Bunnie Jordan

Bunnie Jordan

QSOS-062

Bunnie Jordan

JoAnn Pospisil

11/2/00

Moda Fabrics

Houston, Texas

JoAnn Pospisil

JoAnn Pospisil (JP): Bunnie, would you start out by telling us where you are from?

Bunnie Jordan (BJ): I'm from Vienna, Virginia, right outside of Washington, D. C. I just mentioned a few minutes ago that I'm originally from Baltimore. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, but I've lived in Virginia for twenty-five plus years.

JP: Okay. And the type quilting you generally do? You say you do wearable art here on the form.

BJ: Well, I only put that down there because I have made some vests, that kind of thing, but I don't generally make a lot of clothing. Quilts are what I make. I make wall hangings and bed size quilts.

JP: Do you want to go ahead and talk about the piece that you brought with you today?

BJ: Okay. This is a bed size quilt, and it's not finished--which is the state of many of my pieces [laughter.] Unfinished.

JP: You wouldn't be a quilter if you didn't have those. [laughing.]

BJ: Exactly. This is a medallion quilt. I started this in 1998. I'm on the staff of Jinny Beyer's Hilton Head Seminar. Every year Jinny selects a theme for the seminar and the theme for that year was medallions. We were kind of looking at the end of the century and millennium style quilts and so we were looking at millennium medallions. That was the start of it. That was kind of the impetus for actually beginning the making of the quilt. I happen to love oriental design, and one of the classes that I teach at seminar is oriental inspirations. So, in doing the medallion, I chose an oriental theme quite different from much of what you see in Jinny Beyer's work and in the staff work. It's quite different from Jinny's stuff, so this was a little bit different for the seminar. I brought this quilt because it has more meaning to me than most other quilts. In the middle of making it, my son was diagnosed with cancer and [overcome with emotion.] --excuse me. I just remember sitting while he was getting his treatments--he's doing fine now so everything is good--but sitting with him during the treatments piecing this. So, it really has--[overcome with emotion.] I didn't expect this.

JP: Would you like to pause for a while?

BJ: No, I'm fine. [holding quilt in lap.]

JP: Would you like to put it up here? [on the table.] We'll keep everything away from it so we don't get any marks on it or anything, but so that we can kind of--well, you did already talk about the fact that you did a medallion quilt and that you worked with the oriental motifs. It's a beautiful piece. I love the choice of colors and patterns and materials.

BJ: Thank you. A lot of those are Jinny's fabrics. That's one of the nice things about being in a seminar with such talented people. You get lots of good advice, lots of good suggestions. Jinny, of course, has a real eye for picking out just what something needs and so when you are looking for a border, she's very helpful and, in fact, she'll find a lot of places where a border should go. So that was how I came about doing the quilt, and it does have very strong significance because I associate so many things going on in my life at that time. The whole group was very supportive through that whole thing, too. So, I kind of associate it with that group that I worked with, with that whole seminar, and the positive results, etc. that I got with it. It's interesting that it's a fan design and one of the lectures that I just attended here at seminar was about oriental design, etc. and the speaker indicated that in Japan the fan is a symbol of your unfolding happiness, of your future. I immediately thought of this quilt and thought, 'How perfect.' It really worked out very perfectly because this has turned out to be a good situation for my son and myself.

JP: So, it definitely has very strong emotional meaning--

BJ: Absolutely. Stronger than I realized. [laughing.]

JP: When you finish the quilt, do you have a specific use in mind as far as a wall hanging or--

BJ: In fact, I did measure it for my own bed so that really was part of the planning, that it probably would go on my bed at some point. But it seems to be taking me a long time to get around to quilting it. I actually had it ready for basting, all layered and had actually started basting it because it was going to be in another show, then decided that was really crazy, I could not possibly make that deadline. And it didn't have the backing that I wanted, so I took it apart and put something else in the show.

JP: Tell us about your interest in quilting. What does it--[lengthy interruption by announcement in convention hall.] Okay, now that we have all the [people in the convention center.] quilters put where they belong, [let's talk about.] how your interest in quilting began?

BJ: Okay. I do not come from a family of quilters although I do have quilts from my husband's family. His grandmother, aunts, etc. made quilts so I do have some of those, but I probably grew into quilting from other craft-related things in the 1960s and 1970s. I tried my hand at a number of different things and enjoyed doing them. I made one very small piece, probably in 1975 after my first daughter was born. I didn't even think of it as a quilt. I am a nurse, but I also have a degree in child development, and I made a piece that I thought was tactile stimulation. All different types of material--satin and corduroy and velvet--and that was kind of a tool for stimulating the emotional and intellectual growth of your baby, that kind of stuff that you learn in school. I made a little patchwork quilt with those materials but did not think of it as a quilt. I thought of it as this little teaching tool and didn't do quilting again until probably in the early 1980s. Then I kind of taught myself and I was appliquéing. I taught myself to appliqué from a book and I used a different technique on every block. I remember my mother looking at it and saying, 'Those things are going to fall off.' [laughing.] My stitching was not impressive even to a non-quilter, so I thought, 'Well, maybe I ought to take a class.' But I did make that first quilt--[interruption by a loud announcement concerning the bad weather outdoors and opening the exhibit hall early.]

JP: Okay, you did make the quilt.

BJ: I did actually make that quilt. I had to go back and strengthen the appliqué in a couple of places, and periodically still do, and I quilted it in just the minimal amount of quilting. Then, once I started to get into quilting and listened to some of the speakers, etc., and learned more about it, I thought, 'That's always going to be my first quilt and I need to go back and stitch it more, so I won't be embarrassed.' It was a baby quilt for my son who still carries it around. He's now in college and he takes that quilt everywhere. I said, 'Aren't you embarrassed to take this little farm animal quilt?' And he said, 'No, it's my quilt.'

JP: Good for him.

BJ: So, he takes it everywhere.

JP: So, your quilting was very important.

BJ: Absolutely. Absolutely. Somebody treasures it. [laughs.]

JP: When did you start taking classes?

BJ: Probably 1983, 1984. There's a very large quilters guild in northern Virginia called the Quilters Unlimited and I joined that in I believe 1982 or 1983, and within a few years of that--I was working on teaching myself more and then just decided that maybe some professional classes would be in order. So, I did take some classes then and then periodically have taken classes and continue to.

JP: Learn some new techniques--

BJ: Absolutely.

JP: So, your first memory of a quilt is not from your family?

BJ: No, not from my family. And I don't know if I would be able to identify the first quilt that I even think of in terms of quilting. The first piece that I can think of is that 1975 little piece of sensory stimulation that I made. I would imagine the idea came probably from publications of the time rather than anything that was oriented to quilting.

JP: Okay, the child development aspect?

BJ: Absolutely, and the fact that I had always sewed. It just came naturally to make something like that to me. Probably also, my husband and I were interested in antiques and would go to antique shows and auctions, etc., and I wasn't looking for antique quilts, but having this kind of craft-oriented part of me, when I saw something, I was looking at it from a decorative standpoint not from a value standpoint or a collector standpoint. So, I would look at something and just think, 'Well, I'm not going to spend that kind of money on it because I could make that.' I think that might have been where I was coming from. I was looking at decorator kind of things and thought, 'Well, I'll make that,' and so started to make something for myself. It's interesting because I also teach about dating and collecting quilts, etc. and I always use that as an example, that once I made a quilt myself, I realized that those antique quilts I was looking at were really not so expensive after all. [laughter.]

JP: How do the quilts from your husband's family compare with the quilting you do? Did they do mainly salvage-type, scrap quilting?

BJ: Yes, they were scraps but not--there probably were three kinds of quilts, the ones that I have now anyway and made by my husband's grandmother and great aunt. They're typical traditional patterns, blocks, a basket quilt is one, with offset blocks and another just has sawtooth sashing around plain blocks. They are not fancy quilts. They were used although not damaged, so they are in fairly good shape for their age. I don't know that they influenced me, but I certainly appreciated them. That's exactly why my mother-in-law gave them to me is that I had already been quilting and had, I guess, bought one or two pieces myself, and she recognized that I appreciated quilts and would probably take care of them.

JP: What are your current quilt-related activities?

BJ: I am now an appraiser. I've been appraising quilts for about nine years. I took the American Quilter's Society appraisal skills course back in 1990 or 1991. But then, living in the area that I do, we have access to some wonderful museums and some wonderful old quilts and people who want to donate to those venues and if a quilt needs--I just felt that I needed to have a better background in the legalities and some of the particulars about appraising aside from the quilt information of appraising. So, I have taken all of the course work with the American Society of Appraisers and have gone for working with them to get that particular certification. Their courses are not about quilts at all. In fact, quilts are an anomaly. There is only one other quilt appraiser in that group. They are people who may appraise quilts, but it is part of a larger personal property venue. It was quite a different kind of education and much more professional and business like. So, I've been appraising quilts, and then about six years ago Jinny Beyer invited me to be a part of her staff at the Hilton Head Seminar. I was shocked because I never thought of myself as making wonderful quilts. I make them because I like them or enjoy them or whatever, but I was not one of the recognizable names in our quilt guild of wonderful quiltmakers. I was active in the quilt guild, had been an officer in the quilt guild, but I didn't think of myself as a wonderful quiltmaker. But you grow in the right environment, and that's a good environment to be in.

JP: Obviously she thought you were. Are there quilters now among your siblings or in your family?

BJ: No.

JP: Not even the younger children have gotten involved since you've been in all this?

BJ: No, I have a daughter who made a pillow, but it was because she had to do something for a class in school and so this was one of those how-to speeches where you have to demonstrate something, so she made a pillow.

JP: She knew mom could help with this project. [laughter.]

BJ: Yes, and that was about it. She didn't pick up a needle again. I have another daughter who threatened to but decided after looking at some of the stuff that she doesn't have the patience to do that. Everybody does get involved in helping me design a piece, and my older daughter is really good at that, and in fact will sometimes request a piece. Everybody knows that they have to comment. In fact, they've gotten to the point where they don't really answer me anymore. I'll say, 'I need an opinion.' And they'll just all say, 'The one on the left,' and never come into the room [laughter.] because they'll give me their opinion and then I won't take it and so they say, 'She just wants somebody to say something. She doesn't really want to know what we think about this.'

JP: Well, since you're the autonomous quilter in your family, what is it you find pleasing about quilting?

BJ: It's therapy. It is absolutely therapy. Certainly, in the first situation I mentioned when we were in this awful situation of my son being diagnosed, having something to do with your hands was very helpful. I later switched to chocolates [laughing.], but this is definitely more constructive. It's definitely more constructive. I'm also a psychiatric nurse, and I know that people in anxiety, depression, whatever need some sort of diversionary activity. Some kind of craft work or handwork has always been mine, and once I got to quilting--I may have returned to knitting for one project--but I just haven't gone back to any of those other things. And I rarely sew clothing anymore. I'm tempted to, but it tends to be quilt oriented and I buy the patterns, but I don't get as many of them made. Now I can't remember where I was going--

JP: You were talking about being a psychiatric nurse.

BJ: Okay, and one of the interesting things that I've found in doing some research--one of the other little activities that I did in quilting, I was a researcher for the Quilter's Hall of Fame, and I was researching Dr. William Rush Dunton. He was a Baltimore psychiatrist and there were just lots of correlations there because I was from Baltimore also and he was a psychiatrist, and I was working in psychiatric nursing. He was a psychiatrist at Shepherd-Pratt Hospital and that's where I did my psychiatric affiliation as a student. So there just seemed to be a lot of correlations and I thought, 'I really should investigate this man.' He is considered the founder of occupational therapy. One of the things he did in the early 1900s was get his 'nervous ladies'--that is how he referred to them in his book--get them quilting. So very early on a psychiatrist recognized quilting was therapy, and it certainly is for me. I find every aspect of it suits some mood. There are times when I just want to design. There are sometimes when I just want to sew. There are times when I just want to quilt. So, I try to have something in every stage.

JP: Which of the stages do you seem to enjoy more?

BJ: I don't know if there is one. Maybe designing would come out first, but they're all so close because there are times when you don't want to do a whole lot of thinking and just sitting and quilting--

JP: Tactile.

BJ: Yes, there is something just really, really nice about that. Something about the repetition and something about seeing something develop under your hands. It's to me a little bit better than the piecing aspect. The piecing would come down at the bottom. The closer I get to the end result, I like it. At the end of the design, you kind of know what you're gonna do and at the end of the piecing you've got the top and then at the end of the quilting you've got this wonderful, finished thing so I like the end of all this.

JP: Feeling of achievement.

BJ: Yes. Absolutely.

JP: What do you think are the properties of a great quilt? What makes a great quilt?

BJ: I think the overall design, the components of the quilt. I'm thinking not just in terms of my quilts, but in terms of quilts whether they are antique or new. The overall design and the appearance, the layout, are one of the first things that you see, and I don't know if you can separate that from color--there is certainly an overlap if there is a separation--but color comes into that. So, I think a person is attracted to a quilt whose colors appeal to them and/or the overall design. I think those are probably the most important. I think workmanship is important.

JP: What about a quilt makes it artistically powerful?

BJ: Again, I think I would go back to both the design and the color. I think how you use the color in the design that you are creating can drastically change it. I think we've all seen blocks that are done in different color ways and how they can look very different. They can look very exciting or very dull. I think probably use of your colors, if I had to narrow it down. Use of your colors, going from lights to darks gives more interest. A two-color quilt can be striking but I don't think it's going to hold your visual interest for very long, not mine anyway. Something that's got a whole lot more movement via the color will have me exploring the design.

JP: Hold your attention. And what makes a piece suitable for a museum or special collection, in your opinion? And as an appraiser, that's an important opinion.

BJ: Yes, really. And I just did a whole talk on collecting this morning. So, I would have to say that it would depend on the institution and what their mission is and what the focus of their general collection would be. For instance, a museum like the DAR [Daughters of the Revolution.] or the Smithsonian would be interested in the provenance and the history of the piece, not excluding the condition, but the condition may not be the overriding factor if the piece is historically important. For an art museum, condition is going to be critical, and the design is going to be critical. Some individual collectors--well, you've asked about museums, so I will stick with that then.

JP: Museums and special collections.

BJ: Special collections--if it's a contemporary quilt collector, most of them will tell you that they look at the piece as artwork. One description was that a great piece of art will draw you back again and again, so if they find themselves drawn back to a piece of work or to the work of a particular artist, then that is something that they would want in their collection. That may be because of color or because of design or because of the subject matter or because of the workmanship. It depends on the individual viewer; what attracts them. A museum would prefer to have something in pristine shape, and if they have an old something that is in pristine shape all the better. But if they have something, for instance the DAR has a quilt that I showed this morning that was made by the wife of Francis Scott Key. That genealogy and provenance is more significant than if it was made by my great grandmother. But it also happens to be a very attractive quilt. It may not be the most attractive quilt that they have, but it has historic significance. It's really hard to narrow--there's no one answer.

JP: After all that is said and done, what makes a great quilter?

BJ: I think someone who recognizes the importance of these factors, who uses both design elements, who has good use of color, but who does not ignore the importance of the craft part of quilting and the workmanship. I think the design, color, and work and the mastery of her needle. Because there are a whole cloth quilts that don't have a strong design element. They may be only one color, but the quilting design and pattern in that and the quilting stitch in that may just mesmerize you. So, there's an exception to every single thing I said. [laughter.]

JP: Of course. I think we've already covered why quilting is so important to your life as far as how you have evolved as quilter. Are there ways in which your quilts actually reflect your community or your region?

BJ: No, not that I can think of. Perhaps the last few years I'm showing a Jinny Beyer influence, and part of that is because of the theme which she chooses for the seminar, and I will make a piece to correlate with that theme. However, I only make one piece a year to correlate with that particular theme. Those are good learning experiences even if you don't come out with a quilt that you particularly would have made otherwise. The learning experience of using the color and using this particular design and how you can manipulate it, those are all very good learning experiences. Currently or for the last several years my interest has been in things with an oriental theme or an oriental design, so I've made something almost every year about that.

JP: So, you think that the classes are important as far as establishing fundamentals and then beyond that you need to express your own creativity and that's what you get satisfaction from?

BJ: Absolutely. I think everybody needs to learn--even if you are going to break the rules, I think you kind of need to learn what the rules are up front and then if you decide to manipulate that information for yourself, that's fine. And there are several quilt artists who certainly do that, and they will tell you, 'It's not that I never learned to sew. I went through these different programs pre-quilting and I can sew this, that, and make pleats and do all of this fancy stuff, but I don't want to do that in a quilt. That's not what I want this quilt to say. I don't want people to be distracted by that.' So, if there is a message in an art quilt, then the technique may take a lower priority.

JP: Okay. In what ways do you think that quilts are important in American life today?

BJ: Again, I can't answer with one single thing. I think art quilts are kind of representative of this time in quilt making. This is a phenomenon that we have not seen previously in history. We now look at some antique quilts as works of art but certainly that was not always true or certainly, they weren't appreciated for that. Maybe the quiltmakers themselves did, but they didn't get a whole lot of recognition or any venues to show them that way. I love antique quilts, so I like the idea of hanging onto some history that comes to us through quilting. In some of the classes that I teach about dating quilts I try to encourage people to look at what else was going on in history at the time that the quilt might have been made to see what influences from the contemporary period found their way into that quilt. On some it's very obvious. It could be a ribbon that even gives you the information about whether it was in a fair or if this was military ribbon or something like that. But it could be something much more subtle and sometimes we have to go digging through history to find out what that was. I'm thinking in terms of women who didn't have the right to vote, who didn't have a whole lot of political say but would make quilts and name them after a particular party or after a particular battle or in honor of some political or military situation. So, I think as a way of women expressing themselves, they are important, and it almost doesn't matter what time in history you're looking at. Does that answer your question? I'm not sure anymore. [laughing.]

JP: Well, you're saying that the significance comes down through time whatever the period whether it be an antique quilt or one today. It may be less political and more art related today.

BJ: Yes, although I don't think you can separate those. I think an awful lot of artists are making quilts with political statements. And I think the style of quilt--even if you are making a traditional pattern or replica of something else, I think that has its own statement. I think that's showing recognition of someone else's work, appreciation for someone else's work. Perhaps its revealing something in terms of timidity of the person who's making it, or her level of quiltmaking. I think even in terms of painting, an awful lot of people spend time in museums copying the masters just as a learning tool, and I think we do that in quilting as well. So, I think quilting is an artistic venue and we use it, and have always used it, to express ourselves in some way. Sometimes we don't even know what we're saying. [laughter.]

JP: You've more or less answered how you think quilts have a special meaning in women's history and the experience in America. Apparently, they were a venue for expression.

BJ: Right. Absolutely. And sometimes coping. We go back to that old coping thing and sometimes people make something directly from a pattern out of a very traditional--I mean it's not very innovative at all, but it's an important tool for them because it may be helping them get through something as well.

JP: Exactly. So, explain all the ways you think quilts should be used or can be used.

BJ: Well, the obvious is beds and walls, so as a decorative art piece is one thing. As a study tool to learn about history of women, of the country, of whatever the quilt may be significant for as a coping tool, as an outlet for expression. I think they find themselves in so many different venues and I'm thrilled to see them on walls being appreciated by people who don't know a whole lot about quilts or think of themselves as interested in quilts. You know, people who are buying them and interested in them as expressions and pieces of art.

JP: What do you think is the best way to preserve quilts for the future?

BJ: The physical quilts?

JP: Yes.

BJ: Okay. Making sure that they are taken care of, respected, while you have them and making sure that they go to someone or some place that will also take care of and respect them. You can get as nitty gritty as proper storage which changes with our knowledge and the growth of technology, but probably most important are the persons who are the caretakers of a particular piece during their lifetime because that's all we are is caretakers of the piece. We can have something from 1800, and we're just passing it on generation to generation, but you need to make sure that particular generation appreciates it and doesn't line the back of their pickup truck with it. I'm less interested in the acid-free paper than I am in the person who is going to respect this piece. If they don't, and no one in the family does--and that's happened a lot and I think there are an awful lot of collectors who have benefited from, 'Well, you seem to like and appreciate quilts and nobody in my family likes them, so do you want these?' I'd rather see them given away in that regard than passed down to a family who doesn't like them. But if push comes to shove, they may end up with a dealer and then I have the opportunity to buy them, so it's not all bad if the family doesn't like them. But at least they're putting them out there in the marketplace so that someone who does like them and want to take care of them will eventually get them.

JP: Right, instead of allowing them to deteriorate or whatever.

BJ: Exactly.

JP: So, what has happened to various pieces and quilts that you've made?

BJ: I've given some away. I made anniversary gifts for my mom. I made graduation gifts for my children. Baby quilts for friends and family, so a number of them have been given away. I have a number of unfinished tops, but I also have some quilts. I don't sleep under a quilt regularly, but I have slept under quilts. I like my quilts on walls, so I rotate some of my work on walls and I have a wonderful husband who appreciates my quilts. He takes the wall hanging-size pieces, and he will rotate them and put them in his office.

JP: Fantastic.

BJ: Yes, it is. It's really nice. He claims credit for some of the advice, the times when I say, 'Where should I put this or what should I do here?' He claims that he helped to design that particular quilt. But I think it's nice that he appreciates it.

JP: Gives him a mode for participation?

BJ: And I tell you, a lot of the women who pass through his office will later sometime get in touch with me. Once they start talking about quilts and he tells them that I'm also interested in old quilts, some people have sent me antique pieces that are in their family just to see what I think about them and some of them have ended up being published and put in magazines and stuff because they might have a really interesting story. So, some things that might have been hidden can come your way through a pretty circuitous route of people who really don't know anything about quilting, but if they know someone who quilts, then eventually the story will get out.

JP: That's fantastic. So, do you still take classes regularly?

BJ: Not regularly. Not regularly, but I do take them, and I like to take them as much for learning something new myself, but also for learning how good teachers teach because now I find myself teaching. If I'm teaching about dating old quilts or doing something that I do on a regular basis, I'm fine. But if it's a how-to class, I feel a little less confident, so I like to go and see how she does this or she's a really good teacher so I'm learning as much about her style of teaching or what things are appreciated by the students as I am about the specific technique that I'm learning. But I go for both. I wouldn't take a class that I wasn't interested in just because the person has a reputation for being a good teacher. I mean I'd be interested but I wouldn't take the class. I want to do something for me, too. [laughter.]

JP: Okay, well you've answered a lot of these questions. We don't need to go through this stuff on the tape. It's already recorded. Do you have anything else in particular that you want to say about quilting and your experience with it?

BJ: No, just that it is amazing to me how something can so take over your life. I had been doing a lot of different crafts and stuff before I got to quilting and I absolutely stopped when I got to quilting and this is primarily what I do. I still work as a nurse but that gets in the way of my quilting [laughter.], and the people that I work with--as I say in a psychiatric setting and there are some other psychiatric nurses--one of them actually said to me last year, 'You know, I envy this passion that you have because I think it is such a good outlet for people.' So, if you find something--for some people it might be painting, for others it could be whatever, there are all kinds of things--when you find a thing that I think feeds your soul then you need to stay with it. To me it's endless. I can go anywhere with this. There are endless possibilities.

JP: Do you integrate quilting with your psychiatric nursing and teaching others, too?

BJ: Oh yes, yes, I do. And fortunately for me there is another nurse on my staff who is a quilter. She has not taken a whole lot of classes and so she's thrilled with the exchange of information that she and I can have. And we have gotten a number of our patients quilting. Last year, in fact, we had maybe nine or ten patients on our unit at one time and we had them all quilting. One lady who had never quilted before in her life made a king size nine patch quilt all hand pieced from scrap fabrics that people from various places just brought into her. It was gorgeous and she left the hospital with a finished king size quilt. It was tied and we all helped her to tie it. She told me later that helped her through the worst of her depression. And I decided you can't ask for anything more. [voice chokes with emotion.] That was terrific.

JP: And then you had the same experience.

BJ: Made me tear up--

JP: Well, you're obviously emotionally involved with this quilting.

BJ: Yes, I am. Yes, I am.

JP: That ties in with your story about your son and the therapy that it was for you during that sad time.

BJ: Absolutely. And of course, we've got all these quilts that are related to people with breast cancer--in honor of, in memory of--

JP: The AIDS quilt.

BJ: Absolutely, so it's certainly not a new phenomenon. But it's just like illness it's different when it hits you personally.

JP: And that you promote it on a one-on-one level, not a national message necessarily, you can relate to the patients that you work with. I think it's great that you can integrate the two passions.

BJ: It's wonderful for me if I can get paid for nursing while I'm quilting. That's wonderful. [laughter.]

JP: The ideal world of Bunnie BJ.

BJ: I don't get a whole lot done; I have to tell you. The thing is I carry something in with me all the time. You never know when you're going to have a lot of down time and so I carry something in with me all the time. And I think there's something about that too. People see that and even if they don't want to make a quilt, even the men will be, 'Well, what have you got? What are you working on now?' So, they want to just see it and it's a diversion even if it's just something you're talking about.

JP: Are there any other comments, other than the ones we covered.

BJ: Boy, I don't know. I think I've talked a lot. [laughing.]

JP: Well, I've covered most of the things that we have on our page here as far as your activities with quilting and how you've evolved over time and how important it is to you personally as far as an emotional outlet and also just because of the creative aspects. So, if you don't have any other--well, there is one on here about quilt shops and stuff like that. Have you ever been involved directly in the retail end of it?

BJ: There is the business aspect in terms of appraising, but also when I started with Jinny I worked in the shop. She sets up a shop selling her fabrics and things at the seminar so when I started, that's what I did as well as teaching a class. But that's limited. I never really worked in a quilt shop on a long-term basis.

JP: Okay. I think that's it. I really appreciate and thank you for taking time to talk with us. I'm JoAnn Pospisil with Bunnie Jordan. Thank you for taking part in the 2000 Quilters' S.O.S.

BJ: Well, thank you. I'm flattered that you asked me.

JP: And the time now that we are ending is about 10:15 A.M.