Jannett Caldwell

Jannett Caldwell

AFPBP-17

audio

Oral History

Jannett Caldwell

Karen Musgrave

2/15/08

Mary Persyn

Avondale, Pennsylvania

Kim Greene

Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave. I'm doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Jannett Caldwell. She is in Avondale, Pennsylvania and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are doing this interview by telephone. Today's date is February 15, 2008. It is 4:22 in the afternoon, and we are doing a special Alzheimer's Forgetting Piece by Piece Q.S.O.S., which relates to Jannett's quilt, "Losing My Mind a Piece at a Time." Jannett thank you for doing this interview and tell me about your quilt.

Jannett Caldwell (JC): I had heard about the quilt contest around May of 2006, it was only a few weeks before the deadline to send in your pictures. My daughter Sandra found Ami's web site. She is a new quilter. I have three daughters and none of them quilt or sew, but she had just gotten the bug and I was happy about that. I knew Ami from the first quilt show I ever attended. Ami 's [Simms.]"Picture Play Quilts" was the first quilt lecture I ever heard. I was just awed that somebody could make a living talking about quilts. Anyway, my daughter found the website and she printed out the rules. She knew I would want to make this quilt, because Mom had been diagnosed in March of 2006. I had seen a picture of an old quilt in Gerald Roy's column in Fon's & Porter's magazine. That old quilt inspired the upper portion of my quilt. My thought was to make the quilt reflect my Mom's life; the upper blocks to depict her early life. She lived in the mountains of North Carolina when she was young. She had a very happy childhood. A couple of years ago she started telling me the stories of our family. She just loved that I was finally listening to her. She would tell me stories about her early life, how happy she was. I tried to make it show her mind as the years pass. Here and there, just empty spots and then the falling apart of the mind and the crying eyes--my mom is not a crier but it just seemed appropriate. I know I felt like crying the whole time and I'm sure she does too because she realizes what it means to have Alzheimer's. Her mother had Alzheimer's and also her sister had early Alzheimer's. My Aunt had Alzheimer's when she was only forty-nine and she lived to be sixty. My mom saw her sister go through Alzheimer's so when the diagnosis came through it was hard for my mom. She was eighty-two and she thought she had gotten away without having it. Anyway, that is what my quilt is trying to show how Alzheimer's will affect her life. The quilt went together easy. I just couldn't believe how it just made itself really. I just knew what I had to do and it came about. When I got ready to take my pictures I went back to the website and read the rules again and I found that my quilt was four inches too wide. Now it was completely finished, it was like the day before I had to have the pictures posted. I got out my rotary cutter. I cut two inches off one side, two inches off the other. I sent my pictures in and it was accepted. I don't know [laughs.] I was shocked. I knew I had to make a quilt, but I never expected truly to be chosen to be in this exhibition.

KM: What are you plans for the quilt when you get it back?

JC: Well it is Ami's as long as she needs it, as long as she wants it. My thought, I assumed that eventually there would be an auction. This is just my thought, nobody ever said this to me, but I always thought that maybe there would be an auction of these quilts to get more money for Alzheimer's research. If that doesn't happen, it will be a family quilt, passed along in the family.

KM: Have you seen the exhibition?

JC: Yes, yes I saw it the first time in Harrisburg in September of 2006. We live about fifty miles away so my friend and I went up and we spent the weekend at the Harrisburg Quilt Show.

KM: Tell me your thoughts on the exhibition.

JC: It is a hard exhibition to look at, especially when you have somebody who has Alzheimer's, but also it gives you hope that every little bit helps, bringing awareness of the disease. I know when my aunt had Alzheimer's she had it back in the seventies and nobody even knew what she had. There was no help for her family; they didn't know what was happening to her. In that respect, I'm glad that since mom had to have Alzheimer's she has it now and not back then.

KM: It is sad. Tell me about your interest in quilting.

JC: I made my first quilt in 1971 [laughs.] when my nephew was born. I didn't know how to make a quilt I just kind of fuddled through. My grandmother had made quilts, but she by this point had died from Alzheimer's so she couldn't help me. My mom was like my daughters, she never cared about quilting so she never actually learned so I just kind of fuddled through and made him a quilt. I had made his mom's maternity dresses so I used the leftover fabric to make his baby quilt. That was a special quilt to me and I thought it was long gone. After my quilt was in this exhibition I guess the family thought maybe I was doing something that somebody might care about. [laughs.] That quilt was located. It was just a joy to see that he had used it when he was a baby. It was still holding together even though I didn't know what I was doing.

KM: Do you have quiltmakers in your family?

JC: Like I say, my grandmother she made quilts, she made quilts because she lived in North Carolina in a little cabin, and that is what they did. They had to make quilts to keep warm.

KM: Were you aware that she was a quiltmaker?

JC: Yes. We would go south when I was little and the loft had several beds where all the kids were sent to sleep and her quilts would be on the beds. I would try to figure out how she made the different blocks. I remember my aunt and my mom talking about the fabric being from a special dress that they wore to a special place and who was there. The fabrics in those quilts brought back memories.

KM: Your mom didn't quilt?

JC: Not really. [laughs.] She made a couple, you know where you take a page from a magazine and you sew fabric to it. She did a couple like that, but truly never was much of a sewing person.

KM: Do you belong to any art or quilt groups?

JC: I do. I belong to several, since 2000. Before 2000 I made quilts almost every year. I would make a quilt for somebody's baby, weddings, and family things. In the year 2000 was the first time I ever went to a quilt show. I didn't know there was a whole quilting community out there. I did have a lady who taught me how to hand piece, around 1980. She was a member of a guild in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was my boss' mother, Irene Langelier. She would come to visit and she said you really need to get into a guild. I had young kids, and I didn't have time to do that. In 2000 my children--I have grandchildren, they were all gone and I had time to do the guild and the quilt shows. My time was my own so I could do whatever I wanted. Was that the question? [laughs.]

KM: Yea. That was fine, you are doing good. What type of quilts do you like?

JC: I love every kind of quilt. I love the old beautiful hand made before 1860's, the Baltimore Albums, I love those, I love the quilts of Gee's Bend that the ladies used what they had and made quilts. There is not any kind of quilt that I don't like. Quilt history is more important to me than my own quilts. I do belong the Ladybugs. It is a Delaware quilt guild.

KM: They have been documented for Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories. Some of the Ladybugs have been.

JC: I do belong to the Ladybugs.

KM: Yes, they have been documented. I think some of them have been interviewed too.

JC: They have, I didn't join until I think it was 2003. Something was wrong with the system. They have been trying to get someone to volunteer to do S.O.S. so not all have been documented.

KM: No not nearly, but I do remember the Ladybugs, so when you said that it kind of made that click. Have your worked for the quilt documentation project?

JC: Yes. [laughs.] I am not a member of The Alliance [The Alliance for American Quilts.] but I have helped with the Delaware Quilt Project since it started.

KM: That's okay. I thought that I remembered that you helped with the Delaware Quilt Documentation Project.

JC: Yes, I still help with that. We have another documentation coming up on June 7. I'm looking forward to it.

KM: Very good. Describe where you sew.

JC: Describe my sewing room?

KM: Yes, in a studio or sewing room?

JC: It is a sewing room. We have two small bedrooms upstairs and one of them is my sewing room. I call it a studio, but it is truly just a small sewing room.

KM: That is quite alright.

JC: It is jammed pack with all my stuff and I've got lots of stuff. [laughs.]

KM: Don't we all? How many hours a week do you quilt?

JC: Until December of last year I was a nurse aide for a retirement community. My mom is still able to live alone, but I want to be free when she needs me. You just don't know when you are going to be needed. I have been sewing a lot more. I sew at least a couple of hours a day and sometimes if I've got a project going on I will sew all day and into the evening. [laughs.]

KM: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

JC: There is always something new. There is somebody coming to give a talk at the guild and I say, oh I've got to try that. [laughs.] My quilts are original. I usually try to take traditional blocks and use them somehow in a new way.

KM: Does your quilt have appliqué on it? Are the eyes, the teardrops and the hankie?

JC: Yes the eyes.

KM: Are those hand or machine appliquéd?

JC: I believe they are machine. I believe I did all machine on that, except for the hankie, I think maybe I did sew those down by hand. It has been a while.

KM: Isn't that funny how quickly we forget.

JC: [laughs.] I know, on to the next one.

KM: Yes exactly. Do you prefer machine appliqué to hand appliqué?

JC: I find that I have been doing more machine work, only because it is faster. I truly enjoy doing by hand, but I want to get things finished.

KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out?

JC: Join a guild. [laughs.] For sure join a guild. The speakers are just fantastic and the guild will know the dates and locations of all the quilts shows and exhibits. If you are interested in quilt history, they are always looking for volunteers at documentations.

KM: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

JC: I think we are trying to do it too fast. Like I say, I know I am. Like I said I like to do hand work but I want to get it finished, so I am turning more to my machine and I hope that we don't lose the hand skills in doing that, and the commercialization. There are so many things you can buy for quilting. I know when I first started you couldn't find anything. I was one of the first people to own a rotary cutter. I ordered from a magazine. Nobody knew what it was. I had to tell everybody that I knew about the rotary cutter.

KM: I would think that would probably be one of the best innovations that had ever happened for quiltmaking.

JC: I agree.
KM: I have to think, besides the sewing machine, I think the rotary cutter would probably be next in line. Why is quilting important to you?

JC: It is just a part of my life. I use it for family things. It is a way to give a gift that is more than just something you bought at the store. I like to use clothing in my quilts to make it special.

KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking? You said that the exhibit changed their minds.

JC: [laughs.] They thought maybe I was doing something special. My daughter Sandra, she is the one who has been bitten by the quilt bug--it is wonderful to have her share my quilting.

KM: Is she close by?

JC: Yes, all my daughters are close by. We all live, well my two daughters live here close to me and my other daughter just lives like a mile down the road. It is wonderful.

KM: Do you work with your daughter at all, do you collaborate?

JC: Yes, we have worked on a couple of things together. The soldier quilt, we made a Home of the Brave quilt, it was for a Delaware family who had lost a soldier in the Iraq/Afghanistan
War and we worked on a couple of other things. We have taken classes together and that is fun. We are going on a retreat. I have never been on a retreat and we are going on our first quilt retreat.

KM: You will love it.

JC: That is what everybody says. [laughs.]

KM: I love quilt retreats.

JC: [laughs.] We are looking forward to it.

KM: Where are you going?

JC: Lancaster.

KM: Very nice.

JC: We are close to Lancaster. We do frequent trips up there to buy fabric.

KM: Is there any aspect of making a quilt that you don't enjoy?

JC: I'm sure there is, at the moment I can't think of it. Well I guess I don't like having to make the sandwich. You know when you have to put it together. I don't like that.

KM: I think most of us don't.

JC: Right. [laughs.]

KM: What was it like whacking off your quilt?

JC: [laughs.]

KM: Were you worried or all making it fit the size requirements?

JC: Nope.

KM: Looking at it you would not.

JC: I looked at the picture the other night and it would look better if it had two inches on those side borders. I had to give a talk at the guild and I took my strips, my side strips to show them what I had done.

KM: Does Ami know you whacked off the sides to make it fit?

JC: No.

KM: She will know now. [JC laughs.] She will know now. How was it doing the CD, having to, since there is an audio component?

JC: Yes. I wanted to make sure I told you this story too, because in my quilt, like I say the blocks are supposed to depict my mom's life and in the very top blocks the circles are made of feed sacks, that is actual feed sack fabric in circles up there and I said in the paper I sent to Ami.

KM: Your artist statement.

JC: Yes, that was it. I said that represented my mom's early life. Her mother used to make her dresses from feed sacks. Well don't you know after my quilt had been accepted, so I had already given that statement to Ami. And one day my mom says to me, 'You know my mom never did make any clothes for us.' I said, 'Oh Mom I thought she made you clothes out of feed sacks when you were young.' 'Oh no, no, no, she would never have made us clothes out of feed sacks.' She said, 'One time she made us slips out of feed sacks, but she would never have made us clothes out of feed sacks. She didn't sew our clothes anyway, my aunt sewed them.' [laughs.]

KM: Oh no.

JC: So I did tell Ami that and it is not on the CD. I know she did take it out because it wasn't true. I didn't care that she took it out, and I should have said to mom, 'Did your mom make your clothes?' I just assumed it. It was 1930's and I know that they were very poor. They had been more well to do when mom was born, but as the thirties came on they lost their place and had hard times, so I just assumed her clothes were made out of feed sacks, but they ordered the fabric from a catalogue.

KM: How was the experience of actually having to call into Ami and read your little statement?

JC: That was the hardest thing I ever did. I kept, you just choke up.

KM: That was my experience. She would email me and say, again. [laughs.]

JC: [laughs.] I know, it was hard.

KM: I think it is an interesting experience, and I think it is interesting for people to actually hear us read our statements.

JC: I think so too. It took me a long time to listen to everybody's. I did, I listened to everybody's but it would be, well that was enough of that for now. [laughs.] You would go back to it. It is hard to listen to, but I think it is something you have to do.

KM: Have you participated in the priority quilts?

JC: Yes. I made seven Sunbonnet Sue's.

KM: Tell me about them.

JC: A friend gave me twenty-eight vintages Sunbonnet Sues. She had bought them at a yard sale. She had bought fifty some of these. I think they were from some little girl's dresses because each dress fabric is different. She gave me half of what she bought; she only paid about a dollar for all of them. The quitter had pinned together - the bonnet, shoes, hands and the arms. They had been pinned together so long the pins were rusted. Each piece had been turned under and sewn with matching thread. I used some of those to make my Alzheimer's Priority Quilts. I have made seven of those so far.

KM: How have they done?

JC: They have sold for $40.00 each, so that is wonderful.

KM: Very nice. All the money goes to Alzheimer's research which is also a pretty incredible thing.

JC: It makes you feel like you are doing just a little something. It is fun to use something like that. You know this lady must have died before she got the quilt made, and I like knowing that I'm passing along a little piece of something she did.

KM: Do you worry about getting Alzheimer's?

JC: I just assume I'm going to.

KM: Oh interesting.

JC: [laughs.] I've got my grandmother, and probably it was in the family before that, we just don't know about it. I do know that my grandmother's brother had it, she had it, and like I said my aunt had early onset Alzheimer's. I'm hoping I will be like my mom and not get it until I'm eighty, but you never know, you just don't know.

KM: We could be hit by a car tomorrow.

JC: That is true.

KM: So you might as well live life.

JC: That is right.

KM: Let's go on for a little big picture of the function and meaning of quilts and why do you think quilts are important in the United States? How do you think they are important? You have done a lot of documentation.

JC: It is a way--it is historical. That is not the right word but it brings your family, if you have family quilts, it brings them together. It is a part of the person who made that quilt from a long time ago, even if you don't know, like the Sun Bonnet Sues. I don't know that lady. I have no idea who made those Sun Bonnet Sues, but it is like a part of her I'm carrying on. That little quilt, whoever bought that little quilt, may pass that on. You don't know that they will, but they might. [laughs.]

KM: Has your mom seen "Losing My Mind a Piece at A time"?

JC: No. I purposely have not shared it with her, When mom was given the diagnosis Alzheimer's, it really upset her. She doesn't like knowing she has Alzheimer's. She tells people that she is just getting old and old people can't remember things. That is true. [laughs.] So I knew if I told her I had made a quilt about her Alzheimer's it might hurt her in some way that I don't understand. She would be happy that I had a quilt in a show. She loves my quilting, my quilts and all that, but the fact that it is connected with her Alzheimer's and at this point, it's just not something I want to share with her. I don't know how to say it, I may be completely wrong but I don't want to take the chance. [laughs.]

KM: I can understand.

JC: I just don't want to bring it up.

KM: If it upsets her, I certainly wouldn't think that it would be a good idea to share it with her.

JC: No. It's not needed. I will show her my quilts I make for something else and she will be happy about that and but not the Alzheimer's, it is just too hard for me to tell her I made this quilt for her because she has Alzheimer's. That's all I have to say about that.

KM: What do you think makes a quilt artistically powerful?

JC: You really don't know until you see them. The first quilt show I ever entered was in the late eighties, it was Family Circle "Childhood Memories." My quilt didn't even make a place. [laughs.] Anyway I got the book out and I'm looking at these quilts that were in that exhibition and they are just fabulous. I don't know what it is, but each one of them. When I saw this magazine, saw the quilts that had won, I thought 'well no wonder I didn't win.' These quilts are just fabulous and I don't know what it is, you just know when you see it you just know it. It just grabs you.

KM: Are there any quilts in the exhibition that you are drawn to?

JC: I'm drawn to most of them. [laughs.] Almost all of them really just take my breath away. All that is behind them and you can see the connection. Almost from a distance you can see the connection. [long pause.]

KM: I had a tough time getting through the exhibit the first time. [Just it is a tough exhibit to go through, but they are wonderful quilts and they are a good variety of quilts.

JC: It must have been hard to pick. I don't know. Did just Ami pick them?

KM: Yes, just Ami.

JC: Just Ami picked them.

KM: Just Ami picked them, she was the only one.

JC: That must have been tough, I just can't image.

KM: No I can't. I would think that would be. As tough enough as it is to go through the exhibition, can you image having to go through all of the entries and decide which ones?

JC: And listen to the CDs. Think about That must have been. She said it was.

KM: Yea, she did.

JC: She did send out an email saying how hard it was. She did it.

KM: It is pretty amazing too.

JC: It certainly is. She really has brought me to a new understanding of quilting, it has been great. Things that I thought I could never do, like talk to the ladies at the guild, I thought I would never stand up there and talk to them, well I did. [laughs.].

KM: What did you talk to them about?

JC: The Alzheimer's Priority Quilts. I wanted the guild to be involved in priority quilts.

KM: Are they going to get involved?

JC: Well I just did my talk last Monday night, so we will see. I told them I would be collecting after the next four meetings. I am really anxious to see how many do make an Alzheimer's Priority Quilt.

KM: How many people are in the guild?

JC: We just got a new figure. I believe there is one hundred and thirty or more. It is a pretty good size guild.

KM: I hope they do Priority Quilts. We talked about rotary cutters and sewing machines, has advances in technology influenced your work? You said you like to try new things.

JC: I do. I do and I don't know that it has really other than my machine is so much nicer than the ones that I used to have.

KM: What kind of machine do you have?

JC: I have a Bernina, the Quilter's Edition. [laughs.] Other than that, I still do, I do more machine work. I like that, my older quilts I always hand quilted them, even though my hand quilting really wasn't all that great. It had big, big stitches, but they were all even so I thought that was okay. [laughs.] I usually do my quilting with my Bernina now. The last quilt top I made was a Quilt of Valor for an American soldier who was wounded in Iraq. Longarm quilter's quilt most of the Quilts of Valor. Sue Moats quilted mine and she just made it so special. It was the first quilt of mine to be quilted by someone else and it was so wonderful, why did I ever bother, just send them away.

KM: You have no problem with other people quilting your quilt?

JC: Not that one. She did such a gorgeous job and she wrote across the bottom, she wrote "thank you for your service." It was just fantastic.

KM: Is making quilts for causes something that is important to you?

JC: Yes. One of the reasons I made the Quilts of Valor and the "Home of the Brave" quilt, I just want people to make quilts for Alzheimer's, so I thought if maybe I do what they are doing.

KM: They will do for you.

JC: I love making quilts anyway so why not make them for a cause. How many can you have for yourself I mean.

KM: Do you have lots of quilts?

JC: No. [laughs.] I gave them all away.

KM: Oh you gave them all away. Do you sleep under a quilt?

JC: No. Well now, we have a house in North Carolina and we do sleep under quilts there. I have an old ragged quilt I snuggle up with when I'm watching TV, but I don't sleep under any here at home.

KM: That is okay. Is there anything else that you would like to share before we end?

JC: No just that I do hope other people will make the Alzheimer's Priority Quilts and raise more money for Alzheimer's research. Hopefully it will make a difference.

KM: It is more than $157,000 so that is really good, and I think the educational component certainly has got to help, and it is now moving into venues that are not quilt venues, which I think is very interesting too. I think it is great. I want to thank you very much for taking your time to talk to me today and sharing your thoughts and feeling, and we will conclude our interview and it is now 5:02.

5.42019oh0186_qsosalz0017Interview with Jannett Caldwell, February 15, 20082019oh0186_qsosalz0017qsosalzQuilt Alliance’s Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories Oral History Project: Alzheimer's Forgetting Piece by PieceQuilt AllianceJannett CaldwellKaren Musgrave0https://nunncenter.aviaryplatform.com/embed/media/166834Aviaryaudio0About the touchstone quilt: "Losing my mind a piece at a time"Okay. This is Karen Musgrave, I'm doing a Quilter's S.O.S. - Save our Stories interview with Jannett Caldwell.Caldwell talks about her touchstone quilt, "Losing my mind a piece at a time." She found out about the competition for the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit two months after finding out that her mother had Alzheimer's. Her goal in making the quilt was to depict her mother's life and her mind. She describes rereading the rules the day before she had to mail the picture of the quilt in and discovering that her quilt was four inches too wide. She cut two inches from each side and put a binding over the cut edges. When asked about her plans for the quilt, Caldwell said that in the short term the person running the exhibit could keep it as long as necessary. She indicates that her understanding is that the quilts would eventually be auctioned off for Alzheimer's research, but if that didn't happen, it would stay in her family.Alzheimer's disease;Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece;Mothers;Quilt purpose - Charity;Quilt purpose - Disease/illness;Quilt shows/exhibitions340Seeing the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibitionHave you seen the exhibition?Caldwell describes going to the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit in Harrisburg in 2006, when it was held in conjunction with the Harrisburg Quilt Show. She says she found the exhibit "hard to look at," but that it inspired hope. She describes how when her aunt had Alzheimer's in the 1970s, medical personnel did not really know what it was and there was no support for families. Caldwell says that even though mother has Alzheimer's, she is glad that she has it now (i.e. 2008) rather than earlier.Alzheimer's Disease;Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece;Family;Harrisburg Quilt Show;Quilt shows/exhibitionsQuilts--United States--Exhibitions420Learning to quiltSo tell me about your interest in quilting.Caldwell describes making her first quilt in 1971 when her nephew was born. At that point, she had no relatives who were in a position to offer help or guidance. She thought that quilt was long gone, but someone found it after she had a quilt in the exhibition. Caldwell indicates that her nephew's quilt shows signs of wear, but that it held together very well, considering her lack of expertise when she made it. Caldwell says that her grandmother made quilts for practical reasons. Her mother did a couple of low-level quilting projects involving sewing cloth to a pattern, but never really developed an interest in quilting.Family;Grandmothers;Learning quiltmaking;Mothers;Quilt purpose - BirthQuilts--United States578Quilt guilds / Delaware Quilt Documentation ProjectUh, do you belong to, um, any art or quilt groups?In 1980, Caldwell learned how to hand quilt. The woman who taught Caldwell how to hand quilt encouraged her to join a guild, but Caldwell didn't have enough time then. By 2000, Caldwell's children were no longer living with her, and she went to a quilt show for the first time. Until then, she hadn't realized there was a quilting community. When asked what types of quilts she likes, Caldwell reports that she likes all kinds of quilts, especially quilt history. She then returns to the questions about quilts and says that she joined the Ladybug Quilt Guild, probably in 2003. Caldwell has helped with the Delaware Quilt Documentation Project and plans to do so again.Baltimore Album quilts;Delaware;Delaware Quilt Documentation Project;Gee's Bend quilts;Hand quilting;Ladybug Quilt Guild;Quilt documentation;Quilt guilds;State quilt documentation project783Sewing room / Time spent quilting / TechniquesWhere do you sew?Caldwell says she uses an empty bedroom in her house as a sewing room. She reports spending more time, usually a couple of hours a day or more, on quilting now that she is no longer working. She tries new things that she has learned about at her guild, but also likes using "a traditional block in a new way." Caldwell talks about the applique she used in the touchstone quilt, most of which was done by machine. She compares hand applique and machine applique.applique;Hand applique;Machine applique;Sewing room;Techniques;Work or Studio space953Advice for new quilters / ChallengesWhat advice would you offer someone starting out?Caldwell recommends that new quilters join a guild. She adds that if someone is interested in quilt history, documentation projects always need help. Caldwell believes that the biggest challenge facing quilters now is that they rush to finish their projects. Using herself as an example, she points out that this approach creates more reliance on machines. She expresses concern that the skills used in hand sewing may be lost. She is also worried about the current commercialization of quilting. Caldwell and the interviewer discuss the rotary cutter as an important innovation for quiltmaking.Commercialization;Hand quilting;Machine quilting;Quilt guilds;Rotary cutter;Technology in quiltmaking1069Importance of quilting / Family's reception to quilting / Quilt retreatsSo why is quilting important to you?Caldwell says that quiltmaking is "just a part of my life." She quilts for "family things" and thinks that quilting something is better than buying a gift. Techniques such as incorporating clothing into her quilts give the quilts extra meaning. Caldwell says that the exhibit caused her family to think of her quilting as "something special." One of Caldwell's daughters is also a quilter. They have worked on quilting projects together and taken classes together. They are going to go to a quilting retreat in Lancaster. They often go to the Country Store in Intercourse, PA, which is a particularly good quilting store with great fabric.Country Store;Daughters;Family;Intercourse, PA;Lancaster, PA;Mothers;Pennsylvania;Quilt purpose - Gift or presentation;Quilt shop;quilting retreat;Quiltmaking for familyQuilting1219Dislikes about quiltmaking / Recording an artist statement for the exhibit Is there any aspect of, of making a quilt that you don't enjoy?Caldwell says that the part of quilting she dislikes is "having to make the sandwich," or putting the different layers together. When asked about her response to having to trim her touchstone quilt to make it fit the exhibition requirements, Caldwell denies being concerned about it. Caldwell adds that she thinks the quilt would have looked better at its original width. Caldwell says that exhibit organizer Ami Simms did not know that she had made the quilt smaller. Caldwell recounts saying in her statement for the exhibition that her grandmother made her mother's dresses from feed sacks. She later talked to her mother and found out that was untrue. She informed Ami Simms of her error, and the statement was not incorporated into the exhibit CD. Caldwell and the interviewer agreed that recording their statements for the CD was difficult, but Caldwell feels it was worth it. She herself, over time, listened to the all the statements of the other quilter participating in the exhibit.Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece;Ami Simms;Artist statements;Fabric - Feedsack;FeedsackQuilting;Quilts--United States--Exhibitions1472Making quilts for the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts projectNow, um, have you participated in the priority quilt?Caldwell says she has made around eleven quilts for the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project. She uses fabric from a Sunbonnet Sue quilt that someone started but never finished. A friend of Caldwell's bought the quilt blocks very cheaply at a yard sale and gave them to Caldwell. Caldwell's priority quilts sell for $40 each and the money is used for Alzheimer's research.Donating quilts;Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt Project;Quilt Purpose - Charity;Quilt Purpose - Fundraising;Sunbonnet Sue - quilt patternQuiltinghttps://amisimms.com/2009/07/20/priority-alzheimers-quilt-challenge/Ami Simms' blog post about Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts made by Caldwell and her guild1597Thoughts about developing Alzheimer's / Importance of quiltsDo you worry about getting Alzheimer's?Caldwell says that she assumes that she will get Alzheimer's. Her grandmother, her grandmother's brother, and her aunt all had it, in addition to her mother. She hopes that, like her mother, she will develop it later in life. Caldwell thinks that family quilts are important as a link between family members. Similarly, she sees her priority quilts as, on the one hand, linking her back to the original creator of the Sunflower Sue quilt blocks she works with, and on the other hand, to the person who buys it. Caldwell's mother has not seen her quilt, "Losing my mind a piece at a time," because she thinks it will upset her.Alzheimer's disease;Family;Mothers;Quilt documentation;Quiltmaking for family1829Artistic power of quilts / Quilts in the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibitWhat do you think makes a quilt artistically powerful?When asked what she think makes a quilt artistically powerful, Caldwell says, "You really don't know until you see them." She recounts looking through the book for the first quilt show she entered in the 1980s. The book includes pictures of the quilts that won prizes, and also some pictures of Caldwell's entries, which were not prize-winners. She describes the prize-winning quilts as "fabulous," and adds, "I don't know what it is, you just know, when you see it, you just know it. It just grabs you." Caldwell says that she is "drawn to" the vast majority of the quilts in the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit. Musgrave found the exhibit hard to "get through" the first time, but she acknowledges both the excellence and the variety of the quilts. Caldwell speculates that picking the quilts for the exhibit must have been difficult. She wonders if Ami Simms was the only judge, and Musgrave confirms that that was the case. Caldwell and Musgrave agree that looking at all of the quilts and listening to the artists' statements must have been hard. Caldwell notes that Simms sent an email saying that it was a difficult process.Aesthetics;Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece;Ami Simms;Quilt shows/exhibitionsinterviewAll 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.audioInterviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.0https://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=