Gallery
Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (QSOS) creates, through recorded interviews, a broadly accessible body of information concerning quiltmaking, both present-day and in living memory.
Virginia Abrams
Virginia Abrams is a non-traditional quilter from Delaware. She hand-dyes most of her fabrics, and puts them together using an improvisational curved piecing…
Joan Abshire
Joan Abshire quilts as a hobby in Massachusetts. For this interview, she brought a quilt entitled "My Canadian Home," which she found the pattern for in a…
Christine Adams
Christine Adams was interested in fabric from a very young age, as her grandparents were decorators on Philadelphia’s Mainline, and she spent a lot of time in…
Naomi Adams
Naomi Adams learned how to sew from her mother, and first learned quilting from her grandmother. She made her first quilt in 1996, and is now a quilt teacher…
Colene Adkins
Colene Adkins had learned how to quilt later in her life and was only a quilter for about year and a half by the time this interview was conducted. Despite her…
Terese Agnew
Terese Agnew began as a sculptor from Wisconsin, however, shifted to quilts as a better medium to promote her artistic expression. Because of her artistic…
Lela Alcorn
Lela Alcorn learned how to quilt at the age of six from her mother, and now is a quilt teacher herself. She belongs to a guild, and is passionate about the…
Teresa Alvarez
Teresa Alvarez is a Spanish-speaking quiltmaker living in Boonville, California. She began with crocheting and needlepoint before moving to quiltmaking. Alvarez…
Lela Anders
Lela Anders is a quiltmaker from Alabama. She began quilting at around age 20, when her sister-in-law taught her how to. In this interview she describes a quilt…
Pamela Allen
Pamela Allen began her career as an assemblage artist and eventually took up quilting. She considers quilting a type of art, and therefore views fabric as the…
Helen Allen
Helen Allen has been quilting since about 1980 while she was attending night school. She belongs to a quilter’s bee called “White on White”,and is also an…
Bertha Arizmendi
Bertha Arizmendi is a hispanic quilter from Boonville, California. She began quilting in 2006 with the guild Los Hilos de la Vida. Her favorite part of quilting…
Patricia Autenrieth
Patricia Autenrieth is an experimental quiltmaker from Maryland. Before she began quiltmaking, she painted for 10 years with three solo exhibits in the span of…
Deanna Apfel
While Deanna Apfel’s grandmother had been a quilter, she did not form a passion for it until she took a color and composition class in 1995. She is often…
Pat Ansell
Pat Ansell has been quilting since she was 14, but it did not become a passion for her until the 1990s. She belongs to multiple guilds including the Arizona…
Evangelina Angulo
Evangelina Angulo began quilting in January 2006 in a quilting class she took while furthering her education. Though she still has some of her quilts, Angulo…
Thelma Robison Kirch Barr
Thelma Barr is a quilter from Pittsburgh who moved to Dale City, Virginia in 1956. Barr began in apparel, because she loves sewing. She moved to quiltmaking…
Lourdes Barragan
Lourdes Barragan is a hispanic quiltmaker. She sells most of her quilts fairly successfully in California. The quilt she describes in this interview is a…
Alva Barrett
Alva Barrett is a quilter and member of the National Society of Daughters of the Americna Revolution, Tillicum chapter. She grew up in the South, and began…
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…
Sonya Lee Barrington
Sonya Lee Barrington is a self-taught quilter from San Francisco, California who began quiltmaking in 1968. She began in apparel, and became interested after…
Deborah Barr
Deborah Barr majored in art, and was a painter before she stared quilting. She has been quilting for about 20 years, and views quilting as her new medium. Barr…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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. …
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…
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…
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…
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.
Mary Kay (Micki) Batte
Mary Kay Batte discusses a quilt she made for exhibition, completed while she was traveling in the Northwest of the United States. She goes on to discuss the…
Joe Cunningham
Noted quiltmaker Joe Cunningham describes his evolving philosophy of the intersections among quilts, art, and tradition. He elaborates on how he began quilting…
Denyse Schmidt
In this interview, recorded in front of an audience at the Quilt Alliance's annual fundraiser, Quilters Take Manhattan, journalist and Quilt Alliance president…
Janneken Smucker
Students in West Chester University's HIS 480: Digital History course interviewed their professor, Janneken Smucker, for their final project. Smucker talks…
Marilyn Mowry
Marilyn Mowry talks about her love of antique quilts, including her membership in the “19th-century Patchwork Divas" group.
Barbara Oliver Hartman
Barbara Oliver Hartman shares her quilt, 'Autumn Leaves', which took more than 15 years to complete.
Alex Anderson
In this interview recorded live in front of an audience at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, journalist Meg Cox interviewed quilt teacher,…
Andrea Brokenshire
In this interview, conducted at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, Andrea Brokenshire explains her quiltmaking process, as well as fiber art as…
Michael Cummings
In this live QSOS interview recorded at the 2017 Quilters Take Manhattan, Michael Cummings talks about his process, inspiration, and the tools he uses to make…
Becky Goldsmith
Becky Goldsmith talks about getting started making quilts and how it's grown into a quilting business, and offers advice for new quilters.
Joy-Lily
Joy-Lily talks about her Obama quilt, inspired by Barack Obama's election to the American presidency in 2008.
Laura Wasilowski
Laura Wasilowski talks about her quilt, "On a Leaf and a Prayer", a fused quilt made from hand-dyed fabric.
Marjorie Diggs Freeman
In this interview, Marjorie Freeman shares her quilt "Yes We Can and In My Lifetime"
Carolyn Crump
Fifth generation quiltmaker Carolyn Crump shares her quilt "From Vision to Victory" and shares her technique and artistic process.
Suzanne Staud
Karen Musgrave interviews Suzanne Staud, a quilt maker, for the Quilt Alliance's Quilters' S.O.S. Project. Staud discusses her personal contributions to the…
Yvonne Porcella
Karen Musgrave interviews Yvonne Porcella, a member of the Quilters Hall of Fame, about the 2003 Quilt Alliance's raffle quilt. Porcella describes her artistic…
Teddy Pruett
Amy Henderson interviews Teddy Pruett, a quilt maker at the American Quilt Study group conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. Pruett discusses the quilt she…
Karen Alexander
Karen Alexander speaks of her involvement with quilting and how it has inspired her research.
Mary Perini
Quilt historian, textile dealer, quilt appraiser, and quilter Mary Perini is interviewed about quilts. She discusses the personal and emotional aspects of…
Linda Claussen
Linda Claussen is interviewed at a quilting seminar. She describes the quilt she brought with her and the impact that quilting has had on her life.
Joanne Gasperik
Gasperik discusses her grandmother's quilt, as well as the life story of her grandmother who came to the United States as a Hungarian immigrant. Gasperik offers…
Sally Ambrose
Paulette Lancaster interviews Sally Ambrose, a quilter and quilt appraiser, for the Quilters' S.O.S. Oral History Project. Ambrose discusses the quilt she has…
Leesa Zarinelli Gawlik
Gawlik shares her unique perspective on quilting, having started in America with her grandmother, she then moved to Japan and started working with natural…
Carol Taylor
Lori Miller interviews Carol Taylor, a successful quilt artist, at the Sedgwick Cultural Center in Philadelphia (Pa.). Taylor discusses her Gong quilt series…
Gabrielle Swain
Gabrielle Swain talks about her quilt, "Maple Breaks," including its appearance and the techniques she used to create it, and the special meaning of the quilt…
June Underwood
June Underwood talks about her quilt, "Crow's Line," which is part of her series involving crows and dragons. She talks about the techniques she used to create…
Cindy Friedman
Megan Dwyre interviews Cindy Friedman, a quilter and fiber artist based in Pennsylvania. She discusses personal aspects of quilting, including how she began to…
Lonni Rossi
Rossi discusses her touchstone quilt, "Double Duende." She also talks about how she became interested in quilting, as well as her career as a graphic designer.…
Rita Burnstein
Burnstein discusses her career as a quilter. She talks about how she started quilting, and her thoughts on quilting and history. She also describes her work as…
Deborah Schwartzman
Schwartzman discusses her origins as a quilter, as well as her interest in flower quilts. She describes her work at the Sedgwick Cultural Center as director of…
Carolyn Lee Vehslage
Carolyn Lee Vehslage talks about how her career as a computer network engineer, as well as her friendship with fabric designer Lonni Rossi, led to her Computer…
Bette Uscott-Woolsey
Bette Uscott-Woolsey discusses her unique technique for creating art by combining both fabric and acrylic paint. She talks about some of the artists she admires…
Pansy Hector Lovelace
Evelyn Salinger interviews Pansy Hector Lovelace, a quilter living in Washington, D.C. Lovelace discusses her background and how she got into quilting. She then…
Christine Bradford
Evelyn Salinger interviews Christine Bradford, a quilter a seamstress, for the Quilters' S.O.S. Oral History Project. Bradford first talks about the quilt she…
Frances "Sue" Whitaker
Whitaker discusses her involvement in quilting. In particular, she discusses why she became involved with long arm quilting as a style. She notes how she…
Suzanne Marshall
Marshall discusses how she began quilting and her growth as a professional quilter. She discusses the various inspirations for quilts based off of her travels…
Judy Dales
Le Rowell interviews Judy Dales, a renowned quilter at a quilt convention. She discusses how she got involved in quilting from a young age and the first quilt…
Hollis Chatelain
Quilt artist and designer Hollis Chatelain, whose quilt "Sahel" is featured in the 100 Best Quilts Collection, is interviewed by Paula Bosselman for the…
Eleanor Burns
Eleanor Burns owns the company "Quilt in a Day" and was the star of the PBS show of the same name. In this interview, she talks about the influence of Ruby…
Anita Murphy
Anita Murphy is an accomplished quilter and teacher. She began quilting because of an aunt who taught her, and she was given quilts from Dr. Ruth Hartgraves,…
Patty Cline
Patty Cline delves into her life as a quiltmaker. She talks about her design process as well as how she comes up with the ideas for her quilts. Her family's…
Paula Nadelstern
Nadelstern considers herself a professional quilter, and she is known for her kaleidoscope quilts and the technique she invented to create them. She talks about…
Yvonne Porcella
Porcella was originally a sewer and weaver before she got into quilting. This background helped her to focus on the colors and fabrics more. She is very…
Elly Sienkiewicz
Sienkiewicz is a quilter and an author. She teaches women how to quilt, specifically appliqué. She is responsible for the revival of the Baltimore Album style…
Judy Murrah
Judy Murrah was the director of education for the International Quilt Festival. She talks about how she learned to sew as a child, and how she taught herself…
Shoko Ferguson
Ferguson discusses her interest in quilting through her mother-in-law, as well as balancing quilting as a mother of three children. She describes the two quilts…
Margaret Docherty
Jana Hawley interviews Margaret Docherty, a quilter from Durham, England. She talks about the quilt which she has brought for the interview, the prize-winning…
Cynthia England
England is a quilter whose pictorial quilt was named in the 20th Century's Best American Quilts. She then began to teach and create patterns, which blossomed…
Elsie Campbell
Karen Bennick interviews Elsie Campbell, an award-winning quilter and former educator. Campbell discusses a quilt she created for her son, called "World Peace",…
Roberta Horton
Marilyn Geary interviews Roberta Horton, a quilter and quilt teacher, about her quilts and her quilting career. Horton first talks about the quilt she brought…
Irma Gail Hatcher
Phyllis J. Harris interviews Irma Gail Hatcher, an award-winning quilter at the Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Hatcher's quilt, "Conway Album", was included…
Helen Kelley
Helen Kelley talks about her "Grandma Kelley Quilts" and being included in the "100 Best Quilters of the Century." She discusses the joy she gets from quilting…
Rachel Clark
Clark discusses her career in crafting quilted clothing. She notes her early experiences with quilting, as well as her transition from producing bed quilts to…
Miriam Nathan Roberts
Roberts is an art quilter. She creates quilts that play with depth perception, which is something she lacks. Her quilts are very contemporary and unique. She…
Judy Mathieson
Rebecca Salinger interviews Judy Mathieson, an award-winning quilter and teacher, about her life and career in quilting. Mathieson discusses her signature…
Terrie Newman
Terrie Newman, a quilting teacher and quilter, is interviewed for the Quilters' S.O.S. Oral History Project. Newman talks about the quilt she brought in for the…
Linda Jenkins
Jenkins runs a quilt-design company called Piece O' Cake. She designs fabrics and is also an avid quilter. Her quilt was inspired by her hikes near her home in…
Pauline Salzman
Pauline Salzman describes the quilted wall-hanging that she brought to the show and how she wants to redo aspects of it. She reflects on gender issues in…
Toni Baumgard
Toni Baumgard, a quilter, is interviewed by Renee Jackson for the Quilters’ S.O.S. Oral History Project. Baumgard talks about the quilt she brought in for the…
Joyce Starr Johnson
Joyce Starr Johnson talks about how her quilting is inspired by and affects her family. She discusses the value of an unfinished quilt, and for her, the use of…
Pepper Cory
Pepper Cory is a professional quilter. She relates how she started quilting, and how she makes her living within the quilting world. She describes her work…
Hollis Chatelain
Hollis Chatelain is known for her monochromatic work. She begins by talking about her monochromatic pieces, particularly "Blue Men" which she brought to the…
Lynne Edwards
Lynne Edwards describes how she first learned to create cathedral window quilts under the tutelage of an embroiderer. She talks about her attitude about art…
Emily Parson
Patricia Plunk interviews Emily Parson, a quilter, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Parson talks about the quilt she brought for the…
Shirley Kelly
JoAnn Pospisil interviews Shirley Kelly, a former art educator and quilter, about her life and her quilting career. Kelly discusses the quilt she brought in for…
Jane Hall
Hall spends much of her time quilting or writing quilting books, and she expects to see change in the quilting community with the new wave of art quilts. She…
Susan Derkacz
Sandy Mehall interviews Susan Derkacz, a quilt maker, for the Quilters' S.O.S. Oral History Project. Derkacz discusses many aspects of quilting, including…
Julie John Upshaw
JoAnn Pospisil interviews Julie John Upshaw, an art quilt creator and winner of the best quilt award at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.…
Carolyn Dahl
Carolyn Dahl describes the quilt she brought for the interview, which she titled "Don't Throw Away My Dolls." She says it is a memory quilt based on memories…
Mary Haunani Cesar
Cesar is a Hawaiian quilter who embraces both traditional and contemporary styles. She travels around the world and teaches Hawaiian quilting. She also owns a…
Marilyn Doheny
Judy Holley interviews Marilyn Doheny, a quilter, quilt teacher, and quilt book author. Doheny discusses the quilt she has brought for the interview, which she…
Henk Van Kooten
Van Kooten discusses his ventures in quilting and the influence that it has had on his life as a hobby as well as a source of monetary value when entering…
Sandra Leichner
Jo Frances Greenlaw interviews Sandra Leichner, an award-winning quilter. Leichner discusses her quilt "Pharaoh" in great detail, which won best in show for the…
Marlene Peterman
Hester Able interviews Marlene Peterman, a quilter and quilting teacher, for the Quilters' S.O.S. Oral History Project. Peterman discusses personal aspects of…
Nancy Martin
Kay Jones interviews Nancy Martin, a quilter and quilt book writer from New Jersey. Martin discusses her personal connections to quilting, including how she…
Nao Nomura
As a collections manager at the International Quilt Studies Center and Museum, Nomura discusses her own interest in quilting as well as what qualities make good…
Nao Nomura
Nomura, the interviewee, discusses the patchwork MacBook case she has present with her at the interview, her history and interests in quilting, what she thinks…
Jean Vining
Kay Jones interviews quilter Jean Vining, a former school teacher and award-winning quilt artist. She discusses the quilt she has brought in for the interview,…
Alice Robinson
Robinson reflects on her experience quilting, including how it helped her during her battle against breast cancer, and the awards she has won for quilting.
Mary Andrews
Mary Andrews was a dental hygienist who learned how to quilt after finding some quilt squares her mother made before she passed away. She loves to experiment…
Penny Rigdon
Peggy Rigdon says she was born in Washington, D.C., obtained a scholarship to Barnard College, and then moved to New York with her husband where she later had…
Ruth Wescott Duncan
Ruth Wescott Duncan discusses her education and career as a librarian. Duncan says that her childhood quilt and the quilt she is showing today are similar. Her…
Linda Lindstrom Freeman
Linda Lindstrom Freeman talks about her personal background. Freeman says that when her kids were young, her aunt tried to get her to quilt. Her aunt, Beth…
Shirley Johnston Shelly
Shirley Johnston Shelly begins by sharing her childhood, education, and career background. Shelly says the first time she saw quilting was when she was in high…
Nancy Woods Lyons
Nancy Woods Lyons talks about her personal background. She says she was always surrounded by quilts growing up because her grandmother quilted. One of the…
Velda E. Newman
Velda E. Newman was interviewed in 1999 at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. She explains her design process, including studying, sketching,…
Fred Fuston & Karla Poggen
Fred Fuston and Karla Poggen each contribute to this interview. Raymond Fuston was the father of Fred Fuston, and the grandfather of Karla Poggen. Raymond…
Helen Young Frost
Helen Young Frost discusses her quilt, “A World of Flowers,” which she started in 1992 for a class she taught at Quilt Expo Europa, then later modified it to…
Ted Storm van Weelden
Storm van Weelden talks about being depressed due to a health problem and deciding to make a black quilt. She talks about how this quilt, along with successful…
Jeri Riggs
Jeri Riggs discusses her quilt, which has won entry into the Husqvarna Viking MasterPiece Competition. The international contest showcases over 50 quilts, and…
Kaffe Fassett
Kaffe Fassett designs fabrics used for quilting. He describes a quilt he chose to bring for the interview because, unlike the vast majority of his quilts, he…
Roy Mitchell, Jr.
Roy Mitchell, Jr. says that he is a collector of Black memorabilia. As he studied Black culture, he began to wonder why Black people were always negatively…
Marjorie Elliott
Marjorie Elliott, interviewed by Ann Shibut, shares her story of quilting. She introduces a quilt she created based on her childhood memory of her father's…
Carter Houck
Houck describes the quilt she has brought to the interview, which is a remake of a 1930s quilt. She discusses the use of feed sacks in quilting and sewing. She…
Cliff Bailey
In this brief interview with Cliff Bailey, he describes a quilt that he has made that he's fond of, in part because of the nosegay pattern, use of colors, and…
Paula Golden
Paula Golden says that the name of her quilt is "Dancing To My Spirit" and was inspired by a soapstone carving from the Inuit culture. She talks about the…
Eileen Doughty
Eileen Doughty says the quilt she brought to the interview is named "Niggle's Leaf" and was inspired by a story that she read as a teenager, called "Leaf by…
Donna Marcinkowski DeSoto
DeSoto talks about the quilt she brought to the interview, its inspiration, and the materials and techniques she used. She talks about the quilting groups she…
Carole Nicholas
Carole Nicholas talks about her "Under Sea Gardens Quilt," why she quilted it, the techniques she used, and where it is now. She talks about her unique quilting…
Joan Knight
Joan Knight talks about the first full-size quilt she ever made, how it is used, and the reason she chose the log cabin design for her first-ever full-size…
Judy Stryker
Judy Stryker talks about the materials of her chosen quilt, the maker of the quilt, and how it came into her possession. She talks about first learning about…
Linda Fiedler
Linda Fiedler talks about her chosen quilt, the fabrics used, the design, and how it got its name by helping her through a tough time. She describes her first…
Margie Ellen Guy Hockman
Margie Hockman introduces herself and her touchstone quilt, which uses her favorite Double Wedding Ring pattern. She talks about her upbringing and her first…
Sarah Abright Dickson
Interviewed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, in 2011, Sarah Abright Dickson shares her touchstone quilt, which she made when her mother…