often have to do multiple times because I don't get it right the first time. When I'm designing something, I start small but then I get bigger. That's the way I do it. SC: Do you use photographs? MH: I do, I use photographs. I can draw pictures from that. I do collect images like in the newspaper I saw this cowboy one time, we have a rodeo here in Houston every year. The image had a cowboy lassoing this calf and I thought what a wonderful image, and I'll cut it out and I'll save it. I have files and files of stuff that I'll go digging through to find something. You see things all around and you have to save that because it could be a quilt some day. SC: What are you working on now that has your juices going? MH: I have been thinking about this. In fact, the design has been on my design wall for over a year, which is pretty sad. I was thinking of doing a family of horses. At first I was thinking a horse collage; a dad, a mom and a baby. And maybe I would crop them down and not have the whole body. I drew that out and it looked pretty good when I started, but then when I used the fabric I realized that it wasn't working. I've redesigned it now with their bodies and legs and that's the start of it. Once I get them done, I will figure out where I'm going to go from there. I have some general ideas about the background, but like I said I start with the main idea and it grows from there. That's what I'm doing right now. SC: When do they get their names? MH: I don't have a name for this one yet. It takes a while, it's usually closer to when they're done. Oh, I shouldn't say that because I had a name for this one before I even started it. So it varies, sometimes it's right away and sometimes it has to grow on me and then I decide later. [laughs.] SC: That's fabulous. Tell me about your quilt community. MH: I do belong to a guild, the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. I actually joined them in the late 90's and it's a great group because we bring in speakers and lecturers and have workshops. That was kind of the start of me starting to get more and more involved plus coming to the quilt show here. Yeah, it's a great group. I've been with them for a long time. SC: Have you taught people to quilt? MH: No, I'm not a really good teacher; I'm more of a do-er. I'm in a number of bees and we have this little thing where somebody has to bring a project sometimes, so I've done a little bit of that. But no, I'm not much of a teacher. SC: In your family at all? Is it going on to the next generation? MH: My daughter is artistic; she's got an interior design degree. She does that kind of work. She's more of a designer for that sort of thing, she doesn't do hand work or quilting or anything like that. Her interest has gone in another direction, but she still has some artistic abilities to do that kind of thing. SC: Is there any part of quilt making that you don't like? MH: Yes, the bindings and making the sleeve. I bet everybody says that. You have to do it. SC: What are your favorite techniques, methods, or most fun parts? MH: The most fun part is the designing, anything is possible then. The hard part is making it work. That's my favorite; designing, drawing, doing the pattern and everything. I do enjoy making the appliqué pieces and putting them together as you start to see what it will look like. I think I enjoy all of it actually. Once you get the top made and it really looks good to you, you know it's going to look fantastic because quilting just makes it better with the thread painting and the details and everything. I guess I like it all. SC: Are there some of your favorite colors that you always use or don't use? MH: I am a big fan of orange, red and yellow. I like bright colors. I like colors that stand out. SC: What about styles of fabric? MH: Batik, oh man I love batiks. That's my favorite. SC: I wanted to know some of the different things about your other part of your quilt life. When you go to a show, what kind of quilt stops you in your tracks? MH: Obviously, the pictorial art quilts. That's where I usually go to first, because I just love them. I look at the hand quilts and the pieced ones. Obviously, I'm not a piecer and I just so respect them because I can't believe the intricacy and all the points working. But obviously the first place is the art quilts because that's what I like to do. SC: Is there any particular person you always run and look at their work? MH: It's funny because at the Festival last year, I took a seminar with David Taylor from Steamboat Springs and he is an art quilter. I fell in love with him and his work and sure enough, he won first and third in my category this year. One of my quilts is hanging next to him, I'm so excited. I want to look for his stuff right away. He's my current quilt star, David Taylor [laughs.] SC: Where do you sew? MH: I am so lucky. We have a house that the people before us added a big rec room in the back of it. It's the type of room where you put a pool table in there and it has a spot for a big screen tv. That's my room and it's all changed. I have a design wall. Where you would put the big screen tv is where I have all my racks and store all of my thread. I have work tables. I do have a little area with a couch and a tv but the rest of it is all completely turned over into fabric storage and work tables and all of that. It's fantastic. SC: What kind of machine do you use? MH: I've got a Bernina. When I started out years and years ago, I had one of those little old Singer 60's version. I don't even think it had a zig zag but then I discovered Bernina when I started doing more elaborate stuff. I love my Bernina, it's very good. SC: Do you have an embroidery machine also? MH: No, if I'm going to do embroidery I'm going to do it myself. I'm not going to do it with a machine. SC: What do you think makes a really great quilt maker? MH: The techniques. The people that are so good at hand appliqué. If they've really got fine quilting techniques and appliqué work that makes a great quilter. Also, being visual and having something that can get your attention and draws you in. I guess it's the whole package. You have to be able to design something that makes people stop and look plus having the techniques. So when they walk closer you need to follow up with having good techniques. Allover a good artisan quilter. SC: Do you sell your quilts? MH: Some small things I have sold. The big things I get so attached that I can't sell them. I've done some small work. Actually, in the early days when I was doing traditional stuff I made a lot of traditional miniatures and I got into eBay, and I think I sold about 300 quilt miniatures back when it was easy to sell on eBay. It's not easy anymore, but then I got into doing these competition things and they take six months to make so I kind of got away from all of that. Yeah, I used to sell a lot and I still sell some small ones every once in a while. SC: Do you do any commission work? MH: No, I've decided that I'd rather do what I want to do rather than what someone else wants me to do. I pretty much do my own work. SC: What has quilt making done for you? MH: It's a passion, I love it. I can't wait to do it. I try to get all of my chores and everything done so I can get home and do it. It's the most wonderful time that I can possibly have. Plus, the fact that I've made so many friends who belong to the guild. My old friends were work friends, but I never had friends outside of work because I was so busy. Now I have all sorts of friends and we have similar interests. It's really expanded my life. It's wonderful. SC: Where do you think quilt making is going? MH: Wow, who knows. It's changed a lot. Now they're doing the digital stuff and I don't know where else it can go. There will be new techniques developed. It is amazing when you look at all the machinery, sources, and computers. I have no idea, who knows? It could go anywhere. SC: Do you have any concerns about where quilt making is going? MH: I know there was a big hullaballoo at first with Hollis Chatelain, with the whole quilt painted. Personally, I think quilts are all art. Everything from the 1800's has always been art. I don't have any problem with that. I think they're all beautiful. I love quilts. SC: What's happened to the quilts that you have made? MH: Quite a few of them are displayed in my home. My husband keeps telling me 'Do we really need to hang another one?' I kind of sneak them up in places. In my sewing room I have a bunch of them on the walls. But I have reached the point where I've started doing smaller work because I can't give them up. I have to have some place where I can transition and go through hanging various ones, so I've started making smaller ones. But I do have most of them hanging. SC: Have you ever used quilt making to get through a difficult time? MH: Not really, I haven't had too many difficult times. I guess I've been lucky. SC: Have you found an amusing time around a quilt? MH: One of the quilts that is in the show right now is of my dog chasing a squirrel up a tree. We have three Jack Russells and we love them all. It's fun and very entertaining. They never give up. You think they'd figure out after a while that they're not going to catch these things. I like to do something from what I see everyday, and that's something I see everyday. SC: How much time a week do you quilt? Any idea? MH: It varies. Sometimes I don't quilt at all during the week and other times I may have a full day. It's wonderful to get a whole day to work at home. It just varies. SC: Do you consider yourself a fiber artist? MH: Yeah, I do. On some of the smaller quilts I do I use embellishments and I love ribbon embroidery and things like that. I've got some methods. I do actually paint of quilts more than I used to. I like to manipulate fabric, too. I usually do that on smaller things. SC: What have you put on quilts that are not fabric? MH: I did a quilt where my inspiration was a Brahms Rhapsody and I actually printed the sheet music, scrunched it up and took a picture of that and printed it on fabric. Then I put that on a quilt. I put beads, buttons, ribbons, probably pretty standard embellishments but a lot of decorative threads. I discovered this stuff that one of the booths has here that are called sari strips. They're wonderful. SC: Do you have a bucket of embellishments in your house? MH: I have tons of embellishments, more than one bucket. SC: What's in your bucket? MH: Tons of ribbons, lots of things you could use for jewelry making but I think they look good on quilts. My brother has been in the antique business for over 30 years and he will bring me lots of old jewelry that you can do whatever you want with. He's also brought me a lot of vintage antique fabric, which are a great source of hand work. I also have vintage crochet work that you could add into quilts, too. I've got a lot. SC: Fabulous. So you're working on your horses, but is there something else just bubbling over in your head? MH: I usually do two larger quilts a year to compete with. The other one I'm thinking of is about my mom. I told you my mom was an artist. When I was little, my dad was with the Marines and we were based in North Carolina on the beach and she had this photo she took of my brother and I. I think he was maybe four and I was two. We were standing on the beach and he was holding my hand and we were looking out at the water and there was like a shrimper boat out there and she painted that there. I've been thinking that for years I should do that in a quilt. I think that maybe that will be my second quilt this year. SC: Fabulous. Is there anything else that you wanted to add or talk about and mention that is just such a part of your quilting life? MH: I don't know, I think we've done a good job. I think we have covered a lot. SC: Your husband isn't quilting yet? MH: No, but he's my biggest fan. He's always bragging about me. He's a good supporter. SC: And your daughter? MH: She likes my stuff. In fact, she came to the quilting show for the first time this year. She lives in Austin [Texas.] SC: Has she seen your quilt in the museum? MH: No, she hasn't been there yet but she's going to get there. It's fairly close to Austin so she will get over there. SC: How fabulous. Thank you. MH: Thank you. SC: I would like to thank Margery for allowing me to interview her today for the Quilters' S.O.S. – Save Our Stories Oral History Project. Our interview concluded at 1:36.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=/TX77010-065Hedges.xml,audio,,," 5.1 Margery O Hedges TX77010-065Hedges Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories The International Quilt Festival QSOS Quilt Alliance Margery O Hedges Sally Creegey 1:|15(9)|15(10)|36(4)|51(14)|75(3)|86(17)|103(4)|119(5)|134(4)|148(10)|165(1)|178(4)|192(1)|208(8)|224(9)|240(7)|257(3)|272(6)|288(7)|303(13)|321(10)|334(11)|344(13)|358(12)|369(2)|380(2)|395(2)|408(11) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TX77010-065Hedges.mp3 Other audio 0 Pre-Intro I know, everybody gives me trouble, you're like Jackie O! Banter. 17 29 Margery O Hedges, her cowgirl quilt, and the story of how she began quilting. This is Sally Creagy, today's date is November 6, it is 1:08. O Hedges talks about her cowgirl quilt. It is handwoven, and was created for her bed, the image of a cowgirl on the quilt was made in the image of her daughter. She says she began quilting in the 80s, and this quilt is the one that began her work in art quilting, which is all she does now. She began this quilt in 2003, and entered it into a quilting competition, ever since she has considered herself a competitive quilter by trade. She used an embroidery machine to make the quilt, which is now kept in storage in her home. Her pictorial quilts typically focus on people or animals. animals ; applique ; Art quilts ; brands ; Embroidery ; Embroidery machine ; Hand quilting ; Houston, Texas ; International Quilt Festival ; Machine applique ; Quilt competitions ; quiltmaking classes ; Texas Lonestar ; traditional quilts 17 356 O Hedges's quilt that is housed in a museum, and its connection to her grandmother's quilting legacy So tell me a little bit about the evolution of the quilt you have at the museum. O Hedges talks about her quilt in a museum. She explains that she likes to make quilts based on her own life experiences, and her museum quilt is an example of that. It reflects a story about her childhood, and her love of fairytales. This segues into a conversation about her grandmother's quilting, and how she never appreciated it until O Hedges began quilting herself. autobiographical quilt ; fairytale ; Quilt Purpose - Bedcovering ; Quiltmaking for family 17 491 O Hedges's quilting process So, um, what's your quilt process, where do you start? O Hedges speaks about her fairy tale quilt as an example for her typical quilting process, which is: holding onto an idea for a few years, then she begins with the main piece (to where she wants the viewers eyes to be drawn), then she does research on the subject material, and she completes her quilts somewhat ad hoc from there. She likes to sketch her ideas. O Hedges says that she likes to piece, and often creates what she calls a " ; virtual border" ; around her center pieces. binding ; borders ; Design process ; Pictorial quilts ; piecing ; quiltmaking process ; sketching ; virtual border 17 604 Technology in quiltmaking Like the quilt on your bed in the middle of the... the story book quilt? O Hedges talks about her " ; Storybook" ; quilt. She describes using a computer program to tilt an image, and give it more of a depth perspective that she could not have otherwise created. She says that computers and fusing materials.O Hedges primarily uses computer technologies to enlarge images which she finds in newspapers, and other documents. computer ; fusing ; Photography/photo transfer ; posterize ; Technology in quiltmaking 17 744 O Hedges's current project What are you working on now that's got your juices going? O Hedges talks about a quilt that she is beginning to create: a family of horses. She talks about how the original design she drafted for the quilt will not work with the fabric she has chosen, so she has to redesign her quilt. She also speaks about the struggle of giving a title to her quilts. collage ; fabric ; quilt title 17 819 O Hedges's quilt guild That's fabulous. So tell me about your quilt community. O Hedges is a member of the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. She joined in the late 1990's, and enjoys it for the guest speakers, lecturers, and workshops that are made available to her through the organization. She does not like to teach, but does present quilts at quilt bees every now and then. Kingwood Area Quilt Guild ; quilting bee ; Teaching quiltmaking 17 874 Quilting in O Hedges's family In your family at all? Is it going on to the next generation? O Hedges says that quilting is not in her family. Hand quilting ; Quiltmaking for family 17 904 What O Hedges does and does not like about quilting Is there a part of quiltmaking you don't like? O Hedges says she does not like binding on sleeves, and believes most quilters would agree with her. Her favorite aspect of quilting is designing her quilt, and admits that she really loves every aspect of quilting. She says that she likes to use bright colors that stand out, and her favorite fabric is batik. applique ; binding ; Color theory ; Design process ; Fabric - Batiks ; Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment ; quilting ; sleeve 17 988 O Hedges's favorite quilts and quiltmakers So I wanted to know some of the different things about the other part of your quilt life, so when you go to a show, what kind of quilt stops you in your tracks? O Hedges's favorite quilt section to visit at a festival is the art quilts section. She also admires the hand pieced quilts, because it is a skill that she has not quite been able to master. She says that her favorite quilter is David Taylor Art quilts ; David Taylor ; Hand piecing ; Hand quilting ; piecing 17 1065 O Hedges's quilting studio So tell me about... where do you sew? O Hedges explains that the previous owners of her home added a rec room, which she has redesigned into her sewing studio. She does use a design wall ; she also added racks for storing thread, tables to work on, and a couch and television. Her studio is home to her Bernina sewing machine. Bernina ; Home sewing machine ; Machine quilting ; Singer Featherweight sewing machine ; Work or Studio space ; zig-zag 17 1140 What makes a great quiltmaker So I wanted to know what you think makes a great quiltmaker. O Hedges asserts that having great technique, and understanding how to make a visual impact, are goals that a great quiltmaker seeks to achieve in her quilts. A great quilt, she says, is " ; the whole package." ; Hand applique ; Quilt Purpose - Exhibition 17 1186 O Hedges's quilt sales Do you sell your quilts? O Hedges admits, in jest, that she grows too attached to her big quilts to sell them. However, she has probably sold about 300 miniatures on eBay. She does not do commission work. ebay ; Miniature quilts ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Quilt Purpose - Fundraising ; Quilt Purpose - Personal income ; traditional quilts 17 1234 Why O Hedges loves to quilt So what has, um, quiltmaking done for you? Quiltmaking is O Hedges's passion. She has also made many friends through quilting. Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment 17 1272 Where O Hedges believes quilting may be headed next, and how it has evolved in the past. Wanted to know what you think about... where do you think quiltmaking is going? O Hedges believe that quiltmaking has evolved tremendously, largely because of " ; digital stuff." ; It has evolved so much, that almost cant believe that there is more yet to change. O Hedges also talks about Hollis Chatelain, and the controversy surrounding her painting on quilts, but she believes innovation such as that advances the art. Art quiltmaking ; computer ; Hollis Chatelain ; Painting ; Quilt Purpose - Artistic expression ; Thread painting 17 1351 What O Hedges does with her quilts, spoiler alert: she hangs them in her home... all of them So what's happened to the quilts that you have made. O Hedges tells that there are so many quilts hanging in her house that it's causing her husband some mild anxiety. Because she does not have room to hang more quilts in her house, she has been making smaller quilts lately. Miniature quilts ; Quilt preservation ; Quilt Purpose - Exhibition ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Work or Studio space 17 1392 An anecdote which inspired one of O Hedges's quilts Have you ever used quiltmaking to get through a difficult time? O Hedges tells an anecdote about her dogs chasing a squirrel up a tree. She created a quilt out of that experience, which fits her theme of quilting things she sees/experiences " ; everyday." ; O Hedges also says that she quilts as often as possible, which may mean not quilting all week, or spending a full day quilting. Jack Russel Terrier ; Quilt Purpose - Memorial 17 1491 O Hedges the fiber artist Do you consider yourself a fiber artist? O Hedges considers herself a fiber artist. She does ribbon embroidery paints on her quilts, and manipulates fabric. She tells about a time she printed sheet music onto the fiber of one of her quilts. she also does tatting on her quilts, and adds other handwork, such as crocheting. beads ; buttons ; crocheting ; Embellishment techniques ; embellishments ; Embroidery ; fabric manipulation ; fiber artist ; jewelry ; Painting ; ribbons ; Sari Strips ; tatting ; Thread painting 17 1621 Future projects for O Hedges So you're working on your horses, your three horses, anything else bubbling around in your head? O Hedges tells about wants to make a quilt centered around a shrimper boat, in memory of an experience she had with her mother on a beach in North Carolina. She closes by talking about her husband, and his support of her craft. Quilt Purpose - Memorial 17 Oral History Sally Creegey (SC): I know everybody gives me trouble, you’re like Jackie O or Margery O. Margery O Hedges (MH): Nothing wrong with that. SC: I was reading a story about people giving their children names that were worn out. MH: Worn out? [laughs.] SC: Yeah, it is kind of funny. Margery, tell me about this lovely cowgirl quilt. MH: Well, the reason I brought this quilt is because this was the quilt that got me on the road I’m on now, to doing art quilts. I guess to step back a little, I’ve been quilting since the early 80’s basically we bought a big four poster bed and I decided this needs something traditional so I didn’t know how to make a quilt but I went to a fabric store and picked up a pattern. I fell in love with the Texas lone star. I bought the fabric and went home and did it. Back then, for all I knew, the only way to quilt a quilt was by hand so I bought a big hoop and quilted it by hand. It took me about six months. That was kind of the beginning, very traditional stuff. I didn’t quilt very much for about 20 years because I was working, probably like a lot of people. I had a young daughter and everything. I started coming to these festivals and I started taking classes, and I kind of think of this as quilting university. I mean, where can you go and get access to all of these wonderful teachers and I fell in love with the pictorial quilts. So I decided I wanted to try and make one to see if I could enter it. I started this in 2003 and it’s basically based on my daughter, she grew up as a barrel racer. She’s in the center, she says she doesn’t look like that, but I said ‘It’s an artistic version of you’. She’s in the center, and then I just came up with other things the cowgirl could do. That’s where the source of this came. Low and behold it was entered in 2004, and that was when I got bitten by the desire to make these and when somebody asks me what I do I tell them I’m a competitive quilter. This is where it all started and I’ve been really blessed because I’ve had quilts entered in every year since then, actually two are entered in this year. No big money yet, but I’m still there, I’m still going. This is the one that started me, doing what I do. SC: Does this go up some place in your home? MH: As big as it is, I really don’t have a wall to hang it on. So it is stored but every once in a while I will bring it out because it means a lot to me. SC: It’s really lovely. What about the brands? MH: I do a lot of researching, what brands look like. I actually ended up getting a little pamphlet that had brands that had been used in Texas. That’s where I got the different ones I put on there. SC: Fun. So you used machine embroidery on it and you painted the faces? MH: Yeah. They’re so small there’s not much you can do. I painted the faces and machine appliquéd everything. SC: That’s really great. What does your daughter think? MH: She likes it. She doesn’t think it looks like her. SC: You made this when? MH: I started in 2003 and it took about six months at least to do it. Then I entered it into the 2004 Festival. SC: Do you still make pictorial quilts? MH: Yeah, that’s when I started to do pictorial quilts. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I love that. That’s my thing. SC: People, animals, tress? MH: I do some landscapes but I do mostly people and animals. I love to do animals, that’s what my passion is. SC: Fun, that’s fabulous. What do you think your personality is reflected in doing this? MH: I don’t know. I do like things to have an attitude, like my animals. You don’t necessarily see it in this, but in the future things that I have done. I try to have them be a little bit different. I always feel like when you do either an animal or person, at least one of the people should be looking straight at the viewer. I think that’s where your eyes go first and then look at the rest of it. I just want to make people stop and say ‘Woah’ and then walk in closer, something to catch their eye. SC: Tell me a little bit about the evolution of the quilt you have in the museum. MH: I started doing more things that have to do with experiences I’ve had. Of course, this obviously was. Basically, that one is an autobiographical one because the child in the center is me. When I was young, I was so fascinated with fairy tales and I used to get in trouble because I’d be reading them at night with the flashlight and I’d get in trouble with my mom. I just loved fairy tales, which was my first real experience in reading a lot. That’s why I thought I needed to do a quilt about that. The hardest thing was choosing the fairy tales because there are so many that you love but I had to narrow it down because it kept growing and growing and I reached the point where it wouldn’t even fit on my design wall, I had to stop somewhere. That’s pretty much an autobiographical quilt for me. It means a lot to me, I miss it. I saw it at the museum and thought how much I missed that quilt. SC: Does it have a place in your home? MH: Yes, it does. We actually have a room with my grandparents’ twin beds and quilts that my grandmother made with the same pattern that was on the little girls bed. It kind of coordinates and it’s fantastic. SC: Fabulous. Your grandmother, was that where your quilting background came from? MH: I really wasn’t aware or had a collection of my grandmother’s quilts until after I started doing it because they were still alive and were using them. I knew that my grandmother quilted but I didn’t have any experience, she didn’t teach me and we never talked about it but after I started quilting I appreciated what she had done. I do have her quilts now and they’re definitely keepsakes. I appreciate what she did. SC: Did it skip a generation? MH: Kind of. My mother loved embroidery, hand work and she was also an artist. But she didn’t do quilts. That whole incident where we bought the bed, I just thought I needed to start making traditional quilts. SC: What’s your quilt process? Where do you start? MH: I usually have ideas for a couple of years before they actually happen. I’m usually thinking of the figures, what I want to do. I start out with the name, like “The Little Girl” was the first thing. I didn’t know what fairy tales I was going to do, I just started with her and then I started researching fairy tales. I started re reading fairy tales. I forgot some of them are violent and crazy. But I started re reading a lot of fairy tales to remember what the stories were. It just kind of grows from there and then I never know what the border is going to be. It just has to evolve. You start with a central idea and then you just move out. SC: Do you sketch? MH: I sketch when I finally decide what the central person or animal is that’s going to be drawn. I usually do it on a piece of paper and put it on my design wall. As I actually go ahead and make it with fabric and then I go out and do more drawings. It just grows. SC: Do you ever end up with any piecing? Is there any traditional piecing in your quilts? MH: A lot of times, like on this, sometimes I’ll do a virtual border. I do like to do a combination because there are a lot of blocks of really cool things. Sometimes I’ll maybe have a border inside and then just have a binding to the outside. It’s like a virtual border because it’s something that goes around. I kind of like that, because a lot of the pictorial things you usually don’t have a frame, sometimes they just go to the end and you got a binding. But sometimes I like to put frames within the quilt, in a more traditional piecing thing. SC: Like the quilt on your bed in the middle of the story book quilt? The little flower garden? MH: Yeah, and the fun about that was designing them so they had the perspective. I actually used a computer program and put the design on it where you can actually tilt things. Technology today is amazing. You can do things you couldn’t do by just eye. I used that to design the ones that are on the top of the bed so I could get the narrow perspective. There are all sorts of wonderful tools today. SC: What other kind of tools have you incorporated into your work? MH: Let me think. Well of course you know they have all of the fusing stuff now-a-days to help you hold things in place until you can actually stitch on them. Computers, too. Say you have a drawing and you want to increase the size. You can posterize things. A lot of people go to fed ex or Kinko’s and have them blow their picture up, but I never know how big for sure I want it so I may have to do it multiple times, so I actually have a computer program that you can tell it to posterize and it just prints out a number of 8.5 by 11 pictures and you put them all together and it fits like a puzzle. That’s how I do mine because I often have to do multiple times because I don’t get it right the first time. When I’m designing something, I start small but then I get bigger. That’s the way I do it. SC: Do you use photographs? MH: I do, I use photographs. I can draw pictures from that. I do collect images like in the newspaper I saw this cowboy one time, we have a rodeo here in Houston every year. The image had a cowboy lassoing this calf and I thought what a wonderful image, and I’ll cut it out and I’ll save it. I have files and files of stuff that I’ll go digging through to find something. You see things all around and you have to save that because it could be a quilt some day. SC: What are you working on now that has your juices going? MH: I have been thinking about this. In fact, the design has been on my design wall for over a year, which is pretty sad. I was thinking of doing a family of horses. At first I was thinking a horse collage ; a dad, a mom and a baby. And maybe I would crop them down and not have the whole body. I drew that out and it looked pretty good when I started, but then when I used the fabric I realized that it wasn’t working. I’ve redesigned it now with their bodies and legs and that’s the start of it. Once I get them done, I will figure out where I’m going to go from there. I have some general ideas about the background, but like I said I start with the main idea and it grows from there. That’s what I’m doing right now. SC: When do they get their names? MH: I don’t have a name for this one yet. It takes a while, it’s usually closer to when they’re done. Oh, I shouldn’t say that because I had a name for this one before I even started it. So it varies, sometimes it’s right away and sometimes it has to grow on me and then I decide later. [laughs.] SC: That’s fabulous. Tell me about your quilt community. MH: I do belong to a guild, the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. I actually joined them in the late 90’s and it’s a great group because we bring in speakers and lecturers and have workshops. That was kind of the start of me starting to get more and more involved plus coming to the quilt show here. Yeah, it’s a great group. I’ve been with them for a long time. SC: Have you taught people to quilt? MH: No, I’m not a really good teacher ; I’m more of a do-er. I’m in a number of bees and we have this little thing where somebody has to bring a project sometimes, so I’ve done a little bit of that. But no, I’m not much of a teacher. SC: In your family at all? Is it going on to the next generation? MH: My daughter is artistic ; she’s got an interior design degree. She does that kind of work. She’s more of a designer for that sort of thing, she doesn’t do hand work or quilting or anything like that. Her interest has gone in another direction, but she still has some artistic abilities to do that kind of thing. SC: Is there any part of quilt making that you don’t like? MH: Yes, the bindings and making the sleeve. I bet everybody says that. You have to do it. SC: What are your favorite techniques, methods, or most fun parts? MH: The most fun part is the designing, anything is possible then. The hard part is making it work. That’s my favorite ; designing, drawing, doing the pattern and everything. I do enjoy making the appliqué pieces and putting them together as you start to see what it will look like. I think I enjoy all of it actually. Once you get the top made and it really looks good to you, you know it’s going to look fantastic because quilting just makes it better with the thread painting and the details and everything. I guess I like it all. SC: Are there some of your favorite colors that you always use or don’t use? MH: I am a big fan of orange, red and yellow. I like bright colors. I like colors that stand out. SC: What about styles of fabric? MH: Batik, oh man I love batiks. That’s my favorite. SC: I wanted to know some of the different things about your other part of your quilt life. When you go to a show, what kind of quilt stops you in your tracks? MH: Obviously, the pictorial art quilts. That’s where I usually go to first, because I just love them. I look at the hand quilts and the pieced ones. Obviously, I’m not a piecer and I just so respect them because I can’t believe the intricacy and all the points working. But obviously the first place is the art quilts because that’s what I like to do. SC: Is there any particular person you always run and look at their work? MH: It’s funny because at the Festival last year, I took a seminar with David Taylor from Steamboat Springs and he is an art quilter. I fell in love with him and his work and sure enough, he won first and third in my category this year. One of my quilts is hanging next to him, I’m so excited. I want to look for his stuff right away. He’s my current quilt star, David Taylor [laughs.] SC: Where do you sew? MH: I am so lucky. We have a house that the people before us added a big rec room in the back of it. It’s the type of room where you put a pool table in there and it has a spot for a big screen tv. That’s my room and it’s all changed. I have a design wall. Where you would put the big screen tv is where I have all my racks and store all of my thread. I have work tables. I do have a little area with a couch and a tv but the rest of it is all completely turned over into fabric storage and work tables and all of that. It’s fantastic. SC: What kind of machine do you use? MH: I’ve got a Bernina. When I started out years and years ago, I had one of those little old Singer 60’s version. I don’t even think it had a zig zag but then I discovered Bernina when I started doing more elaborate stuff. I love my Bernina, it’s very good. SC: Do you have an embroidery machine also? MH: No, if I’m going to do embroidery I’m going to do it myself. I’m not going to do it with a machine. SC: What do you think makes a really great quilt maker? MH: The techniques. The people that are so good at hand appliqué. If they’ve really got fine quilting techniques and appliqué work that makes a great quilter. Also, being visual and having something that can get your attention and draws you in. I guess it’s the whole package. You have to be able to design something that makes people stop and look plus having the techniques. So when they walk closer you need to follow up with having good techniques. Allover a good artisan quilter. SC: Do you sell your quilts? MH: Some small things I have sold. The big things I get so attached that I can’t sell them. I’ve done some small work. Actually, in the early days when I was doing traditional stuff I made a lot of traditional miniatures and I got into eBay, and I think I sold about 300 quilt miniatures back when it was easy to sell on eBay. It’s not easy anymore, but then I got into doing these competition things and they take six months to make so I kind of got away from all of that. Yeah, I used to sell a lot and I still sell some small ones every once in a while. SC: Do you do any commission work? MH: No, I’ve decided that I’d rather do what I want to do rather than what someone else wants me to do. I pretty much do my own work. SC: What has quilt making done for you? MH: It’s a passion, I love it. I can’t wait to do it. I try to get all of my chores and everything done so I can get home and do it. It’s the most wonderful time that I can possibly have. Plus, the fact that I’ve made so many friends who belong to the guild. My old friends were work friends, but I never had friends outside of work because I was so busy. Now I have all sorts of friends and we have similar interests. It’s really expanded my life. It’s wonderful. SC: Where do you think quilt making is going? MH: Wow, who knows. It’s changed a lot. Now they’re doing the digital stuff and I don’t know where else it can go. There will be new techniques developed. It is amazing when you look at all the machinery, sources, and computers. I have no idea, who knows? It could go anywhere. SC: Do you have any concerns about where quilt making is going? MH: I know there was a big hullaballoo at first with Hollis Chatelain, with the whole quilt painted. Personally, I think quilts are all art. Everything from the 1800’s has always been art. I don’t have any problem with that. I think they’re all beautiful. I love quilts. SC: What’s happened to the quilts that you have made? MH: Quite a few of them are displayed in my home. My husband keeps telling me ‘Do we really need to hang another one?’ I kind of sneak them up in places. In my sewing room I have a bunch of them on the walls. But I have reached the point where I’ve started doing smaller work because I can’t give them up. I have to have some place where I can transition and go through hanging various ones, so I’ve started making smaller ones. But I do have most of them hanging. SC: Have you ever used quilt making to get through a difficult time? MH: Not really, I haven’t had too many difficult times. I guess I’ve been lucky. SC: Have you found an amusing time around a quilt? MH: One of the quilts that is in the show right now is of my dog chasing a squirrel up a tree. We have three Jack Russells and we love them all. It’s fun and very entertaining. They never give up. You think they’d figure out after a while that they’re not going to catch these things. I like to do something from what I see everyday, and that’s something I see everyday. SC: How much time a week do you quilt? Any idea? MH: It varies. Sometimes I don’t quilt at all during the week and other times I may have a full day. It’s wonderful to get a whole day to work at home. It just varies. SC: Do you consider yourself a fiber artist? MH: Yeah, I do. On some of the smaller quilts I do I use embellishments and I love ribbon embroidery and things like that. I’ve got some methods. I do actually paint of quilts more than I used to. I like to manipulate fabric, too. I usually do that on smaller things. SC: What have you put on quilts that are not fabric? MH: I did a quilt where my inspiration was a Brahms Rhapsody and I actually printed the sheet music, scrunched it up and took a picture of that and printed it on fabric. Then I put that on a quilt. I put beads, buttons, ribbons, probably pretty standard embellishments but a lot of decorative threads. I discovered this stuff that one of the booths has here that are called sari strips. They’re wonderful. SC: Do you have a bucket of embellishments in your house? MH: I have tons of embellishments, more than one bucket. SC: What’s in your bucket? MH: Tons of ribbons, lots of things you could use for jewelry making but I think they look good on quilts. My brother has been in the antique business for over 30 years and he will bring me lots of old jewelry that you can do whatever you want with. He’s also brought me a lot of vintage antique fabric, which are a great source of hand work. I also have vintage crochet work that you could add into quilts, too. I’ve got a lot. SC: Fabulous. So you’re working on your horses, but is there something else just bubbling over in your head? MH: I usually do two larger quilts a year to compete with. The other one I’m thinking of is about my mom. I told you my mom was an artist. When I was little, my dad was with the Marines and we were based in North Carolina on the beach and she had this photo she took of my brother and I. I think he was maybe four and I was two. We were standing on the beach and he was holding my hand and we were looking out at the water and there was like a shrimper boat out there and she painted that there. I’ve been thinking that for years I should do that in a quilt. I think that maybe that will be my second quilt this year. SC: Fabulous. Is there anything else that you wanted to add or talk about and mention that is just such a part of your quilting life? MH: I don’t know, I think we’ve done a good job. I think we have covered a lot. SC: Your husband isn’t quilting yet? MH: No, but he’s my biggest fan. He’s always bragging about me. He’s a good supporter. SC: And your daughter? MH: She likes my stuff. In fact, she came to the quilting show for the first time this year. She lives in Austin [Texas.] SC: Has she seen your quilt in the museum? MH: No, she hasn’t been there yet but she’s going to get there. It’s fairly close to Austin so she will get over there. SC: How fabulous. Thank you. MH: Thank you. SC: I would like to thank Margery for allowing me to interview her today for the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories Oral History Project. Our interview concluded at 1:36. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.netTX77010-065Hedges.xml TX77010-065Hedges.xml ",,,,"Laura McDowell Hopper",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/1f1966af9d738be6e8d5a4d14d922317.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/28e431c4e5750927b41a4944664fe12c.jpg","Oral History","International Quilt Festival QSOS",1,0 "Venetta Morger",,"Venetta Morger discusses her quilt made to support cancer research for MD Anderson and its Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project. She shares how she began quilting and her experiences teaching techniques to fellow guild members. She has been a full time quiltmaker since 2007 and now has devoted studio space in her home. She aspired to have a quilt displayed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, and has achieved that goal. ",,,,,,,,audio,,"Oral History",TX77010-064,,,"Sandy Goldman","Venetta Morger","Houston, Texas",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Katie Demery",http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=TX77010-064Morger.xml,audio,"November 6, 2011",," 42011-11-06 Venetta Morger TX77010-064MorgerQuilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our StoriesThe International Quilt Festival QSOSQuilt AllianceInternational Quilt Festivalteaching quiltmakingknowledge transferQuilt Purpose - CharityVenetta MorgerSandy Goldman1:|6(11)|22(9)|33(4)|43(7)|53(2)|54(13)|61(12)|76(13)|78(4)|88(3)|125(13)|140(4)|155(5)|170(11)|185(13)|196(8)|206(10)|218(3)|229(4)|239(8)|254(3)|269(6)|285(9)|301(14)|312(16)|325(12)|329(9)|342(6)|353(7)|364(14)|373(12)|381(16)|398(4)|408(14)|419(11)0http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TX77010-064Morger.mp3Otheraudio Introduction Hi I am Sandy Goldman, today is November 6, 2011Sandy Goldman introduces Venetta Morger at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TexasHouston, Texas;International Quilt Festival29.444, -95.22117The International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX. Tell me about the quilt you brought in today Sure. The quilt that I brought today was made especially for the Cherrywood Challenge that is my brainchild for raising funds for ovarian cancer for MD Anderson Morger describes the quilt she has brought to the International Quilt Festival. It was specifically made for the Cherrywood Challenge. Made in hopes to raise funds toward research for Ovarian Cancer.art quiltmaking;Cherrywood Challenge;chlorine bleach;discharge;domestic machine;felting machine;home sewing;MD Anderson Cancer Center;MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project;Picture;Quilt;quilt purpose charity;Research;traditional quiltmaking;Turkish29.444, -95.22117The International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX.http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-064_morger_01.jpgVenetta Morger with her quilt Use of the discharge method of surface design What did you use to discharge? Morger explains that she does not regularly use the discharge method. She used chlorine for this process. She combines traditional quilting and art quilting methods, allowing her to experiment with new techniques. chlorine bleach;Discharge;surface design29.444, -95.22117The International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX.http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qsos_TX77010-064_morger_03.jpgVenetta Morger, detail of quilt based on an ancient Turkish painting Learning to sew and quilt Do you quilt everyday?Morger explains how she began quilting everyday in 2007. Her mother taught her how to sew when she was 10 years old. When she got into high school, she designed and made all of her clothes.""Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts"";""Wyoming Prairie Winters"";award;“Y” seams;daughter;England;Feathered Star – quilt pattern;first quilt;Gillette, Wyoming;Holland;home sewing machine;Houston, Texas;Knowledge transfer;Learning quiltmaking;long arm quilting;machine quilting;mother;ovarian cancer;professional quilter;Published work - Quilts;quilt purpose -- bedcovering;quilt shop;quilt shows/exhibitions;quiltmaking classes;sew;St. Louis, Missouri;Stage IV ovarian cancer;Sue Nickels;wall hanging project;Washington;Woodlands Area Quilt Guild;Wyoming17http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/711988982Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes, Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011). Publication in ""Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011"" So that's the quilt that is published in the Lone Stars III? Morger discusses the publication of her quilt in ""Lone Stars III"" and the significance of its color choices.""Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts"";Book;BRCA1;colors;mother;ovarian cancer;Published work - Quilts17 Quilts for MD Anderson Do you make quilts for them? cancer;Guild activities;guilds;MD Anderson;Quilt Purpose - Charity;shops;talkMorger makes quilts to raise money for MD Anderson. She also goes out and talks to guilds and quilt shows to spread the word about ovarian cancers.17https://www.mdanderson.org/donors-volunteers/other-ways-to-help/donate-goods-or-services/ovarian-quilt-project.htmlMD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project Volunteering with the MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project Did you help with the booth here at the Festival?Morger helped set up some of the 153 quilts that are on display. 12 of them were contributed by her. Trying to promote awareness for female cancers. auction;guild activities;International Quilt Ffestival;MD Anderson Cancer Center;MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project;online;quilt purpose – charity;Woodlands Area Quilt Guild29.70632553100586,-95.396995544433617MD Anderson Cancer Center On the use of teal in her quilts It's great quilters are very giving people. Is that one of your favorite colors, teal? Morger explains that teal is her son's favorite color, and how he helped choice the color for this quilt. Teal is also the color for ovarian cancer. Cherrywood Fabric donated some of the fabric Morger used in this quilt. Twenty quilts were submitted by quiltmakers in 2011 using these fabrics.auction;cancer;Cherrywood Challenge;Cherrywood Fabrics;color;fabrics;fat quarters;International Quilt Festival;Karla Overland;MD Anderson Cancer Center;MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project;quilt purpose – charity;son;Studio Art Quilters Association (SAQA);teal17 How do you use this quilt?; How do you use this quilt? Morger is first of all using her quilt to raise money for MD Anderson. She hopes she can bid enough money in MD Anderson's auction to buy it herself. This quilt is very special because of the cause it was made for. She discusses how hard it is to part ways with certain quilts. auction;Disappearing Nine Patch – quilt pattern;Guild;MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project;Nine-Patch;quilt purpose – charity;quilt purpose – gift or presentation;quiltmaking for family17 What are your favorite techniques and materials?; Is felting on a quilt common for you to do?Morger discusses various techniques, including felting, which she used on this quilt. She describes other embellishment forms she has learned in her guild's ""play days."" beads;crystal;embellisher;embellishment;Felting;fibers;five needles;Guild activities;hand applique;hand embroidery;hand quilting;machine applique;machine quilting;roving;seven needles;wool roving17 On her various styles of quiltmaking Are you mostly doing wall sized quilts or do you do both?When asked what size quilts she works on she explains that size of quilts depends on the direction she sees the quilt going and what size best fits the design. She belongs to an international art group that focuses on 12x12 sized quilts.12 By The Dozen;Quilt guild;Quilt Purpose - Bedcovering;Quilt Purpose - Exhibition;quilt shows/exhibitions;wallhanging17 Guild activities What's your job for your show? Are you in charge of it?Morger explains that she does not have a major job at her guild's show this year due to her daughter's wedding. She usually is a huge contributor at the auction. She decided to split the show and auction to lessen the work for her guild. She also regularly teaches various quiltmaking techniques to members of her guild.American Quilters Society (AQS);auction;binding;border;design process;domestic sewing machine;Guild activities;Guild leadership;hand applique;home sewing machine;knowledge transfer;learning quiltmaking;machine applique;machine quilting;quilt guild;Quilt Purpose - Charity;Quilt Purpose - Teaching or learning sample;quilt purpose – charity;quilt shows/exhibitions;quilt workshops;quilting bee;quiltmaking classes;quiltmaking techniques;teaching quiltmaking;Wanna Bees2235 Lake Robbins Dr, Spring, TX 7738017Meeting location for the Woodlands Area Quilt Guild http://waqg.org/Woodlands Area Quilt Guild Quilting friends Are most of your friends quilters? Morger discusses the social circle involved in the quilting world. Many of her close friends are quilters. They travel together to shows. Morger is a long distance runner as well and has found friends through that hobby as well.Guild activities;Long distance running;social quiltmaking activities17 Favorite pattern and collecting sewing machines You mentioned to me earlier that you have a favorite pattern.Morger discusses upcoming project ideas pertaining to the doing Feathered Stars. Her special collection is also discussed. Her time spent in England is also mentioned. Morger also describes how she stores her equipment. Blocks;collection;eBay;England;Feathered Star – quilt patterns;home sewing machine;Scotland;Singer Featherweight Machines;Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine;Singer Sewing Machine Company17https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Singer222k.jpgSinger Featherweight Sewing Machine, Wikimedia Commons. Studio Do you have a studio? Morger describes how she converted her son's old room into a functional studio. She further expanded into an additional bedroom so she could add more sewing machines and tables to accommodate both her own work and her friends' work when they join her.Home Sewing Machines;Projects;social quiltmaking activities;Work or Studio Space17 On being a full time quilter That's nice. Are you a full time quilter or artist? Morger considers herself a full time quilter. She estimates that she began making quilts full time in 2007. Before that she regularly made quilts, usually once or twice a year, but did not devote space or as much time to her art. She juggles multiple projects at a time.professional quiltmaker;Work or Studio Space17 Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts?; Do you use a design wall?Morger describes her design wall and its use, although she admits that she designs where ever she can lay her fabric out. She mentions how she constructed her design wall based on what her friend did using insulation and felt to make a versatile design wall. She also admits to have a large stash of fabric.applique;color;Design wall;Fabric - Batiks;fabric stash;Work or Studio space17 What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy?; Being by myself. I don't like being by myself. I think that's why I've really enjoyed teaching these workshops to my guild friends. In the quilt making process, Morger finds it dissatisfying to be by herself when working, this is the one aspect she does not enjoy. This is why she enjoys teaching workshops so she will not be alone while quilting. Holland;knowledge transfer;Process;quilt purpose – gift or presentation;quiltmaking classes;quiltmaking for family;T-Shirt Quilts;teaching quiltmaking;workshops17 Whose works are you drawn to and why?; I'm always amazed. I took a class here at Festival two years ago from Philippa Naylor and I lived in the UK for three years.Morger drew inspiration and interest from Phiippa Naylor when she lived in the UK. She like the small pieces Cynthia England uses to make pictorial quilts. She has felt empowered by Sue Nickels, who inspired her to use her home sewing machine to quilt her projects.Cynthia England;domestic sewing machine;home sewing machine;Phillippa Naylor;Ricky Tims;Sue Nickels;UK;United Kingdom17https://www.englanddesign.com/Cynthia England's quilt website How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future?; We seem to have covered a lot of information, it's great. How do you think we should protect and preserve quilting for the future generations?Morger shed light on what she thinks could be done in school and at home to promote and protect quilting. She would love to see sewing and home economics in schools. She wants to promote creativity and expression through this process. She considers mass produced quilts as ""soulless."" She contrasts the American approach with that which she encountered when living in the UK.comfort;education;embroidery;home economics;home sewing machine;knitting;knowledge transfer;Quilt Purpose - Artistic expression;school systems;United Kingdom17 Her children's interest in quiltmaking Do your children quilt? Morger is asked if her children quilt and they currently do not quilt. Her son can quilt and she has offered help to her kids if they ever seek to learn a new hobby.generational quiltmaking;knowledge transfer17 On fulfilling her dream of exhibiting a quilt at the International Quilt Festival Do you have any other stories that you'd like to tell us today?Morger says that four years ago when she started quilting full-time she dreamt that one day her quilt would hang in Houston. She achieved that dream and hopes that can inspire others. She believes in having goals and trying to meet them. ""Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts"";awards;Houston, Texas;International Quilt Festival;quilt shows/exhibitions;Texas Quilt Guild17 Conclusion I think that's a great way to end our interview. I'll come and see your quilt when it's hanging in the winners' circle. 29.444, -95.22117The International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX.Oral HistoryVenetta Morger discusses her quilt made to support cancer research for MD Anderson and its Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project. She shares how she began quilting and her experiences teaching techniques to fellow guild members. She has been a full time quiltmaker since 2007 and now has devoted studio space in her home. She aspired to have a quilt displayed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, and has achieved that goal. Sandy Goldman (SG): Venetta, will you tell me some things about the quilt you brought today? Venetta Morger (VM): Sure. The quilt that I brought today was made especially for the Cherrywood Challenge that is my brain child for raising funds for ovarian cancer for MD Anderson; for research, education, and awareness. This is a quilt that was based on a picture that I had seen of an ancient Turkish painting. I discharged the background and all of the fabrics on there are Cherrywood hand dyed except for the vines. I felted those with my felting machine. Of course I used machine trapunto, machine appliqué to put the flowers on, and then I also machine quilted it myself on my domestic machine. SG: What did you use to discharge? VM: I used chlorine bleach, and then you have to wash it very well and use a stopping agent so it will not destroy the fabric. SG: Do you often discharge? VM: Not that often. I also do traditional quilting but I’m also venturing into art quilting so I’m trying all different kinds of techniques in art quilting. I’m trying to keep a foot in both realms. SG: Do you quilt everyday? VM: I do, but only since about 2007. My mother taught me to sew when I was 10 years old. She was the kind of woman that would stay up all night and make our prom dresses for us. When I got into high school, I designed and made all of my clothes. I’m one of nine children and so she had amazing amount of energy and creativity and panache for us. She taught me how to sew and I never really thought that I would even think about quilting because quilting isn’t in my family, until I had my first daughter in1986. I took my first class. It was hand drawn templates, hand piecing, and hand quilting. It took me four years to finish that quilt. I thought ‘This is a very long process to get something that’s just a wall hanging done’. I didn’t end up really quilting much for a couple more years. We had our son a few years later, I was busy being a mom, and I was working part time. We were moving for my husband. My husband is with an oil company and we’ve moved from Houston to St. Louis, to Wyoming, to Washington, back to Houston, over to Holland, then to England, and now we’ve been here for the past seven years. My quilt that is in the book, Lone Stars III A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011 is called “Wyoming Prairie Winters”. In 1992 I thought I would take another quilting class. They had a huge fabric store in Gillette, Wyoming. I took several classes there and they were fantastic. This class that I took was a Feathered Star class, it was with templates but with machine piecing this time, and doing Y seams. It was very technical and I completed the wall hanging project. I enjoyed the process so much that I bought a lot of fabric that I thought would be great if I repeated this four times and made it into a bed-size quilt. Well, with children and moving, I have taken that pattern and that project to all of the places with me around the world and then back to Texas. I started it in 1992, I lost the directions, I went to all kinds of resources to try to figure out how to put together Feathered Stars, all different kinds of techniques. I was trying to piece it all together on my own and then in 2008 my baby sister, Audra Morger-Bonilla, who was 39 at the time, was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer. I decided life is too short; I need to finish my quilts. This was one of the projects that was one of my oldest ones. I put my mind to it and I figured out how to put it all together. Then, when I had it all together, I was afraid to quilt it. I wanted to finish it wholly on my own. It wasn’t until I took a class by Sue Nickels. She was our guest speaker and taught a workshop at my Woodlands Area Quilt Guild. She taught me how to machine quilt a queen size quilt on my domestic machine. She gave me the confidence and I ended up planning my stitches. Of course, Sue Nickels is the penultimate of feathers, which I just adored. She taught me a very easy way. I really enjoyed it and I ended up finishing that quilt and entering it in my guild quilt show. It won an award and then it’s gone on to capture the eye of other people. That’s my first baby, really top to bottom. I’ve made a number of quilts where I’ve pieced the top and given it to a long armer to finish it. But this one I wanted to do totally on my own. SG: So that’s the quilt that is published in the Lone Stars Three? VM: Yes. SG: How did you feel when you found out it was going to be in the book? VM: It just brings tears to my eyes because the colors of that quilt, believe it or not, when I chose those colors way back when I had no idea teal is a color for ovarian cancer and pink is the color for breast cancer and the colors for that quilt are teal and pink. Since I lost my mother 31 years ago to ovarian cancer. Then, when my sister was diagnosed four years ago with ovarian cancer, I immediately knew that I needed to go see my doctor and get tested to see if I carried the genetic mutation that predisposes me for ovarian and breast cancer. Sure enough, I carry the gene for it. It’s called BRCA1 genetic mutation. That pretty much has given me not only cause for something to work for but also this combined with my passion and that’s when I contacted MD Anderson, asked if they needed any help with their ovarian cancer quilting project to help raise money for their cause. SG: Do you make quilts for them? VM: I do make quilts for them, but I am also a great proponent for them. I go around and talk to guilds about the signs and symptoms of ovarian and uterine cancers, spreading the word to quilt shops and as many people as we can we can get the word out to raise awareness of ovarian cancer and other cancers. SG: Did you help with the booth here at the Festival? VM: I did. We have about 153 quilts that are on the online auction this year, and about 12 of those quilts are coming specifically from my guild, The Woodlands Area Quilt Guild, in order to raise funds. This year, they’ve donated quilts that comfort and so many quilters have such generous hearts. So many ladies have turned out, especially in my guild, wanting to help with understanding they’ve got family members that have female cancers and this is just one way in which we can hopefully make a difference for other women; not only locally, but around the nation and the world. SG: It’s great quilters are very giving people. Is that one of your favorite colors, teal? VM: That’s a really good question. I wouldn’t necessarily say that teal is my favorite color, but teal is the favorite color of my son. He was only 4 years old at the time and I had taken him with me when I was shopping for fabrics for this project. He gravitated right towards that fabric, so I thought ‘Why not?’ I particularly liked the fabric because it’s got a lot of paisleys on it and I do like the paisley design. It’s pretty interesting that it turned out that it was the teal and pinks when you could have a range of choices in any coloring. SG: And the quilt you brought today is teal. VM: This is all teal fabrics and comes from a very special collection that was given to MD Anderson by Cherrywood fabrics. They hand dye their own fabrics and their founderess passed away from ovarian cancer in 2002. Karla, who owns the company now, had met the folks at MD Anderson at the booth at International Quilt Festival several years ago. They wanted to donate fabrics for their Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project Online Auction. They gave us 24 packets which contained six fat quarters of fabric of gradations of teal. We asked ‘Well what should we do with it?” I suggested that we make a special competition for our auction called The Cherrywood Challenge. I’m also very involved with the art quilters with SAQA locally in the Houston [TEXAS] area. I took the packets to my local SAQA meeting and I asked anybody if they wanted to sign up and make a quilt for MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project, which would be used for auction to help raise funds for ovarian cancer. As a result, we have 20 quilts that were in the Cherrywood Challenge that were made by all kinds of wonderful art quilters that using these special fabrics. They’re just all spectacular. SG: How do you use this quilt? VM: Right now, it’s being used to raise funds for MD Anderson. I’m hoping that I’m going to get it back by bidding enough money so I can bring it back into my home. But if it doesn’t, then hopefully it will raise enough money for the cause that will make a difference for somebody else. SG: Do you have a hard time parting with your quilts? VM: It’s interesting; it depends on the type of quilt that I made. This one, in particular, because has so much emotion for me, so much meaning. I don’t want to let this one go, but I’ve taught Disappearing Nine-Patch pattern to my guild and I’ve made a number of this type of quilt for friends and family. If it’s a nice, easy pattern, it’s still a quilt and it’s wonderful, but it’s easy to give those as gifts. The more difficult the pattern, the harder it is to give away. SG: Is felting on a quilt common for you to do? VM: It’s actually fairly new. In one of my art groups that I belong to, we try all different kinds of techniques. One of the days we experimented with a machine that is called an embellisher. The embellisher that we were playing with has five or seven needles. You take a piece of fabric and wool roving or any other kind of fibers and it permanently meshes into the fabric that you are using. SG: Do you ever use other embellishing things like beads? VM: I have used beads. I’m still experimenting with different kinds of techniques, mostly painting. I’ve done a lot of crystal embellishments, but not so much beads. I’m trying to expand my embellishment repertoire with embroidery. SG: Embroidery by hand or machine? VM: By hand. SG: By hand? So you like to combine hand and machine work? VM: I do hand and machine appliqué and quilting. It just depends on what the piece needs. SG: Are you mostly doing wall sized quilts or do you do both? VM: I do everything. It’s interesting because I don’t really have a specific style or genre. I pretty much go wherever I feel the inspiration takes me at the moment. At the moment, I’m getting ready for my quilt show that is going to be in April 2012 for my guild. Those are going to be mostly bed sized quilts. I also belong to another art group, called 12 By The Dozen, which is an international art group that we have on line. We do 12”x12” pieces. It just depends on where I’m heading and what my focus is for that particular piece. SG: What’s your job for your show? Are you in charge of it? VM: No, I’m not in charge of it this year. I’m not playing a major role for our guild, this year. The reason is that my daughter is getting married that night. Of all of the days that they had to pick, they ending up picking their wedding to be that night. My guild has been very understanding. But where I have really been a major force in my guild is when we had an auction two years ago. We decided that we would split out our auction and our show separately, because having a show and auction at the same time would be a lot of work and would burn everybody out. We decided to do an experiment where we would just have the auction by itself. I really, really believe in my guild, I really love my guild very much. We’ve got a lot of new quilters who have come on board. I’m pretty much self taught although I have been able to go to classes and learn from other people. Sometimes you don’t always get the classes that you wanted, so we structured it where I taught workshops three times a month on a particular technique, to teach our guild members on certain techniques. The idea would be that they would either give us a patch back or do a project on that technique. We did hand and machine appliqué one month. We did borders one month and bindings. We did design one month. We have done all different kinds of techniques in order to get ready for the auction. We will have another auction again in two years and I can see myself playing a role in that and getting people lined up. It was very interesting when we were making some of these quilts that there would be a quilt top that needed a border on it and I would hand it to somebody and say ‘Now, put the border on. It needs to be five inches wide’. Then they took it over to their machine and realized they had never been taught on how to put a border on how to measure. They just thought that they just measured a side, cut it, and sewed it. There’s all these wonderful teaching moments that we had during these workshops that kind of came out of not even having a lesson plan. They just came out of people making assumptions so it’s made everyone in my guild a better quilter. Another thing that I am really involved with in my guild is I’ve been the co chair for the past two years of the American Quilters’ Society Ultimate Guild Challenge. It’s been in Knoxville for the past two years and the idea is that your guild picks the top eight quilts and you send them off to AQS, based on a challenge that you picked. It’s been a wonderful way that you can choose your own challenge and displaying the quilting from your guild. I think that this has really enabled a lot of members from my guild to get involved in a group effort in pretty things being judged without feeling like they are hanging out there by themselves or that they’re alone and getting things judged. The nice thing about the Ultimate Guild Challenge is that it’s not judged. They do pick a first, second, and third winner as a group, but they don’t write any kind of critiques on the quilts that come. It makes it real safe. We are slowly trying to edge a lot of these quilters into going up to the next level. I’ve been on the board for for my guild about five years but I jump around to all different kinds of positions because you’re only allowed to be in a position on the board for two years in that position. I really enjoy being a leader, but one of the things that came out of the workshops is that I taught a machine quilting class. So many people wanted to learn how to machine quilt on their domestic machines. A year ago, we started a bee called The Wanna Bees. We wanted to be able to machine quilt our own quilts. We started with about 25 and every month I would put together ideas or different kinds of techniques or exercises. We’ve been doing that now for about 15 months and it’s really been very empowering and inspiring to them and to me as far as the amount of time needed in the saddle to become a good machine quilter. Also, they’ve been using this as a way of finishing a lot of our community service quilts. They’ve been practicing machine quilting on our community service quilts. It’s really been hand in hand of what we do as a guild. SG: Are most of your friends quilters? VM: Well if they’re my true friends then they’re quilters [laughing.] I have friends all over the world because we’ve lived in so many places. I’m also a long distance runner so I have a lot of friends that do that as well, and neighbors. My friends that quilt talk, I call it code talking because when you quilt talk there’s never enough to talk about, it’s always very exciting to have friends who are quilters. SG: You mentioned to me earlier that you have a favorite pattern. VM: I love Feathered Stars. I’ve got another project that I’ve started but I’ve only gotten in several blocks but I’m hoping to do some kind of a Feathered Stars, using it in an original and unique way. Using a traditional pattern in a different way. SG: Do you collect anything special? VM: I’ve got Singer Featherweight machines. When we lived in England, the Featherweights were made in Scotland. In England, there was a number of Featherweight machines that were sold on eBay. I also managed to get 2 of the 221 models of Featherweights machines but I also purchased a 222 model, which are more rare since fewer were made. The 222’s have the little arm that comes out, there’s not very many of those. in total, I have three Featherweights and I also collect antique Singer sewing machines, and I have about four or five of those. SG: Where do you store your collections or do you display them? VM: I do display them. I have a special ledge in my house that I have the sewing machines out. I have one Featherweight machine that is in working order. They’re all in working order, but the one that I use is out. SG: Do you use it often? VM: Occasionally. SG: Do you have a studio? VM: I do have a studio, in a sense. It’s the upstairs game room. When our son went off to college, we took the big screen tv out of there, moved in my sewing tables and cutting tables and we converted it into a sewing studio. Then about a year ago, I needed to expand so I took another bedroom and we moved the bed out and put more sewing machines and tables in there. SG: And they’re all for you? VM: Yes and when my friends come over, I have a table where they can also set up their sewing machines. One of the things that has been very challenging for me is sewing by myself, personality wise, because I’m an extrovert and I love being around people, but I understand I’ve also got to have sewing time. I invite one or two friends to come over to my house and sew as often as possible. They bring their projects and we have sew days. I have a table where they can set up on the opposite side. SG: That’s nice. Are you a full time quilter or artist? VM: Yeah, I would say so. It’s interesting because one of the things that I’m always asked about how long I have been a quilter. I’ve really started thinking about time in the saddle and having a job and having a family that I really haven’t been able to focus on being a full time quilter. Only in the last four years have I really been able to focus on my quilting. Before that, I sewed quilts and competed quilts maybe once or twice a year. It was always at the kitchen table. I never really had a space. Now that I have a space, I feel like I can take more time to work on projects and leave them out. SG: How many projects do you work on at a time? VM: I think I have an addiction. I think I have ADHD sometimes. I start a project and then I get to a point and think that I’m not ready to finish it or I don’t know what else it needs, so I will put it away and then I’ll start on something else; or maybe one of my friends has had a baby and I need to get a baby quilt done. When my sister got sick with cancer, I stopped everything. I made a quilt. They had a fundraising event for her. I made a quilt for the fundraiser and then I also made a quilt for her so that she could take it in with her when she went into chemo. I’ve had a couple of other friends that have been diagnosed with breast cancer where I have immediately stopped everything and made a quilt for them, ASAP. Then they take it when they go into chemo. Probably right now I have about six or seven projects that I call “in the shoot”. They’ve been started and put away, but they need to be finished. SG: Do you use a design wall? VM: I use a design wall and I also have my design floor, design bed, and I basically design wherever I can lay it out. I have an artist friend who has one of those portable walls that she made. It’s basically a piece of insulation, I think it’s about a four by eight board that she covered with felt. That’s been very nice because I can turn it sideways in the other room that I sew in where I have a felt up on the entire wall. I can always throw my blocks on the floor or I have a landing, that way I can look down on it. It just depends on the distance and perspective that I need. SG: Do you have a big stash? VM: Don’t tell my husband. [laughing.] SG: We will tell him not to listen to the interview. VM: He’s not allowed to read the transcript. I do have a stash. It’s interesting because depending on what I feel that I want to make, I have a stash of batik’s, children’s fabrics, brights, neutrals, appliqué, but at some point in time they are all going to find their way into a wonderful, wonderful quilt. SG: Is there any aspect of the quilt making process that you don’t like? VM: Being by myself. I don’t like being by myself. I think that’s why I’ve really enjoyed teaching these workshops to my guild friends. I also taught some dear friends of mine when we all lived in Holland, our children were about the same age, we all moved back together to Houston. There’s about five or six of us and we wanted to make T-shirt quilts for our graduating seniors. I said ‘Well, I’ll teach you how to do that.’ We all got together, about four or five or six times, making these T-shirt quilts. They didn’t know how to make these. Several of them didn’t even have sewing machines. Not only did we make T-shirt quilts for that child, but the next year we had another child that was graduating from high school so they came back again. Those are probably my happiest times teaching my friends how to quilt, them making something special for their family members that’s being made by the mom. Also, just teaching people how to quilt, I really get a lot of satisfaction and happiness from doing that. SG: Are you drawn to any particular quilt makers? Their styles, their colors? VM: I’m always amazed. I took a class here at Festival two years ago from Philippa Naylor and I lived in the UK for three years. I always wanted to take a class with her but I never managed to. Her style is so unusual in using threads for coloring in her quilting. I thought it was just beautiful in her own design. Cynthia England, using all of those little teeny tiny pieces to piece together pictorial quilts, I just think that is phenomenal. Sue Nickels, I think she will always be my hero because she was the one who empowered me to get beyond my own fears of quilting my own quilt on my domestic machine. I mean I have so many heroes out there who are amazing quilters. SG: We seem to have covered a lot of information, it’s great. How do you think we should protect and preserve quilting for the future generations? VM: I definitely would love to see sewing, home ec, quilting coming back into the school systems. I think we need to organically teach our young people how to use a machine, how to sew, how to be creative, how to use it for expression either through making quilts for comfort or for color. I really do believe very strongly that we need to be able to continue this on. I makes me very saddened that I see a lot of these types of things that we do by hand because we know so much of our time and spirit and our energy goes into these quilts when we sleep underneath them. But to have so many of these mass produced, I feel they are very soulless. They’re pretty and there’s a market for them but I think that we need to encourage our young people that they can do this as well. When I lived in the UK, they teach their young people all kinds of fiber crafts; knitting, embroidery, crocheting, sewing, and it’s part of their culture. I think quilting has been part of our culture and we can’t overlook it by forgetting to teach those who are coming up. SG: Do your children quilt? VM: No, they don’t. SG: Well maybe it will skip to your grandchildren. VM: I’ll just add a little note: they saw me do it, they thought it looked so easy. They thought that if it was easy enough for mom to do it, they could do it. I taught my son to quilt. He can quilt, he’s very mechanical. My daughter is very creative, but she’s not very mechanical. I think at some point when she starts her own family. She knows that she can come to me and I would more than happy to teach her. My son as well, or his wife, or any of my grandchildren absolutely. SG: Do you have any other stories that you’d like to tell us today? VM: I just know that four years ago when I started quilting full-time, having the time to quilt, my kids were all gone and off to school. I really dreamt that one day my quilt would hang in Houston. My quilt hung in Houston two years later in the special exhibits, with the Texas Guild exhibit that they do. I never would have imagined that it would have been picked as one of the best 200 quilts made in Texas in the last 25 years. But I hope that by having a dream, by encouraging others to have a dream, and making it big, that there’s nothing dreaming big. It’s absolutely the way that we can head towards a goal, and my next dream is to have a quilt in the winners circle here in Houston one of these days. SG: I think that’s a great way to end our interview. I’ll come and see your quilt when it’s hanging in the winners’ circle. Thank you so much Venetta for allowing me to interview you today and for the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories Oral History Project. Our interview is concluding at 1:40. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved.audio0http://quiltalliance.net/cms/http://quiltalliance.net/cms/collections/show/310",yes,,,"Julianne Donofrio",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/b99d3f64007c5c311d8dff1c899e87ba.JPG,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/a5a593229256e0ec429e0c724bb1e4e8.JPG","Oral History","International Quilt Festival QSOS",1,0 "Elsie Campbell",,"Karen Musgrave sits down for a phone interview with Elsie Campbell of Dodge City, Kansas. Musgrave and Campbell discuss Campbell's quilt entered for Ami Simms's ""Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece"" exhibit and how her son's time as a caretaker for a man with Alzheimer's inspired the design of her quilt. The two also discuss how quilting has allowed Campbell to travel and see the ways that quilting is taught and practiced in Brazil and France, which differ from the quilting in her region. Campbell also discusses the importance of practicing and self-critiquing in quilting, as well as how supportive her family is of her quilting career as her home studio spreads throughout her entire house.",,,,,,,,audio,,,AFPBP-39,,,"Karen Musgrave","Elsie Campbell",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=AFPBP-39Campbell.xml,,03/14/2008,," 5.1 Elsie Campbell AFPBP-39 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories Alzheimers Forgetting Piece by Piece QSOS Quilt Alliance Alzheimer's Disease Ami Simms Dodge City, Kansas Elsie Campbell Karen Musgrave 1:|17(1)|28(15)|42(7)|54(12)|71(2)|81(6)|92(4)|114(13)|127(5)|138(11)|151(13)|164(11)|174(2)|193(4)|209(1)|221(17)|240(5)|251(7)|268(1)|281(13)|294(1)|309(2)|322(6)|337(13)|352(7)|363(3)|375(3)|387(13)|401(3)|416(5)|427(7)|442(2)|458(11)|470(2)|481(15)|492(13)|503(15)|513(6)|531(9)|541(10)|554(1)|566(2)|575(6)|589(5)|603(13)|613(7)|622(5) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/AFPBP-Campbell.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Elsie Campbell. Elsie is in Dodge City, Kansas and I'm in Naperville, Illinois so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Musgrave introduced the subject of her interview, Elsie Campbell. Musgrave discusses the medium of how the interview is being conducted with Campbell. " ; Confusion" ; ; Alzheimer's ; Alzheimer's " ; Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; (quilt exhibit) ; Elsie Campbell ; Karen Musgrave ; Quilters' S.O.S. 37.76067,-100.017863 17 Dodge City, Kansas, where Elsie Campbell is located. https://www.amazon.com/Alzheimers-Forgetting-Ami-Simms-Curator/dp/0943079098 " ; Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; book by Ami Simms. 27 Tell me about your quilt that's in this exhibit Well, it's a small kind of quilt based on a lone star pattern, a variation on that. Do you want me to tell you a little about how I came up with the idea? Campbell describes the influences of her quilt, " ; Confusion," ; recalling how her son's time spent in France caring for a man with Alzheimer's helped her to gain an understanding of what Alzheimer's is like. Campbell then describes the reasons behind her color selection, design, and thought process while making the quilt. She discusses how she tried to replicate what Alzheimer's visually looks like. Campbell also discusses her plan to use this piece in a future trunk show. " ; Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; (quilt exhibit) ; Alzheimer's Disease ; Ami Simms ; caretaker ; Confusion ; France ; Lone Star -- quilt pattern ; trunk show Alzheimer's disease ; Campbell, Elsie 17 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/AFPBP-39-CampbellA.jpg Elsie Campbell, " ; Confusion" ; 296 Impressions of " ; Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; exhibit Tell me about your impressions of the exhibit. Campbell and Musgrave discuss their impressions of the " ; Alzheimer's: " ; Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; exhibit. Campbell recollects how moving the featured quilts and their accompanying stories were. She also discusses about how she has noticed new details in the quilts each time she sees the exhibit, as well as the importance of the coordinator of the exhibit, Ami Simms. " ; Alzheimer's: " ; Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; (quilt exhibit) ; Ami Simms ; artist statement ; Quilt Exhibitions ; quilt shows ; quiltmakers ; quilts 17 512 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. ; I’ve always had a needle in my hand. Mom said I was eighteen months old the first time she put a needle in my hand. I can’t remember not being able to sew. Mother was a dressmaker, she earned money by altering clothes and making clothes for other people. Campbell discusses how she got into sewing, and later quilting from her mother. She also discusses memories from her childhood, the injuries that have come from sewing, and the importance of quilting for her. Campbell also discusses her educational background and other interests such as teaching and editing, as well as the paid jobs she has worked. Awards ; background ; dressmaking ; editor ; education ; family ; framing ; injuries ; knowledge transfer ; learning to sew ; lifeguard ; mother ; needlework ; piano teacher ; Quiltmaking ; teacher 17 712 On the style of her quilt " ; Confusion" ; Now is " ; Confusion" ; typical of your style? Campbell talks about the style of her quilt " ; Confusion." ; Campbell talks about her admiration for art quilting despite that it is not typically a style she uses in her shows or competitions. Campbell also mentions how her best work is known for her craftsmanship. " ; Confusion" ; ; art quilts ; Awards ; Quilt competitions ; quilting styles ; style 17 786 How many hours a week do you quilt? You know what if I stopped to count the hours, I’d be wasting minutes I could be using quilting. [laughs.] You know, when you are enjoying yourself, and that’s what quilting is — it is a pleasure to do Campbell talks about the amount of time she spends quilting per week. While discussing the process of quilting and how there is no easy way for her to quantify the amount of time she spends quilting, Campbell also discusses her time spent teaching and the influence of Bloom's taxonomy. Campbell also discusses the similarities of Bloom's taxonomy and how Alzheimer's effects certain levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Alzheimer's Disease ; Bloom's taxonomy ; education ; exercise ; family ; quilmaking process 17 http://quiltalliance.net/qsos-images/Blooms-Taxonomy-650x366.jpg Bloom's taxonomy, courtesy of Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching 989 How does quiltmaking impact your family? Campbell: Well, they have always been very tolerant and supportive also. I have two sons and now a daughter-in-law. For example, about five years ago I won one of the top awards at the AQS [American Quilter's Society.] show in Paducah, Kentucky. Campbell discusses her families support for her quilting and their involvement with her quilts. Campbell discusses how her family has supported her at quilting competitions, her husband's involvement with the business side of her quilting, and her son's involvement with quilting. American Quilter's Society (AQS) ; American Quilter's Society Week (Paducah, Kentucky) ; daughter-in-law ; family ; husband ; International Quilt Association ; Karey Bresenhan ; One hundred best quilts ; Paducah, Kentucky ; Quilt competitions ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; son ‎37.086678,-88.604050 17 Location of Paducah, Kentucky http://www.americanquilter.com/ Official website of the American Quilter's Society. 1178 Whose works are you drawn to and why? I love it all. Let me see if I can go back. You know, there’s a lot of people who are influential to my career. In 1992 I entered a contest, the AQS contest, and my quilt was accepted. Campbell discusses some of her biggest inspirations in quilting including Caryl Fallert's " ; Cosmic Pelican" ; , to an interesting run in with a young Ricky Tims who is now one of her closest peers. Campbell also discusses how Diane Guadynski's work has influenced her newest award winning quilt, " ; Aunt Mimi's Flower Garden" ; . American Quilter's Society (AQS) ; Awards ; Caryl Bryer Fallert ; Cosmic Pelican ; Diane Guadynski ; Favela ; France ; Machine quilting ; National Quilt Museum (Paducah) ; Pueblo, Colorado ; Quilt competitions ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; Ricky Tims ; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ; Social quiltmaking activities ; Teaching quiltmaking ; travelling 40.044437, ‎-76.306229 17 Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Location of the Quilter's Heritage Celebration. http://www.elsiemcampbell.com/2009/04/ Elsie Campbell's official website featuring images of her award-winning quilt, " ; Aunt Mimi's Flower Garden" ; . 1426 Teaching quilting in foreign countries Tell me about teaching in a foreign country, how is it different? Campbell discusses her time teaching in foreign countries such as France, Brazil, and throughout Europe. She also discusses the differences between the countries she has visited and the ways interpreters were used in her classes abroad. architecture ; Brazil ; education ; Europe ; foreign countries ; France ; international quilting ; interpreter ; Portuguese language ; quilting ; RIo de Janerio, Brazil ; Spanish language ; teaching ; Teaching quiltmaking ; Traveling 17 1608 Quilts made in foreign countries What are quilts like there? What do their quilts look like? Campbell talks about the differences between quilts made in America and quilts made in the countries that she has traveled to. She describes how other countries make very similar replicas of quilts to American styled quilts. Campbell also tells stories of quilts and quilters that she has interacted with in other countries. bird ; Brazil ; quilting in foreign countries ; story telling ; urban folklore 22.9068, 43.1729 17 Rio de Janerio, Brazil 1825 In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? ; Dodge City is a cow town. I've made a few cowboy quilts, but that’s not me. I do them because they are ones that people like to see around here. Campbell discusses the impact her region has on her quilting, although as much influence has come from her Mennonite upbringing and Amish quilts, which inspire her use of solid colors. Campbell also informs Musgrave as to how she aims to master all skills in quilting. Amish quilts ; community ; cowboy ; Dodge City, Kansas ; Kansas ; Mennonite ; Mennonite quilts ; quilting ; quiltmarking process 37.76067,-100.017863 17 Dodge City, Kansas, Campbell's hometown 1946 Describe your studio/the place that you create. ; Well, it kind of oozes over into the rest of the house. Right now, I have a large bedroom on the second floor. I live in an old, very large house. I have four gigantic windows that stretch basically from the ceiling to the floor so I have lots and lots of natural light. Campbell discusses how her studio is set up at home. Campbell describes how her entire house has become one large location for her quilts through storage, workspace, and collection. Campbell also discusses her sewing table and the sewing machines used in her quilting process. batting/wadding ; Bernina ; Design Wall ; fabrics ; Home sewing machine ; shelving ; storage ; Studio ; Work or Studio space 17 https://www.bernina.com/en-US/Products-US/BERNINA-products/Find-and-compare/Machine-search?gclid=Cj0KCQjw09zOBRCqARIsAH8XF1YpFc2zzp2f-QMQZKgynCRIwTjdUbtj2Jck02UFUPBKwCH8RL83DakaAo5fEALw_wcB Bernina sewing machine's official website 2179 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? Quiltmakers in general? You know, I hadn't thought about it in general. For me, maybe it’s narrowing it down to something and, instead of being a jack of all trades, trying to do a something. Campbell believes that there are possibly too many showcases and quilting styles, which causes her to feel a little bit scattered. She also mentions that there may be too many quilt shows for new quilters to take in all at once. Campbell also discusses the Latino population in her area and their disinterest in quiltmaking due to the fact they may not have the time since they are raising families and cannot afford the expense of quiltmaking. challenges ; cultures ; Fabric/Quilt shops ; Hispanic ; Latino ; needle arts ; needle crafts ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; quiltmakers ; showcases 17 2327 What advice would you offer someone starting out in quilting? Read books, buy all — get the books — the how-to books, the pattern books. Start off slowly, go to the quilt shops if there is one in your area, talk with the owners and take classes, take all the classes you can possibly afford Campbell discusses advice she would give to people who would want to start quilting. She stresses the importance of reading books and taking classes, while also the monetary value of what new quilters purchase. She encourages new quilters to buy high quality fabrics and machinery for quiltmaking. beginners ; books ; classes ; fabric ; home sewing machine ; Knowledge transfer ; quilt publications ; quilting classes ; thread count 17 2429 What do you think makes a great quilt? Well I know when I'm judging — I know what happens when you’re judging in a large show, you’ve got to have something that’s attention grabbing, it has to be stunning first Campbell discusses what she finds to make a quilt great. Campbell stresses the importance of practicing and self-critiquing, while also discussing the importance of colors and workmanship. colors ; critiquing ; judging ; practice ; visual impact ; workmanship 17 2595 Are there any aspects of quilt making that you don't enjoy? I'm struggling with that one because every stage is… It’s kind of like falling in love. It almost makes itself because I can't put it down. Campbell struggles to find a bad thing about the process of quiltmaking. Campbell mentions how the process of creating three dimensional flowers that she particularly is not a fan of that she did and discusses how much she enjoys the process of quilting. " ; Petal Play" ; ; 3-d ; 3-D flowers ; Joan Shay ; quilt making ; three dimensional 17 https://www.amazon.com/Petal-Play-Traditional-Joan-Shay/dp/1574327704 Joan Shay's " ; Petal Play: The Traditional Way" ; 2693 Closing thoughts We have been talking for forty-five minutes believe it or not. I always give people an opportunity to share anything that they would like that we haven't covered, so this is your chance. Closing thoughts from Campbell on her interview. Campbell discusses the tiring effect that traveling has on her quilting career. Campbell also discusses how despite the traveling and strength needed to travel with quilting how much she loves it and how she has accomplished so much through quilting. bookkeeping ; quilting ; social aspects of quiltmaking ; teaching quiltmaking ; traveling 17 Oral History Karen Musgrave sits down for a phone interview with Elsie Campbell of Dodge City, Kansas. Musgrave and Campbell discuss Campbell's quilt entered for Ami Simms's " ; Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" ; exhibit and how her son's time as a caretaker for a man with Alzheimer's inspired the design of her quilt. The two also discuss how quilting has allowed Campbell to travel and see the ways that quilting is taught and practiced in Brazil and France, which differ from the quilting in her region. Campbell also discusses the importance of practicing and self-critiquing in quilting, as well as how supportive her family is of her quilting career as her home studio spreads throughout her entire house. Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' ; S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Elsie Campbell. Elsie is in Dodge City, Kansas and I' ; m in Naperville, Illinois so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today' ; s date is March 14, 2008. It is 2:01 in the afternoon and we’re doing a special Quilters' ; S.O.S. - Save Our Stories which is based on the exhibition " ; Alzheimer' ; s: Forgetting Piece by Piece." ; So Elsie, tell me about you quilt " ; Confusion" ; that is in the exhibit. Elsie Campbell (EC): Well, it is a small quilt kind of based on a Lone Star pattern, a variation on that. DO you want me to tell you a little about how I came up with the idea? KM: Yes. Please. EC: I was right on a deadline for this one and I couldn' ; t come up with an idea. I personally have never — thank God — had any experience with this disease other than second hand experience through my son, Kerry. He came back from Europe, from a year in Europe, and went back to university looking for a job and he found one living with and take care of some of the needs of a man who had early onset Alzheimer' ; s. In payment, Kerry received room and board and the use of a jeep, Michael' ; s jeep to run errands around town. Kerry did a lot of studying online, reading about the disease. He knew a whole lot more about Alzheimer' ; s than I did, having lived with Michael for a year. I called Kerry and said, ‘I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. I think what I’m gonna do is make a Lone Star and maybe leave holes in it.’ Kerry stopped me right there and said, ' ; No Mom, Alzheimer' ; s is not holes. It isn’t like holes in your memory.' ; I said, ' ; Okay. How would you describe it if you had to, in one word?' ; He said, ‘I’m gonna think about that.' ; He called me back a little later and said, ' ; Mom, that word would be confusion.' ; That' ; s where the title came from. That’s where I started to think about how I would illustrate confusion in a Lone Star-type thing. And I did a little reading online too and talking with Kerry, and Kerry really helped me a lot to develop this idea. But, in the quilt, there is eight points in a Lone Star. The two top points, one is perfect, everything is in the right order and perfect. The one next if you go clockwise around the star, the next point has a couple of pieces that are transposed — they’re not in the right places, they’re mixed up. And as you continue to go around it, it gets a little bit more mixed up - confused, and some of the pieces are turned the wrong side out so that the seams are wrong side out, they’re all over. And then pieces start to fall away and become misshapen and at the bottom the piece begins to lose the color, I started using some of the more pastel shades to where it would kind of just fade away. And then the pieces come apart, and then I added some pieces at the bottom to kind of look like they are lying on a table like they did come fall apart. However, the center diamonds are purple if I remember correctly, and they remain until the very last diamond. They remain the same shape and just exactly right. They’re supposed to represent the inner — the long term memory which is the last to go. We remember our things from childhood more clearly sometimes than we do things from the day before. And with Alzheimer' ; s, I think that’s even exasperated to where the long term memory is the very last thing that a person can retain, so those purple diamonds which represent the long term memory. I’m not sure what else, you know that’s basically the description of it. I’ve also used some hand stitching embellishment, kind of primitive stitching — that sort of thing. It was a lot of fun and once I got the idea as to how I wanted to do this, it went together in an afternoon. So, that’s about the quilt, I guess. KM: What do you plan to do with the quilt when it comes back? EC: It will probably be part of my trunk show. I go around the country and lecture and teach about quilting, and stuff like that. And I will probably put it in one of my trunk shows and tell the story and spread the word about Ami' ; s efforts and the organization that she has started to raise funds for research for Alzheimer' ; s. KM: Tell me about your impressions of the exhibit. EC: Well, I have seen it more than once. The first time I saw it I barely got past the third or fourth quilt. It is difficult to go through the exhibit and read all the stories that go with them. And you better have a box of Kleenex' ; s with you. They’re heart wrenching. It was a very moving exhibit. I just think everybody should see it. The last time I saw it in person was at a quilt show last summer, I think it was. And I took a friend with me and we ended up having a lot of the similar feelings — that was like the third or fourth time I had viewed it but it still moves me every time. And I see new things every time I look at it. New ideas, new details in each piece. And there is so much thought — each piece — there was so much thought that went into each piece. You know, representing an abstract idea is really, in my opinion, a difficult thing. I usually make traditional quilts, things that are very standard I guess, maybe not standard what is the word I want to say, well they are not intended to be art or anything like that, they are just beautiful objects. But this, these quilts represent ideas that are abstract and in such a way that I think the meaning comes through even more than if you used words. Does that make sense? KM: Mhmm, it makes a great deal of sense. There is a CD that accompanies the exhibit and each quiltmaker was asked to call Ami up on her telephone and record their artist statement. Tell me about that experience for you. EC: Well, it was a long time ago already. KM: Mhmm. EC: I don' ; t know. It was nice. It was interesting. I have several copies of the CDs and I have given them as gifts. KM: I thought it was rather clever of Ami to have an audio component. EC: What’d you say? KM: I thought it was rather clever of Ami to have an audio component. EC: Absolutely. This whole thing was just like, I don' ; t know where the spark comes from, but Ami is amazing. There is no other way to describe her. And her sense of humor is so fresh and quirky. I' ; ve always enjoyed being around her and seeing her. This was just a unique thing and I know she was working through her own grief over the loss of her mother' ; s memory, you know, and her mother' ; s support. I lost my own mother five years ago. And my mother was my biggest fan and I’d get some award or I’d be make a new quilt, I would find myself wanting to call my mom. And then I would think, ' ; I can' ; t call her anymore.' ; I' ; m sure Ami has the same feelings only she is dealing with even more intensity, because her mother' ; s physical body is still alive. But, that lack of support, and missing the person is just really tough to deal with. And I' ; m sure that is what she has been working through. KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. EC: Mhmm. I’ve always had a needle in my hand. Mom said I was eighteen months old the first time she put a needle in my hand. I can’t remember not being able to sew. Mother was a dressmaker, she earned money by altering clothes and making clothes for other people. She paid for, oh I have two sisters and we all took piano lessons, we all played clarinet, we all sang and we all did all of these things because Mom used her sewing money so that we could have those things that were not necessary but were nice. So, we always had several sewing machines going at one time cause we all sewed. And made quilts, and basically at that point it was dressmaking which was necessary for financial reasons besides being pleasure-able. Mom said that she’d be sewing and I would sit at her feet and scream until she put a needle and thread in my hands too in a piece of fabric so I can' ; t remember not knowing how. It’s like life blood I don’t think I could put it down. I’ve had several surgeries on my upper extremities over the last eight years, and I' ; m facing another one for a trigger finger here in the next month, and it’s probably one of my biggest nightmares not being able to use my hands or not being able to sew. So, these absences remind me that I am human and that I need to slow down and pace myself, cause most of my surgeries have been because of repetitive motion injuries. [laughs.] So, I’m learning, but it is something I cannot not do. I must sew, I must create something. Is that what you are wanting? KM: Yes. And tell me, okay so, expand upon this because you are an award winning quiltmaker. You are a teacher. You are a writer. You are an editor. Tell me about those experiences and how they all relate. EC: So one thing kind of feeds into the other. I mean, the writer and the editor is because I am a quiltmaker. I’m not sure, I mean there’s — I’m also, I also have a master' ; s degree in special education: My bachelor' ; s degree is in several other fields. I’ve got two — basically two master' ; s degrees in areas, but everything I’ve also been an insurance agent, I’ve been a custom framer, I’ve had a custom frame shop and needle work and cross stitch shop, I taught piano for thirty years, I taught swimming and (laughs) I was a lifeguard, I can’t tell you and a licensed daycare. I' ; ve done a lot of different things, but I always come back to needle work and sewing in some way, shape or form. I think I' ; m kind of like a closet artist. I would love to be able to paint and I' ; ve done some of that, too, some watercolor and acrylic fine arts, but, for me, there seems to be more satisfaction in the needle arts. KM: Now is " ; Confusion" ; typical of your style? EC: Is " ; Confusion" ; typical of my style? [KM hums agreement.] No. Not at all. However, I' ; ve done-- I will try everything at least once. I can’t say that. " ; Confusion" ; is not the kind of quilt I would put in a competition. There’s a lot of art quilters out there that make fantastic stuff. I aspire to doing art quilts — and I have made a bunch of them — but they are not the ones that would win the awards for. I win awards basically for craftsmanship because I' ; m very good at it and I’m very — I feel like I' ; ve developed a great sense of color and value, which are really important, but " ; Confusion" ; — as far as — it’s not what I' ; m known for, the art quilt type thing.But, it was lots of fun and I have done other work like that, commission work and so forth. But not, it’s nothing that I usually do to show for competition or anything like that, or teach. Is that, kind of what you’re looking for there? KM: Mhmm. How many hours a week do you quilt? EC: You know what if I stopped to count the hours, I’d be wasting minutes I could be using quilting. [laughs.] You know, when you are enjoying yourself, and that’s what quilting is — it is a pleasure to do — it doesn' ; t matter how much time or how little time you spend on it. That has nothing to do with anything. People ask me, ‘How many hours did it take you to make that quilt?’ And I say, ‘What?’ You know, it’s like to me that’s such a question like, ' ; Where did that come from?’ It has no meaning here. KM: Well, and I always answer that question by telling people whatever my age is at that time. [EC laughs.] How long did it take you? EC: How ever old you are that makes since, yah fifty-two or whatever. KM: Right, whatever it is and because, you know I think it is a process and it’s ongoing and, you know so it took me fifty-two years to get here to make this quilt. EC: Yeah, and I always say like, “oh, we don’t even bother counting UFOs anymore either, you know those unfinished objects, because that doesn' ; t matter either. The process — I learn something new from everything I do and I have to keep thinking and keep the wheels turning upstairs. Maybe I' ; m preventing Alzheimer' ; s because every time you make something new you have to rethink and think ' ; Did that work as well as I would like?' ; I teach gifted children at public schools. That is what I' ; ve been doing for the last fours years. Well actually I have been doing it about ten years, but off and on for the last fifteen years. And Bloom' ; s taxonomy there is all these different levels. And one — the first one — is Knowledge and that means that you can recite facts. Then there is Comprehension — you understand those facts and you can relate them. Then there’s Synthesis, Evaluation, and so forth. And when I' ; m working on quilting, I’m working in the upper level thinking skills of Evaluation and Synthesis you’re pulling everything you’ve ever learned together to make a new product. When you’re finished, you look at it and say, ' ; Oh, this went really well. I really like what happened here, but I think I could have done this part better. How could I do it better? Why would I do it that way?’And that’s Evaluation, and that’s the highest level thinking skills. I think probably with Alzheimer' ; s those are the first skills to go is the judgment and the upper level thinking skills. And I' ; ve heard that you can maybe sometimes keep your mental health or your brain working if you exercise, so I do a lot of exercising. I probably quilt — to go back to your original question — probably, I am working in quilting-related things probably sixty to seventy hours a week. Eight to ten hours a day at least. You know, if I' ; m not actively doing something with my hands quilt related, I am thinking about it or I am writing about it or I' ; m on the Internet or that sort of thing. So, if I had young children, I wouldn' ; t be able to spend all that time, but my kids are grown and my husband is very relaxed about the housekeeping and everything else. He does a lot of the cooking, so I' ; m kind of free right now to indulge in what I love to do. KM: How wonderful. EC: Yeah, it really is. [laughs.] KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking? EC: Well, they have always been very tolerant and supportive also. I have two sons and now a daughter-in-law. For example, about five years ago I won one of the top awards at the AQS [American Quilter' ; s Society.] show in Paducah, Kentucky. Big, big, big surprise to me. And my son and daughter-in-law were moving from Memphis, Tennessee to Ottumwa, Iowa the weekend prior to this show. And I called my sons up to tell them about this award. The first one, the quilt I just had told him he could have that quilt. I put their names on all of the quilts I make, and they’ll have that quilt when I pass on, not before (laughs). And Kelly said, ‘well that okay Mom,’ he says, ‘it’ll be in a museum Mom I can go visit it once in awhile.’ I said, ‘that’s right Kelly, now I’ll have to make you another one.’ So he was fine with that. And he understood how important that was. My youngest son told his wife of about six months at that time, ‘Pack your bag, we’re going!’ And my daughter in law had no clue what she was in for. She had never seen a quilt show, not like Paducah or anywhere else.And they drove eleven hours to get to Paducah so they could be with me and to witness — to see the quilt and everything like that — and see the show. And she — her mind was just totally blown away. She had never seen anything like that. She had no idea. I mean she comes from a quilting background, her grandmothers all quilted, her mom quilts, and all that — but she had no idea that quilts could look like that - the competition quilts, the art quilts and so forth. Kerry also go to hang the " ; One Hundred Best Quilts" ; [" ; The Twentieth Century' ; s Best American Quilts" ; exhibit and book. ] when they were in Europe with the International Quilt Association. And he was living in France at the time and studying Chemical Engineering in Nancy, which is near Strasburg. And Karey Bresenhan from IQA [International Quilt Association.] hired Kerry and five of his friends to come up, hang the show, and act as interpreters and help with the take down and all that. They were American kids in Europe and that was kind of a neat deal for him. So, you know, every little bit they — I think my son’s helped educate their friends about quilting and that quilts are art in a lot of ways. They are very supportive. My husband does my videotaping, he did my website, which now needs a little bit of maintenance work. But Ken also teaches public school, so summers are when he does his work on things for me. He sometimes travels with me, sets up my media equipment, hauls my bags around and stuff, packs up the car, and yeah, he seems to be very proud. He never exactly tells me that, but I hear from other people that he brags about me a lot, so it makes me feel good. KM: Whose works are you drawn to and why? EC: I love it all. Let me see if I can go back. You know, there’s a lot of people who are influential to my career. In 1992 I entered a contest, the AQS contest, and my quilt was accepted. I actually traveled to Paducah to see it there. I walked into the museum — “American Quilters Society” and there was all the spotlights on it and everything — was one of Caryl Bryer Fallert' ; s work called " ; Cosmic Pelican." ; This thing glowed. It brought tears to my eyes because at that point, I grew up with quilts on every bed and everything like that, I didn' ; t know quilts could look like that. And I was moved to tears and at that point it became an ambition I wanted a quilt in that museum also. I thought, ‘I’ll never be able to do this, this is a goal though. I’m going to work towards that.’ So, it’s a real thrill now I do have one in that museum. About that same time, I think it was in 1993, I was a church youth group sponsor. And I had my sons and several other teenagers and we went to St. Louis for a Church World Conference. And I dragged a quilt along and I would be sitting in the hallway and quilting , waiting on kids to get done with activities and such. And this young man came and just stood there quietly and watched me stitch. I thought this is interesting. He was just so intent on watching every stitch and he just got closer in, closer to my work, watching everything, but never said a word. All of a sudden, he looked at me and asked, ' ; Is that reverse appliqué?' ; I went, ' ; Oh my gosh!' ; He was kind of dressed like a cowboy with the string necktie and the hat and all that. ‘This cowboy knows quilts!’ We struck up a conversation. Can you guess who that was? KM: Ricky Tims. EC: You got it. He was not known in the quilting world, he had just begun to quilt and I had just started to enter contests and that is exactly who it was. [laughs.] We have been friends ever since. We run into each other at quilt shows and such, so it has been kind of a neat, neat way to watch his career skyrocket like it has. Matter of fact, we are going to Pueblo tonight and we’re going to have dinner with him and Justin tomorrow night in La Veta, so I' ; m kind of excited about that. He — in 1998 — we met in Paducah and he gave me his usual hug and kind of whispered in my ear, ' ; Elsie I have done it. I' ; ve done it, I' ; ve quit my day job. I' ; m quilting full time.' ; And you know, him doing that kind of encouraged me when my opportunity came about a year and a half later to do the same thing. So, in a lot of ways, he really has been influential in my career and my courage to do what I’m doing also. Another couple of people — Diane Gaudynski’s work has always inspired me tremendously. I had the privilege of taking a machine quilting class from her a few years back. I had never really machine quilted, I was not satisfied but after class with her and a little practice, my newest competition quilt Aunt MiMi' ; s Flower Garden is getting Best Machine Workmanship awards. It’s gotten — it’s been in five shows, come home with six ribbons so far and three of those awards have been Best Machine Workmanship awards. So I' ; m really thrilled. I' ; ve got to ship it out today to the Quilter' ; s Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I will be there with it in about a week and a half. So, my quilting — I never dreamed that quilting would take me to Rio de Janeiro but I taught quilting there a few years back, too. So, this has been an amazing thing to me. And France, I taught quilting in France. I never dreamed that my quilting would take me to these places so it is an incredible, incredible thrill to me. KM: Tell me about teaching in a foreign country, how is it different? EC: [laughs.] Well, probably each country is a little bit different. In France, I didn' ; t really have an interpreter, but it was amazing to me - see quilting — you don’t really need it. You can demonstrate and they get it. And, I was just amazed at how much — how little importance language is, really. A lot of it is demonstration and visual. And I think most quilters are visual learners. And it was amazing, Rio de Janeiro was another experience. I did have an interpreter there who was an avid quilter. And some of the time I felt like she was giving them how she would do it rather than telling them what I was saying. You understand. KM: Oh yes. EC: [laughs.] The best interpreter I had while down there was one who knew nothing about quilting. [laughs.] The one who knew something about quilting seemed to color it their way. [laughs.] KM: I have had similar experiences teaching in different countries. Very true. EC: Rio was, it was delightful, I just can' ; t tell you what a thrill that was. I was very, very, very surprised. Where we live — over half the population here in Dodge City — is Hispanic, Mexican. They speak Spanish, they don' ; t speak much English. Down there — and, you know they’re all black hair, brown eyes, brown skin all this — when I got there, the women that I was teaching were all European descent— they looked like me, you know? I was shocked to see — to learn that Rio de Janeiro and that area of Brazil was settled about the same time the US was with Europeans. The architecture looked like Europe, and the food was absolutely fabulous. I had not anticipated it being European in nature, and it is. The breads and the meats and everything were just like I had been transplanted to Europe. So I had not anticipated that. Another thing that fascinated me down there were the favelas, the shanty towns. Masses and masses and masses of people, millions of people in Rio live on the sides of the mountains down there in shacks that are basically just boxes. It amazed me though, you know, how innovative and how creative people can be and how they live with so few things. The needs of human beings actually need a whole lot less than we think we need to survive. KM: What are quilts like there? What do their quilts look like? EC: Their quilts were — some of them were pure and simple copies of American made quilts. There was a barn quilt that was a pattern quilt — there were different quilts. And for me it was difficult for me to see these people with their own cultures and their own heritages and stuff trying to imitate our country and folk art style. However, there were some very unique quilts and very much local lore. One quilt that fascinated me had — the lady she spoke limited English — but she wanted to explain to me the whole story, it was a group quilt. And they had different blocks, and it was from their provence or state of Brazil. And, about the only thing that I could remember or understand was she wanted me to definitely know about this little brown bird. He makes a little mud hut for his mate, they mate for life, and it has a little door in it she can go in and out of her mud hut and lays her eggs and they both tend to the babies and everything. However, if she thinks she’s been cheating on him, or sees another male bird, he’ll shove her in a little mud hut and close the door off with mud, and she will die in there. (Both laugh) The quilter wanted me to know the story of that little brown bird and that they mate for life. However, you know… There was one — another one — that had a snake on it. Kind of an electric white ghost snake, they called it. And the gist of the story is that this was an old woman who got lost in the Amazon Rain Forest. And she turned into this boa constrictor, this gigantic snake and she became the guardian of the forest. And there was a long story about the snake, but — and there was this beautiful quilt with a snake. Another amazing story for me was there was a Lone Star quilt — I’m drawn to lone stars anyway. Beautifully made, machine quilted, machine everything, little machine embroidered butterflies all over it, all these things. I ate breakfast with the woman who made it. She was a very plain and simple lady, no make up, clothes not so nice, anyway. She didn' ; t speak much English, but I got enough of it. She lives in the Amazon Forest. She loved birds, fed birds, parrots everything. She was telling me all about the birds. Then I asked her about her quilt. She said, ‘she has no running water and no electricity.’ I said, ' ; How did you make your quilt with no electricity?' ; You know, this is a machine quilted quilt that could compete in Paducah or anywhere else - it’s just fabulous. And I got the gist of the thing, she has a gasoline generator in her back yard and when she wanted to sew, she would fire up her generator so she’d have electricity to sew. And that’s the only electricity that she used. KM: Wow. EC: Yeah, even spirit, again, if we want to, there is a way. ' ; Where there is will, there is a way,' ; that old saying. There were some very unique quilts. The colors seemed to be brighter to me. Great sense of color - pure color. Not — there wasn’t any of the grayed-down, toned down colors you unless it was in quilts imitating US style. Fascinating to see. KM: Do you think that your quilts reflect your community or region? EC: Dodge City is a cow town. I' ; ve made a few cowboy quilts, but that’s not me. I do them because they are ones that people like to see around here. I think we have some regional differences in the U.S. I lived in the northeast for a while. They’re certainly different than California style. I haven' ; t even thought about that. I grew up Menninite and I' ; m totally drawn to the Amish the black and bright colors you know, paired with black. Black just makes colors glow and I' ; m draw to solids. I love to work in the solids because I found out early on my competition life that the thing the judges liked best were my quilting stitches. And for quilting stitches to show, you need to work in solid colors. So a lot of my award winners — matter of fact, nearly I think all but one of my award winning quilts — are made out of solids or hand dyes that read like solids. I use very few prints in my competition quilts. However, I dearly love to make scrap quilts with thousands of different fabrics in them. And those are the ones that I just have fun making and those are the ones that are on the beds and those are the ones that I give away, those are the ones that are in my trunk shows. My best trunk show I think, is my scrap quilts — Innovations and Renovations: Scrap Quilts talk. I' ; m kind of a jack of all trades. But if you go to a show and see one of my quilts, they are probably going to be solid colors with radial symmetry. Like a Lone Star, that sort of thing. But what I make for pleasure aren' ; t necessarily those. I don' ; t know if I have a regional flavor or style. It’s just — that I like to make quilts. KM: Describe your studio. EC: What? KM: Describe your studio. EC: Well, it kind of oozes over into the rest of the house. Right now, I have a large bedroom on the second floor. I live in an old, very large house. I have four gigantic windows that stretch basically from the ceiling to the floor so I have lots and lots of natural light. And I overlook the whole neighborhood so it is kind of fun to look at and see everything. I turned one wall — what I did was I took I took quilt batting, a very dense cotton batting, and glued and nailed it to some wooden slats. Then I nailed the slats to the wall and put trim around it and that’s my design wall. I have an old library table that I bought for ten bucks at a high school auction one time. It has a lot of ' ; nice' ; graffiti carved into the top of it. It is very portable. The legs you can remove them, they just screw on and it is very sturdy. It is solid oak. I cover that with a bunch of cutting mats. I have two very large cutting mats so I don’t have to look at the graffiti the teenagers carved into the top (laughs). I have a large ironing board with storage units underneath that I use. Lots of shelving, and I like open shelving. I know it is probably not the healthiest for my fabric, but I seem to thrive on visual stimulation. I want to see what I' ; ve got. I also have a large walk-in closet that I have lined with shelves. I’ve got a lot of — I do a lot of hand dyeing and I' ; ve got all my hand dyes starched and ready to cut hanging on hangers in that walk-in closet, then the walls are lined with shelves. What I really like is I have my own bathroom, a private full bath. The only time that bathroom gets used by other people is when we have guests in the house. My daughter-in-law particularly likes having her own bathroom up there so, she goes up to my sewing room — that’s her bathroom when she stays here. The sewing table. I have more than a few Bernina sewing machines. One is usually in my sewing table, and one I put up and down for embroidery. And then I got several old Berninas: an 830, 532, some of those models that are in my closet. That I get out for guests sometimes if we’re sewing together we can set those up on the tables downstairs, we work all over the house. My yardage fits in the walk-in closet and my fat quarters are all on shelves. All my books — my books are all spread out. I' ; ve got one whole wall lined with library books in my bedroom, another half wall in my office, and now I' ; ve started to fill up shelves in my family room, so I kind of collect things like that. I have a whole cabinet full of unfinished quilt tops and pieces — things like that — and ideas. In my office, I have another walk-in closet that I' ; ve lined with shelves where I put all my class supplies and teaching samples. My guest bedroom has another closet that is full of inventory that I sell online and books and such. That is where I store all my finished quilts for my trunk shows. And then I have a basement storage room where I' ; ve got two pallets of books that went out of print — I bought them all. So, you know it just kind of oozes into every room in the house I think. Is that enough of a description? KM: That is great. What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? EC: Quiltmakers in general? You know, I hadn' ; t thought about it in general. For me, maybe it’s narrowing it down to something and, instead of being a jack of all trades, trying to do a something. I haven' ; t quite figured out what it is that I do the best or that I want to I — I mean I want to do it all — sometimes I get a lot of scatter in what I' ; m doing, and I think maybe I need to be able to organize and narrow what I' ; m doing. I don’t know. Sometimes, I wonder if we are getting too many large shows all over because some of the shows are having a struggle now filling classes. Quilters seem to be able to travel and go to all of these shows, in this particular area, we’ve had trouble keeping quilt shops. We just had a new quilt shop that opened up about twenty miles from Dodge City, but this is the only quilt shop for probably a hundred mile radius. I have to drive one hundred and fifty miles to a quilt shop of any significant size at all. KM: Why do you think that is? EC: That is because we’re over half Hispanic and the Hispanic people, you know — it looks like we have a large population base, we do, but these people are young and they have ten and twelve kids and they are busy trying to feed those mouths and keep a roof over their heads. And they don’t — they have no interest in needle arts or needle crafts and if they did, they don' ; t have the time or the money to invest in it. Cause it is an investment. KM: And not a small one. EC: Not a small one and it is not part of their culture either. Whereas I grew up German Mennonite and it is a part of my culture. KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out? EC: Read books, buy all — get the books — the how-to books, the pattern books. Start off slowly, go to the quilt shops if there is one in your area, talk with the owners and take classes, take all the classes you can possibly afford and have time for. Buy the best. You pay for what you get. There is no sense in buying a hundred-dollar sewing machine at the ' ; W' ; store and being frustrated. You will give up immediately because the machine is so frustrating to use. Buy the best sewing machine you can possibly afford because you will be using that for years and years and years. It becomes your best friend. The same thing with fabric. Buy the best fabric you can afford and generally you pay for what you get. If you buy two-dollar-a-yard fabric at the discount shops, it may very well be that fabric is going to fall apart in a year or two or three, or it is so flimsy that it will fray and your seams won' ; t hold up or it will be difficult to work with because it doesn' ; t have enough thread count. It is important to use the best materials because you are going to be spending hours and hours making something beautiful. There is no sense in wasting a few pennies on materials and tools. KM: What do you think makes a great quilt? EC: Well I know when I' ; m judging — I know what happens when you’re judging in a large show, you’ve got to have something that’s attention grabbing, it has to be stunning first. It has to be a design with contrast and beauty. Colors are important, but I think value is even more important than color. There has to be value and there has to be an idea behind it. Something that at first glance is going to grab the viewer and draw them in. Visual impact: if you don' ; t have visual impact, they’re not going to bother looking at the workmanship, no matter how meticulous it is. The visual impact is all important. You must have an idea, you must carry it through with value and color, repetition, whatever it needs to be. Then you will be drawn in. Then it is important that your workmanship be meticulous if you are going into competition. If you are — I think a lot of people are their own best critics but they don' ; t know it. You know what went well with your quilt, you know what you did best, you know what you need help with and what you struggled with. If you struggle with appliqué, start taking appliqué classes. Start buying books about appliqué. Start practicing appliqué until you are satisfied what you are doing is good. Same thing with piecing — whatever. Quilting, the finishing process — the last quilt show I judged there were some gorgeous quilts with fantastic, meticulous workmanship, and they failed to bind it well. The bindings were askew and fat and skinny in places. They weren’t filled to the edge. If you have spent hours and hours and hours piecing and appliquéing a beautiful quilt and then spent more hours meticulously quilting it, don' ; t ruin it by doing a shoddy job on the edge. The edge is just as important. Every step along the way has to be as well done as all the others. It is very important that every step of the process be well done, and the only way to get better is to study it out, practice, take classes, and do the very best work on every piece you do. KM: Are there any aspects of quiltmaking that you don' ; t enjoy? EC: Mhmm. I’m trying to think if there is a part that is my least favorite. KM: Obviously you don' ; t have one. [laughs.] EC: I' ; m struggling with that one because every stage is… It’s kind of like falling in love. It almost makes itself because I can' ; t put it down. I can' ; t think of anything I don' ; t like. KM: That is quite alright. EC: I really, really enjoy every part of it. I' ; m trying to think. Oh, I do know one that I made that I had--I didn' ; t have problems with it, but I didn' ; t particularly enjoy making three-dimensional flowers. [laughs.] [KM laughs.] It was a commission work and she came in, she wanted 3-D flowers on it. I wasn' ; t going to do it quite the way she wanted, I did it my way. I ended up using Joan Shay' ; s " ; Petal Play" ; where you use Heat and Bond Ultra, and then you curl it around pencils or you shape it. They turned out beautifully and my client was just thrilled to pieces with it. She' ; s had it in a couple of private shows. I can' ; t remember what else she did, but she is always making sure that I know how much she appreciated it. But I didn' ; t particularly enjoy doing it. [laughs.] KM: We have been talking for forty-five minutes believe it or not. I always give people an opportunity to share anything that they would like that we haven' ; t covered, so this is your chance. EC: I' ; m not sure what else to say. I enjoy talking about my work. Traveling and teaching is a wonderful experience. However, I have come to the point where I love to teach people all the things that I know, but I do not enjoy the travel part and the travel… That has been a little tough. If anybody ever decides they want to do this, they really got to have stamina and believe it or not, physical strength to haul those bags and equipment around. Airports are not fun anymore. It is a real struggle. I understand the security and all that, but you never think about those things as being part of the quilting world. When you go into it as a profession, there is a lot of stuff that goes into this that you didn' ; t bargain for. You have to think about that. It is not all about making quilts. It is also about bookkeeping and making your arrangements for hotels and airline tickets and getting all your stuff there and seeing that you got everything you need in a suitcase. I think it is all worth it, though, because we make all our connections and we get to meet all these different quilters from all over. I' ; ve never met a quilter I didn' ; t like to twist a quote from Will Rogers. You know his old saying.So, I think that’s probably the best of the best here. Quilters worldwide are just eager, happy, busy, industrious people. I love them. 2017 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/ http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/collections/show/5 ",,"Alzheimer's Disease",,"Susan Quinn",,,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/03d4b17b4cbc101cc0f74d209bac8af7.jpg,"Oral History","Alzheimers Forgetting Piece by Piece QSOS",1,0 "Anne Rolfe",,"Anne Rolfe was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares her experience making quilts for friends and family and how she learned to quilt.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-005,,,"Estella Spate","Anne Rolfe",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-005 Rolfe.xml",,,," 5.1 Anne Rolfe MI49016-005 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance Quilts as gifts Social quiltmaking activities Learning quiltmaking Anne Rolfe Estalla Spate MI49016-005Rolfe.mp3 1:|11(18)|34(2)|48(4)|63(11)|78(2)|94(1)|114(6)|134(10)|150(15)|171(2)|186(12)|200(1)|220(7)|234(10)|248(16)|266(7)|279(9)|296(2)|316(14)|329(9) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-005Rolfe.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction Good afternoon. This is Estella Spates and I'm interviewing Anne Rolfe at her home in Battle Creek Estella Spates interviews Anne Rolfe at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. 42.3211522, -85.17971419999998 17 Battle Creek, Michigan 20 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. Anne tell me about the quilt that you selected for this interview. Rolfe describes her " ; Star of Wonder" ; quilt, each block containing 62 pieces. Machine quilted by Ruth Dean. This quilt was very challenging and Rolfe wasn't sure that she would finish. Sometimes also displays in guest bedroom. Holiday quilts ; Ruth Dean ; The Quiltery 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-005Rolfe.jpg Anne Rolfe with her quilt, " ; Star of Wonder" ; 117 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. Rolfe describes learning to make quilts after retirement and taking her first class at the Quiltery, a fabric shop in Battle Creek. She joined a guild right away, and enjoys participating. Guild participation ; Kellogg Company ; Laurie Buhler ; Learning quiltmaking ; retirement ; The Quiltery 17 222 What is your first quilt memory? What is your first quilt memory? Rolfe describes her first quilt, a sampler, drafted cut by hand. Quilt was pieces by machine and hand quilted with the help of other quilters. Eddie Bowserman ; Hand quilting ; Knowledge transfer ; Learning quiltmaking ; Machine piecing ; pattern drafting ; sampler ; Winnie Rambaugh 17 270 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them. Are there other quiltmakers among your families? Rolfe's mother and grandmother quilted, and they made quilts for the children, which were used until they wore out. Rolfe describes her friends in the guild. Antique quilts ; everyday use ; Generational quiltmaking ; grandmother ; Quiltmaking for family ; Social quiltmaking activities ; utilitarian quilts 17 336 Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking ; What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? ; Tell me about your most amusing experience that occurred when you were quilting. Rolfe describes making mistakes that required " ; unsewing." ; From mistakes, she has learned to pay better attention. Rolfe finds satisfaction in finishing quilts. Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment 17 388 What quilt groups do you belong to? What quilt groups do you belong to? Rolfe belongs to a quilt group at Christ United Methodist Church and making quilts for charity. She also helps at Cal-Co Quilters' Guild shows. baby quilt ; Cal-Co Quilters Guild ; Guild activities ; Quilt guild ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Quilt shows/exhibitions 17 438 Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how? ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? ; Have advances in techniques influenced your quilt work? Rolfe and Spates discuss using templates and using a rotary cutter. Rolfe has used applique techniques but prefers piecing. applique ; Cardboard templates ; class ; Hand quilting ; piecing ; Rotary cutter 17 530 Describe your studio/the place that you create. ; Do you have a studio or a quilt room? Rolfe doesn't have a separate room for sewing. Describes working in dining room and kitchen. Designs quilts by laying out pieces on the floor or bed. Design process ; pressing ; Time management ; Work or Studio space 17 595 What do you think makes a great quilt? ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? ; What do you think makes a great quilt? Rolfe believes that the design makes a great quilt. Describes a quilt made by husband's great-grandmother. Received the top from a cousin and had it hand quilted. The pattern was " ; Garden of Eden." ; A great quilter is dedicated and enjoys making quilts - gives their time and talent. Rolfe enjoys watching Kay Woods and Nancy Zeeman from Wisconsin on PBS. Antique quilts ; Kay Woods ; Nancy Zeeman 17 749 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? Why is quilting important to you? Rolfe enjoys quilting, and her family and friends enjoy receiving quilts. Grandchildren are happy to have something made by their grandmother. Quilts reflect community through charity. Rolfe describes thinking of quiltmaking was a dying art, but she was excited to see the activity generated by quilt shows and the International Quilt Show in Chicago. Describes quilts related to the Underground Railroad and as part of history in Battle Creek. Explains how church group gives quilts to members in nursing homes, and hosts " ; baby shower" ; to give away quilts. Believes that quilts can be preserved for future through proper care by refolding and airing. Christ United Methodist Church (Battle Creek, MI) ; Guild activities ; Quilt care ; Quilt history ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Quilt Purpose - Comfort ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quilt shows/exhibitions ; Quiltmaking for family ; Social quiltmaking activities ; Underground Railroad Quilt Code 17 965 What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made? For your friends and your family. Describes making a quilt for friend whose daughter had cancer and later passed away. The quilt was then passed to son with children and is still used in her memory. Quilt Purpose - Comfort ; Quilt Purpose - Memorial ; unfinished objects (UFO) 17 1050 Tell me about the last quilt project you worked on. Tell me about the last quilt project you worked on. Rolfe has recently been making baby quilts. Describes recent projects, including a purse, a chenille jacket, a quilted tote, potholders, table runners, and other small projects. Crib quilts ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quilted goods 17 1182 Conclusion Anything else you would like to share with us about your quilt experience? The interview concludes as Rolfe shows a few of her quilted pieces to the interviewer. Baker Bars (pattern) ; Quilt Purpose - Challenge or contest entry 17 Oral History Anne Rolfe was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares her experience making quilts for friends and family and how she learned to quilt. Estella Spates (ES) ; Good afternoon. This is Estella Spates and I' ; m interviewing Anne Rolfe at her home in Battle Creek [Michigan.]. Today is May 18, 2009 and it is 2:13 p.m. Anne tell me about the quilt that you selected for this interview. Anne Rolfe (AR) ; This is a quilt that I made at The Quiltery. I took the class. I think it was 1996. It ' ; s called Star of Wonder and each block has sixty-two pieces. It was a big challenge to me. So it took a while to get it finished, but, anyway, when I got it all done I had it machine quilted by Ruth Dean and I enjoy it and I get it out at Christmas time. I put it on the back of the couch so I can enjoy it and people that come in can enjoy it so I really like it. ES ; You' ; ve told me about it being a Christmas quilt. Does it have any other special meanings to you? AR ; No, not, just that I like it. ES ; And why did you choose this quilt as your interview piece? AR ; Just because it was such a big challenge for me. Because I thought I' ; d never get it done. ES ; How do you use this quilt other than just putting it on the couch? AR ; Oh, sometimes I' ; ll put it on the bed in the guest bedroom. So people can see it. ES ; So do you have other plans for this quilt? Are you going to give it away? Or-- AR ; Well, I only have two children and they both have their share of quilts, but when the time comes I might give them their choice of the lot that I' ; ve made. ES ; Tell me about your interest in quilting. AR ; Well, when I retired in the fall of 1989 the Kellogg friends of mine made me a quilt and it really excited me and really that got me started. So I took a beginner’s class at The Quiltery and Laurie Buhler, who' ; s in our quilt guild, took that same class with me. I enjoy doing classes and I' ; ve taken a lot of them over the years. ES ; So you were retired when you started quilting? AR ; Yes, I was and I retired early. I was fifty-seven and I joined the guild right away after I took beginner' ; s class and I' ; ve always enjoyed the guild and being part of it. ES ; So you learned to quilt at The Quiltery? Or, did you-- AR ; I had beginner' ; s quilting there and I have taken a lot of classes there and I took some from Ruth Ann Dean and then different places. ES ; So you didn' ; t start quilting at all before you retired or before you were fifty-seven? AR ; Nope. . ES ; How many hours a week do you quilt? AR ; Well, it depends on what I' ; m working on because if I start something I' ; m excited then I can' ; t leave it alone. So, it depends if I' ; m working on something, probably a couple hours a day, maybe three days a week if I' ; m working on a quilt. ES ; What is your first quilt memory? AR ; Well, let' ; s see, can' ; t remember now. Oh, it was a sampler that we had to draft our patterns and cut it all out by hand. And then I think I enjoy machine piecing. Then, when I got it all together, then I layered it and I hand quilted it. The first one that was given to me was all layered and the binding was on but I had to hand quilt it. And two quilters came to my house to show me how to do that. Winnie Rambaugh and Eddie Bowserman. ES ; Are there other quilt-makers among your families? AR ; It goes way back. On my husband' ; s side, his great grandmother. We happen to have three of her quilts and my mother and grandmother did some quilting. More my grandmother than my mother. When the kids were young, they made them quilts but I didn' ; t know any better and we used them all the time. We wore them out. ES ; You have friends that quilt also? AR ; Yes, I do. Of course, I lost my friend Eddie Bowserman. Friends in the guild, Veronica Graham and all of you girls that I share the guild with that like quilting. ES ; How does quilting impact your family? AR ; They love it. They both have more than the law allows. [laughs.] ES ; Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time in your life. AR ; Well, not necessarily. No, I don' ; t believe I have. ES ; Tell me about your most amusing experience that occurred when you were quilting. AR ; I' ; ve made mistakes where I' ; ve had to unsew. That' ; s kind of amusing when you are not paying attention. How easy that happens. And you learn by your mistakes, so then you pay more attention. ES ; What do you find pleasing about quilting? AR ; It' ; s just real satisfying when you get one all finished. ES ; What part of quilting do you most enjoy? AR ; Well, I guess putting the blocks together and laying it out and joining them, trying to get it done. ES ; What quilt groups do you belong to? AR ; Just the one at Christ United Methodist Church. We sew for charity. We do lap quilts and baby quilts and we have done larger ones. We only do it from the fall until the summer months and then we take a little break. But we do things at home we can turn in. ES ; What about Cal-Co Quilters? AR ; Well, I always help when they have their shows. And I used to help on the library, but then w hen my husband was alive we' ; d go away the winter months and maybe be gone for four months, s o I hated to volunteer because I wouldn' ; t be there to do my job. ES ; Have advances in techniques influenced your quilt work? AR ; Yes, it has. ES ; And how is that? AR ; Well, just by taking classes in different patterns you learn different techniques. ES ; Now, when--did you start quilting when, you know, they were making templates-- AR ; Yes, I-- ES ; And then you graduated to using a rotary cutter? Was using a rotary cutter hard for you to learn or-- AR ; No, I enjoyed it after once learned how. I did an appliqué quilt where, and another one where you had to make a template. ES ; What is your favorite technique? And materials to use? AR ; Well, I can' ; t think off hand. That appliqué quilt was fun while I was doing it, but it took me a l ong time because every piece you had to cut out and appliqué on the block and it took me two years to get it finished and it was all hand quilting. ES ; You like appliqué better than piecing? AR ; Not really. I think I like piecing better. ES ; Do you have a studio or a quilt room? AR ; No, I live alone and I don' ; t have a separate room but I enjoy sewing in my front dining room and then I press in the kitchen. I' ; m here by myself so I spread out. ES ; How do you balance your time when you' ; re quilting? Do you have to make time for other things because you' ; re so involved with your quilting, or you plan to do so much each day? AR ; Well, I usually get my errands done and do what I' ; ve got to do if I' ; m going to sew and then come home and do that in the evening. ES ; Do you have a design wall? Do you-- AR ; No, I don' ; t. ES ; How do you design your quilt? Do you-- AR ; Well, I either lay things out on the bed or I lay them out on the floor. ES ; What do you think makes a great quilt? AR ; Well, the design. That' ; s most of it, I guess. ES ; What makes a quilt artistically perfect? AR ; I don' ; t know. I can' ; t think. ES ; What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or special collection? AR ; I got one that my husband' ; s great grandmother made and a cousin gave me the top and I had it hand quilted. And a friend of mine looked up the pattern. It' ; s called the Garden of Eden. And that was, is interesting. It' ; s quite old. It don' ; t look like it because it' ; s been well taken care of. ES ; What makes a great quilter? AR ; Well, somebody that' ; s very dedicated and enjoys doing what they' ; re doing and who gives of their time and their talent. ES ; Whose work do you like? Whose work are you drawn to? Quilt artists are you drawn to, or, I should say, do you like certain quilt artists better than others? AR ; Well, I like to watch the quilt show on Saturday on PBS. Kaye Woods and Nancy [Zeeman.] from Wisconsin. That' ; s interesting and gives you ideas. So, I can' ; t think of any one quilter that I like but they' ; re both pretty good. ES ; How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? Versus the longarm quilter? AR ; Well, I was in a car accident and I broke my thumb and it bothered me so then I went to having people finish my quilts but if it' ; s small I' ; ll do it by hand. ES ; Have you ever done the machine quilting-- AR ; No, I never do that. ES ; On a domestic quilt? AR ; No. My machine is just a Pfaff, but I really haven' ; t got-- I' ; ve taken a class on machine quilting, but it takes practice. ES ; Why is quilting important to you? AR ; Well, I do and my kids enjoy them, too. And I' ; ve made them for my all of my family, friends and my great grandchildren and they like them because Grandma made them. ES ; In what way do your quilts reflect your community? AR ; Well, I suppose what I' ; ve done for charity, through the church and like, the guild doing the baby quilts. Last year I did quite a few for them. And it makes you feel good to be able to participate. ES ; What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? AR ; I think it' ; s wonderful. I think at one time they thought it was a dying art, but I think it' ; s really a live because when you go on trips and stop to quilts shows. Twice, now I' ; ve went to the national quilt show in Chicago. Oh, my, it' ; s mind boggling. It really makes you excited. ES ; In what way do you think quilts have special meaning for women' ; s history, women in history in America? AR ; I think it' ; s wonderful how it goes way back to the-- here in Battle Creek [Michigan.] was it the Underground Railroad? Then they used quilts for signal s and I think that is terrific. Just, it really goes way back and it' ; s part of our history and I think it' ; s marvelous, wonderful. ES ; How do you think quilts can be used? AR ; Well, they can be used on the bed or they can be used like, as a wall hanging, or just for friend ship, or you can give them to a friend. There' ; s all kinds of ways. ES ; And you' ; ve mentioned before about the charities that you give your quilts to. You want to tell more about that? AR ; Our church, Christ United, we have a lot of older people and they give them to ladies that belong to our church in nursing the homes. The baby quilts, once a year they have a baby shower and s o that' ; s, I think give them back to the Charitable Union and they dispense with them. ES ; How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? AR ; Well, by letting them breathe and not sealing them up where they can' ; t breathe and maybe airing them once a year. Refolding them and keeping them so they don' ; t get worn where they' ; re folded. I guess that' ; s it. ES ; And you do that to all your quilts? AR ; Well, usually, now I aired one yesterday because I hadn' ; t had it out, but once a year maybe I' ; ll string a line in the backyard and hang some outside for a while. ES ; And does that bring your neighbors over to talk about your quilts-- AR ; Well, all my neighbors work and our neighborhood has changed because I' ; ve lived here so many years. They don' ; t run over. ES ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made? For your friends and your family. AR ; Well, I made one specifically for a good friend of mine and her daughter got cancer and she passed away about four years ago. So the quilt I gave her, my friend passed it on to her son that had children. So it' ; s continued being used and it' ; s in her memory because I made it for her. So, it makes you feel good. ES ; Any other quilts that you' ; ve given away that have a history or a story? AR ; No, I can' ; t think, off hand. Oh, my cousin, Barb, when she lost her husband, she had some quilt tops that were unfinished and her husband' ; s grandmother made them. So I had one of those finis hed and gave it back to her. She gave them to me. ES ; What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quilters today? AR ; I just don' ; t think--there' ; s always a lot to think about. There' ; s so many designs. ER ; Tell me about the last quilt project that you worked on. AR ; I can' ; t think, probably baby quilts. Probably for the Church and the guild. Other than, oh, when I went to camp and I made a purse and I like it. Turned out nice and everybody' ; s is different. ES ; Do you use that purse a lot? AR ; Yes, I have. I' ; ve already, yep. ES ; Will you make other purses? AR ; I got, I already got the fabric and I hope to make one soon. ES ; And will you give purses away as-- AR ; Yes. A gift? ES ; Gifts this year? AR ; I think so. ES ; Are there other crafts, projects and any other, any other type of art work that you participate in doing? AR ; Well, at camp one year we did the chenille jackets. And I enjoyed that class. ES ; Did you make any more chenille jackets? AR ; No, I didn' ; t. And then I made this quilted tote to carry supplies back and forth. And then I made, one year went on a shop hop, and I made some table runners. I can' ; t think. I got wall hangings t hat I' ; ve made. ES ; Now do you make lots of gifts, quilts as gifts to friends. AR ; I have if I go away to Florida. This winter I made baked potato bags for my neighbors and then made pot holders and the year before last we had quilt classes down there. A lady from Pennsylvania. And we made a lot of small projects. It was fun. ES ; Anything else you would like to share with us, about your quilt experiences? AR ; Well, I can' ; t. I' ; ve made a lot of them. This here was a challenge. It was from camp. We start everything there, but then we finish it at home. ES ; And what is that called? AR ; Well, I think it was called Baker Bars. Baker Bars. ES ; Did you have that quilted? AR ; Yes, I did. ES ; Okay, Anne. Thank you for the interview. This has been Estella Spates interviewing Anne Rolfe at her home in Battle Creek. Today is May 18, [2009.] and the time is 2:35. 2016 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Quilt Alliance. 0 http://quiltalliance.net http://quiltalliance.org/projects/qsos/ ",,"Quilts as gifts",,"Vicki Coody Mangum",,,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/09daefd6aea30e1eaf8f0ccffa7b3044.jpg,"Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0 "Norma Storm",,"Norma Storm was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares why she loves quilts, how she learned to quilt, and her experience teaching. She also shares the experience of publishing articles about quiltmaking.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-007,,,"Pam Schultz","Norma Storm",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-007.xml,,,," 5.1 Norma Storm MI49016-007 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance Teaching quiltmaking Learning quiltmaking Design process Norma Storm Pam Schultz MI49016-007Storm1.mp3 1:|28(5)|43(6)|54(6)|62(12)|69(10)|87(4)|95(4)|117(7)|125(12)|144(3)|161(1)|170(10)|188(2)|200(2)|207(1)|220(9)|231(9)|247(3)|257(12)|266(5)|286(2)|300(3)|311(5)|321(9)|334(11)|344(11)|354(8)|365(8)|372(13)|380(2)|390(8)|401(10)|411(4)|420(1)|426(14)|440(3)|449(15)|458(3)|468(9)|477(1)|486(9)|498(7)|508(3)|517(1)|524(9)|534(10)|545(4)|552(3)|568(2)|581(8)|589(9)|597(11)|605(4)|615(11)|623(13)|636(8)|649(7)|656(14)|664(5)|675(1)|686(5)|696(8)|709(4)|724(3)|733(9)|743(17)|757(2)|767(9)|773(9)|780(11)|788(3) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-007Storm1.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction Pam Schultz interviews Norma Storm at her home in Richland, Michigan. 42.3761504, -85.4550054 17 Richland, Michigan 94 From whom did you learn to quilt? Storm learned the basics of quiltmaking in a class with Mary Reineke in the early 1970s. Explains how twelve students in the class were then expected to teach the next class. Group continued and eventually formed the Portage Quilter's Guild. Storm taught quiltmaking for a Portage adult education course and describes the experience of becoming certified as a National Quilting Association teacher. Guild leadership ; Learning quiltmaking ; Mary Reineke ; National Quilting Association ; Portage Quilters Guild ; Teaching quiltmaking 17 356 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them. PS: Wow. Do you have quiltmakers in your family? NS: My sister. When I was growing we had some very ugly, very dark, heavy tied comforters that my grandmother on my father's side of the family was supposed to have made. They all died before I was born, so I never knew any of them. And my mother hated them because she couldn't wash them. If there was something in our house she couldn't wash she got rid of it as soon as she could afford to replace it. So, I grew up with blankets and nobody in our family quilted, but after I learned to quilt I got my sister interested. Shirley Palmer is quite a quilter herself. She makes gorgeous things. And both of my daughters know how to quilt. I don't think there is anybody else. We're a small family. Storm's sister is a quiltmaker. Describes the utilitarian comforters made by her grandmother and growing up with blankets because no one in the family quilted. Generational quiltmaking 17 424 What art or quilt groups do you belong to? Storm belongs to Cal-Co Quilters Guild in Battle Creek and remains an honorary member of the Portage Quilters Guild and held every office over 35 years. Cal-Co Quilters Guild ; Guild activities ; Guild leadership 17 479 Has any of your work been published or won awards? PS: Have pictures of you, your quilts and/or patterns been published? NS. Yes. " ; My Tigers" ; up here were part of an interview for the guild when I was Quilter of the Year in 1999. The Battle Creek Enquirer and News, I can't remember the man's name, but he was very nice. He was a nice guy. He did a very nice article about me then. And I have published, since--well, I think I started around 1990 somewhere, sending articles off to different magazines. And I've had thirty one published articles, some small, some large, some one page, some six pages, about lots and lots of different quilts and stories about quilting, tips, whatever. And they've been in several books as well. I have one more article coming up in June in Quilter's World Magazine. That will be article number thirty two. Storm was nominated for Quilter of the Year in 1999. Describes being features in publications and sending articles to magazines, including an upcoming article in Quilter's World magazine. Describes winning awards and ribbons. Describes work space, filled with fabric and books as " ; creative clutter." ; Awards ; Published work - Patterns ; Published work - Quilts ; Quilt competitions ; Work or Studio space 17 803 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. I used a pattern from Robert's Design Studio, Robert's Studio, I think it's called. And they sell wood-working design patterns for intarsia, which is an inlaid wood technique. The biggest tiger, that's Mister was the first one I made and then I decided that I wanted to do a family portrait. And so, I reversed the pattern for her. And the baby, I drew that one myself, with a lot of help from a daughter. But, it needed something. I didn't know what to do with it so what I did, was I took the color wheel and they said that blue was the opposite of orange and so I added blue to it and the tigers came alive.  Storm completed " ; My Tigers" ; quilt in 1998. First intricate applique quilt. Describes love for making pictorial quilts with recognizable subjects. Describes adapting a Robert's Studio woodworking pattern for the design and drafting the smallest tiger herself. Explains design process, using the color wheel to make choices. Design process ; Pictorial quilts 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-007Storma.jpg Norma Storm's " ; My Tigers" ; quilt. 1057 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. It's my life. I make quilts for any and every occasion. To me they are something that I need to do all the time. I love making them ; I love sleeping with them. Describes love for quilts as objects and displaying them in her home. 17 1135 What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? My aim in life is to keep as many people as warm and happy as possible with quilts. Describes bringing out her quilts during a cold winter and inviting daughters to take whatever they wanted. Giving the girls and their families quilts seemed like a good idea- the quilts are being used and loved. Quilts as gifts 17 1204 At what age did you start quiltmaking? ; From whom did you learn to quilt? PS: And how did you know her? I think she was a teacher? NS: I met her at the library. She belonged to the Portage library, just like I did, and they talked her into teaching that first class. She was an extremely busy lady and so we had a hard time getting in touch with her, even. She was busy with two daughters and a husband and their church. Really busy, but she took the time to teach us the basics, and it was fun. A few years after that, she told us that she was amazed at how we had taken off and the things that we were doing. Describes learning to quilt from Mary Reineke in 1972 at Portage library and how she was a great influence. Later Mary said that she was amazed at how the group took off as quiltmakers. Learning quiltmaking ; Mary Reineke 17 1375 How many hours a week do you quilt? PS: How many hours a week do you quilt? NS: Oh, gosh. I spend probably a minimum of six hours a day quilting. Either at the sewing machine or sitting over here in my chair, quilting. I get nervous if I don't have something in my hands to work with. And I don't sleep terribly well, so instead of getting up and walking around in this little house, or doing anything else, I'll do some handwork. Or, if I close the bedroom doors I don't wake Jerry up with the sewing machine. I'm terrible. Describes spending at least six hours a day working on quilts and getting nervous if she's not working with her hands. Time management 17 1421 What is your first quilt memory? PS: What is your first quilt memory? NS: First one? Golly, I think finishing my first quilt probably was it. I still have my first block. It was a Spider Web. PS: Oh. NS: And I kept that. I bound the edges of it and I kept it, but I don't even remember my first quilt. I think it was a brick fence? I don't remember what it was called, but it had a lot of yellow in it. And I sold it.  PS: Sold your first quilt? NS: Yes, somebody liked it and so I sold it. I could make another one. It was a scrap quilt, you know. I've made so many since then that I haven't even taken pictures of all of them. I have in the last few years, but the ones when I first started, I only took pictures of the ones on special occasions, like when I made them for my in-laws and gave them to them for Christmas. You know, we got pictures of them then. But the ones I just made for us I never took photographs of. Describes finishing, binding, and keeping her first block, " ; Spiderweb." ; She sold her first completed quilt. Quilt documentation 17 http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?pattern=Spider%20Web_Spiderweb_Spider%27s%20Web_Spider%27s%20Den Quilts featuring Spider Web blocks at the Quilt Index 1514 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? The majority of my friends are quilters. It's our way of communicating, I guess. I don't know. I think ninety percent of my friends are quiltmakers, or have been or wish they were. [both laugh.] Or they're people who have received quilts that I've sent them. Describes friends in the quiltmaking community and those who have received quilts. Social quiltmaking activities 17 1562 How does quiltmaking impact your family? PS: How does quiltmaking impact your family? NS: It keeps them warm. Everybody has a special quilt that was made especially for them, a wedding quilt, graduation quilt, birthday quilt, bachelor quilt, moving quilt. And then there are the wall hangings and the small quilts that I've made for them either because they have admired them. Describes making quilts for family members for special occasions, focusing on specific quilts made for her daughter, grand-daughter, and great grand-daughter. Quiltmaking for family 17 1679 Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? I had a period of seven years when I wasn't able to quilt. I wasn't able to do anything. I was really sick. And it was like being in a deep dark hole. I spent all my time staring at walls and they didn't know why or anything. But it was quilting that pulled me out of it. I decided I have got to be able to make quilts again. Describes being being sick, unable to quilt, and how quilting, eventually, pulled her out of the state. Explains how her husband and daughters helped to baste a quilt top she had assembled seven years earlier. Quilt Purpose - Therapy 17 1825 Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking? It's always fun to find out how other people are doing things. That's so much fun. We've taken lots of trips, going to quilt shows and there are always jokes. Quilters are fun people. I just can't imagine a life without quiltmaking and quiltmakers. Describes have fun and experience of traveling with other quiltmakers. Social quiltmaking activities 17 1908 What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? ; What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy? ; PS: What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? NS: Everything. I enjoy every stage of it. I enjoy the patchwork. I enjoy the appliqué. I enjoy the quilting stitches themselves going in. I enjoy thinking about all the different patterns that there are, reading all the books that there are, and I enjoy curling up with quilts and taking naps. They're on my walls. They're in every room in the house and they're just nice things to have. They're like friends. Explains that she enjoys every stage of quiltmaking and various techniques. Enjoys quilts in her home on the walls. Describes instances when she had to disassemble parts of a quilt to correct mistakes. 17 2139 Tell me about the second quilt you brought in today. That's a Palomino horse. But the horses that I'm making now are--I'm trying to make them the color of real horses, chestnut and black and light brown or tan and a dappled grey. And I think I'll do a white one. They're good sized. They fit on an eighteen inch square. So, I have to be careful how many of them I make or I'll have too many for a wall hanging. I think I would like to make them into a circle. I figured if I drew a sixteen inch circle in the middle of the background fabric I could arrange them in a circle around, either five or seven of them and, maybe six. I don't know. And we'll go on from there. My quilts tell me what they want. Describes process of designing her quilt with horses and learning Aniko Feher's applique techniques. Aniko Feher ; Design process ; Fusible Applique 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-007Stormc.jpg Norma Storm's quilt top with horses. 2352 Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how? ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? ; I'll take scraps from anyone and turn them into quilts. Explains how the rotary cutter has simplified the process for cutting fabric, allowing Storm to make quilts faster, including 50-75 charity quilts over the past year. Describes using different techniques and tools to make quilts for charity or family members based on how they will be used. Storm appreciates batiks and hand dyed fabrics as well as the durability of cotton-polyester blends. Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Rotary cutter ; Technology in quiltmaking 17 2610 Describe your studio/the place that you create. PS: Describe your studio or the place that you create. NS: It's just a part of a room. I have a trestle table that was rescued from a dumpster. My husband brought it home. It was absolutely filthy. We sanded it down and cleaned it up and he put it back together again so it's nice and sturdy. It has a drawer for my thread in one side of it. I put my sewing machine on one end of it and my cutting board on the other and I have good lights. I have two lamps that I work with all the time. And then I have a heavy-duty industrial-strength set of shelves with my quilting books and patterns and my notebooks with all my articles and pictures on it. Then I have a very old chest of drawers that I got at a garage sale once and we revamped that. I put so many fabrics in one of the drawers that it popped the front right off the drawer. So, my husband put it back together again for me. Describes sewing space, including a large trestle table and a chest of drawers containing fabric. The room is also an office. Work or Studio space 17 2727 Tell me how you balance your time ; Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts? ; So a lot of times I'll just lay things out on the floor or on the bed and go away for a while and then take my glasses off and come back in the room and anything that looks out of place, I put my glasses back on and change it. And then go away for a while and come back. Sometimes the quilts stay there for a couple of days. We walk around it and over it. That, to me, is the easiest way to do it here. Storm describes the freedom of retirement and not having to budget her time. Explains how her husband, who was in the printing business, helps with color choices. Storm doesn't have a design wall, but she describes taking photographs or using a step-ladder to view the quilt from another perspective and make design choices. Design process ; Design Wall ; Time management 17 2975 What do you think makes a great quilt? ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? ; PS: What do you think makes a great quilt? NS: I think if you start with a really good design to begin with. That helps. That's key. If you've got a wishy-washy pattern, something that doesn't have nice lines to it, or interest. You need a really neat pattern. Then you need marvelous, marvelous fabrics. Lots of contrast. Storm explains how a good design includes lost of contrast with a range of values. Tigers quilt has at least nine whites and 12 oranges. Flowers are different blues and greens. Explains that quilting around applique designs make the images pop and look real. Storm believes that enthusiasm makes a great quiltmaker. Design process ; Pictorial quilts ; Quilt competitions 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-007Stormb.jpg Detail of Norma Storm's tiger quilt. 3400 Whose works are you drawn to and why? I love the beautiful old-fashioned appliqués. Something that I enjoy doing is taking an old pattern, one of the old, old ones from fifty years ago and using the new batiks and the beautiful new fabrics to make them. Storm is drawn to Aniko Feher's portrait quilts. She enjoys using new batiks with historic applique patterns. Describes working on a " ; North Carolina Rose" ; in new batik fabrics, pink and cheerful, using hand techniques. Aniko Feher ; Fabric - Batiks ; Hand Applique ; Portraits on quilts 17 http://www.quiltsbyaniko.com/ Aniko Feher portrait quilting. 3572 How do you feel about machine quilting vs. hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting? ; I know when they first started out with the longarm quilting machines there was a horrible uproar from the traditionalists about all this machine quilting that they didn't like it. They didn't think it was proper and that it shouldn't be allowed in shows and it was a ridiculous argument. Because there are artists with machines and there are artists with needles in their hands. And they're all beautiful. Storm explains that she prefers hand quilting, but uses home sewing machine on children's quilts for durability. Praises the work of long arm quilters. Explains response to long-arm quilting by traditionalist hand quilters. Free motion quilting ; Hand quilting ; Long arm quilting machine ; Technology in quiltmaking 17 3701 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? ; PS: Why is quiltmaking important to your life? NS: It's the most important thing I do. Making and teaching and writing about quilts is the most important things I do. Storm believes that making quilts, teaching quiltmaking, and writing about quilts are the most important things she does. 17 3736 In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? ; What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? ; In what ways do you think quilts have special meanings for women's history in America? PS: What do you think about the importance in American life? NS: Oh, they've been a necessity, forever in America. We don't have to have quilts now to keep warm, but they make life nicer. They make everything nicer.  PS: In what ways do you think quilts have special meanings for women's history in America? NS: Well, they were the only outlet for women's art for a very long time. Even the Amish people who do not allow artistic leanings of any kind at all, allow their women to make practical quilts. And the fact that their quilting is masterpiece-type quilting and their colors are strong wonderful colors seems to go right over the head of the people who made, the men who made all those laws. But, they've always been important to women. Women have always had to have something bright and pretty around them. And if it kept somebody warm, so much the better. Storm doesn't feel that her quilts reflect her community or region, but she is drawn to Japanese quilts and inspired by the patterns. Describes Amish quiltmakers and making art through practical quilts. Amish quiltmakers ; Amish quilts ; Female quiltmakers 17 3894 How do you think quilts can be used? ; How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? ; S: How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? NS: Probably by photographs would be the safest way to do it. The quilts that I have made I expect people to use up and wear out. So, I can replace them. It would be nice if a wide range of nice quilts could be kept in some ways so that a hundred years from now they would be able to see what kind of quilts we made. Because we can look back at the quilts in the museums now and see the kinds of things that they were making a hundred and fifty years ago. It's interesting, but I still think photographs is probably the safest way to do it. That way they can't wear out. Describes various uses for quilts, including teaching or learning and keeping people warm. Storm believes that photographs are the best way to preserve quilts. She makes quilts to be love, used, and worn out. Believes that museums should also preserve quilts for the future. Quilt documentation ; Quilt preservation 17 4067 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? ; The fabrics are superb. The patterns are everywhere. Finding enough time to make them probably is the biggest challenge. And I'm lucky enough to have all the time I want to play with my quilts. I am lucky, because not everybody has a husband who encourages them to do what they want to do. Storm considers herself lucky to have time for making quilts and support from her husband. Describes a challenge from Kay Horton to make a hedgehog jacket. Explains how her mind moves onto the next projects as she's finishing up a current project. Design process ; Kay Horton 17 4296 Conclusion 17 Oral History Norma Storm was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares why she loves quilts, how she learned to quilt, and her experience teaching. She also shares the experience of publishing articles about quiltmaking. Pam Schultz (PS): Good morning, this is Pam Schultz. It' ; s January 20, [2010.] at 10:25 a.m. I am here to interview Norma Storm at her home in Richland [Michigan.]. This interview is being conducted for the [South Central Michigan.] Quilter' ; Save Our Stories project, the Alliance for American Quilts. Good Morning, Norma. Norma Storm (NS): Good morning, Pam. PS: How are you doing today? NS: Fine. PS: Good. The first thing we are going to do is go over your quick question list. NS: Okay. PS: Do you make quilts? NS: Yes, I make quilts all the time. PS: Do you make wearable art? NS: Yes, I wear it a lot. I' ; ve given it away to friends and relatives, to anybody who wants it. PS: Do you sleep under a quilt? NS: Yes, at least one. We have two on the bed now. PS: Have you ever given quilts as gifts? NS: Yes. Every member of the family has at least one quilt all their own plus extras. I' ; ve given them as get well presents. I' ; ve given them to welcome a new baby. It doesn' ; t take much of an excuse for me to make a quilt and give it away. PS: Are you self taught? NS: More or less. I started out with a six-week class with Mary Reineke in the early 70' ; s. There were twelve of us and she taught us for like an hour and a half at a time, once a week, with the understanding that the twelve of us would then teach the next class. So, here were twelve brand new quilters who didn' ; t know what they were doing and we had to teach the next group, because the sign-up sheet went up on a Tuesday morning. I had gone into the library in Portage [Michigan.] to take out some books and they said, ' ; Would you be interested in the class?' ; The sign-up sheet just went up an hour ago and it was already half full. And so I signed it. Why not, you know? And I took the class from Mary. They said they had a waiting list of 150 after the first twelve.  PS: Oh, my. NS: So we had a lot to do afterwards. But she taught us the very basics, just absolute basics and it developed into the Portage Quilters' ; Guild eventually. The last class, this was on Thursday mornings. I said, ' ; I don' ; t know about the rest of you, but I would dearly love to keep meeting and keep learning about quilting.' ; And everybody was going ' ; uh huh, yeah, fine, sounds good to me.' ; I said, ' ; Good, I' ; ll make coffee at my house next week. Anybody who wants to come, come.' ; And we met every week for a long time and then we all got busy. We all had kids. We all had houses to take care of. We were working, you know. And, so, it got to a point where we would meet every couple, three, weeks. And they still meet in Portage on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. I' ; m an honorary member, now. I haven' ; t been able to go for a few years. But, it was interesting and we continued teaching. Mostly we taught as a team of three people in the Portage Adult Ed course and we would limit our classes to twenty, if we could. And that way we would each take a group of people. And that way they got three--they had three teachers. They had three opinions on everything. And if they didn' ; t like the answer they got from one of us they would go to the others. It worked out well, and eventually, in the mid-80' ; s all three of June Belitz, Kay Horton and myself certified for NQA teachers. PS: Oh, wonderful. NS: No, it was not wonderful. It was not a fun experience and I would never recommend it to anybody. The only benefit I got out of it was I learned how not to teach people, how not to treat people and I got to wear that pretty little pin. That was it. I wrote and told them at headquarters exactly how I felt about the whole experience. So, it was one of those things. We never benefitted at all. PS: Oh, that' ; s too bad. NS: But we thoroughly enjoyed it, and we taught hundreds, literally hundreds of people to quilt. PS: Wow. Do you have quiltmakers in your family? NS: My sister. When I was growing we had some very ugly, very dark, heavy tied comforters that my grandmother on my father' ; s side of the family was supposed to have made. They all died before I was born, so I never knew any of them. And my mother hated them because she couldn' ; t wash them. If there was something in our house she couldn' ; t wash she got rid of it as soon as she could afford to replace it. So, I grew up with blankets and nobody in our family quilted, but after I learned to quilt I got my sister interested. Shirley Palmer is quite a quilter herself. She makes gorgeous things. And both of my daughters know how to quilt. I don' ; t think there is anybody else. We' ; re a small family. PS: Do you belong to a guild? NS: I belong to the Cal-Co guild [Cal-Co Quilters' ; Guild.] in Battle Creek [Michigan.] And I am an honorary member of the Portage Quilters' ; Guild. And I try to go to the meetings whenever I can. PS: Have you ever been a board member or a chair of a committee in a guild? NS: Yes, in the Portage Guild I think I sat in every office there was, eventually, over the years. In over 35 years you have to have done something. PS: Well, I would hope. NS: Yeah, right. PS: Do you belong to a sewing group, or a sewing bee or a circle? NS: Not really. I spend all my time in my sewing room--well, it' ; s half a room--doing my own thing. PS: Have pictures of you, your quilts and/or patterns been published? NS. Yes. " ; My Tigers" ; up here were part of an interview for the guild when I was Quilter of the Year in 1999. The Battle Creek Enquirer and News, I can' ; t remember the man' ; s name, but he was very nice. He was a nice guy. He did a very nice article about me then. And I have published, since--well, I think I started around 1990 somewhere, sending articles off to different magazines. And I' ; ve had thirty one published articles, some small, some large, some one page, some six pages, about lots and lots of different quilts and stories about quilting, tips, whatever. And they' ; ve been in several books as well. I have one more article coming up in June in Quilter' ; s World Magazine. That will be article number thirty two. PS: Wow. NS: And last week I mailed off, all the paper work and pictures and everything for my lantern quilt that was in the quilt show. It won a third place ribbon in the show last September. PS: And where did you mail those to? NS: That one went to DRG. It' ; s a diversified group--something or other, I' ; m not sure, but it used to be called the House of White Birches. And they publish Quilter' ; s World Magazine. PS: Okay. NS: --and books and other magazines, but I' ; m hoping they decide to use it. It would be nice. PS: Do you collect or sell quilts? NS: I collect my own quilts. I don' ; t think I have anybody else' ; s. I' ; ve got one old one that I bought for $5. A friend found it at a garage sale and I used that as an article, with the old quilt and the new one that I made of the pattern. But I haven' ; t saved any old stuff as far as I know except rugs. PS: Do you have a collection of quilting or sewing memorabilia?  NS: No. PS: Have you ever owned or worked in a quilt shop? NS: No, I' ; m positive I' ; ve never owned one, but the only way I' ; ve ever worked in one is teaching. I' ; ve taught in two or three, but that' ; s all. PS: Okay. Have you ever won an award? NS: Yup. Lots of times. I don' ; t know how many I' ; ve won. I really don' ; t. I' ; ve got a pile of ribbons in the other room. The only ribbons--well, let' ; s see--I' ; ve sent my quilts off to big shows here and there and didn' ; t get anything back on those, but in the Portage show occasionally I would get a People' ; s Choice award. I' ; ve gotten a few. Last year I got the third place one on the lanterns and " ; Tony' ; s Mariner' ; s Compass" ; quilt took a blue ribbon last year. And the year before that I won, I think it was a People' ; s Choice award for the challenge quilts. My " ; Weathervane Stars" ; quilted wall hanging--and that' ; s the one that will be in the magazine in June. PS: Have you ever participated in quilt history preservation? NS: To the extent that I had them do one of my quilts when they did the Michigan Project.  PS: Yes. NS: And we did a bunch of quilts for them but I think they rejected them, if I remember right. They weren' ; t terribly happy with our quilts. They were beautiful and so we just took them all back home again. PS: Do you have a studio or a sewing room? NS: Well, I have a half a room. I have a big trestle table. I' ; ve got lots of storage space for my fabrics and I' ; ve got all my books in there. I' ; ve got a lot of books. I love books. And they' ; re a mess, all of the time. Creative clutter, they say-- PS: Oh, I like that. NS: --is a nice way to put it. It' ; s a mess. I' ; m a messy sewer. I always have been. PS: Tell me about the quilt we' ; re going to see today. NS: This is " ; My Tigers." ; I made this in 1998. So it' ; s twelve years old. No, it' ; s more than that. Anyway, it was the first one that I did that was an intricate appliqué. It kind of started a trend. I love doing pictures of animals. I just like doing quilts that look like something, that are recognizable. I' ; m not fond of modern art. So I like things around me that you can recognize. And I like doing colorful things. I used a pattern from Robert' ; s Design Studio, Robert' ; s Studio, I think it' ; s called. And they sell wood-working design patterns for intarsia, which is an inlaid wood technique. The biggest tiger, that' ; s Mister was the first one I made and then I decided that I wanted to do a family portrait. And so, I reversed the pattern for her. And the baby, I drew that one myself, with a lot of help from a daughter. But, it needed something. I didn' ; t know what to do with it so what I did, was I took the [P.S. coughs.] color wheel and they said that blue was the opposite of orange and so I added blue to it and the tigers came alive.  PS: Uh huh. NS: It made all the difference in the world. PS: What special meaning does this quilt have for you? NS: Oh, I love tigers. I adore tigers and we' ; ve lived with it on the wall behind the sofa all these years. In fact, we gave it a bath on Monday and blocked it, special for the occasion.  PS: Oh. NS: So, they' ; re all clean and my husband said he thought he heard one of them purring after we got them back on the wall. But, they' ; re fun to have around. I enjoy quilts and I enjoy tigers. It just means a lot to me that I was able to do it. I wasn' ; t sure that I could really do it. I discovered one thing. You start with the eyes and after you get the eyes right, then you add a stripe at a time. And they are not difficult as long as you follow the pattern very carefully. I' ; ve done others since then, two, just of the one tiger' ; s head. I gave one to my son-in-law and the other one is in my pile of quilts in the other room. PS: What do you think this quilt says about you? NS: That I know how to make quilts. That I enjoyed doing it. You can tell when somebody didn' ; t like making something. Beyond that, I don' ; t know--that I like bright colors. PS: And tigers. NS: And tigers, right. PS: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. NS: It' ; s my life. I make quilts for any and every occasion and, to me, they are something that I need to do all the time. I love making them. I love sleeping with them. I curl up with a quilt whenever I feel like it. We have wall hangings in every room in the house. We have enough quilts so that I can change them once a month on the bed when I want to. And whenever I clean the bathroom I change the wall hanging in the bathroom. So, they' ; re a rotating collection. I--they' ; re just part of our lives. It' ; s kind of fun to go in there and say, ' ; Oh, I forgot I put that quilt out yesterday or the day before or whenever,' ; you know.  PS: It is fun to see them again. NS: Well, yes. A few years ago we had too many quilts and it was a horribly cold winter and so my husband suggested that maybe we should share them with the rest of the family, some of them. So we went in the other room and we dug out all the quilts that we had, which wasn' ; t all that many, but, still a lot, and brought them out and told the girls to take whichever ones they wanted. They were a little flabbergasted at first but we told them we figured they needed somebody to keep warm with them. My aim in life is to keep as many people as warm and as happy as possible with quilts. And giving the girls the quilts for themselves and for the rest of their family just seemed like a good idea. They' ; re being used and loved. We weren' ; t doing anything with them. They were sitting in the other room. PS: How old were you when you started to quilt? NS: Oh, gosh. I must have been in my thirties. I don' ; t know. [laughs.] It' ; s terrible that I really don' ; t remember. I can tell you it was probably 1972, something like that.  PS: I think we kind of talked about this before. From whom did you learn to quilt? NS: Mary Reineke. PS: Okay. NS: She has since passed away, but she was a great influence on a great many people. She was a marvelous quilter. PS: How do you spell her last name? NS: R-E-I-N-E-K-E. PS: And how did you know her? I think she was a teacher? NS: I met her at the library. She belonged to the Portage library, just like I did, and they talked her into teaching that first class. She was an extremely busy lady and so we had a hard time getting in touch with her, even. She was busy with two daughters and a husband and their church. Really busy, but she took the time to teach us the basics, and it was fun. A few years after that, she told us that she was amazed at how we had taken off and the things that we were doing. Because, she never learned how to draft patterns-- PS: Oh. NS: --the way we did. She said, ' ; You make it look easy.' ; And we said, ' ; It is easy, Mary.' ; It really is. She came to us for the pattern of one of her quilts. I believe it had been made by her mother or her aunt. And she let us take photographs of it, and measure it and the whole thing, you know. But, it was a really old fashioned quilt and not all the blocks were the same size. So we drafted the pattern so it was a nice accurate 12" ; block. And she thought that was really neat. Broken Dishes was the first one that she ever asked us for a copy of her pattern. That was fun. PS: How many hours a week do you quilt? NS: Oh, gosh. I spend probably a minimum of six hours a day quilting. Either at the sewing machine or sitting over here in my chair, quilting. I get nervous if I don' ; t have something in my hands to work with. And I don' ; t sleep terribly well, so instead of getting up and walking around in this little house, or doing anything else, I' ; ll do some handwork. Or, if I close the bedroom doors I don' ; t wake Jerry up with the sewing machine. I' ; m terrible. PS: What is your first quilt memory? NS: First one? Golly, I think finishing my first quilt probably was it. I still have my first block. It was a Spider Web. PS: Oh. NS: And I kept that. I bound the edges of it and I kept it, but I don' ; t even remember my first quilt. I think it was a brick fence? I don' ; t remember what it was called, but it had a lot of yellow in it. And I sold it.  PS: Sold your first quilt? NS: Yes, somebody liked it and so I sold it. I could make another one. It was a scrap quilt, you know. I' ; ve made so many since then that I haven' ; t even taken pictures of all of them. I have in the last few years, but the ones when I first started, I only took pictures of the ones on special occasions, like when I made them for my in-laws and gave them to them for Christmas. You know, we got pictures of them then. But the ones I just made for us I never took photographs of. PS: Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them. Well, we did talk about your sister. NS: Yes, my sister, yes. Shirley and I love to quilt. The majority of my friends are quilters. It' ; s our way of communicating, I guess. I don' ; t know. I think ninety percent of my friends are quiltmakers, or have been or wish they were. [both laugh.] Or they' ; re people who have received quilts that I' ; ve sent them. PS: How does quiltmaking impact your family? NS: It keeps them warm. Everybody has a special quilt that was made especially for them, a wedding quilt, graduation quilt, birthday quilt, bachelor quilt, moving quilt. And then there are the wall hangings and the small quilts that I' ; ve made for them either because they have admired them. Like our granddaughter, Mandy, had a bunny. And she wanted a quilt with him on there. And so they sent me pictures of her bunny. It was a, I can' ; t remember what kind it was, black and white anyway. And I made her a wall hanging with two bunnies on it and Log Cabin flowers and all kinds of things. She still has it. It' ; s fun. But, I have a daughter, Jeane, who adores Winnie the Pooh, especially Tigger and so she has a Tigger quilt. And she has a Pooh and Piglet quilt. Our great-granddaughter loves them, too. She plays with quilts like they were toys. She picks them up and she hugs them and she talks to them and she carries them around. And then she throws them on the floor and goes on to something else. She is just a little over a year old and she adores all her quilts and all the whole family' ; s quilts. She enjoys all of them. She' ; s not fussy. Anybody' ; s quilt is fine with her. PS: Tell me if you' ; ve ever used quilts to get through a difficult time. NS: Oh, yeah. Lots of times. I had a period of seven years when I wasn' ; t able to quilt. I wasn' ; t able to do anything. I was really sick. And it was like being in a deep dark hole. I spent all my time staring at walls and they didn' ; t know why or anything. But it was quilting that pulled me out of it. I decided I have got to be able to make quilts again. And so I pulled out the Santa Clause quilt top that I had made seven years before that. It had been packed away with everything else. And I talked my husband and my daughters into helping me baste it. I finished quilting that one in, oh, two months. Something like that. And I started appliquéing angels. It was a very old Quilt World pattern for reverse appliqué, and appliqué, depending on the quality of the fabrics--because for reverse appliqué I have to have really good fabric. And if I couldn' ; t get the good fabric that I wanted in the right colors I just used regular appliqué. I still have that top in the other room. It' ; s queen size with white angels on blue backgrounds with bright pink hearts on it and a bright pink border around it. I just haven' ; t had time to finish it up. I didn' ; t know anybody who really needed it at the time. I still don' ; t. It' ; s just sitting there in the collection. I have a lot of those. PS: Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking or teaching. NS: We have a lot of fun things that we do. When we teach, somebody will ask about showing this or that or doing something one way and somebody else will say, ' ; Well, I don' ; t do it that way.' ; So, tell us. It' ; s always fun to find out how other people are doing things. That' ; s so much fun. We' ; ve taken lots of trips, going to quilt shows and there are always jokes. Quilters are fun people. I just can' ; t imagine a life without quiltmaking and quiltmakers.  PS: You kind of answer my questions before I ask them. NS: Oh, I' ; m sorry about that. PS: What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? NS: Everything. I enjoy every stage of it. I enjoy the patchwork. I enjoy the appliqué. I enjoy the quilting stitches themselves going in. I enjoy thinking about all the different patterns that there are, reading all the books that there are, and I enjoy curling up with quilts and taking naps. They' ; re on my walls. They' ; re in every room in the house and [clock chimes.] they' ; re just nice things to have. They' ; re like friends. PS: What aspects of quilting do you not enjoy? [clock chimes.] NS: Well, I don' ; t like to rip out stitches. When I make mistakes, I' ; m not fond of taking them apart. But I' ; ve done that. I can remember one quilt that I had all basted and the center of the quilt was finished but there was a lot more to do around the outside edge. I had sent off pictures of it, and patterns, to Quilt World Magazine. They wanted it for photography purposes before I had the quilt finished. So I took it all out, every bit of it and sent just the top. And, you know, it still isn' ; t finished. One other time, my sister made a quilt for us for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. It' ; s a beautiful Hawaiian sampler quilt, in shades of rust and a real light peach background. I had started to quilt it. It was all together and I had started quilting on it and, if fact, I had a lot of quilting in the center of it and I did four blocks. And my sister came. Shirley had made the quilt top and gave it to me all basted, ready to go. Every time I showed her what I had done she said, ' ; Oh, the block just drives me crazy.' ; One of the blocks had gotten turned and the color was a tad different, the background, from the rest of the quilt. It showed up lighter than the rest of the blocks. It just drove her crazy, so I took out all of the quilting that was in there, took the quilt apart, turned that block and put it back together again. We rebasted it and the next time she came over I said, ' ; Are you happy with it now?' ; And she says, ' ; Oh, it' ; s beautiful now. It' ; s gorgeous.' ; She thought I was crazy for doing that for her. But it really made the quilt much different. It' ; s just one of those crazy things that I like to do. I love designing them, like the new horses. I' ; m thinking of adding roses to them, calling them the Winner' ; s Circle and putting roses around the outside [both speak at once.]  PS: That would be interesting. NS: That might be pretty. I don' ; t know. I' ; m thinking about it. PS: Talk about your horses just a second. NS: Well, there again they' ; re an intarsia pattern from Robert' ; s Studio in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. And I bought the pattern, oh, several years ago. It' ; s probably been ten years ago. I didn' ; t know what I was going to do with it, but I decided I would just wait for it to tell me what it wanted. In the last year I have made a couple of others. One was a fused one and I' ; m really not fond of fusing my appliqués. I' ; m really not, but I tried it because we had Aniko Feher come and talk to us at Cal-Co guild [Cal-Co Quilters' ; Guild.] and I got her instructions from the internet or how she works and so I tried it with one of the horses. I finished it up into a wall hanging and a friend bought it as a Christmas gift for a friend of hers. I did another one entirely by hand and I enjoyed that one. I still have that one. That' ; s a Palomino horse. But the horses that I' ; m making now are--I' ; m trying to make them the color of real horses, chestnut and black and light brown or tan and a dappled grey. And I think I' ; ll do a white one. They' ; re good sized. They fit on an eighteen inch square. So, I have to be careful how many of them I make or I' ; ll have too many for a wall hanging. I think I would like to make them into a circle. I figured if I drew a sixteen inch circle in the middle of the background fabric I could arrange them in a circle around, either five or seven of them and, maybe six. I don' ; t know. And we' ; ll go on from there. My quilts tell me what they want. These tigers just drove me crazy because they said, ' ; I' ; m not comfortable. I need some greenery around me.' ; And it doesn' ; t hurt to have a river, or something in front of them because they look more natural that way. PS: What art or quilt groups do you belong to? NS: Just the Battle Creek guild and the Portage guild. I did belong to the American Quilters' ; Society but I just dropped that because when we moved I didn' ; t have room for all the magazines. In a small house they accumulate. PS: Have advances in technology influenced your work? NS: Oh, definitely. Yes. I love doing Olfa cutter patchwork. I' ; ve worn out a couple of Olfa cutters and mats. And my rulers are getting scarred around the edges. Yes, the new techniques of making quilts has made it possible for me to make faster quilts. That' ; s the kind of ones that I pretty much do for charity. I have made a lot of quilts for the Kids' ; Quilts program, Quilts for Kids, whichever it' ; s called at the Cal-Co guild. They--[introduces her husband to PS and exchanges a few words with him.] I try to make a few every month, at least. I think, if I counted correctly I have made between fifty and seventy-five in the last year.  PS: Ah, that' ; s a lot. NS: I turned in a few each month along and then in October I turned in a dozen. And again, in January, I turned in ten more. PS: Wow. NS: I have since done four more tops that are ready to be basted and done. But I do all of those by machine. When I' ; m doing special quilts for family I frequently will do the patchwork by machine, using the Olfa cutter method and then I do all the quilting by hand. But, I love doing it the old fashioned way as well. I think the quilts are friendlier, I think, when you do them by hand. PS: That might be true. Well, what are your favorite techniques and materials? NS: I love batiks and hand dyed fabrics. I love appliqué. I don' ; t think there is much in fabric that I don' ; t like. I' ; m not fond of working with silk because if you puncture it the hole stays. PS: It' ; s not very forgiving. NS: No, it isn' ; t. Not at all. I like to use cotton-poly, 65-35 for children' ; s quilts, because the colors stay bright and they wash up beautifully. And they don' ; t seem to fade quite as fast as cottons. The new fabrics that are available now are just amazing. The budget is the only reason I don' ; t have every fabric that' ; s available. As it is, I trip over some of my fabric, I have so much of it. But I' ; ve used up a lot of scraps in the last year, making kid' ; s quilts and quilts for friends of my daughters. I take scraps from anyone and turn them into quilts.  PS: Describe your studio or the place that you create. NS: It' ; s just a part of a room. I have a trestle table that was rescued from a dumpster. My husband brought it home. It was absolutely filthy. We sanded it down and cleaned it up and he put it back together again so it' ; s nice and sturdy. It has a drawer for my thread in one side of it. I put my sewing machine on one end of it and my cutting board on the other and I have good lights. I have two lamps that I work with all the time. And then I have a heavy-duty industrial-strength set of shelves with my quilting books and patterns and my notebooks with all my articles and pictures on it. Then I have a very old chest of drawers that I got at a garage sale once and we revamped that. I put so many fabrics in one of the drawers that it popped the front right off the drawer. So, my husband put it back together again for me. I also have tubs, Rubbermaid tubs of fabric. I have things hanging on hangers in the closet. I share the room with our desk and bookcase and our computer. It' ; s a busy little room.  PS: Tell me how you balance your time. NS: Well, now that Jerry has retired and I retired at the same time he did, although I didn' ; t actually have anything to retire from, we do as we please. Except for appointments we work whenever we feel like it, at whatever we feel like doing. So, I don' ; t have to budget my time anymore. It' ; s really nice and the fact that my husband enjoys quilts almost as much as I do is terrific. Because he is extremely good with color. He worked in the printing business for years, umpteen, forty-some years, and he knows how colors interact and when something doesn' ; t look quite right he' ; ll tell me. Or, if he especially likes something he says, ' ; That' ; s nice. [inaudible.]' ; He' ; s been terrific about this whole thing. PS: Do you use a design wall? NS: No, I wish I had one. I tape things up on the wall occasionally or I hang them on the clothesline. Mostly I lay them out on the bed or on the floor and I get the stepladder out and get up and take pictures. And if you take pictures of something, it will point out glaring errors. It' ; s amazing what you can see with the camera. This year for my birthday Jerry gave me a very nice digital camera. I have been having a ball with it. It' ; s wonderful. It' ; s easier if you have a design wall. I used to have a wall twenty years ago in the basement that I could hang things up on, or pin things to a sheet hung up on a wall, then go back and sit on the stairs to design what was there. That was lovely. I enjoyed doing it that way. It was easier, because the quilts--if you' ; re working in a small room the quilts yell at you. ' ; I' ; m crowded. I don' ; t like it here. I need more space.' ; So a lot of times I' ; ll just lay things out on the floor or on the bed and go away for a while and then take my glasses off and come back in the room and anything that looks out of place, I put my glasses back on and change it. And then go away for a while and come back. Sometimes the quilts stay there for a couple of days. We walk around it and over it. That, to me, is the easiest way to do it here. We have a rod up over the fireplace there?  PS: I see that. NS: Well, the rod isn' ; t' ; there now. PS: I see where the place is. NS: [both speak at once.] Just the hangers now, but you can see where the place is. I, in the past have taken a quilt and hung it up backwards so the plain back was facing out and pinned things on that. PS: Oh. NS: And used that as a design wall, after I' ; d pretty much decided what I wanted to do. That helped. There just aren' ; t enough walls in this house. I' ; ve even pinned things to the drapes. Closed the drapes and pinned things up to them just to get a little better perspective on things. PS: What do you think makes a great quilt? NS: I think if you start with a really good design to begin with. That helps. That' ; s key. If you' ; ve got a wishy-washy pattern, something that doesn' ; t have nice lines to it, or interest. You need a really neat pattern. Then you need marvelous, marvelous fabrics. Lots of contrast. There' ; s nothing worse than a quilt that somebody has spent a year making and you can' ; t find anything good to say about it, other than ' ; You used pretty colors and your quilting is beautiful and it feels wonderful.' ; That kind of thing. If you don' ; t have enough contrast in the colors, you need light, dark, medium and bright in every stage of the whole quilt. Otherwise you' ; ll end up with a wimpy quilt. Wimpy quilts are sad things. They don' ; t photograph well. They keep people warm but that' ; s about all you can say for them. They never win prizes.  PS: What makes a quilt artistically powerful? NS: There, again, I think it' ; s the way you use the fabrics and pattern to bring out the best in what you' ; re making. Lots of contrast, lots of different fabrics. The tigers have, I believe nine different whites in their faces and there are at least twelve different oranges in them. And, all of the flowers are different blues and greens. I don' ; t think I repeated the fabrics often enough so that you can say, ' ; Oh, it' ; s there and there and there.' ; But, I guess I like scrappy-looking quilts, to give things depth and just make them look better. I like to use tone-on-tone fabrics.  Like with the horses I' ; ve used nine different blacks in the black horse. [shows horse.] And I' ; ve used both the front and the back of the fabrics. This is the front, this is the back and I used a grey here instead of a white for the blaze. There' ; s, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. There are eight different blacks in here. Once he' ; s quilted he' ; s going to look real. [PS: hums agreement.] He' ; ll come to life. When you quilt around in an appliqué it pops. It' ; s like the flowers are blooming. And the animals come to life. That' ; s the best part, right there. The best part of making quilts is when somebody says, ' ; Wow, it looks real.' ; I have one friend who complains about my Tigers. She says, ' ; They follow me. They watch me.' ; PS: Now that' ; s a real compliment. NS: I thanked her. I thanked her. She said, ' ; You stand on one side of the room. He' ; s looking at you. You walk across the room, he' ; s still looking at you. He follows me.' ; [laughs.] I like my quilts to look real. Like the tigers are just sitting there. Or the horses will look like they' ; re posing, in their winner' ; s circle. Tony' ; s quilt that won a blue ribbon last fall, the Mariner' ; s Compass medallion--somebody, I don' ; t remember who it was, one of the quilters--came to me and she said, ' ; I knew that was your quilt before I ever read the sign. All those bright colors and everything, the design looked nice and crisp on the background.' ; And I thanked her and then I went and looked at it and I figured, you know, looking at my quilts compared to some others around there, you can tell. Because I like bright colors. It had bright orange and red, screaming yellow. All those colors in it, but it was really a navy blue and white quilt. But, I really love to play with color and fabric. And I' ; ll use any fabric I can to get the right color in the right place. Purists don' ; t agree with that. PS: It' ; s your quilt. NS: Yes. Yes, you can get away with something if you know how to treat it. PS: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection?  NS: Oh, I suppose it has to be a masterpiece, something that' ; s very, very special. I would think. I don' ; t know. Or it has wonderful things, memories of wonderful things. Or it belonged to a very special person. Was made by a very special person. PS: What makes a great quiltmaker? NS: Enthusiasm. She has to love quilts and she needs to love what she' ; s doing. It shows. PS: Whose works are you drawn to, and why? NS: Well, I' ; m very fond of the beautiful portraits that we saw when Aniko Feher came to lecture to us last fall. Her portraits are spectacular. They are superb and I would love to be able to make one as nice as she does. In fact, I' ; m planning to make one of my great granddaughter. I love the beautiful old-fashioned appliqués. Something that I enjoy doing is taking an old pattern, one of the old, old ones from fifty years ago and using the new batiks and the beautiful new fabrics to make them. I made one for a friend. She happens to be my hairdresser. She moved into a new salon this last year and she loves pink. My husband had surgery this last year and I had a lot of waiting time, and keeping him company time while he was recuperating. So, I did a lot of handwork. One of the things I did was I took an old-fashioned pattern of North Carolina Rose and I did it in new batiks, bright, bright pinks and greens on a pretty white-on-white background. I was showing them to my hairdresser when I went in to see her one time. And she fell in love with this pink North Carolina Rose. After she got moved into her new salon I finished it up and gave it to her to hang in her place. And she admitted that when she saw it the first time, she almost asked me if she could have it. She says, ' ; But I was afraid that would be tacky, so I didn' ; t.' ; But she loves it. She hung it up in the shop and it' ; s bright. It' ; s cheerful and it' ; s pink. She just loves it. I like being able to do things like that. It' ; s fun to send something to someone or hand it to someone and say, ' ; Here, this is yours.' ; PS: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? And what about longarm quilting? NS: Well, I prefer hand quilting. I think it' ; s prettier but the gals who do the expert longarm quilting do wonderful, wonderful things. I can' ; t do that. I do--on the kids quilts that I make--I do utilitarian quilting on my sewing machine. It' ; s enough to hold them together and make them puffy and tough enough for kids to drag around. But, they' ; re not a work of art by any stretch of imagination. They' ; re bright and they' ; re soft and they' ; re warm and that has to be good enough. But, I wish I could do spectacular machine quilting. But I can' ; t. So, I do really nice hand quilting. It' ; s one of the most fun things in the world, to take a plain piece of material and draw feathers on it and quilt them. It' ; s really a neat thing to do. PS: Kind of something from nothing. NS: Yes, Yes. But, I know when they first started out with the longarm quilting machines there was a horrible uproar from the traditionalists about all this machine quilting that they didn' ; t like it. They didn' ; t think it was proper and that it shouldn' ; t be allowed in shows and it was a ridiculous argument. Because there are artists with machines and there are artists with needles in their hands. And they' ; re all beautiful. PS: Why is quiltmaking important to your life? NS: It' ; s the most important thing I do. Making and teaching and writing about quilts is the most important things I do. [pauses 6 seconds.] I don' ; t know beyond that. PS: That' ; s enough. NS: On, good. I' ; m glad, because that' ; s my whole life. PS: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? Or do they? NS: I don' ; t think they do. Because I' ; ve done designs from all over the world. I' ; ve seen some fabulous Japanese quilts that I wished I could make. But, I look through my books and anything that takes my eye frequently I will take the idea from a book or a picture from a show or something or other and then do my own thing with it. It' ; s--I don' ; t think I have ever followed a pattern blindly. I have to tweak it. PS: Make it yours. NS: Yeah, I have to do something with it. PS: What do you think about the importance in American life? NS: Oh, they' ; ve been a necessity, forever in America. We don' ; t have to have quilts now to keep warm, but they make life nicer. They make everything nicer.  PS: In what ways do you think quilts have special meanings for women' ; s history in America? NS: Well, they were the only outlet for women' ; s art for a very long time. Even the Amish people who do not allow artistic leanings of any kind at all, allow their women to make practical quilts. And the fact that their quilting is masterpiece-type quilting and their colors are strong wonderful colors seems to go right over the head of the people who made, the men who made all those laws. But, they' ; ve always been important to women. Women have always had to have something bright and pretty around them. And if it kept somebody warm, so much the better. PS: How do you think quilts can be used? NS: Well, I' ; ve used them for practically everything, for teaching, for learning, for enjoying, for keeping people warm, for making something pretty to hang on the wall. Even cover up an ugly chair with a pretty quilt sometimes helps. I don' ; t know beyond that. They just make things better.  PS: How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? NS: Probably by photographs would be the safest way to do it. The quilts that I have made I expect people to use up and wear out. So, I can replace them. It would be nice if a wide range of nice quilts could be kept in some ways so that a hundred years from now they would be able to see what kind of quilts we made. Because we can look back at the quilts in the museums now and see the kinds of things that they were making a hundred and fifty years ago. It' ; s interesting, but I still think photographs is probably the safest way to do it. That way they can' ; t wear out. PS: What has happened to the quilts you have made for those of friends and family? NS: Hopefully, they have been loved to death.  PS: Hopefully so. NS: Yes, I prefer that people use my quilts and enjoy them. And I can remember, let' ; s see, of course I made quilts for my grandchildren when they came along. And I remember, several years ago, asking Jeane if her kids still had their quilts and she said, ' ; Oh, yes, they have their quilts.' ; And I said, ' ; Could I see them?' ; And she said, ' ; You don' ; t want to see them.' ; They' ; re worn. They loved them a lot. And they' ; re worn out, so I just take out a picture and look at the pictures occasionally. And know that they had them. PS: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? NS: Oh, I can' ; t think of any big challenges. The fabrics are superb. The patterns are everywhere. Finding enough time to make them probably is the biggest challenge. And I' ; m lucky enough to have all the time I want to play with my quilts. I am lucky, because not everybody has a husband who encourages them to do what they want to do. I' ; ve never had anybody say, ' ; Oh, you can' ; t do that.' ; That would make me want to do it more. A lot of times Kay Horton will suggest something just to see what I will do. When I was Quilter of the Year and we had the booth set up in the show she said something about a pattern. I had bought a pattern for an intricate little wreath and she said, ' ; Well, if you could do that you could make a hedgehog.' ; I said, ' ; You' ; ve got to be kidding.' ; She says, ' ; Well, why not?' ; I said, ' ; I don' ; t know. Do you want a hedgehog?' ; ' ; Yeah, I' ; d like a hedgehog.' ; ' ; Okay, what color do you want?' ; And before the day was over she had bought a set of fabrics for a jacket with hedgehogs on the shoulders, front and back. And she provided me with all the fabrics and the jacket and I found the pattern in Creature Comforts, I think is the name of the book. It was a Quilter' ; s Newsletter editor' ; s book, designed by a couple of gals. And I adapted the pattern that was in there for a hedgehog. And I used that to make little ones to go on the shoulders of her jacket. And I believe there were, two, three, four, five, six or seven of them. Five on the back and two on the front. And she said later that she had no idea that I would even try it. She throws these ideas at me and she knows that they' ; ll start working up here. You know it' ; s like a worm working away in your mind. Well, I could do this or I could do this, or I could do this. It keeps me interested. That' ; s what I do when I' ; m quilting the outside edge of a quilt. You know you get a little bored with it by the time you get to the outside border and so I plan the next twelve quilts while I' ; m doing that. It' ; s amazing what you can come up with when you have to finish that last bit of quilt before you can start on the next one. PS: Is there anything else you would like to talk about? NS: I have talked about everything already. PS: I think you' ; ve done wonderfully. NS: Well, if it' ; s too long you' ; ll have to edit it. PS: I think it will be fine. NS: Good PS: Thank you, Norma. NS: You' ; re welcome. [interview ended at 11:37 a.m.]. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net ",,"Teaching quiltmaking",,"Sylvia Milne",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/d01178c01a4629815db9062a0ce6d9b8.JPG,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/037b20374e748fcd7a3e79c589aeafde.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/7a0e7a8cf69fcff69e2bb874756f8904.JPG","Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0 "Rosemary Kimball",,"Rosemary Kimball was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares her experience of making quilts for family and the excitement of discovering lost family quilts.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-008,,,"Pam Schultz","Rosemary Kimball",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-008Kimball.xml,,,," 5.1 Rosemary Kimball MI49016-008 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance Quiltmaking for family Learning quiltmaking Rosemary Kimball Pam Schultz MI49016-008Kimball1.mp3 1:|13(6)|30(2)|52(2)|71(2)|81(4)|98(10)|112(2)|127(2)|137(7)|154(2)|169(2)|181(9)|192(7)|215(8)|229(15)|239(9)|259(2)|270(2)|281(11)|291(13)|297(11)|316(13)|330(1)|341(2)|358(2)|368(1)|385(2)|394(10)|405(2) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-008Kimball1.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction This is Pam Schultz. It’s Monday, March 21, 2011 at 10:35 a.m. I’m interviewing Rosemary Kimball at Westlake Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek Pam Schultz interviews Rosemary Kimball at Westlake Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. 42.29394109999999, -85.2285321 17 Westlake Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. 39 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today ; What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you? ; Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. Kimball describes receiving a quilt to repair and copying the pattern to create a new quilt using 1930s fabric. She displayed the new quilt alongside the repaired quilt at a show in 1999, winning the Judge's Choice award. Kimball believes that this quilt shows her attention to detail and love of both applique and hand quilting. Antique quilts ; Awards ; Fabric - Reproduction ; Fabric - Vintage ; Hand applique ; Hand quilting ; Quilt conservation ; quilt restoration ; Quilt shows/exhibitions 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-008KimballA.jpg Rosemary Kimball with quilt 234 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. ; From whom did you learn to quilt? ; How many hours a week do you quilt? I've always been interested in it. When my husband and I used to travel I knew that one day I would be a quilter. And wherever we went I would look for quilting magazines. If I'd find one I'd buy it and take it home. That was before I ever got into actual quilting. I've always known that one day I would quilt. Kimball describes her interest in quiltmaking before learning to make quilts. Describes first quilt, made for her first grand-daughter's birth. Kimball is mostly self-taught, but she learned to sew at age 10. Explains preference for hand work rather than machine work and how she forgets everything else when focusing on a project. home sewing ; Knowledge transfer ; Learning quiltmaking ; quilt magazines ; self-taught ; Time management 17 378 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them. ; How does quiltmaking impact your family? You know, after my aunt passed away, when I was clearing her house, I found a box, a coat box up on the shelf in the hallway. Kimball describes finding a box with two unused quilts among aunt's things, but she's not sure who made the quilts. Kimball explains that her children appreciate what she does and how she's working on a quilt for her son and daughter-in-law. Antique quilts ; family quilts ; Hand applique ; Hand quilting ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quiltmaker identity ; Quiltmaking for family 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-008KimballB.jpg Detail of Rosemary Kimball's quilt. 566 What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? ; What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy? ; What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? Kimball enjoys showing her creativity and precision in her work. She does not enjoy gathering materials to start a new project, and she does not enjoy her small work space. Creativity ; Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment ; Work or Studio space 17 660 What art or quilt groups do you belong to? What art or quilt groups do you belong to? Kimball belongs to Cal-Co Quilters' Guild. and participates in multiple quilt circles. Cal-Co Quilters Guild ; Guild activities ; quilt magazines ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Sew 'n Sews ; Social quiltmaking activities ; South Side Ladies of the Evening ; Spring Chicks 17 741 Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how? I guess not so much because I'm from the old school. I've learned to do the things that I do and it's pretty well imbedded in my thinking and doing. Kimball considers herself " ; old school," ; and so she generally takes her time. She appreciates rotary cutters. Describes making templates from cardboard. Acrylic templates ; Cardboard templates ; Rotary cutter ; Technology in quiltmaking ; Time management 17 827 What are your favorite techniques and materials? ; Describe your studio/the place that you create. ; I love thirties fabrics. I love thirties fabrics. I go for the pastels and the fabrics that are easy to look at. Kimball loves working with 1930s fabrics in pastels. Describes preferences for lighter fabrics that are softer and easy to live with. Describes struggle with small work space and accessing fabric and supplies. She quilting work overflows into the dining and living rooms. Fabric - Reproduction ; Fabric stash ; storage ; Work or Studio space 17 941 Tell me how you balance your time. Balance time? What’s balance your time? No, I don’t balance my time. I eat if I’m not doing something that’s enjoyable. If I’m involved in getting something that I want to get done and I’m enjoying it everything else stops. I don’t clean. Kimball explains how she doesn't feel the need to balance time if she's enjoying her work. flow ; quiltmaking process ; Time management 17 979 Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts? I maybe would if I could get to it. Kimball has a design wall, but she doesn't find it necessary if she has a pattern in mind. Her space limitations make it hard for her to access the design wall. Design process ; Design Wall 17 1010 What do you think makes a great quilt? ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? ; One that is well done, one that is pleasing to the eye. Kimball believes that a great quilt is well-made and pleasing to the eye. Explains that people respond to some quilts and not others, and that's OK. Kimball enjoys the works of many quiltmakers, but does not have a favorite. Aesthetics 17 http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-205E Rosemary Kimball, " ; The Grape Arbor," ; Quilt Index. 1155 How do you feel about machine quilting vs. hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting? Well, of course I’d prefer the hand quilting. And, yes, there is a place for machine quilting and there are some that do beautiful work. Kimball prefers hand quilting, but she believes that machine quilting is appropriate at times, especially for children's quilts that will be used. Describes a quilt made for her grand-daughter that was loved beyond repair. Kimball explains that she has had good and bad experiences after sending quilts to be finished by long-arm quilters. Hand quilting ; Long arm quilting machine ; Machine quilting ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; quilt purpose - utilitarian ; Quiltmaking for family 17 1389 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? Oh, my goodness. If you've got to have a hobby, it's one of the best ones I can think of. Kimball describes the experience of quilting in the winter, being kept warm by the quilt. Describes making gemstone jewelry and having to work in the dark basement. ceramics ; Fabric/Quilt shops ; Hand quilting ; jewelry ; leisure ; Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment 17 1495 What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? ; In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America? ; I think quilts have been around for years and years and years and years. People made quilts. They’ve always been artistic. Explains that quilts have been around for a long time, and people made quilts out of necessity, but they were also artistic. Quilts are a form of art. She thinks women might not have a place in history without their quilts. Believes that children should be exposed to quilts, especially as schools cut art programs. Gender in qulitmaking ; Quilt history ; Quilt Purpose - Art or personal expression ; quilt purpose - utilitarian 17 1648 What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? Oh, I've made quilts for a lot of the members of my family and besides the six granddaughters I have got seven great grandkids, five of them girls and two of boys. Kimball has quilted for many family members, including six grand-daughters and seven great-grandchildren. She has made quilts for all but two of great-grandchildren so far and hopes to continue. Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quiltmaking for family 17 1711 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? Probably being able to find fabric. It's more expensive all the time. But if we are die-hard quilters I'm sure we have got our stashes. Kimball believes that fabric is getting more expensive, but dedicated quiltmakers have fabric stashes already. If quiltmakers were able to work years ago with fewer resources, quiltmakers today shouldn't have much trouble. Fabric stash ; Quilt history 17 1755 Conclusion Do you have any questions or anything else you'd like to talk about? 17 Oral History Rosemary Kimball was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares her experience of making quilts for family and the excitement of discovering lost family quilts. Pam Schultz (PS) ; This is Pam Schultz. It’s Monday, March 21, 2011 at 10:35 a.m. I’m interviewing Rosemary Kimball at Westlake Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek [Michigan.]. This interview is being conducted for the South Central Michigan Quilters’ Save Our Stories project of the Alliance for American Quilts. Hi, Rosemary. How are you this morning? Rosemary Kimball (RK) ; Just ducky. PS ; Okay. Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. RK ; I repaired a quilt for a lady who had a quilt of this design and she needed to have a repair done. I don’t remember how I happened to be the one that said they would repair it, but I did. I liked the design so well, and I had never seen it before, so I made a pattern from the quilt and made my own out of my own fabric. PS ; When did you make this quilt? RK ; In 1999. PS ; What special meaning does this quilt have for you? RK ; No special meaning, I guess, but I just enjoyed it and I love thirties fabric. It was thirties fabric. PS ; Why did you choose to bring this quilt to the interview? RK ; Because I really like it. She was thrilled. I put it in the quilt show in 1999 and I still had her quilt, and so I hung them side-by-side in the quilt show. She came to that show and she was thrilled to pieces to see both of them. It also got picked as Judges’ Choice-- PS ; Well, nice. RK ; --at that time, also. And I do like it. PS ; What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you? RK ; Maybe that I’m picky-uney in what I do. I’m very careful with what I do and maybe they would conclude that I love appliqué, which I do and they might conclude that I like hand quilting, because that’s what I do. PS ; I would conclude precise, not picky-une, precise. RK ; Well, maybe. Maybe that, too. PS ; How do you use this quilt? RK ; I haven’t actually used it. It’s in storage in the special furniture that I had made just to hold my quilts. PS ; What’s that furniture like? RK ; Oh, it’s wonderful. The husband of one of our former members made that for me. I wanted something that would hold my quilts and so I had Mike make it for me and he did a beautiful job. I love it. PS ; Is that like a cabinet, or-- RK ; Yeah, it’s lovely. It really is lovely. PS ; What are your plans for this quilt? RK ; Probably one of the kids will get it sooner or later, but they’re not going to have it until I’m dead and gone. [both laugh.] Anybody that gets it is going to have to appreciate it, and appreciate the work that went into it. And all of my kids appreciate what I do. PS ; Tell me about your interest in quilt-making. RK ; I’ve always been interested in it. When my husband and I used to travel I knew that one day I would be a quilter. And wherever we went I would look for quilting magazines. If I’d find one I’d buy it and take it home. That was before I ever got into actual quilting. I’ve always known that one day I would quilt. PS ; At what age were you when you started quilting? RK ; Well, let’s not get down to specifics. I’ve quilted for thirty-six years, actually. The first quilt I ever made I made for my first granddaughter and it was an appliquéd quilt, very simple little animals, appliquéd to make a baby quilt. And she still has it. In fact she talked her mother into giving her that quilt not too long ago. So she has it, now, instead of her mother. But, that’s the first quilt I ever made. PS ; From whom did you learn to quilt? RK ; Me, myself, and I. PS ; You’re self taught? RK ; Oh, yes. I have taken a lot of classes but I’ve sewed since I was ten years old, so it wasn’t completely unknown to me. I knew how to sew. But I prefer handwork rather than machine, and I still do. PS ; How many hours a week do you quilt? RK ; Depends on what else I’ve got going. Once I start, though, if I’ve got something that I’m really interested in I do it and forget the eating or cleaning or anything else. It’s what I do, what I enjoy doing. PS ; What is your first quilt memory? RK ; The baby quilt that I made for my first granddaughter. PS ; Are there other quilt-makers in your family or among your friends? RK ; You know, after my aunt passed away, when I was clearing her house, I found a box, a coat box up on the shelf in the hallway. I didn’t know what was in it and I opened it and there were tw o quilts inside of it that I had never seen before. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I was so thrilled and I don’t know who made them. I really don’t know who made them. It could have been my grandmother because she was a dressmaker and she sewed for people. It could have been my aunt but I don’t know. I mean I’m not aware that she sewed and, of course, my mother sewed but I know she didn’t do those quilts. Evidently somewhere along the line there was a quilter. I don’t know how many quilts they made but I love those quilts and, oh, I was so thrilled to find those. I don’t think they’d ever been used. PS ; Wow. RK ; I really don’t think they’d ever been used. I put them in the quilt show one year a long, long time ago. They are lovely quilts. PS ; How does quilt-making impact your family? RK ; Well, my kids appreciate what I do. They think it’s wonderful. I’m in the process of making one for my son and daughter-in-law which I may or may not ever get done. I’ve got ten of the twelve blocks done. It’s all hand quilted, or hand appliquéd. But I ran out of fabric for the background, so I’ve been searching for the fabric for the background and I’m going to have to substitute something, because I no longer can find-- and I don’t know why I ran out. I don’t, maybe it’s misplaced. Maybe it’s somewhere, but I haven’t been able to locate it. It’s got to be finished because I’m going to hand quilt that, too. I’d better get started. I’m not getting any younger. PS ; Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time. RK ; Probably, yes. Without realizing I was using them for that purpose. PS ; Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quilt-making. RK ; I’m easily amused. [PS laughs.] No specifics, but I’m easily amused, so. I don’t know how to answer that, really. PS ; I know you’ve told us more than, at least one per quilt. RK ; I can’t be specific, I guess. PS ; What do you find pleasing about quilt-making? RK ; Being able to do what I love to do and show my creativity and I do the best I can. I’m not satisfied ; if it’s pleasing to me then I know it’s going to be all right because I am very fussy about how I do things. PS ; What aspects of quilt-making do you not enjoy? RK ; I don’t know that there’s anything that I don’t enjoy. I think getting things ready to start the process is what I least enjoy doing. PS ; Getting all your materials and thread and pattern? RK ; Yeah. And I am really disheartened now because I don’t have room. I don’t have room for my fabrics. I downsized five years ago and moved, and I had space before. I don’t have space now. If I had my druthers I would have a great big sewing room so that I could see and get to my fabrics and have room to sew. I’m very confined now. I don’t like it. PS ; And hard. RK ; I don’t like it. PS ; What art or quilt groups do you belong to? RK ; I belong to Cal-Co Quilters’ Guild. At one time I belonged to one, two, three, four circles. Now I only belong to three. At one time I subscribed to about six quilting magazines, but I kept some that were of interest to me and I no longer subscribe to any of them. I’ll never live long enough to do all the quilts that I’d like to do. PS ; What are the three circles? RK ; Sew ‘n Sews, Southside Ladies of the Evening, Spring Chixs. PS ; And do you do different things between those groups or-- RK ; Some of the groups we do our own thing and we also do charity quilts in a couple of the circles, too. Not all the time along with our own things. PS ; Have advances in technology influenced your work? RK ; I guess not so much because I’m from the old school. I’ve learned to do the things that I do and it’s pretty well imbedded in my thinking and doing. I’m not in a hurry to do things. I don’t do them just for the sake of seeing how many things I can do. I take my time and am careful. I don ’t think, yes, rotary cutters are wonderful. That was a big time saver. I believe in rotary cutters. But some of the things, no. PS ; What about templates? What did you use for templates on this, to cut the pieces? RK ; I made my own on this particular quilt. PS ; Out of what? RK ; Cardboard. PS ; Would you do that now? Or would you use plastic? RK ; Maybe. PS ; [laughs.] Whichever you could get your hands on first? RK ; That’s right. The trouble with cardboard, it wears out. It gets squishy along the edge. I do use plastic, you know, template material. PS ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? RK ; I love thirties fabrics. I love thirties fabrics. I go for the pastels and the fabrics that are easy t o look at. I like the other fabrics but I don’t do as much with dark fabrics as I do light fabrics. I want something I think I won’t get tired of, that’s soft and easy to live with. PS ; Kind of friendly, welcoming? RK ; Oh, yes. PS ; Well, you did a little bit of this, describe your studio or the place that you create. RK ; Well, let’s see. How about the dining room, living room, not the kitchen, fortunately. Even the bedroom, sometimes. My sewing room is very small. It also has a computer in it so there’s not much room. I’ve got stacks and stacks of fabric in the closet that I struggle to take the fabrics out of. And when I get it out I can’t get it back in because it’s so tight. I can’t get to it because there ’s stuff on the floor. I have plastic tubs with stuff in, stacked and I’ve forgotten what’s in the tubs and I can’t get to them there’s so much. It’s miserable. If I had my druthers and a lot of money I would have more room. I’m getting too poor, too old and to anything different. [laughs.] PS ; How do you balance your time? RK ; Balance time? What’s balance your time? No, I don’t balance my time. I eat if I’m not doing something that’s enjoyable. If I’m involved in getting something that I want to get done and I’m enjoying it everything else stops. I don’t clean. I don’t eat. That’s what I do. I have nobody to say you can’t do it that way, so I do. PS ; Do you use a design wall? RK ; I maybe would if I could get to it. It’s got too many things in front of it. I’ve got one. PS ; You do have one. RK ; I do have one. Yeah, I thought it was a good idea. I don’t really need one if I have a pattern and know what I’m going to do. I don’t need a design wall necessarily. It’s a good thing because I can’t get to it anyhow. PS ; What do you think makes a great quilt? RK ; One that’s well done. One that’s pleasing to the eye. PS ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? RK ; I don’t know. Do they have to be powerful? They have to get your attention, but everybody i s different. And every quilt doesn’t get every one’s attention. So, people like different things. And you do what you like and there’ll be someone along the way that likes what you do. But they’ll also like something that someone else does in an entirely different design. And different colors. And that’s a good thing. PS ; What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection? RK ; I don’t know. I’ve seen quilts that have gotten special notoriety and maybe I don’t think they deserved it. I’ve seen others that were absolutely beautiful that I think should have gotten more attention. So, it’s all in the eye of the beholder I guess. PS ; What makes a great quilt-maker? RK ; Just one that loves what they do and does a good job. PS ; Whose works are you drawn to and why? RK ; I don’t know if there’s any one special quilt-maker. I enjoy the works of a lot of well-known quilt-makers. I can’t think of a specific one. RS ; How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? RK ; Well, of course I’d prefer the hand quilting. And, yes, there is a place for machine quilting and there are some that do beautiful work. I think there’s a place for machine quilting, especially if you are doing a quilt for a child. You don’t want to spend--yes, you want to do a good job and you want to do something that they’re going to enjoy. But you don’t want to spend hours and hours hand quilting if you’re intending that they use the quilt. B ecause then you’re devastated to think, ‘Oh, they didn’t take care of it.’ I made a quilt for a grand daughter and, of course, I’ve got six granddaughters. I made a quilt for this one little girl and we didn’t know whether we were going to have a little boy finally, or not. Of course, we didn’t get one so I made a quilt for her and I made her as a little fisher-girl and I made the quilt with a hook on a fishing line and the worms were in a Campbell’s juice can. Rather than Campbell’s soup, I made it Kimball’s on the outside of the can. PS ; Oh, how cute. RK ; She absolutely loved that quilt and a couple years ago the quilt was worn out and she wanted that repaired. It was so well gone that I couldn’t repair it. I mean the only thing I could have do ne was make another quilt, which would have defeated the purpose. I said, ‘You’re going to have to love it and leave it as it is because there’s nothing I can do with it.’ But, it was a cute quilt and it was fun to make. It was fun to make and she dearly loved it. PS ; She did, she loved it to death. RK ; Yes, she did. And it was appliquéd, of course. PS ; What about long-arm quilting? How do you feel about that? RK ; If I don’t have to do it it’s fine. I’ve had some things quilted. I’ve had some done that were done very well. I had some bad experiences with long-arm quilting, so I’m pretty dog-gone fussy in who I would have. I want to know that they can do a good job before I would send one of my quilts out to be quilted. If I have the time and energy I’ll hand quilt. PS ; Which artists have influenced you? RK ; Don’t know. PS ; How about people that you do know? People in the guild, or-- RK ; Oh, there are some that do a wonderful job. And, yes, I’m always impressed with some of the people in our great guild. And some of our guest speakers that come it, I can’t be specific, but there are a lot of them. I love their work. And it may not be what I do, but I appreciate what they do. PS ; Why is quilt-making important in your life? RK ; Oh, my goodness. If you’ve got to have a hobby, it’s one of the best ones I can think of. Ceramics you can’t come up with. No, you can’t. Quilts you can. In quilts you can keep warm with, especially in the winter when your hand quilting. Ceramics you can’t do that to. I used to make gemstone jewelry. I had to do it when I had a basement ; I had to do it in the basement. I don’t want to spend time in the basement now. You can quilt upstairs where there’s light, preferably a lot of li ght. So I gave up the gemstone jewelry, but I enjoyed that when I was doing it. But I’d rather make quilts and have them st ack up than making things that I have to dust. PS ; Good point. In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or your area or region? RK ; I don’t know if they reflect anything. Many years ago one of our ladies in town that had a quilt shop got out of the business because she said quilt-making was passé and it was going out. I don’t believe that’s true. Seems like it’s pretty healthy to me. PS ; I think it is pretty healthy. RK ; I think she was wrong. Maybe she was just tired of it. I can’t imagine anybody being tired of it, but maybe she was. PS ; What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? RK ; I think quilts have been around for years and years and years and years. People made quilts. They’ve always been artistic. They did it, yes, because they needed to keep warm. They didn’t have the things that we have. They cut up their old clothing and made quilts. They did it because they needed warmth. Now quilts, you don’t need it for that, although they’re used for that. But they are not necessities. They’re a form of art, as far as I’m concerned. And you get a lot of satisfaction ; I do, at least, from completing a quilt and even in working on it. It’s not a bad hobby to have. PS ; In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women’s history in America? RK ; Would we have a place in history, maybe, if it weren’t for our quilts? PS ; Oh, that’s very good. You’re right. We wouldn’t. RK ; No. No. And it still is a man’s world. I don’t care what anybody says. PS ; It is. RK ; And there are more, way more women quilting than there are men, so what does that tell you? PS ; How do you think quilts can be used? RK ; They can be used for display ; they can be used out of necessity. They can be used as art. And I think they’re important. Now that the economy is such and they’re discontinuing so many of the art and music in schools I think it’s even more important now, to have quilting and these sort of things. And I think it’s necessary for children to see these things. PS ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? RK ; Oh, I’ve made quilts for a lot of the members of my family and besides the six granddaughters I have got seven great grandkids, five of them girls and two of boys. So I have all kinds of possibilities of quilts that I can make. I’ve made quilts for all but two of the great grandkids. And if I live long enough there’ll be great-greats I can make quilts for, if I can still see. I’ve given quilts, a lot of quilts, as gifts and my kids all appreciate what I do and I hope they won’t be fighting over them when I’m gone, but I guess I won’t know that, will I. PS ; What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quilt-makers today? RK ; Probably being able to find fabric. It’s more expensive all the time. But if we are die-hard quilters I’m sure we have got our stashes. So we shouldn’t have to worry too much. I don’t know that we should have too many worries. We can always quilt. If they quilted years and years and years ago with not much light and with very few things to quilt with-- PS ; Not much fabric-- RK ; [inaudible, both talk at once.] I guess we shouldn’t be too frightened of the whole thing. PS ; That’s true. RK ; Yeah. PS ; Do you have any questions or is there anything else you’d like to talk about? RK ; Not really. PS ; Okay, well then, this concludes or interview. What time is it? Thank you. It’s 12:05 [p.m.]. I think that’s it. Bye. RK ; Bye [conversation not pertaining to interview.] PS ; This is Pam Schultz. Rosemary and I have been chatting after her interview and we would like to cover some more information. Now you said that you made a quilt that was in one of Ami Simm’s books. [Classic Quilts ; Patchwork Designs from Ancient Rome, Ami Simms, Mallery Pres s, 1991.] RK ; Correct. PS ; So how did that come about? RK ; Ami came to one of our guild meetings back in, I don’t remember when, probably in, maybe in ’96. I’m not sure. And said she was going to do this book that had designs, the mosaic pattern s that were in ancient Rome. And, would anybody like to do a quilt to represent those ancient mosaics? I volunteered to make one of them and I chose the one I wanted to make. And it was chosen as one of the quilts she had in her book. I also traveled to Rome on one of her quilt trips, in fact I took four trips with Ami, two to Italy and one to the Netherlands and one to Hong Kong. But I made the one quilt that she showed in her book with the little blurb about humor and about my quilt-making. It was fun and it was fun to go with her on this trip and see where the design came from. Afterwards I also made a miniature when we were having miniatures that we auctioned off at our guild quilt shows and one of our members bought that as a miniature of the quilt I made. That was “Plotted Plants” was the name of the quilt that I made. I forget the name of the mosaic but it was fun. I never thought that that would be shown in her book but it was, so I was thrilled to death. PS ; Did you get a copy of that book? RK ; Oh, yes I have two copies of that book. I got copies that I gave my kids and then I have a copy of that book. Yes. Yes. PS ; Well, that’s really interesting. RK ; That’s fun. It was fun. We had a great time. PS ; Thank you, Rosemary. RK ; You’re welcome. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net http://quiltalliance.org/projects/qsos/ http://quiltalliance.org/portfolio-categories/south-central-michigan-qsos/ ",,"Quiltmaking for family",,"Leslie Warren May",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/7fbe96727f574e062efcacfdcf526ace.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/8c33f54cb5adc9ae044aed917a70c3a5.JPG","Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0 "Estella Spates",,"Estella Spates was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares the design process of her ""Three Dancers"" quilt, her experience as an African American quiltmaker, and the importance of quilts in women's history.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-009,,,"Pam Schultz","Estella Spates",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-009Spates.xml,,,," 5.1 Estella Spates MI49016-009 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance African American quiltmakers Design process Estella Spates Pam Schultz MI49016-009Spates.mp3 1:|17(6)|27(13)|104(6)|120(14)|129(7)|144(2)|174(14)|183(7)|194(12)|203(10)|221(2)|233(9)|244(12)|265(2) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-009Spates.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction Pam Schultz interviews Estella Spates at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. 42.3211522, -85.17971419999998 17 Battle Creek, Michigan 43 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. Okay, this quilt is called “Three Dancers”. The center of the quilt is African women dancing. Actually that was a panel. The center of the quilt is a panel. Spates describes her quilt, " ; Three Dancers," ; featuring panel with three African women dancing and a braided border. Spates chose this quilt for the interview because of its bright colors and her interest in African American art. This quilt will be used for exhibitions. African American quiltmakers ; African American quilts ; braided border ; Quilt Purpose - Exhibition 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-009SpatesA.jpg Spates with quilt, " ; Three Dancers" ; 183 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. Well, my interest in quilt-making started, I would say, with Barbara Mason. She was my neighbor. She was into quilting and I just sort of--she just sort of tweaked my interest, so far as quilting is concerned. Spates describes learning to make quilts as an adult. Her neighbor, Barbara Mason, was a quiltmaker and showed Spates how to assemble her first quilt, a tied quilt with folded binding. Spates took a class for a " ; Quilt in a Day" ; quilt taught by Ruth Dean. Now she quilts whenever she has the time. Barbara Mason ; Knowledge transfer ; Learning quiltmaking ; quiltmaking class ; Ruth Dean 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-009SpatesB.jpg Detail of " ; Three Dancers" ; by Estella Spates. 308 What is your first quilt memory? ; Tell me if you have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? ; My first quilt memory goes back to when I was a child. I can remember lying on top of a quilt and it had a lot of yellow in it. It kept my interest because my fingers kept following the pattern of the quilt. Spates describes a memory of a quilt from childhood. She would trace the pattern with her fingers. Spates makes quilts for relaxation, and finds quiltmaking calming and peaceful, sometimes singing while she works. childhood ; Quilt memory ; Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment ; Quiltmaking for family 17 467 What art or quilt groups do you belong to? ; Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how? ; I belong to Cal-Co Quilters, quilt guild, I believe it’s called. Ladies of Soul [S.O.L.S.] quilt circle, and Hospice Quilters. And I work with a group at church that’s called Quilt and Be Done. Spates lists several quilt groups in which she participates. She also comments on trying new gadgets for making quilts, how she bought everything that was available, even if she did not know how to use it. Cal-Co Quilters Guild ; Guild activities ; Ladies of Soul (SOLS), Hospice Quilters, Quilt and Be Done ; Machine piecing ; Quilt Purpose - Charity ; Social quiltmaking activities 17 578 Describe your studio/the place that you create. ; Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts? Well, it’s a bedroom and it has a sewing machine and, of course, it has some windows so I can peep out, keep an eye on the neighborhood. Spates describes her work space in a spare bedroom. Explains how she manages time by breaking up the quiltmaking process into ten or twenty minute sessions. Design Wall ; quiltmaking process ; Time management ; Work or Studio space 17 680 What do you think makes a great quilt? ; Whose works are you drawn to and why? ; The colors, the pattern and whatever the quilter is trying to express. Spates explains that quilts are powerful and reflect beauty present in both the quiltmaker and viewer. She is drawn to Gees Bend quilts, and she enjoys demonstrations by Eleanor Burns on TV. aesthetics ; African American quiltmakers ; Eleanor Burns ; Gees Bend (Alabama) Quilts ; Long arm quilters ; Machine quilting ; power of quilts ; Quiltmakers on television African American quiltmakers 17 924 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? ; In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? ; I guess it goes back to relaxation. It is a hobby that I find is calming, relaxing and that I can see the creativity as I progress in making something. Spates enjoys expressing creativity and finds quiltmaking to be relaxing. Spates explains that her quilts identify her as an African American quiltmaker, and in women's history, quilts connect women's past and future. African American quiltmakers ; Female quiltmakers ; Quilt Purpose - Personal enjoyment 17 1076 How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made or those of friends and family? ; You know, I’m not real sure that they need to be preserved for the future. Spates believes that quilts should be used and explains that they shouldn't necessarily be put aside for the next generation. Explains that she makes quilts to be used, but her sister puts her quilts away. Quilt care ; Quilt preservation ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quilt Purpose - Utilitarian ; Quiltmaking for family ; Time management ; Using quilts 17 1194 Conclusion Oral History Estella Spates was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares the design process of her " ; Three Dancers" ; quilt, her experience as an African American quiltmaker, and the importance of quilts in women's history. Pam Schultz (PS) ; I’m Pam Schultz. It’s about 12:35 and I’m here to interview Estella Spates. How are you, Estella? Estella Spates (ES) ; I’m well, thank you. PS ; I’m Pam Schultz and I’m interviewing Estella Spates at her home in Battle Creek [Michigan. ]. This interview is being conducted for South Central Michigan Quilters’ Save Our Stories project of the Alliance for American Quilts. It is February 12 [2010.] and it’s about 12:35. How are you today, Estella? ES ; I’m well, thank you. PS ; Tell me about the quilt you brought today. ES ; Okay, this quilt is called “Three Dancers”. The center of the quilt is African women dancing. Actually that was a panel. The center of the quilt is a panel. The parts that I want to emphasize are the borders. I did a braided border on this quilt and I think it was fantastic. I enjoyed working on a braided border. It makes the quilt just stand out. And so, I found this border in a magazine and I really wanted to try it on something and this magazine had a picture of an animal. Well, I’m not animal friendly, so when I saw this panel I said, ‘That’s just the thing.’ And so I did the braided border on this quilt and that’s what, to me, makes this quilt stand out. PS ; What special meaning does this quilt have for you? ES ; Well, it really doesn’t have a special meaning. I just like it because of its beauty, its bright colors. PS ; It is beautiful. Why did you choose this quilt to bring to the interview? ES ; I chose this quilt because of the color. It is bright. It is an African-American quilt and I have felt myself, on occasion, getting into African-American arts. PS ; What do you think about what this quilt says about you? ES ; That I am an African-American person. PS ; How do you use this quilt? ES ; Actually, I haven’t used this--well, I do use this quilt. I use this quilt for displays and exhibits. PS ; And what are your plans for this quilt? ES ; I don’t have any real plans for this quilt other than to exhibit it. PS ; Tell me about your interest in quilt-making. ES ; Well, my interest in quilt-making started, I would say, with Barbara Mason. She was my neighbor. She was into quilting and I just sort of--she just sort of tweaked my interest, so far as quilting is concerned. And so, I had found these panels, not panels, these blocks and I said, ‘Barbara, can I make a quilt out of this?’ She said, ‘Yeah, you can make it.’ ‘Well what do I do?’ She said, ‘Sew them together.’ So I did and she came down and she helped me to put the quilt together, to tie it and we ended up folding the backing over for the binding. And so that’s how I got started. But, she continued my interest by giving me a gift certificate for a class taught by Ruth Dean at her quilt in a day shop, quilt in a day quilt. [Qui lt ‘N Go.] And she continued my interest in quilting that way. And so I just really got into quilting. PS ; How old were you when you started quilting. ES ; Oh. [laughs.] It was about ten years ago. Okay? PS ; And from whom did you learn to quilt? ES ; Well, from Barbara and from Ruth Dean. PS ; How many hours a week do you quilt? ES ; I don’t have a schedule for quilting. I just do it when I have the time. PS ; And what is your first quilt memory? ES ; My first quilt memory goes back to when I was a child. I can remember lying on top of a quilt and it had a lot of yellow in it. It kept my interest because my fingers kept following the pattern of the quilt. And so, that’s my first memory of a quilt. PS ; How old do you think you were then? ES ; Oh, I was young. I was about first or second grade. PS ; Are there other quilt memories among your families or friends? ES ; There are lots of quilt-makers among my friends, but, my family, they don’t have the bug, yet. PS ; How does quilt-making impact your family? ES ; Oh, they like to receive them. PS ; Tell me if you have used quilts to get through a difficult time. ES ; I would say no, but I use quilts as a relaxation and they seem to calm me down. When I’m m aking a quilt I find it very peaceful. I find that I’m relaxed. I find that--I even sing when I’m quilting because I’m enjoying myself. PS ; Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quilt-making. ES ; An amusing, I don’t know. I don’t really have too many. I don’t know. I don’t think I have any. I’ll think of something later, probably. PS ; If you think of something we’ll come back to that. What do you find pleasing about quilt-making? ES ; Relaxation. PS ; What aspects of quilt-making do you not enjoy? ES ; Well, I think I pretty much enjoy everything. I guess the worst part is basting a quilt, getting ready, making the sandwich, pin basting to get it ready to be quilted. PS ; What art or quilt groups do you belong to? ES ; I belong to Cal-Co Quilters, quilt guild, I believe it’s called. Ladies of Soul, [S.O.L.S.] a quilt circle, and Hospice Quilters. And I work with a group at church that’s called Quilt and Be Done. PS ; Have advances in technology influenced your work? And, if so, how? ES ; I think ; that ever since I’ve been quilting that it has been new things coming out and one of the things that I did was, when I first started, everything that came out, I was buying it. So, how have new advances influenced my quilt-making? Made me poor because I was trying to buy everything that was available. Now, I’m at t he point--‘well what do I do with this?’ I didn’t know what to do with it when I bought it. I don’t know how to use it now. And so, it’s just one of those things. PS ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? ES ; Techniques and materials? Okay. Of course, cotton would be bright colors, cotton would. Technique would be just sewing. I like piecing because that where I get the most joy. That’s where I think I’m more creative. PS ; Describe your studio or the place you create. ES ; Well, it’s a bedroom and it has a sewing machine and, of course, it has some windows so I can peep out, keep an eye on the neighborhood. And my ironing board a little ways away from the machine, and a cutting table and I have a futon that can change into a bedroom if need be, and some book shelves. PS ; Tell me how you balance your time. ES ; I balance my time by trying to cut out stuff ahead of time and when I have, like ten minutes in between, I’ll go to the sewing machine, sew something. And then put it away and next time I have another ten or twenty minutes, I can do some more. I don’t try to make a whole quilt in one setting. PS ; Do you use a design wall? ES ; No. PS ; Well, I just knocked out my next question. How do you go about designing your quilts? ES ; It is called ‘putting things on the bed.’ PS ; Okay, well then that would be your design wall. ES ; I just sort of--if I need to see it, I just put it out on the bed and look at it that way. PS ; What do you think makes a great quilt? ES ; The colors, the pattern and whatever the quilter is trying to express. PS ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? ES ; Hmm. Just the beauty of it. When it’s finished, to stand back and see it. It makes it powerful, because all quilts, I think, have a certain amount of beauty and that’s found in the eye of the quilter or the eye of the person that’s looking at it. And so, if it’s powerful is because the colors are coming at you. PS ; What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum of a special collection? ES ; I think it is what it represents and the purpose of the exhibit. And so, if I had a quilt in a museum then whatever the cloth was that I made it from, whatever the colors were, then, yeah, that would make it appropriate for that. But it has to be within the theme of the museum. Or, the exhibit , I should say. PS ; What makes a great quilt-maker? ES ; I think a great quilt-maker is a person who enjoys quilting and who’s recognized for her skill. PS ; Whose works are you drawn to, and why? ES ; I am really drawn to the Gees Bend Quilters. Now, why? It’s like they are utilitarian quilters. They are, to me, they are just so natural. I’ve seen one of their exhibits and I have one of their coffee-table books. And, I just like what I see. PS ; Which artists have influenced you? ES ; I don’t think that I have any--yes, let’s say that Eleanor Burns. I just like Eleanor Burns, the way that she demonstrates quilt-making on television. I purchase her books. I just like what she does. PS ; How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? ES ; Well, I am not a hand quilter. And, so therefore, I would say machine quilting is wonderful. PS ; What about long-arm quilting? ES ; That’s wonderful, too. As long as I don’t have to do it by hand. PS ; Why is quilt-making important in your life? ES ; I guess it goes back to relaxation. It is a hobby that I find is calming, relaxing and that I can see the creativity as I progress in making something. PS ; In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or your region? ES ; Well, I think that being an African-American person, that my quilts reflect--some of my quilts reflect that I am an African-American person, and that I enjoy making quilts. PS ; What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? ES ; I think that it brings us together and that it connects us to our past as well as lead us to our future. PS ; In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women’s history in America? ES ; Because I believe it’s an art that started with women and that women can look at and say, ‘Hey, this is ours. This is mine.’ And so, when you can do that it’s very important to women in Am erica. PS ; How do you think quilts can be used? ES ; Oh, other than bedcovering? Table runners, table toppers, placemats, pot holders. I get the greatest kick out of saving my little pieces, putting my little pieces together and making potholders out of them. Wall hangings, couch covers, oh, and garments and purses. Just many, many ways. PS ; How do you think quits can be preserved for the future? ES ; You know, I’m not real sure that they need to be preserved for the future. But, with careful washing, not letting them dry in the sun, by refolding them every now and then, and keeping them in cotton bags or cotton pillow cases, they might be preserved. But to me, I think quilts should be used and not put aside so that the next generation can have them or see them, because who knows, the next generation might just pass them on and give them away or just use them for the dog or something else. PS ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made, or those of friends and family? ES ; Okay. Most of my nieces and nephews have received quilts and they use them. I have, one of my sisters, she used hers and I have another sister whom I helped to make one. She puts hers away because she doesn’t want anybody to mess with her quilts yet. But most of my quilts have been used and that’s the reason that I make them. That’s the reason why I give them away, is because I want them to be used. PS ; What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quilt-makers today? ES ; Not enough time. There’s so many things I’d like to do, so many quilts that I would like to make, but it takes time. And there’s not enough time in the day to do all the many, many things that I would like to do. PS ; Is there anything else you’d like to talk about? ES ; No, I think I’ve exhausted my thoughts. PS ; Okay. Well, thank you Estella. ES ; You’re welcome. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net http://quiltalliance.org/projects/qsos/ http://quiltalliance.org/projects/project-gallery/ ",,"African American quiltmakers",,"Allie Aller",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/20a8b64672bab77a6ed97dd4df2b1f62.JPG,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/4a8a37407ecb04a97598cd084e1fde21.JPG","Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0 "Carol Miller",,"Carol Miller was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares the experience of making her first quilt, passing down quilts over generations, the time that goes into making a quilt, and commemorating her husband's Kilimanjaro climb.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-013,,,"Pam Schultz","Carol Miller",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-013.xml,,,," 5.1 Carol Miller MI49016-013 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance Handing down quilts Quiltmaking for family Carol Miller Pam Schultz MI49016-013MillerCarol.mp3 1:|16(2)|39(9)|59(8)|75(15)|94(1)|113(2)|134(2)|150(5)|166(18)|181(9)|195(7)|213(9)|229(11)|248(1)|266(10)|278(4)|289(9)|299(8) 0 http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-013MillerCarol.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction This is Pam Schulz. It’s Wednesday, May 19, 2010, at 10:33 in the morning. I’m interviewing Carol Miller at her home in Galesburg, Michigan. This interview is being conducted for the South Central Michigan Quilters' Save Our Stories project of the Alliance for American Quilts. Pam Schultz interviews Carol Miller at her home in Galesburg, Michigan. 42.2886529, -85.41805599999998 17 Galesburg, Michigan 27 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. Well, at the time my six-year-old granddaughter wanted a rainbow quilt and that’s why I chose the rainbow colors here. She will receive it when she’s older and can appreciate all the work that went into it. But, for now, I’m enjoying it Miller describes taking a class at the Bernina Sewing Center and adapting the pattern. This quilt was made for Miller's six-year old granddaughter. Miller is keeping the quilt until her granddaughter is old enough to appreciate the work. 3D Hollow Cube - Quilt Pattern ; Bernina Sewing Center ; Kalamazoo, Michigan ; Quilt Purpose - Home decoration ; Quiltmaking for family ; Wall hangings 17 http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-013-Miller.a.jpg Carol Miller with her three-dimensional hollow cube quilt. 113 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. ; What is your first quilt memory? ; How does quiltmaking impact your family? ; When my kids got through high school, I decided I wanted to--I raised two nice kids. My husband traveled a lot so I needed something to keep me busy and I decided I would start a quilt class with a friend. Miller learned quiltmaking as an adult when she took a class at Calico Cupboard in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her first quilt was a sampler with heavy batting and muslin, and she hand quilted in the car as the family visited colleges. Miller made a quilt for a her husband to commemorate his climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amish quiltmakers ; batting ; Calico Cupboard (Kalamazoo, MI) ; Hand quilting ; Learning quiltmaking ; Muslin ; Norma Storm ; Quilt Purpose - Commemorative ; Quiltmaking for family ; Sampler quilt 42.292171, -85.589597 17 Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Miller took her first quilting class http://quiltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-013Miller.b.jpg Detail of Carol Miller's three-dimensional hollow cube quilt. 307 What quilt groups do you belong to? No art at all. I have no art abilities. But, I was at Portage Quilters when I met Norma and then, the Cal-Co Guild in Battle Creek [Michigan.]. Art ; Cal-Co Quilters Guild (Battlecreek, MI) ; Guild participation ; Portage Quilters Guild 17 327 Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how? ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? ; CM ; Oh, yes. PS ; In what ways? CM ; Well, the Olfa mats and cutters. Explains how rotary cutters have made quiltmaking faster and describes reliance on long arm quilters to help complete quilts. Miller prefers to follow patterns and work with 100% cotton fabric. Long arm quilting machine ; Machine quilting ; Olfa cutting mat ; Rotary cutter 17 383 Describe your studio/the place that you create. ; Do you use a design wall? If so, in what way/how does that enhance your creative process? If not, how do you go about designing your quilts? ; Well, it’s actually our den. Half of it is my husband’s and half is mine. But he says I have taken over two thirds of it. Miller describes her work space, a room shared with her husband. Describes materials used to create her design wall. Design process ; Design Wall ; Quilt Camp ; quiltmaking process ; Work or Studio space 17 516 What makes a quilt artistically powerful? ; What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or special collection? ; Which artists have influenced you? ; I don’t know how to answer that because I’m not an artist. I admire people who do their art work and they can just see this and that. As I say, I have to use a pattern most of the time. Miller explains that she doesn't consider herself an artist because she uses patterns. She is troubled when families don't appreciate work that has gone into quilts, recalling an interaction with a man about a quilt made by his grandmother. Miller followed Sharyn Craig's work in magazines. Antique quilts ; Art quiltmaking ; Art quilts ; Artists ; Design process ; Quilt care ; quilt magazines ; Quilt purpose - Utilitarian ; Sharyn Craig 17 667 How do you feel about machine quilting vs. hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting? I don’t mind it. Some people say 'Oh, it’s not a quilt until it’s hand quilted.' But at my age I have to go to machine quilted because I know I have to get a certain amount done because I have to get all that fabric used up. Miller explains that some quiltmakers only find hand quilting to be accessible. Miller sees machine quilting as an opportunity to produce more quilts. Describes quilt featuring batiks and a sunset that was quilted by Dale Waddle. Dale Waddle ; Fabric - Batiks ; Hand quilting ; Long arm quilters ; Machine quilting 17 734 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? It’s something I can give away to my family and its history. Miller believes that people have more appreciation for quilts today, using quilts imported from China as an example. She sees quilts as a way of connecting with family and history. factory made quilts ; imported quilts ; Quilt Purpose - Bedcovering ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quilt Purpose - Home decoration ; Quiltmaking for family 17 820 How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? ; I wonder about that, with the ones that I got from my Mother’s cousin in Florida. What to do with them after I’m gone, because I don’t know what my kids would do with them. Miller expresses uncertainty about where to send quilts passed to her from her mother's cousin. Describes making quilts for her niece, including a Barn Raising, Log Cabin and Double Wedding Ring. Double wedding ring - quilt pattern ; Handing down quilts ; Log cabin quilt pattern ; Michigan State University Museum ; Quiltmaking for family 17 http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?pattern=Barn%20Raising Barn Raising Log Cabin quilts at the Quilt Index 924 On novelty fabrics, children's quilts, and Kilimanjaro Carol, is there anything else you would like to talk about? Miller describes making seven quilts for her sister's grandchildren using novelty fabrics. Also describes a quilt featuring patriotic fabric and a second Kilimanjaro quilt made for her daughter and son-in-law. Children's quilts ; Dale Waddle ; Design process ; Fabric - Novelty ; Fabric stash ; Jo-Ann's Fabric ; Long arm quilters ; Machine quilting ; Marty Barlond ; Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation ; Quiltmaking for family 17 1112 Conclusion 17 Oral History Carol Miller was interviewed as part of the South Central Michigan QSOS. She shares the experience of making her first quilt, passing down quilts over generations, the time that goes into making a quilt, and commemorating her husband's Kilimanjaro climb. Pam Schulz (PS) ; This is Pam Schulz. It’s Wednesday, May 19, 2010, at 10:33 in the morning. I’m interviewing Carol Miller at her home in Galesburg, Michigan. This interview is being conducted for the South Central Michigan Quilters’ Save Our Stories project of the Alliance for American Quilts. Good morning, Carol, how are you today? Carol Miller (CM) ; I’m pretty good. PS ; Okay. Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. CM ; It’s called a three-dimensional, a 3-D hollow cube. I took a class at Bernina Sewing Center on Portage Road, Kalamazoo, Michigan. I wasn’t happy with the sample the teacher had, so I did my own thing and did the hollow cubes in rainbow colors and then added black and white triangles. PS ; What special meaning does this quilt have for you? CM ; Well, at the time my six-year-old granddaughter wanted a rainbow quilt and that’s why I chose the rainbow colors here. She will receive it when she’s older and can appreciate all the work that went into it. But, for now, I’m enjoying it. PS ; Why did you choose this quilt to bring to the interview? CM ; Well, it’s special to me and everyone that comes into the house really likes it. I had submitted this one and the Sudoku to Quilters Newsletter but they didn’t take this one. PS ; How do you use this quilt? CM ; It’s a wall hanging. PS ; And you told us your plans for this quilt? CM ; It goes to my granddaughter who lives in California. PS ; Tell me about your interest in quilt-making. CM ; When my kids got through high school, I decided I wanted to--I raised two nice kids. My husband traveled a lot so I needed something to keep me busy and I decided I would start a quilt class with a friend. We jumped into a class at Calico Cupboard, which was in downtown Kalamazoo, back in the early ‘80’s. We just took on a big project, a twenty-block sampler and then I’ve just been hooked ever since. I just love it. PS ; At what age did you start quilt-making? CM ; Probably in my early fifties. PS ; And from whom did you learn to quilt? CM ; Norma Storm. PS ; How many hours a week do you quilt? CM ; Oh, it varies. Maybe ten a week is all I could say, but some days I haven’t done anything, like the last two weeks. PS ; Took a little time off, huh? What is your first quilt memory? CM ; The twenty-block sampler. Because, back then they sent you to K-Mart to buy a batting and the muslin. The batting was very heavy. The muslin was very heavy. So, that twenty-block sampler is a really warm quilt. I did do most of it by hand, except the lattice strips. My son was looking for colleges and the rest of it was done by hand in the car when we would go and visit colleges. And I hand quilted it, too. But I put my back out and after that I took my quilts to the Amish to have them hand quilted. PS ; Are there other quilt-makers among your family or friends? CM ; No, I wish there were, so I could pass on some of my fabric. PS ; How does quilt-making impact your family? CM ; They love it. My husband is especially proud of my quilt I made for him when he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. He shows that to everyone when they come in. PS ; Have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? CM ; Not particularly. We’ve been very fortunate. We haven’t had too much of that. PS ; Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quilt-making. CM ; I can’t think of any. Really, I can’t. PS ; What do you find pleasing about quilt-making? CM ; I just love fabric. Everyone says I have an eye for color. I just enjoy sewing since I was twelve years old and made my own clothes. PS ; What aspects of quilt-making do you not enjoy? CM ; Oh, I don’t know. I love doing the bindings at the end. I tell Norma, ‘I’ll bind that quilt for you.’ Because then you know it’s done. PS ; What art or quilt groups do you belong to? CM ; No art at all. I have no art abilities. But, I was at Portage Quilters when I met Norma and then, the Cal-Co Guild in Battle Creek [Michigan.]. PS ; Have advances in technology influenced you work? CM ; Oh, yes. PS ; In what ways? CM ; Well, the Olfa mats and cutters. You can do things faster. Now, the longarm quilting machines. I don’t mind the work it does and they’re done. I wouldn’t have so many done if I didn’t have the longarm quilters helping me. PS ; What are your favorite techniques and materials? CM ; Mostly I stick to the 100% cottons and as far as technique, I have to follow a pattern, except for my husband’s Kilimanjaro quilt. PS ; That was your pattern? CM ; I just framed the wild animals as picture frames and kept going and the quilt kept growing [from a lap robe to a queen size.]. PS ; Describe your studio, or the place that you create. CM ; Well, it’s actually our den. Half of it is my husband’s and half is mine. But he says I have taken over two thirds of it. When we built--I came in this room and said, ‘Oh, I thought my desk was going to be on the left side of the room . And it’s on the right and I have a better view of the window with all of the bushes and trees and things [the magnolia tree and all of the beautiful flowers and trees. That is my husband’s hobby. ]. PS ; How big is this room? CM ; I’m not sure. PS ; It’s pretty large. CM ; I’m not sure of the size. He could tell you, but he’s up on the computer upstairs. PS ; Tell me how you balance your time. CM ; Oh, I really don’t. I guess some days I overdo the quilting and other days I neglect it. We do a lot of volunteering at our church, too. That takes up time. PS ; Do you use a design wall? CM ; I just use a piece of insulation from homebuilding, when we built our home, and put a large piece of flannel over it and pin it down at the top. I don’t even have it fastened. You can’t do very well with Scotch Tape. It doesn’t stay on. I keep that in the bedroom most of the time, when I’m not using it. It’s large enough to do a small project. Otherwise I lay things out on the floor in the basement. And then, at quilt camp, two years ago, I think it was Becky Green made those little squares for us as a table favor, remember, for rows one to fifteen, or her quilt camp crew. And I find those wonderful to pin on the rows to keep from getting mixed up when you do your assembly. PS ; I know, you pick the row up. You take it to the sewing machine, and it’s different. CM ; I know. PS ; What do you think makes a great quilt? CM ; Oh, I guess the fabric and the colors that are used with it. PS ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? CM ; I don’t know how to answer that because I’m not an artist. I admire people who do their art work and they can just see this and that. As I say, I have to use a pattern most of the time. PS ; But, you’re an artist in your own way. Out of peoples work, what things do you like out of what you would consider art quilts, or artistic quilts? CM ; That’s hard to say. If they’re really kind of--some of them I look at off the wall--especially what title they give them. Where’d they get that title? I can’t see that. I just don’t have that perception. PS ; What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection? CM ; Hmm, if it’s really different or the antique ones, too, are really, really beautiful. People don’t realize how much work those people put into that and then I heard a fellow say, out in California this spring, ‘Oh, I have one from my grandmother. We take it to the beach.’ My jaw just about dropped off. I didn’t want to offend anybody, but that offended me to hear that somebody would take it to the beach, that grandma had spent a lot of time on. He didn’t realize. PS ; Whose works are you drawn to, and why? CM ; No one in particular. I just buy books that I think have something different, a new technique or a new pattern. PS ; Which artists have influenced you? CM ; At first I used to buy magazines featuring Sharyn Craig. I liked her things. She always had a chapter on What If? In other words, she was changing the pattern to some other design and color, and ‘What if it looked like this?’ She would say. I got magazines I would read a lot in the beginning. PS ; Do you still read them? CM ; Oh, yes. PS ; How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? CM ; I don’t mind it. Some people say ‘Oh, it’s not a quilt until it’s hand quilted.’ But at my age I have to go to machine quilted because I know I have to get a certain amount done because I have to get all that fabric used up. My basement is full and these cupboards are all full, too. PS ; And what about long arm quilting? How do you feel about that? CM ; I like it. Dale [Waddle.] just did a quilt for me for my niece in New Jersey and they were batiks that were just blocks and sashing strips, but the back had fabrics, the selvedge said Everglade Collection or the National Park Collection and this was the Everglades and it was the big cranes with the beautiful sunset in the background, the whole thing. Fortunately, I bought enough fabric for the whole back. And then, Dale quilted circles on that looked like ocean waves. I thought it turned out great. PS ; Why is quilt-making important to your life? CM ; It’s something I can give away to my family and its history. PS ; What do you think about the importance in American life? CM ; I think people are getting to appreciate them more and more. And I was really appalled when the first ones came over from China. But I have to admit I bought one. [both laugh.] It had all irises on it. It was hand done. It wasn’t as good as people would do in our country now, but it’s on a bed upstairs. PS ; In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women’s history in America? CM ; Well, I think it helps you remember your relatives who did something nice for you. PS ; How do you think quilts can be used? CM ; Wall hangings and on beds. Sometimes I do sleep under that Kilimanjaro quilt on the couch in the afternoon. I sometimes need a nap and I cover up with that. Otherwise, I don’t sleep under the one on the bed except when the electricity has gone out. Then we appreciate them. PS ; How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? CM ; I wonder about that, with the ones that I got from my Mother’s cousin in Florida. What to do with them after I’m gone, because I don’t know what my kids would do with them. I think I need to start making a list of things, because I’ll be seventy-five in August. I don’t know what my kids would do with all those. They have smaller houses. They don’t have the room for it and my son lives in California and they don’t, you know ; it’s not that cold that they need too many. PS ; It might not be a bad idea, though, so you can tell them what you want done with them. CM ; I know Michigan State has a collection and I have thought about, maybe, contacting somebody there. But I think they have so many they don’t know what to do with all of them. It’s hard to know. PS ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made, or those of friends and family? CM ; Oh, we still have them. My niece has one that I made for her. It’s from a Barn Raising, Log Cabin class that I took at Marty Barlond’s and she says it’s getting worn now so I gave her a Double Wedding Ring that was from the cousin in Florida. I need to get another one made for her. PS ; What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quilt-makers today? CM ; I’m not sure. I don’t know how to answer that. PS ; I have to stop here a second. [Recorder was turned off for about six minutes.] This is Pam Schultz, again, and I’m sorry for the delay. Carol, is there anything else you would like to talk about? CM ; I did do some novelty fabric quilts for my sister’s seven grandchildren about three years ago. Six of those are boys and I had this fabric with pigs on motorcycles, dogs on motorcycles and cats. And I tried to use up as much fabric as I could. I used eight and one-half inch squares and put sashing strips around them, then wide borders of real bright colors, either red or royal blue or green or yellow. And when Dale brought them back, Dale Waddle, the machine quilter, brought them back to me, she said, ‘Carol, I hope you’re not mad. I put their names in the borders.’ She had quilted their names all around those borders and then on the blocks she made smaller letters and quilted their names across the centers on the diagonal, across the center of each block. Those are special memories for me doing those for the kids. And they loved them. The little girl I didn’t do the motorcycles. I had old fabric from--I don’t know where I got them. They were Hershey candy bars and kisses and there was a fabric with the old Coke bottle, with the cap on top, the glass bottle in back of it was powder blue, and had bubbles from the Coke, you know. Things like that I put in hers, flip-flops ; she was ten or twelve at the time. I found a piece at JoAnne’s [Fabrics.] that was a lady walking her dog by the Eiffel Tower. So, I had different novelty fabrics in there that she really loved, too. And she put Brianna’s name on that one also. It was really neat. Other than that, and I guess the red, white and blue, patriotic Log Cabin that I did, two large ones, from a class at Marty Barlond’s in Battle Creek, back in the, probably early nineties. I did two large ones because one I did for our own family and then I gave it to my son. Then, when my husband’s secretary got remarried ; it was the Fourth of July weekend, so I did it in red, white and blue for her and the back was all fireworks fabric, sparklers. So everyone loves that sparkly fabric that I have even in that little lap robe that’s out on the couch. Those are my two, well, of course, there’s the Kilimanjaro one that I did for my husband. But then my son-in-law was asked to speak at a tropical diseases symposium at Kilimanjaro, and my daughter was able to go with him so when they came back from that, I did a Kilimanjaro quilt for them also. So that’s a treasure for them. PS ; Thank you for talking with me today. CM ; You’re welcome. PS ; This is Pam Schultz and we are done. It is 10:58 a.m. 2016 Quilt Alliance. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net http://quiltalliance.org/projects/qsos/ http://quiltalliance.org/projects/project-gallery/ ",,"Handing down quilts",,"Del Thomas",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/904043f37cfd2218a7addd735d37923a.JPG,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/3bd036f7504856f86475918182370d19.JPG","Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0 "Jean Sadowski PufPaff",,"In this interview, Jean PufPaff shares stories of her early quilting years, her favorite quilting tools, and her quilting community in South Central Michigan.",,,,,,,,audio,,,MI49016-018,,,"Eleanor Wilkinson","Jean Sadowski PufPaff",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=MI49016-018.xml,,03/04/2011,," 5.1 Jean Sadowski PufPaff MI49016-018 Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories South Central Michigan QSOS Quilt Alliance Jean Sadowski PufPaff Eleanor Wilkinson MI49016-18Pufpaff.mp3 1:|15(8)|33(2)|43(8)|56(6)|66(2)|81(14)|100(2)|113(12)|127(16)|141(17)|153(17)|169(2)|183(2)|193(11)|210(15)|230(12)|251(2)|271(8)|289(15)|305(4)|317(4)|331(9)|346(3)|361(7)|375(17)|391(8)|405(7)|419(14)|432(16)|448(2) http://quiltalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MI49016-18Pufpaff.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction 40 Tell me about the quilt you brought in today. 149 Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking. 414 What is your first quilt memory? 464 Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends? Please tell me about them. 567 Have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? 622 Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking. 984 Describe your studio/the place that you create. 1079 What do you think makes a great quilt? 1178 What makes a great quiltmaker? 1251 How do you feel about machine quilting vs. hand quilting? What about long-arm quilting? 1335 Why is quiltmaking important to your life? 1523 What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? 1652 How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? 1766 What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? 1802 Conclusion Oral History Eleanor Wilkinson (EW) ; This interview is being conducted for South Central Michigan QSOS, a project for The Alliance for American Quilts. Today I’m interviewing Jean Pufpaff at the--What church is this? Jean Pufpaff (JP) ; Westlake. Is it Westlake? EW ; Thank you. Westlake Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. Today is March 4, 2011 and the time is 10:32. Let’s begin by talking about the quilt that you brought in. The name of t he quilt was, did you say Roman-- JP ; Roman Tiles. EW ; Roman tiles. And does this quilt have a special meaning for you? JP ; I made this for my husband. He was complaining because I never made any quilts for him, so I made it for him and I used a pattern in Ami Simms’ book. It’s called Lattice Nine Patch. Rose mary Kimball helped me. She went on this tour with Ami Simms, of Italy and they saw all different tiles and so I just thought that might be nice for a man. You don’t want something real feminine for a man. EW ; And does he like it? JP ; He likes it. We’d like to put it up and I got a hanger but we don’t have it up yet. EW ; But that’s your plan for it? JP ; Yes, that’s the plan. EW ; What do you think someone viewing this quilt might think of you? JP ; Well, one thing is that I like blues because it’s got a lot of different blues. I like color. It doesn’t have a lot of bright colors but it has colors. I don’t like a lot of dark colors like black. They’re okay in their process but not me. EW ; Tell me about your interest in quilt making. When did you start thinking about quilts? JP ; I started in probably 1970, maybe ’75. I lived in Addison, Michigan and the lady that lived next door to me had a shop and so I did some quilting then. Not a lot. I’ve always done a lot of sewing so I’ve always had an interest in sewing. I’ve done some crocheting, knitting, cross-stitch, all that. EW ; Needlework? JP ; A lot of needlework? EW ; And so that was really when you started making quilts. JP ; When I came here in 1980 or ’82, where I worked Terri Doty’s husband, I guess ex-husband, worked there. He got me interested in visiting with Terri. We would go to quilt shows and different things and we went to the meetings. When we first went, we would just go to the meetings, not participate, but listen to the meetings and come home. You know it’s a lot better when you have some friends that you can get together with, so one time, I was still working at the time , and Terri Jacoby asked me to go on their retreat that they had. I really wanted to go but I was still working so I couldn’t get time off. After that I was allowed to take time off and so I could go on some of the retreats. The retreats I really like. We’ve gone to Shipshewana. [Indiana.] In our quilt group, the Quilting Chixs we go to The Shack, near White Cloud. [Michigan.] It’s just a nice time to be with friends and do quilting and do some of your projects, in which I am trying to use up my fabric. EW ; Where did you learn to quilt? You started with the quilt shop that you lived close to. JP ; I started with that and basically that was where she showed me how to quilt and I just went from there. I really haven’t had a lot of classes on hand quilting. I just picked it up. EW ; Since you were a sewer-- JP ; I have taught some people how to quilt. I did teaching at the Morman Church. A friend that I worked with, they had a group and they wanted to know how to quilt. EW ; You got some people started? JP ; I did that. I don’t know if they did anything because it’s hard when you only have an hour or two. A lot of these people were not sewers. So you wonder. I tried something just very small so they could do it. I don’t know if they became quilters or what. EW ; Maybe you enhanced their appreciation of other people’s quilts. JP ; Right, I think a lot of the people do a lot of sewing, but a lot of them don’t do quilting. There’ s a lot more that are doing machine quilting. EW ; How many hours a week do you think you quilt? JP ; Do you include like sewing on the sewing machine? EW ; Oh, yeah. Anything about quilting. JP ; Oh, maybe ten to fifteen hours. EW ; Can you remember when your first quilt memory might be? JP ; I think maybe my first quilt memory was when my sister was expecting her first baby and I made an ABC quilt with gingham squares. She was going to have a girl so it was pink. I embroidered the ABC’s with a different color in the blocks. EW ; Had you seen quilts before then? JP ; Yes, I’d seen some. I don’t think my mom had done any quilting until I actually got started a nd then she started quilting. I have a Log Cabin quilt that she made just before she passed away. EW ; Besides your mom and you, were there any other quiltmakers in the family? JP ; My sister does quilting but she’s working full time at the University of Purdue [Lafayette, In diana.] and she has a lot of responsibilities in that position so she’s not really able to quilt. EW ; She doesn’t have that much time. JP ; No, and I don’t know when she retires. She did make a bed-sized one with those stitches, not appliqué, but embroidery stitches. It’s all white, so she did make that. EW ; How does quiltmaking impact your family? JP ; Well, my husband says it takes up too much time. I used to have my sewing machine upstairs. Then we did some work upstairs and so I brought my sewing machine down because I didn’t want it to get dusty. So, basically I sew down in the living room. While he’s taking a nap I can sew and do all my crafts and then at night I try to have some hand work, like putting on a border, not a border, but putting on the binding. I’ve done some embroidery work, just something to keep me busy. EW ; So you have something for your hands to do while you keep him company? JP ; Right. EW ; Have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time? JP ; Yes, I did. One time when my mother was dying and my nephew was graduating from high school at that time. I had made a quilt, but I just hadn’t finished it so I took it home and while I was at home, and tied it on the kitchen table. Or at the dining room table while I was at my mom’s. And when my sister died three or four years later I made some quilts for a couple of friends that she had, that were with her, and were good friends to her. They enjoyed those. EW ; That was a good gift for them. JP ; Yes, it was. EW ; Have there been any amusing experiences that were connected with your quiltmaking? JP ; Well I can’t really say anything really amusing, but, like when I go to the different groups for camp or when with the Quilting Chixs we always seem to have a lot of talk and have a lot of laughing and stuff. We always learn something. Last year when we went to The Shack we made pin cushions out of the little Silicon cupcake containers. We made a pincushion and then there was something else I can’t remember. But, you know there’s always, you always learn something and-- EW ; You have a good time? JP ; We always have a good time and then there’s always got to be eating with it and shopping. EW ; What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking? JP ; Sometimes I find it relaxing. I like to see all the fabrics in the different stores. When I first went to Yoder’s in Shipshewana it was like overwhelming. I just couldn’t take in all the stuff, so the first day--we were going to be there for a weekend, so the first day I just looked at everything. Then I went back. When I first started quilting, I really didn’t have a project in mind. I just bought something that looked nice and if it was a blue, that was even better. So I did that. Now I’m getting more choosy. If I have something I need, I try to find it in my stash. EW ; So you have a project in mind before you fill it out with the colors? JP ; Right. Then I try to use things I have in my stash. If not, then I have to buy something. Sometimes I go to JoAnn’s and don’t buy anything. My husband will say, ‘Well, you left it in the car.’ [both laugh.] ‘ No, I didn’t.’ EW ; What aspects of quilting do you not enjoy? JP ; Maybe the ironing of your fabrics, especially if you get a large, like two yards or something--is ironing that. That’s tedious. Since you have the rotary cutter it makes it a lot easier to cut things out. Before, when I first started you just cut things by hand with templates and that’s tedious. EW ; Well, I was just going to ask you what advances in technology have influenced your work, and that would be one, wouldn’t it? JP ; The rotary cutter and I do have a new sewing machine. I think getting a sewing machine that you can adapt to is good. My other sewing machine was a Singer and it kept releasing, or someth ing, when I’d sew and I’d have to tighten it up. So now I have a Baby Lock and I really like it. It makes my sewing more enjoyable. EW ; Do you have a favorite technique? Piecing, appliqué, embroidering? JP ; I’m not very good with appliqué. I have done appliqué, but it’s not my favorite. EW ; You mostly piece? JP ; I mostly piece. I do embroidery work. I’ve done some wool, felted wool, pieces. I have two or three cat pieces. I just finished six, like a snowlady and a snowman. I just finished those. EW ; Was that a wall hanging? JP ; No. They’re just little figures about four inches high. So I’ve just finished doing that. I’ve had that for a while. I’m just trying to clean out my stash. EW ; Do you have any plans for using these little figures? JP ; No, I don’t. I may give them as a Christmas gift. On the back of them, they all had like a little backpack. They said you could put a candy cane in-- EW ; Oh, that would be cute. Maybe a napkin ring, or something? JP ; Yes. Money or something like that. EW ; Somebody would appreciate that. JP ; That’s right. So I may do that. Or you could use it as an ornament, or I thought you could also use it as a pin. EW ; How about materials, now. Are there any new materials that strike your fancy? JP ; Not really. I do like Laurel Burch. I just finished doing a panel, a couple of cat panels that I bought a long time ago. I thought it was just one panel but it was two panels so I cut it in half and I have enough extra, so I made one, it’s not real big. And the other is smaller. I thought, “Well, that would work out just fine.’ But I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. I’ll probably make one for me and maybe give one away. EW ; You’ve talked about where you sew, downstairs in your living room. Do you have a sewing room or a studio? JP ; Upstairs is where I have my-- EW ; That’s where you keep all your supplies? JP ; I keep all my supplies and everything. EW ; And do you cut out your fabric upstairs? JP ; No, usually downstairs, either on the floor or on the ironing board. Just depends. EW ; Now, how do you balance your time? JP ; Well I know that some people get frustrated when they’re trying to get something done and they get frustrated. I’ve found that if I quilt for a while and I like to read, and read for a while, and, maybe, watch TV or go for a walk or do something like that. I try to balance my time that way . Try not to concentrate so much on it that you get frustrated. EW ; Do you have a design wall? JP ; No, I don’t. EW ; How do you handle the designing of your quilt then? Do you lay things out somewhere to see how they’re going to go together? JP ; Yes, I lay it on the floor. EW ; Not unusual. JP ; No. Sometimes, I do work part-time at a church and sometimes I take it there and I can put it on the tables there. EW ; What do you think makes a great quilt? JP ; I think the design and the different colors. If they go together. I’ve been to a lot of quilt show s and a lot of quilts are just really are outstanding and some, even some of the colors that I don’t care for, you can tell they’re a beautiful quilt. EW ; What about those quilts that are outstanding? What is it about them that catches your eye? JP ; I think the color and the design, the way they were done. EW ; Does it matter whether they’re a traditional design or not? JP ; No, not really. EW ; What makes a quilt artistically powerful? JP ; I’m trying to think. Oh, the way it was designed or the colors, different colors. EW ; And what makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection. JP ; Well, I think if it was an older quilt. I think if it was hand done and hand quilted that makes it a little more special. A lot of quilts now days are machine done and machine quilted. I think if it ’s special it should be in a museum. EW ; What makes a great quiltmaker? JP ; I think someone that can go with the flow and can, if they’re doing classes or writing a book. Especially if they’re doing classes, if they can adapt to different people’s level of skills. EW ; If they’re teaching? JP ; If they’re teaching. Some people demand a lot of time and some people take to it like they’ve been doing it all their life. That helps and so far at camp I’ve had a lot of teachers and they’ve done really good with their teaching. And I finally finished a quilt that Becky Green taught me, Disappearing Card Tricks, in camp at least three or four years ago. EW ; Whose works are you drawn to? JP ; I really don’t have a favorite quilter. EW ; How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? JP ; I have always hand quilted and I know machine quilting is a lot easier, a lot faster. You get a lot more done. Right now I haven’t done a lot of machine quilting. I’ve done some. I think, hand quilting, you can do it when you are sitting in a group with people. Machine quilting, you’ve got to be with your sewing machine. EW ; That’s right. JP ; And it takes time and I find that when I do a lot of sewing you should get up and walk around and stretch. Get the kinks out. EW ; What about the long-arm quilters? JP ; I think they are great. It just depends on who quilts it. I’ve heard problems with some and others are great, so it just depends on who does your quilting. I don’t have room for a long-arm quilter. My cats probably would be up on top of it, sleeping up on top of it. EW ; Why do you think quilting is important to your life? JP ; I think it’s something to keep me occupied. Keep my brain moving. I guess I don’t prefer to sit and watch TV and just not do anything. I like to keep busy. Like my husband always says, “Can’t you just sit down and relax?” And sometimes I do. Then I feel guilty that I haven’t done, or that I’m not doing anything. EW ; You have lots of things that you need to be doing or that you need to be getting done? JP ; Right, and I try to write things down so that I know what I need to do. Then I cross them off my list. EW ; Do you have any UFO’s? JP ; Oh, yes. EW ; Are these things that you plan on doing someday or some things that you’ve just lost interest in? JP ; No, I have a Christmas quilt that was made from different blocks that we got during a Christmas exchange. I have that partially done. I have a Bow Tie one that I did, that’s all put together. I have just to quilt it. I haven’t done that. And I have a Red Hat one that’s just different squares that I put together. Those are the three. And then another one that I took a class with Terri Jacoby a long time ago. I guess a big quilt is hard for me to--we have a dog now and the dog likes to be right by me so it’s hard to be moving everything around with a big quilt. Eventually I’ll get these done. EW ; When you hand quilt do you use a rack or do you use a hoop? JP ; Sometimes I’ll use a hoop. If it’s a smaller quilt I don’t use a hoop. I don’t have a frame. EW ; What ways do you think your quilts reflect your community? JP ; I think when we had the Art Center display [Battle Creek Art Center, Battle Creek, Michigan. ] I think people really enjoyed seeing the quilts and some people don’t realize how much is involved with quilting. They think, well, you can just whip this up in no time. Well, it does take time to get your colors. I think when you find a magazine or a book with a quilt in it--some people prefer just to do what’s in a magazine and I like to sort of go out of the box and do s omething a little different. EW ; Use your own color scheme? JP ; Use your own color scheme. EW ; What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life? JP ; I think it’s a good heritage that we have kept of quilting. Some people years ago said that quilting was a dying art but I think it has come around. People are doing more quilting, depicting more, like some of the quilts with people’s faces on them, houses and things like that. I think that’s great. EW ; In what ways do you think quilts have a special meaning in women’s history in America? JP ; I think it shows what women could do at that time, even thought maybe they didn’t have electricity. They were raising three or four children and in an earlier age women did all the work. The men didn’t help with the kids. They didn’t help with the housework. So I think it’s great that women were able to do this when they didn’t have any help. EW ; How do you think quilts can be used? JP ; They can be used as a bed quilt, lap quilt, dog quilt, cat quilt, any kind, or for kids. EW ; Have you given quilts as gifts? JP ; Yes, I have. EW ; And how are the gifts being used? Do you know? JP ; I made a quilt for my sister. We are a cat family so I made a quilt for her with cats on it. She has it hanging in her living room. I made one for my one sister that passed away. It was a Halloween quilt and I think my niece has that. I made one for my niece and two nephews, each a graduation quilt. EW ; How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? JP ; They should take good care of them. If you have animals just make sure that the animals don’t get on them and tear them or destroy them. I have an old quilt that I bought from a friend, oh, thirty years ago. It was just the top. It was a Grandmother’s Flower Garden. I don’t know if she had done it. I bought it for fifteen dollars and I don’t know if she did it or who did it. And so I finished quilting that. EW ; Was that a full-size bed? JP ; Yes. EW ; What has happened to the quilts that you have made, or those of friends and family? You’ve talked a little be about some that you have given as gifts. JP ; The one that I made for my one nephew, both of my nephews are tall, very tall. The one that I made for him, he said he still uses it but he wants a taller-- EW ; He wants a longer one? JP ; Longer one. So I’m in the process of making one of the rag quilts for him. It’s out of flannel. I have all the X’s all sewn together on it, so hopefully I’ll get that done. EW ; What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? JP ; I think new things that are coming out. New ideas, new innovations. You know you have all these things that you can buy at the store, notions. There’s a lot of notions and there’s a lot of new fabrics and there’s always something new coming out, different innovations. EW ; We’ve reached the end of our list of questions. Is there anything that you would like to add, especially? JP ; No, just that I’ve enjoyed this interview and thank you for talking with me. EW ; I’m so glad that you were able to take the time, again, to do this interview. We appreciate it very much. This concludes our interview and the time is now 11:02 a.m. 2015 Quilt Alliance. All Rights Reserved. audio 0 http://quiltalliance.net ",,,,"Allie Aller",,,"http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/9fb294e51666878bd2bf4a65b7fb11e8.jpg,http://qsos.quiltalliance.org/files/original/20b8f52f67bfae723058940263c74beb.jpg","Oral History","South Central Michigan QSOS",1,0