Leslie Walker

Leslie Walker

10/19/09

IA51101-005

audio

Oral History

Leslie Walker

Tomme Fent

Karen Alexander

Sioux City, Iowa

Tomme Fent

Tomme Fent (TF): This is Tomme Fent, and I'm interviewing Leslie Walker for the Quilters' S.O.S - Save Our Stories project. Today is Monday, October 19th, 2009, and it's about 2:00 p.m., and Leslie and I are in the office where we both work at the United States Courthouse in Sioux City, Iowa. So Leslie thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for our project.

Leslie Walker (LW): You bet.

TF: So tell me a little bit about this quilt that you've brought today?

LW: Well, it's the first quilt that I made after I learned how to quilt. It's called "Lucky Stars" [and the pattern is.] by Terri Atkinson, and it's a queen size and I remember thinking that I had to always make a big queen-sized quilt. I could never make small quilts, which was weird. I don't know why and also I remember telling my friend that I would have to finish this quilt before I could start another one and I would always finish a project before I started another one. However, that logic has changed a lot in the past few years. I really like stars and I like the colors and it was a fun quilt to make and it was easy. Terri Atkinson Designs are very easy. Good for beginner quilters.

TF: Where did you get the fabrics?

LW: At My Quilt Shop in Sergeant Bluff [Iowa.]. I had taken my beginning quilt class from Kim [Gray.] and that's kind of where I started, in her shop.

TF: Are these the types of colors that you normally like to work with?

LW: Well, generally I like blue and yellow, but I do like these colors. This just really was attractive to me for some reason at that start, and I just really liked it.

TF: It has a really fun binding.

LW: That was a mistake but it worked out really well. [laughs.] I had no idea how to do binding and it's a little wave and it worked out really good, but I didn't create it like that. I didn't try to do that; it just worked out.

TF: Well, that's fun. So how much time do you think you spend quilting like, say, every week?

LW: Well, this past weekend, I spent the whole weekend, which was unusual. I don't have a lot of time anymore to quilt. I'd like to spend more time, but in the last couple of years I've just gotten real busy with other things. So, I don't know, on a normal basis, zero time, zero minutes per week, but I'm going to start doing more of it, though. I'm going to make time for myself because that's just too much fun.

TF: How many quilts do you think you've made?

LW: I don't know, quite a few. Probably a dozen big quilts and lots of little quilts and table runners and quilting projects. I've made stockings and origami bags and aprons and pillowcases, things like that, quilt-related things.

TF: What's your favorite part of the quilting process?

LW: The piecing.

TF: And what's your least favorite part?

LW: The cutting out.

TF: Oh, really?

LW: I don't like the cutting out.

TF: Now what about the quilting on this quilt? It has really pretty quilting.

LW: This was done by Bonnie Lohry, and I didn't know who to take it to and my friend Tomme showed me who to take it to and helped me with that. And she did a really great job, I think.

TF: It's really pretty. Have you quilted any of your quilts yourself?

LW: Just small ones, nothing big.

TF: And do you do those by hand or machine?

LW: Machine.

TF: Do you have any favorite quilting techniques?

LW: I can't say that I do, no. I just like the whole process, except for cutting out.

TF: Okay and you said that this was the first quilt you made after you took a beginning quilting class. When was that class?

LW: In 2002, I looked back in my records, I always loved quilts forever and ever and when I started working here, I talked to Tomme about quilting and she encouraged me to take--she more than encouraged me; she kind of like drug me down there. [laughs.] But she did encourage me to take the class and I was really glad she did because mostly, I was just afraid to quilt. And there's nothing to be afraid of; you can do it. Anyone can.

TF: Had you done sewing growing up?

LW: Yes, I did all kinds of crafty things. I always did counted cross stitch, did tons of that. Sewed little doll clothes. Always something crafty. Crocheted. Tried to knit a little. But never could quite get to quilting. I was afraid I could never do that.

TF: But then the sewing itself and using a machine weren't foreign to you?

LW: No, my mom and I sewed together.

TF: So your mom was a seamstress?

LW: No. [laughs.] It's kind of funny that you would even say that. When my mom and I would sew together, we would always end up in a big fight and my dad and brother would leave the house. [both laugh.] But we always tried to sew together. I don't know what the deal was; we just didn't click. I don't know what the deal was. But she always tried to help me and we always ended up in a big fight.

TF: What kinds of things would you sew together?

LW: We tried to sew clothes. I tried to make summer clothes and doll clothes and things like that. She wasn't really a great seamstress, and actually I was probably better than she was, but we just didn't click. And we loved each other, we did great things together, but sewing, we could not do together.

TF: Were there any quilters in your family?

LW: I have an aunt, my dad's sister. She lives in California, and she's in her nineties now but she has always quilted and loves the fact that I quilt. And in fact, I think she's giving me a bunch of antique sewing machines, but I'm not sure how she's getting them to me because she lives in California. I suppose she's going to ship them but I don't know. She asked if I wanted them.

TF: Have you ever seen any of the quilts that she's made?

LW: Yes, she's made lots of them for our family.

TF: So you have some of them yourself?

LW: Yes, but she makes them out of old clothes and polyester. She doesn't go to a quilt shop; she just uses what she has.

TF: Are they patterned quilts like this one or are they more like utility-type quilts?

LW: More utility, really. She doesn't do real fancy -- she probably did when she was younger, but she doesn't see very well anymore.

TF: Are you involved in a quilt guild?

LW: Yes, the Siouxland Samplers. I've been on the Board. I've kind of taken a back seat to a little of that just because I've gotten busy with other things but it's really an enjoyable guild. Lot of nice people, great quilters.

TF: What kind of things have you done with the guild?

LW: I've done what do we call Sunshine Quilts. I've been on the Board as the Vice President, which is the person that gets the speakers, so that was pretty interesting the year I did that. I've helped make President's Quilts, when we give the President who's outgoing a quilt. I participated in the quilt show by working the show and also having quilts in the show.

TF: And I know that you've handled the raffle tickets several times.

LW: Yes, that's true.

TF: How do you use this quilt?

LW: I have a ladder in my living room and it hangs, because I really like this one so I don't want to mess it up. So it's just a display quilt. It's hanging on one of the rungs of the ladder.

TF: And what are your plans for this quilt?

LW: Probably it will stay on the ladder. I just like it sitting there with the other quilts, just decorative.

TF: Why did you, of all the quilts you've made, why did you choose this particular quilt to bring to your interview?

LW: Because it was my first one and I was pretty proud of myself for finishing it, for even trying it. And I think it came out pretty good for a first quilt and I just have always liked it a lot.

TF: Have you ever taken any classes besides that first class?

LW: Yes, I've taken lots and lots of classes. I haven't in the last year or so just because I've been busy. I do some things at the Y [MCA.], so I'm very busy with that, but in the years from when I started, from 2002 to probably about 2007, I took tons of classes. I really like classes. I like learning new techniques. I love just the camaraderie of sewing together with people. But I just haven't gotten back to do that yet.

TF: Have there been any quilters in particular who have influenced you or your style of quilting?

LW: Well, I would say, I'm in a small group called the Material Girls, and I think all of those ladies influence me. They all have special talents, different talents. They're all very supportive. I would say there's eight besides myself and they all bring something to the table for me. Sometimes I have a question on something and I get eight answers. [laughs.] It's good. I really like all of them.

TF: Have you ever taught any quilting classes?

LW: Yes, for the last about two years now, I've been teaching a quilting class at my church. We call ourselves the Biblical Quilters. Pretty original idea. [laughs.] We did a block a month for that, what is it called, "More Biblical Quilts" ["More Biblical Quilt Blocks: New Inspirational Designs" by Rosemary Makhan.] I put a little blurb out there to see if anybody wanted to learn to quilt and I had seventeen yeses--

TF: Wow.

LW: Which pretty much blew me away. One man. And we finished, it took us eighteen months, but we finished the quilt, everybody finished their quilt. And then we were an exhibit in the recent quilt show, which was very exciting and they just did a wonderful job.

TF: That's great. And now the group is still continuing to meet?

LW: Yes, and we've added a couple of people; we've lost a couple of people. It just happens; people get busy or whatever. But we're making smaller projects now until after the first of the year, and then we'll make a big quilt again.

TF: How often do you meet?

LW: Once a month.

TF: What's your very first memory of a quilt?

LW: Probably just a little girl, I just always loved them. In fact, I have lots of books and pattern books from when I was a little kid, just reading them. I can't really tell you exactly; it's always been a part of my life, not always making them but always reading about them and touching of them, being around them.

TF: So you were attracted to them even then?

LW: As a little kid, yes.

TF: How does your quiltmaking impact your family?

LW: Well, they all are much warmer now. [laughs.] They all have their own quilts. I've made quilts for extended family, cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law. Everyone gets a quilt. Everyone talks to me about their next quilt, so I guess that's the big hint they want another one. They all get a lot out of it. We fight over certain quilts for laying and watching TV, there are certain favorite ones.

TF: What makes a quilt one of the favorite ones?

LW: Well, one of them is the rag quilt, and it's just soft. And the other one that they really like is like a Stack-n-Whack with wool batting and it's very soft, too. The rag quilt is just about worn out. I took it to a football game this weekend and I was looking at it thinking, ‘Boy, this poor thing has just been loved to death.' I need to make another one of those.

TF: Tell me about the space in your house where you quilt?

LW: I have a quilting room in the basement that my husband made for me, which was really great. However, it is very messed up right now. It just needs cleaning out. And so recently, I've been quilting in the kitchen, which isn't the greatest thing because you can't just leave it up. You have to tear everything down. I just need to get down into my quilt room and reorganize it and get back in there.

TF: Do you have a fabric stash?

LW: A huge one, yes.

TF: How do you organize your fabrics?

LW: Right now, it's not very organized. It's pretty much organized by project.

TF: Oh, by project?

LW: And then I have a stash, too, and it's just in stacks in a big drawer thing that I have, a chest of drawers.

TF: It's not by theme or color or anything?

LW: No, unless it's for a project.

TF: Have you ever used quilting to help you get through a difficult time in your life?

LW: Oh, yes, definitely. Quilting saved me, I believe. We had a really difficult time with one of our sons who is now a recovered alcoholic, recovering alcoholic, however you say that. At the time when he was still struggling, I quilted my brains out. It just saved me. It relaxed me. It gave me something to do. It saved me.

TF: Have you ever used quilts or quilting to commemorate a special event in your life?

LW: Yes, recently. I have two sons. They've both recently gotten married and I'm working on their wedding quilts. One's a year-and-a-half old now. I need to get busy on that one and one just got married last month so two wedding quilts will be coming, hopefully soon.

TF: Tell me how you balance your time? How do you find time to quilt with everything you do?

LW: It's kind of a problem because I am very busy. This weekend when I just really got the bug to quilt, I just told my family, ‘I'm quilting,' and I just did. I didn't go out and help with the leaves. I didn't do anything else. I just quilted. It is hard to find time to do it and hard to find time for yourself, but I think we need to do that more.

TF: Do you use a design wall?

LW: Yes, I have one in my quilt room which I really can't reach right now but it is in there, yes.

TF: And do you design your own quilts?

LW: I've started that a little bit. With the quilt show, I was going to do the challenge, and I used that design wall for my challenge. But my son was getting married right at the same time as this quilt show, and I wasn't able to finish that quilt. It's hard for me to step out of the comfort zone and do my own thing but I'm trying.

TF: What do you think makes a great quilt?

LW: Well, I think just heart, people loving their quilt, loving that they made it, what they put into it. I don't think it necessarily has to be a perfect quilt. I think it's if you're excited about it and you love what you did, like my little Biblical Quilters. Some of them, most of them were not perfect, but they were so excited and so happy, and I think that's what quilting's about to me. It's just the feeling you get.

TF: Have you ever traveled outside the local area in connection with quilting?

LW: Yes, I've gone on some bus trips. We've gone to Rochester for the Minnesota for the Minnesota state quilt show. We've been to the Nebraska state quilt show. In a couple of weeks, I'll be going down to Des Moines [Iowa.] for the AQS quilt show. I'd love to go to Sisters, Oregon, someday. I don't know if I'll ever get there. And my husband and I ride motorcycles and go from quilt shop to quilt shop all the time. We've done our own little shop hops on the motorcycle.

TF: I know you took a really interesting trip a couple of years ago where you stopped at quilt shops. Tell me about that.

LW: That, I think, was a Terri Atkinson book, I'm thinking it was. I'm not sure, I think it was one of her quilt books where she had a shop hop in the book. And I said to my husband, ‘What do you think about doing this on the motorcycle?' thinking, looking at the map, that it was just a little weekend thing. Well, the map wasn't to scale, and it was all over the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and it ended up being like a thousand-mile trip. But we did it, we had a great time, we added some extra quilt shops, and we also have to go to Harley Davidson shops. That's his part of it. But we had a great time doing that, going from shop to shop. I'd UPS stuff home, which was exciting when I got home, I had all these packages waiting for me.

TF: Did he go in the quilt shops with you?

LW: At first, he didn't. At first he was too shy. About the third or fourth quilt shop, he kind of ventured in and about by the sixth, seventh, eighth, he was in telling the quilt shop owners what we were doing and he kind of took over. It was just kind of cute. He really evolved from the first one to the end. He likes to do it. He probably would never admit it, but he does. [laughs.]

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

LW: I suppose the colors that are chosen. It's all in the eye of the beholder, too, so what pleases me may not please others. For me, I guess it would be the colors.

TF: The colors are the first thing that grab your attention?

LW: Yes, especially if they're blue and yellow. That always grabs my attention right away.

TF: Are you drawn more toward traditional designs or the art quilt type thing?

LW: Definitely more towards traditional, but I do like the art quilts. And I'm a little bit afraid of that, but like I said I'm trying to step out of that comfort zone to attempt to do some of that on my own. I like looking at the art quilts; I just haven't really done any myself.

TF: How do you feel about hand quilting versus quilting on a home machine versus longarm quilting?

LW: As far as do I think one's better than the other?

TF: Do you prefer one to another?

LW: I've only ever really had someone quilt for me. I'd like to learn to do it on my own. I know a lot of people, or some people, think the hand quilting makes it better. I don't know, I think the machine quilting is beautiful. I probably would never take the time to hand-quilt a quilt. It just takes too long. But I would like to learn to quilt my own things. I'm a machine quilter.

TF: Why is quilting important to you?

LW: Well, like I said earlier, it saved my life, I think. It kept me from going crazy. It's something that's beautiful. It's relaxing. I just love creating things out of pieces of fabric. Quilting is just a really great thing. Keeps you warm.

TF: What do you think about the importance of quilting in American life, and specifically in American women's lives?

LW: I definitely think it's something we want to keep teaching our younger women. It's a tradition that cannot die because it's just important in so many reasons, not just for the utility of using it for warmth but also just for the creativity and the beauty and the self-fulfillment and accomplishment. I just think it's something we cannot ever -- and I don't think it will ever die. There are so many people that are quilting now; it's really a big thing.

TF: What do you think makes a quilt appropriate for a museum collection?

LW: I suppose, I don't know, maybe age, first of all, something that's survived the years. Again, I think a lot of that is in the eye of the beholder, again. I can't really answer that other than probably age.

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

LW: Paying for it. The fabric is expensive, if you get good fabric, and you want to get good fabric because you want it to last. It is getting more expensive. It costs a lot to make a nice, big quilt, and then to have it quilted. A lot of young quilters can't afford all that. I just think that's probably the biggest thing that I can think of.

TF: Do you have any collections? Do you collect quilts or any type of memorabilia?

LW: Well, I like old quilts, and whenever I go to an auction, I try to find an old quilt. I've found two or three old ones. I don't have a certain pattern that I look for; I just look for something that catches my eye, and I have about three or four antique quilts now. Nothing specific, but I like the antique quilts.

TF: And you plan to keep doing that in the future?

LW: Yes, if I can afford it, yes.

TF: How many sewing machines do you have?

LW: I have three. One doesn't work very well. And I use my Bernina pretty much exclusively. I have a Janome, too, that's a good machine, but I just don't use it that much since I got the Bernina.

TF: What's the next thing for you in quilting?

LW: Well, our little small group is talking about doing a--I think it's called a fractal, is that the right term? I've been thinking a lot about that because that's a little scary for me. It's one of those outside-the-comfort-zone deals, but I want to try it and so that's my next challenge, if our group gets to that.

TF: What will that involve?

LW: From what I understand, we take a big picture and blow it up and cut it apart, and then we make the different sections and trade the sections and put it back together. So everyone will have a quilt, but pieces of other people's quilting.

TF: But all the same picture?

LW: Yes.

TF: Are there any new techniques that you want to learn?

LW: I'd like to learn to appliqué better. I'm not very good. I'm definitely not good at the needle-turn. I don't know if I'm patient enough for appliqué. It seems to take a lot more patience. I did a raw-edge appliqué wall hanging this weekend but that's easy and fun and quick, but it was appliqué.

TF: So you appliqué by machine?

LW: I have. I've never done much by hand, but I have done with the blanket stitch.

TF: And it's the hand appliqué you want to learn?

LW: I'd like to get so that I could do it, yes.

TF: Does technology play a part in your quilting?

LW: As far as like the machine?

TF: Do you design on a computer?

LW: I have. The one wedding quilt, I borrowed a program from my friend and I designed the wedding quilt pattern, but that was just a one-time deal. I don't do very much designing. I pretty much buy a pattern, and go from that pattern.

TF: Do you interact with other quilters on the Internet?

LW: Just my Biblical Quilt ladies and my Material Girls, not in a chat room or anything.

TF: And do you ever search for patterns or materials on the Internet?

LW: Yes, I do that occasionally. I'm always looking for different kinds of motorcycle fabric because we're avid motorcycle riders and I make a lot of motorcycle quilts. I was looking for Harley Davidson fabric, in particular. I haven't found that yet; I don't know if they even make it. And sometimes I'm looking for a pattern that I happen to hear about or see or whatever.

TF: Speaking of those motorcycle quilts that you make, haven't you made some quilts for charitable auctions?

LW: Yes, for the Shriners. I made three quilts, three years in a row, for a raffle. My husband is a Cycle Escort and they used that for their fundraiser. And we haven't done that for awhile. They just wanted to take a break, which was fine because it's a big job for me, but yes, we raised some money for the escorts and helped them keep going for the year, paid their expenses.

TF: I think you might have underestimated the number of large quilts you've made. [laughs.]

LW: [laughs.] I forgot about those, yes.

TF: And you said for friends and family and cousins-in-law.

LW: Yes, it might be probably twenty-five quilts. It is more than I thought of.

TF: Is there anything about quilting that we haven't talked about that you would like to talk about?

LW: I don't think so. I just really love it. I'm really glad my friend encouraged me to take a class so that I would be able to do it, and now I've taken the step and taught seventeen other people and now one of those ladies is standing up, she's going to teach the next class. And it's just one of those pay-it-forward things and it's pretty cool. I really like that. It's just a good thing.

TF: It is. There's nothing bad about it.

LW: No, other than it's sort of addictive. [laughs.]

TF: It's a health addiction, though.

LW: Yes.

TF: Well, I'd like to thank you, Leslie, for allowing me to interview you for the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories Project. And our interview concluded at 2:29 p.m.

LW: Thank you.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ROOT xmlns="https://www.weareavp.com/nunncenter/ohms" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.weareavp.com/nunncenter/ohms/ohms.xsd">
<record id="11601" dt="2025-01-02">
<version>6.0</version>
<date value="2009-10-19" format="yyyy-mm-dd"/>
<date_nonpreferred_format/>
<cms_record_id>2019oh1158_qsossx0006</cms_record_id>
<title>Interview with Leslie Walker, October 19, 2009</title>
<accession>2019oh1158_qsossx0006</accession>
<duration/>
<collection_id/>
<collection_name/>
<series_id>qsossx</series_id>
<series_name>Quilt Alliance’s Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories Oral History Project: Siouxland Samplers Quilt Guild</series_name>
<repository>Quilt Alliance</repository>
<funding/>
<repository_url>quiltalliance</repository_url>
<interviewee>Leslie Walker</interviewee>
<interviewer>Tomme Fent</interviewer>
<format/>
<file_name/>
<transcript_alt_lang>Undefined</transcript_alt_lang>
<translate>0</translate>
<media_id/>
<media_url>https://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/IA51101-005%20Walker.wav</media_url>
<mediafile>
<host>Other</host>
<avalon_target_domain/>
<host_account_id/>
<host_player_id/>
<host_clip_id/>
<clip_format>audio</clip_format>
</mediafile>
<kembed/>
<language/>
<user_notes/>
<index>
<point>
<time>0</time>
<title>Touchstone quilt, Lucky Stars: pattern, colors, fabric, and binding</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>This is Tomme Fent, and I'm interviewing Leslie Walker for the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories Project. Today is Monday, October, 19th, 2009, and it's about 2:00 p.m. and Leslie and I are in, the office where we both work at the United States Courthouse in Sioux City, Iowa. So, Leslie, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for our project. -- So tell me a little bit about this quilt that you brought today.</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>The touchstone quilt, Lucky Stars, is the first one Walker made. She used a pattern that [according to a note in the transcript] was made by Terry Atkinson. Walker had some misconceptions about quilting at the time which have since cleared up. Walker liked the pattern's colors and the stars featured in it. She found the pattern easy to follow. She bought the fabric at My Quilt Shop (Sergeant Bluff, IA) and got her start in quilting by taking a class there with Kim [whose last name, according to a note in the transcript is Gray]. The colors are not the ones she normally prefers to use, but she was drawn to them, anyway. She had a problem with the binding, but it ended up looking good, albeit in a different way than she had intended.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Atkinson Designs; Kim Gray; My Quilt Shop (Sergeant Bluff, IA); Terry Atkinson; quiltmaking process; Techniques</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>133</time>
<title>Time spends quilting / Number of quilts has made / Most and least favorite parts of quilting</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>So, how much time do you think you spend quilting, like, say, every week?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>As it happens, Walker spent the entire previous weekend quilting, but her life has been so busy in the years leading up to the interview that she more typically spends no time at all a week quilting. That said, she is determined to fit quilting into her life. Walker is unsure exactly how many quilts she has made, but estimates about a dozen large quilts, plus any number of smaller quilts and miscellaneous quilting projects (like table runners and aprons). Walkers favorite part of quilting is piecing and her least favorite part is "the cutting out."</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Time management</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>203</time>
<title>Touchstone quilt: quilting / Beginning quilting class </title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Now what about the quilting on this quilt? </partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>On the advice of Tomme Fent, Walker had Bonnie Lohry do the quilting for the touchstone quilt. Walker has not quilted any of her large quilts herself, but has quilted at least some of the smaller ones. She machine quilts. Walker took her first quilting class in 2002, after Fent strongly urged her to. At that point, Walker was interested in quilting, but afraid to quilt. She discovered, however, that quilting is something anyone can do. Growing up, Walker sewed and engaged in other fiber arts. She and her mother (who was not a particularly good sewer herself) kept trying to work on sewing projects together, but their sewing sessions kept ending in fights. For some reason, sewing was not a joint activity that worked for the two of them.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Bonnie Lohry; Family; Learning quiltmaking; Sewing; Tomme Fent; Sewing; quiltmaking classes</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>355</time>
<title>Other quilters in family</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Were there any quilters in your family?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker's paternal aunt has quilted all her life. The aunt asked Walker if she wants some antique sewing machines, but Walker is not sure how her aunt intends to send them from California. The aunt made many quilts for her relatives and Walker has some, but they are essentially utility quilts sewn from clothing scraps and polyester. The aunt does not make much of an attempt at pattern, but Walker thinks that may be because her eyesight has gotten so bad and that she might have been more ambitious about using quilt patterns when she was younger.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Family;Quilt Purpose - Utilitarian</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>415</time>
<title>Quilt guild </title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Are you involved in a quilt guild?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker has filled a number of different roles in the Siouxland Samplers Quilt Guild (Sioux City, IA). She has worked on the Sunshine Quilts project. She has also served as Vice President. Her job in that position was to line up speakers. She has also worked on quilts for outgoing club presidents, who receive a quilt, by tradition. She has both entered work into the guild's quilt show and volunteered at it. In addition, she also, in the interviewer's words, "handled the raffle tickets." Walker keeps her touchstone quilt in the living room, where it is displayed, alongside other quilts, on a ladder. She picked this particular quilt to take to the interview, because she has always been fond of it, "and I was pretty proud of myself for finishing it, you know, for even trying it and, I think it came out pretty good for a first quilt..."</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Quilt guild;Siouxland Samplers Quilt Guild (Sioux City, IA);Sunshine Quilts</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>528</time>
<title>Taking quilt classes / Quilters who have been an influence / Teaching a quilting class </title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Um, have you ever taken any classes, besides that first class?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker took quite a number of classes between 2002 and roughly 2007. She enjoyed both learning and the social aspects of sewing with other people. In the time leading up to the interview, she has been too busy to take classes. Walker is a member of a small quilting group, Material Girls, with approximately nine members total and she credits all of the other members with influencing her. Walker teaches a quilting group, the Biblical Quilters, at her church, using the book More Inspirational Quilt Blocks: New Inspirational Designs, by Rosemary Makhan. [The book's full name and the author are identified in a note in the transcript.] When Walker wrote a blurb announcing the group, seventeen people (all but one of them female) responded. A few members have come or gone, but the group is ongoing. They finished their first quilt, are currently working on small things, and will do another large quilt in the year following the interview.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Biblical Quilters (Sioux City, IA);Material Girls (Sioux City, IA);More Inspirational Quilt Blocks: New Inspirational Designs (book by Rosemary Makhan);quiltmaking classes;Teaching quiltmaking;YMCA</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>667</time>
<title>First memory of a quilt / Impact of quilt making on family / Workspace / Fabric stash</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>What's your very first memory of a quilt?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Even when she was small, Walker loved quilts and had pattern books and quilt books that she would read. She also enjoyed touching quilts. Walker thinks that her family is warmer (physically), now that she has given all her relatives quilts. Her relatives even discuss additional quilts they would like to receive from her. Some quilts are preferred for "laying and watching TV," mostly because they are particularly soft, and family members squabble over them. Walker describes one of those quilts in particular, noting that it is almost completely worn out. Walker's usual workspace is a "quilting room" in her basement, but since it is currently in need of re-organization and tidying, she has been quilting in the kitchen. Her fabric stash is very large. At the time of the interview, it is, when applicable, organized by project, but the bulk of her fabric is stored, with no particular organization, in a bureau.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Work or Studio space; Family; Fabric stash</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>827</time>
<title>Use of quilting to get through difficult time in life / Balancing time / Design wall / Designing own quilts</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Have you ever used quilting to help you get through a difficult time in your life?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker has found quilting helpful in getting through a difficult period of her life. In fact, she says, "Quilting saved me, I believe," when an alcoholic son caused her considerable stress. (He is now in recovery.) During that period, she says, "I quilted my brains out." Quilting both occupied her and relaxed her. At the time of the interview, she is in the process of quilting to commemorate special events, the weddings of her sons. At the time of the interview, she is still working on the quilt for the first son to celebrate his wedding, which took place a year and a half previously, and also is expecting to make one for the son married a month ago. Walker is a busy woman and has trouble making time to quilt, but she thinks it is important to find that time. Walker has a design wall, but it is currently inaccessible, due to the state of her quilting room. Walker is starting to work on designing her own quilts. Specifically, she planned to design a quilt for a recent quilt show, but that quilt show conflicted with the wedding of one of her sons, so she stopped working on it. </synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Time management; Design Wall; Quilt design; Family</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>966</time>
<title>What makes a great quilt / Travel connected to quilting</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>What do you think makes a great quilt?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker thinks a great quilt is "just heart. People, loving their quilt, loving that they made it and what they put into it." Perfection is not necessary. The projects her church quilting class, the Biblical Quilters, did were, for the most part, not perfect, but that did not stop the students from being "so excited and so happy." For her, that feeling is the essence of quilting. Walker's travel related to quilting has included bus trips to state quilt shows in Minnesota and Nebraska. She expects to go to the AQS quilt show in Des Moines, IA shortly after the interview and would like to go to the quilt show in Sisters, OR eventually. Walker has also gone on "shop hops" by motorcycle with her husband. Most of those trips are short, but they made a thousand mile shop hop through Minnesota and Wisconsin a few years prior to the interview. They also stopped off at Harley Davidson stores, for her husband's benefit. After some initial hesitation, her husband started accompanying her into the quilt shops. She arranged for items bought on this trip to be shipped to her house by UPS.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (Sisters, OR); Quilt shows/exhibitions; American Quilter’s Society QuiltWeek (Des Moines, IA); Shop hops; Family; United Parcel Service; Biblical Quilters (Sioux City, IA); Terry Atkinson</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>1126</time>
<title>What makes a quilt artistically powerful / Hand quilting vs. machine quilting / Importance of quilting in life</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>What do you think makes a quilt, artistically powerful?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker acknowledges that different people may feel differently about what makes a quilt artistically powerful. For her, color is important, and she particularly notices if the colors are yellow and blue. While she likes both traditional and art quilts, she prefers traditional. That said, she would like to try art quilting. Walker has never actually quilted any of her quilts, but would like to learn. She would machine quilt, because hand quilting is too time-consuming. Walker says that quilting is important to her, because it kept her sane and alive. She also appreciates the beauty and the warmth of quilts and she finds quilting relaxing.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Use of color; Hand quilting; Machine quilting</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>1266</time>
<title>Importance of quiltmaking in American life / What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum / Biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>What do you think about the importance of quilting, in American life and, sp-, specifically American women's lives?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker thinks that it is important to continue teaching quilting to relatively young women. She thinks that quilting cannot be allowed to disappear, "just for the utility of using it for warmth, but also just for the creativity and the beauty and the self-fulfillment and accomplishment..." She does not, however, feel that quilting is in any real danger of disappearing. When asked what makes a quilt appropriate for a museum collection, Walker says that the question is subjective, but that age should be one of the considerations. The biggest challenge facing quilters today, in her view, is the expense of fabric and of quilting. </synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords/>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>1383</time>
<title>Collections / Sewing machines / Next thing in quilting</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Do you have any collections, do you collect quilts or any type of memorabilia?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker has a small collection of three or four antique quilts. She expects to continue buying them, funds permitting. She has three sewing machines, but, for the most part uses her Bernina. She also has a Janome and an additional machine that is no longer very functional. The next thing in quilting for Walker is likely to be making fractal quilts with her small group. Her conception of how this will work is that they will enlarge a picture, then cut it into sections. When everyone has finished the sections of the quilt, they exchange them. In Walker's words, "everyone will have a quilt, but pieces of other people's quilting." Walker would also like to improve her hand applique, which she things is lacking.</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Collecting quilts; Antique quilts; Bernina; Janome; Home sewing machine; Fractal quilts; applique</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
<point>
<time>1520</time>
<title>Influences of technology / Quilts for charity</title>
<title_alt/>
<partial_transcript>Does technology play a part in your quilting?</partial_transcript>
<partial_transcript_alt/>
<synopsis>Walker's use of computer technology in relation to quilting is minimal. She did design a wedding quilt on computer, but considers that a one-time exception. For the most part, she relies on patterns, rather than designing quilts by any method. She uses the Internet to connect with her church quilting class, the Biblical Quilters, and her small group of quilters, the Material Girls, but she does not use chat rooms. She does look for patterns or fabric that she might want to buy on the Internet. Because she and her husband have a strong interest in motorcycles, she keeps an eye out for motorcycle fabric. For three years in a row, she has made quilts for a local Shriners group raffle for their Cycle Escorts, to which her husband belongs. The interviewer suggests that Walker's estimate of the number of quilts she has made may be rather low and Walker agrees and revises the figure to twenty-five. Walker says how much she enjoys quilting. She is quite happy to have been persuaded to take her first quilting class. She notes that she eventually began to teach and that one of her Biblical Quilter students will be teaching the next class for that group. She says, "It's just one of those pay-it-forward things."</synopsis>
<synopsis_alt/>
<keywords>Shriner Cycle Escorts; Material Girls (Sioux City, IA); Biblical Quilters (Sioux City, IA); Quilt Purpose - Fundraising</keywords>
<keywords_alt/>
<subjects/>
<subjects_alt/>
<gpspoints>
<gps/>
<gps_zoom>0</gps_zoom>
<gps_text/>
<gps_text_alt/>
</gpspoints>
<hyperlinks>
<hyperlink/>
<hyperlink_text/>
<hyperlink_text_alt/>
</hyperlinks>
</point>
</index>
<type>interview</type>
<description/>
<rel/>
<rights>All rights to the Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories (QSOS) oral history project, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred from the Quilt Alliance to the University of Kentucky Libraries. Please contact the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History regarding rights pertaining to individual interviews.</rights>
<fmt>audio</fmt>
<usage>Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.</usage>
<userestrict>0</userestrict>
<xmllocation>https://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/render.php?cachefile=</xmllocation>
<xmlfilename/>
<collection_link/>
<series_link/>
</record>
</ROOT>