Louise Quick

Louise Quick

NY14722-004

Louise Quick

Le Rowell

10/9/07

Moda Fabrics

Chatauqua, New York

Le Rowell

Le Rowell (LR): This is Le Rowell and today's date is October 9, 2007. It is 8:45 a.m. in the morning and I am conducting an interview with Louise Quick for the Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories, a project of The Alliance for American Quilts and we are in Brasted House, the bed and breakfast at Chautauqua, New York, in one of Joyce Brasted's lovely guest rooms. So, this is a pleasure to be here surrounded by these antiquities. So, Louise welcome.

Louise Quick (LQ): Thank you.

LR: And tell me about this wonderful quilt that you selected to bring.

LQ: Well, I decided on the quilt because I really reflect the era of thriftiness. It seems that making something nice out of something that was perhaps not so nice or was old seemed to be a thread that went through my quilting quite often and this is an example of it. Early in the 80's when I was working on church bazaars someone gave me a number of quilt tops that hadn't been finished and as you looked at them for good reason, they were really quite unattractive. For example, these hexagons were sewn together in a solid manner so that the whole quilt top just was unpleasing so to speak. And I thought well someone took the time to sew all these diamond shapes [points to the shapes on the quilt.] together to form hexagons but then they didn't match, they didn't fit, the colors were not good and so I took them all apart. I actually had two quilt tops, took them all apart and started laying out the colors and decided what would look pretty and I decided rings of three different colors and then I appliquéd them onto a background because there's no way I could rejoin them. They weren't even the same size but that's what I did, took a nice bright cheery yellow background and when I got through, I had many, many, many more hexagons to go so I took them and pieced them together and made the leaves for the border that surrounds these hexagons. Well, it's like one big flower I would say and so this vine that goes around it and all the leaves are made up of fabric that came from the hexagons, and it was really started in the 30's and 40's, you can tell from the fabric. So, I dug into old fabrics and got some from friends so that what I added to it was also the 30's and 40's fabrics.

LR: The background that you appliquéd, talk about that, where did that come from?

LQ: Well, that was the new fabric because I had to go to the store and get some of the less expensive, almost not the high-quality fabric, but it fits the rest of the quilt, just a bright yellow almost a muslin like fabric but a simple fabric that was just clear colored and seemed to bring out the best. And you can even see the binding around the edge, all the little pieces left over from other triangles, that's just pieced together triangles to make that whole border. So that's how it was done.

LR: And the backing?

LQ: Well, the backing, again I had to buy a new piece of 30's repro but then this piece that the stripe I know is an orange but with an old piece that I found, and I thought, well, I have to add something old to the back also, so that's what the stripe is around the edge of the back.

LR: So, all the hexagons have been re-pieced and then you appliquéd that pattern, all of it is appliquéd onto your background?

LQ: Right. Some of the hexagons were just as they were but some of them might have had, I wanted this to be all orange [points to the area.] and maybe the original maker had stuck one yellow one in here or one green or blue, so I could take that section out, but basically, it's what she had as hexagons I changed some that needed it.

LR: And where did you find this original piece?

LQ: I can't remember who gave it go me but working on church bazaars in the early 80's people donated and we were cutting up, and this was before I was a quilter, and we were cutting up old quilt tops to make cats and bears and things for stuffed animals and selling them. And then we quit doing it and all of a sudden it dawned on me when I became a quilter in the late 80's I thought, 'Look what I did. I cut up quilt tops.' [laughs.] Now it is important but then it wasn't. So, I became a real advocate for saving then.

LR: How do you use this quilt?

LQ: Oh, I took it off my bed this morning and put a different one on it and I thought, well, I could put a different one on my bed for a while. The other one I usually change it with is also bright yellow in the background, I love yellow in the bedroom and that too is an old one made by grandmother and added extra borders on it by me to make it large enough to fit a queen size bed.

LR: What are your plans for this quilt in the future?

LQ: Well, I will use it until I decide I want a different one on my bed and I don't know, I have three grandsons and unless they marry and establish homes, I don't know what will become of any of the quilts I make. I have some pretty ones and some nice ones, and I just hope their wives like the idea of having one given them.

LR: Let's talk a minute about your own involvement in quilting. At what age did you start quiltmaking?

LQ: Oh my, well, it was retirement and then I retired at 63 so I would say I have to--I probably started quilting at about 63 and I'm almost 75 so I've been quilting that many years.

LR: And from whom did you learn to quilt?

LQ: Well, I joined a guild right away so that I would be inspired and see what other people did. I was a home economics teacher, and I knew all about sewing and 5/8-inch seam allowances and the precision that was involved and required--when I had to go to college, of what was required in trying to transfer that into quilting, I found that very difficult. I didn't know the terminology. I mean if I didn't have exactly what I needed I didn't know quite how to create it. So first going to guilds, finding a friend to give me some pointers and then after I retired turning on the television and finding "Simply Quilts" with Alex Alexander being a help, signing up for a few classes and then reading, reading the books that were put on how to quilt and finding out that there were twelve ways to appliqué and I just had to find out which one I liked the best. All of those ways added up.

LR: Talk a minute about the inspiration though of the old quilts. You said initially that you liked the idea of recycling. Where does that some from?

LQ: I think growing up in the 30's and 40's and in my family my grandmother, my mother were very capable women. If something needed doing, whether it took hammer, a saw, a needle and a thread, whatever, a paint brush, they did it and it just seemed like they were people who made do with what they had. So, I sort of came from that nature and if you have a lot of things around you, use them. I don't go buying fabric unless I absolutely need to. It's not one of my highlights which is for many people, I know. But I only buy something really if I need it and I like to go to my stash and use up what's there and if people give me old things, or if I go to a yard sale and find some old things, I will be more apt to use those than I will a new piece of fabric. There's just something about the satisfaction that comes from old neckties turned into church banners for example. Old neckties turned into Christmas tree skirts. [background noise is from trucks on the road passing outside.] Old fabrics turned into a quilt top. That satisfies.

LR: What is your first memory of a quilt?

LQ: As a child my sister and I shared a double bed and this quilt was one that was in the family and had little pieces here and there of texture that felt good, velvet here, and a shiny piece over here and maybe something like corduroy. And that was a quilt that we had when we were young on our beds, so that's my first memory and it probably came from a grandmother because my mother was a practical sewer, and she wouldn't waste her time on quilts. She did sewing for a livelihood really and she thoughts quilts were non-productive in her line of work. She made clothing. But my grandmother quilted, that's what I remember.

LR: Where was this, what part of the country?

LQ: Chautauqua County [New York.] the next community over and Sherman, the next community over from that.

LR: Oh.

LQ: So here in Chautauqua County. So, I grew up here, my roots are here. We lived near Buffalo [New York.] our working careers for 41 years but then retired back to Chautauqua County and Westfield [New York.]

LR: Talking about that quilt that was on the bed with you and your sister, do you remember the pattern?

LQ: I've looked at it and I've asked people; others aren't sure what the pattern is. It's sort of a Log Cabin variation, what I would say. So, whether it was a creative person who did it or if she had a pattern, it's sort of a fan arrangement worked in with a Log Cabin. I don't know the name of it. It's very dark, drab, you could tell she didn't have much pretty fabric to work with.

LR: Where is that quilt now?

LQ: Well, I have a number of old pieces like that on a shelf in my sewing room. They're folded up and in an old pillowcase and labeled on the outside, so I know which one it is. I have them.

LR: Talk about your sewing room. So, you have a special place where you make quilts and create?

LQ: Yes, yes.

LR: Talk about that.

LQ: Well, when we moved to the house in Westfield, it's the retirement home, it had three bedrooms, the guest room, our bedroom for my husband and I, and then the third room was to be shared. Well, it's shared but not fifty-fifty. My husband feels as if he maybe got the twenty thirty percent {laughs.] and I obtained the seventy. But that's the way it goes. And we opened up these double doors on the closet and I brought in all my sewing boxes, and I said, 'Okay, this is the height of the first layer of boxes, so put that first shelf right across there, the whole width of a double closet.' And then I said, 'This is the next row of boxes, so put the next shelf just above that,' and it goes up six shelves high. I can't even reach the top without going to get a ladder or a chair [laughs.] but it just holds everything I need right in that sewing room. And I have a table opened out and my sewing machine and my ironing board. Like I say it's an eighty-twenty split. [laughs.]

LR: So how does your quiltmaking impact your family?

LQ: My husband, of course, puts up with it, enjoys seeing what I've done and makes comments and it's okay. He knows that I need to quilt, that's my relaxation and if things are stressful, I need to into my sewing room for a while and I need to sew and he's had some illnesses and when he goes to the hospital, sewing goes with me. I pieced two or three quilt tops, either appliqué or pieced together, spending hours in the hospital so that he knows that's my stress release. And when you say my family, I have to think really my daughter's [Sue Resig.] the one who kept encouraging me to get into quilting. She was a busy mother of three and she went to some quilting classes before it even interested me. I thought what is she doing spending her time taking classes but she did, and she is a quilter but never spent that much time with it. But she encouraged me to get into it. Her husband [Chris Resig.] has become the artistic quilter. I mean so this is all of a sudden, I have a son-in-law who is fantastic. He said to his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary, 20th anniversary about six years ago, 'I wish we had a pretty quilt for our bed instead of the bedspread we have on it.' She said, 'Chris, I don't have time to sew, and I don't have the hours to put into it. You help me and we'll make it together.' He said, 'Okay, it sounds good.' And off to the quilt shop they went. He said, 'You know for our anniversary, 20th anniversary, let's go on one of these "Shop Hop Quilt Tours" that I read about where you go to ten shops, and you put your name in and if you go to all ten and your name's drawn at the end you win a wonderful prize. And he said, 'We could do that and make it our 20th anniversary outing.' And she said, 'Okay, we can do that.' Well, off they went, and they just kept buying fabric and fabric and when they got home, they decided on the pattern. He took a class with her from Carol Doakes on foundation piecing. He said, 'I ought to know something about sewing.' She said, 'Okay, now you do the cutting and the pressing, and I'll do the sewing.' Well, she couldn't sew fast enough, she didn't put the time into it, and he would say, 'Well, you know I'm way ahead of you on what I'm doing. If you would show me how to sew, I could go faster [laughs.], the quilt could go faster.' She said, 'Okay.' So, she showed him how to run the sewing machine and he's zipping along, he's an architect, so he just loved this creative process and this construction process. It was him. They both had taken model making in college and making things was his forte. So, all of a sudden, the quilt was made. He had made most of it. He loved it, he loved the crafting. Well, I could talk a lot about him because as a quilter he has come to our guild [Westfield Quilt Guild in Westfield, New York.] now, presented a program, taught a class on color. He's had quilts in the Vermont Quilt Festival show and the Quilt Odyssey at Philadelphia. He has little time to quilt but of the quilts he's made, they're fantastic creative art pieces. So, he's a whole different kind of quilter than his mother-in-law, but he's to be admired. He left Sue and I in the dust in a way. [laughs.]

LR: It's very exciting though.

LQ: Well, it is, so we're a quilting family made up of unusual threads in different directions.

LR: And you planted a wonderful seed that grew and blossomed.

LQ: I guess [laughs.]

LR: Very exciting. You talked about taking your quilts with you to the hospital when your husband has been there. Has quilting kind of sustained you in other difficult times?

LQ: I don't think so. I think it's just a--well, it's relaxing and a stress relief kind of thing. I guess otherwise I just enjoying doing it. But certainly, whiling away the time even in car trips. We just came back from a trip to New Hampshire, and I finished piecing together, hand piecing a quilt top, and I took my knitting along and I take things along, I have bags of things that surround me in the front seat of the car to do but mostly sewing. Oh, those trips get long and boring, so it helps a lot [laughs.]. I have to tell you something funny, this last one in New Hampshire someone had said to me before we left, 'Are you going to Keepsakes?' Well, that's a big quilt store there. And I said, 'Why I don't think so.' My husband really does no like to go out of the way even five miles for anything. So, there was no way I was even going to mention it. I didn't know where it was really, just that someone--and I have had catalogues from New Hampshire, but the name "Central Harbor" didn't really ring a bell. I'm sewing, we're driving along. He stops at a stop light; I just happen to look up. There's that great big sign "Keepsake Quilting." I said, 'Chuck, we have to turn in, we're there, this is it, it's the place.' [laughs.] So, we did have to turn in and that is so funny because we not only stopped on the way up to where we were going in New Hampshire, but we stopped on the way back also. He said, 'How do you have the uncanny ability to look up when we're going by a quilt shop?' I said, 'I don't know. It's a hormonal thing, or it's a magnetic thing, I just don't know.' Oh, dear.

LR: You mentioned that you were hand piecing in the car. In your touchstone piece that you brought with you, first of all what is the title of the piece that you brought?

LQ: It's called a "Time Span" quilt based on a book and a presentation by a woman named Becky Hurdle. She lives in Rochester, New York and it was probably one of the first quilt programs I attended when I started quilting about ten, twelve years ago and it did touch me so when you said a touchstone quilt, I began to think yes, that's it. She took old tops, did something to them and turned them into something useful today and I thought, yep, that's what I enjoy.

LR: But you were talking about your hand piecing in the car--

LQ: Yes.

LR: In this particular piece that you brought though, is there any hand work or is it all machine work?

LQ: Okay, the original sewer machine pieced these hexagons together. I appliquéd them onto a background and then hand appliquéd, I don't really enjoy machine appliqué, hand appliquéd a vine all around the edge and its entirely hand quilted at the end with a Baptist fan hand quilted pattern. I do mostly hand quilting of my quilts, if I put this much into them, they're hand quilted, I've never sent a quilt out to be done.

LR: It's beautifully done, and the pattern is lovely.

LQ: Thank you.

LR: So, what do you find most pleasing about quiltmaking?

LQ: I think the hand quilting at the end, knowing that this is the last step, except for the binding it's--I've done all of that and I admire it a second time as I quilt it, I think about what I put together to make what's there in the beginning. I think about the block and the fabrics that are in it, and I don't know, your mind just wanders and quilting at the end is rather mindless work so you can think about other things as you do that. I think it's the hand quilting at the end.

LR: Are there any aspects that you don't enjoy?

LQ: The difficulty of choosing the fabric and I know I've taken classes and worked on it, but I'm concerned that when I get done it won't have the look I wanted to because I made a poor choice in the beginning. And it has happened and then you're a little disappointed that the end result isn't there. And that's a challenge that a quilter always faces having that unique ability which some people have for choosing the right colors, staying in the right range of colors, the hues, the values and for some of us that's difficult and I painted, I used to do a painting and I always found the color the hardest part. I guess I don't feel I have a natural ability for color.

LR: Have you taught quiltmaking?

LQ: I teach it informally to those who want to learn and for example, when a friend said, 'Oh, she loves quilts and she loves admiring them' and I said, 'Well, why don't you learn to quilt?' 'Well, I don't even know how to sew,' she said, 'How could I quilt?' And I said, 'You could learn.' So, I've been taking her through the steps of learning and when we have quilt sew day sponsored through the guild or our once-a-week quilting sessions, anyone who has a question I'm happy to show them how to do it. I was a teacher, I was a home economics teacher and I just love to be able to have someone else learn a skill, whether it's cooking or sewing or crocheting or knitting, I'm so pleased if someone can learn something they didn't know how to do before, spend their time creatively.

LR: Have you entered your quilts into shows?

LQ: Only in our Westfield show

LR: In the Westfield--

LQ: Yes, in our Westfield Quilt Guild show and we have participated in the Chautauqua "Quilt Around Chautauqua" shows by bringing our shows there. But, no, I've never wanted to send it to a national or a district show of any kind.

LR: What do you think makes a great quilt?

LQ: When I go to someone's else quilt show and they ask you to look for the viewers' choice, I'm like so many other people I hone in on that beautiful hand appliquéd quilt and it may not ever win the best award but because I admire that skill that went into that hand appliquéd quilt, that to me is a great quilt. And I know others will choose this flashy bright beautiful art quilt, and I've had friends who do art quilts, but it doesn't speak to me as much as the traditional quilt does.

LR: And what would make a great quiltmaker?

LQ: One who takes great pride in creating something that is well-done and again I know to me it's the skill in putting that traditional looking quilt together. I know to others a great quiltmaker is that one who does the flashy art quilt regardless of whether she has skill or not, and I know that's important but that's not a great quilt to me. Mine is a traditional quilt well made.

LR: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting and then there's long arm quilting?

LQ: I can accept all of that. I know what I enjoy doing but I love seeing a quilt that's machine quilted well with a creative design. I can enjoy that. I'll never do it because I won't have the equipment nor the interest in doing that. I don't have a bias one toward the other. I admire the hand work still, but I have a friend who made two silk quilt tops, silk mind you, she felt the one should be hand quilted and she took it to the Amish, and they did a nice job. She took the other to a long arm quilter. That quilt was fantastic compared to the very ordinary job that the Amish did with hand quilting. And there was an example of two quilts both silk, both well-made fans, little fans all over it, but the machine quilted one looked far more impressive than the hand quilted one.

LR: Interesting

LQ: Yes

LR: But the quilting patterns were the same on both?

LQ: Oh, no, the Amish you see outlined, they outline, not in the ditch so much as just a quarter inch away from everything with no flair, no exciting elements; where she took it to other machine quilter and that woman looked at it in an entirely different way and did some lovely scroll work in unique patterns and all of it looked so much better.

LR: How interesting

LQ: Yes

LR: The difference may be between the approach of the Amish that was more conservative and simple and the other who had out of the box approach.

LQ: That's right and the Amish would never be able to do that because hand quilting with a creative flair is extremely hard, going all those circles around. You just can't, where the machine can go fast and be creative more than the laborious patterned hand quilting.

LR: Interesting, very interesting.

LQ: Yea

LR: So why is quiltmaking important in your life?

LQ: I don't like sitting doing nothing. If I could take my quilting to church, I would [laughs.]. I would sit and quilt while I listened to the sermon, but I just like doing something and there's only so many things you can knit and then what do you do with these items. And I know that quilts don't have a real practical purpose, but I feel as if I'm creating something and doing something with my time that's productive. And I like being productive with my time so I know I like to read, but when you're through reading books you sometimes say I could have made something in that same amount of time, a garment or a quilt or something. I guess that's why I enjoy it so much, when you get through there is something, you haven't just watched television or looked out the window or twiddled your fingers.

LR: You mentioned that you're a member of the Westfield Quilt Guild here near Chautauqua in New York, talk about your involvement with the guild for a minute. Have you held an office in the quilt?

LQ: Yes, I've wanted to be active without being a president and that's easy to do so you can be in charge of--oh, dear, program chairman, in charge of the tea room, the refreshments when it comes time for a quilt show, or block of the month exchange which is encouraging people to make something each month and share, demonstrating when we want to spend time and teach skills taking something to teach others and making a program out of it, creating a once a week quilting group that's available to anyone who wants to come and it's held in the community room at the bank so as many people as want to can come and share and teach each other. That's sponsored by the guild. And doing many things without having to wear the big hat [laughs.]

LR: Very clever of you [laughs.] In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America?

LQ: Well, certainly it reflects the--from early on what quilts have been handed down, the leisure time of the wealthy in making fantastic quilts that were heirloom pieces to the humble quilts made by the early settlers and the slaves and the people who didn't have much to work with. And certainly, those were passed down. We see the variety of skills, the variety of lifestyles that have been created in our country and now it seems with the revival of quilts in the 70s there's no limit to the number of people who want to become quilters. It's the thing to do. It just seems that it grabs a lot of people on different levels, they just enjoy quilting, or I don't know what there is about people wanting to go back to hand crafts, but many do. There's knitting or quilting or crocheting or now they say there's even classes in tatting and we thought tatting was long gone. They say no they're teaching that again. I don't know, there's a revival or resurgence of interest in those old things, so it will tell a history in the future.

LR: You certainly encouraged quilting in your family beginning with your son-in-law. How do we encourage quiltmaking for young people?

LQ: Well, if we have a young person in our family, certainly helping them to sew. With my daughter helping her to sew she made her first quilt for her boyfriend out of blue jeans when she was sixteen, I can remember thinking, 'Why would you want to quilt?' She thought it was wonderful, I wasn't interested in quilting, as I said my daughter got interested in it long before I did, and the boy put it on his bed and the mother went out a bought fabric to match the binding and made the curtains [laughs.]. We got it back in the family because they eventually didn't stay together forever and she came back and said to my daughter, 'Would you like to have that quilt back?' And so, it's on the shelf in my sewing room along with all these other things [laughs.]. But just as I said to a mother at church a couple of weeks ago, I said, 'You know, you and your girls were at a yard sale as I was and we were both plowing through this big box of fabrics', and I knew these girls and their mother was standing on the other side of the room, and this one girl about thirteen was pulling out all these pieces of fabric. She says, 'Oh, I love this, I love this.' And I said to the mother, I said, 'I noticed what your daughter was doing, and I think if she ever wants to make a quilt you give me a call and I'll be glad to teach her.' But whether she's interested in quilts or art I don't know but I thought well I would offer and who's to know what a thirteen-year-old wants to do. If she ever wants to make a quilt she just has to come and see me, and I'll help her.

LR: Wonderful, that's just wonderful. So, what do you think is the future of quilting making in America?

LQ: Well, the interest will decrease at some point. Everything has its ebb and flow, but there will always be those who want to save, want to admire, want to be part of a craft that they think is worthwhile. It will always be around but whether it will be a popular as it is right now, it's hard to tell. Someone asked me the other day, 'Don't you think the interest in quilting is really fading?' And I said, 'Well, I didn't think so.' I don't know why they thought so, but that was her impression. I should have asked her why she thought that. It was a passing comment I guess from someone I didn't know well enough to pursue, but I thought later why did she ask me that.

LR: I wonder whether maybe she would be speaking from a traditional viewpoint and maybe some of the art quilts are--

LQ: Okay

LR: I don't know, I just wonder.

LQ: Might be. She might have seen a quilt shop that was closing and thinking oh yes there isn't enough interest to maintain it. I don't know. Maybe I should have asked her, maybe it was because at one time there were more people in the quilt guild. But more guilds have started so naturally each guild is going to diminish a little in number as another one springs up.

LR: What trends have you seen over your involvement with quiltmaking?

LQ: The acceptance of machine quilting certainly. Just going to quilt shows myself over the last ten or twelve years, seeing how machine quilting--and people now just whipping out quilt tops and then rushing them off to someone else to quilt. Now they could make twice the number of tops because they don't have to finish them. You see at one time everyone had to finish their own quilt, so you tied them, that speeded up things; but as time became unacceptable you hand quilted. Well, that really bogged you down. I once knew a lady in Clarence, New York who made quilt tops only and when I last knew her in 1996, she had already made sixty-five quilt tops, hadn't finished a one and she just worked on tops. And just this summer I met a mutual friend and I said, 'Whatever happened to Evelyn and all her quilt tops?' And she said, 'Well, I forget, Evelyn either had to go to a nursing home or passed away, something happened.' and she just brought, someone brought all those quilt tops to a work bee, and they said, 'Everybody take what they want.' And they still hadn't been finished and by then she must have had many more than sixty. So, I don't know some people just want to whip out tops, but now that they can send them to someone and for a hundred dollars more or less get them finished, they can keep producing. And that seems to be the fun for them. I want to see it finished all by myself. I don't want [background noise is traffic on the street.] someone else doing it for me.

LR: We still have a few minutes left. Is there anything else in particular that you would like to talk about that you and your quiltmaking--

LQ: Well, I think, although this isn't usual, [tape recorder is bumped.] it's important for everybody to keep track of what they do and so whenever I have finished a piece, I always photograph it.

LR: [Le takes the photo album that Louise brought, and they begin to look through it.] And so, Louise has brought a wonderful album here that shows a photograph on the top of some quilt tops and that's--


LQ: [Louise points to a photo.] That's me and that's a good friend and we had gotten together to quilt on someone's porch, and I thought that shows it. There's another quilt top, yellow background, the center part was made by my grandmother. I found old fabric and made another border all the way around so it would fit my bed and another time span quilt.

LR: So, you have a photograph memory album of all the quilts that you have made.

LQ: That's right.

LR: And every single one has a picture of the quilt and is this the person to whom--

LQ: Well--

LR: Or no, designed by?

LQ: Yes, this is the grandsons when they were nine years old. I said you design a quilt and I'll make it for you, and so Steven [Resig.] at the time in 1996 designed a little what he called "Bunnies in the Garden" and he designed it, knew what he wanted, went with his mother to the shop and picked the fabrics and I sewed it together for him. And Michael [Resig.] did one, I don't know if he did it in the computer or what, I think he must have. It was just houses, little blocks and so we made that look like an Arizona background.

LR: So, you've really spread quiltmaking to your whole family.

LQ: I think so now that you look at some of these pieces.

LR: Yes, they design and then you make, or the son-in-law goes and makes his own complete quilt [laughs.].

LQ: Right. I guess so.
LR: But it's wonderful that in your own way you're preserving your history just as we're now going to preserve your story for a wider audience.

LQ: I think so. I think that's important. Yes. Oh, these little baskets. [continues pointing to pictures in her album.] I've made several of those for wedding gifts. I ask the bride's mother to send me handkerchiefs that were family handkerchiefs and I create a quilt using those handkerchiefs, the mother's, the grandmothers. And that's been a wedding piece that I've done for several wedding gifts.

LR: What other kinds of gifts have you made from quilts?

LQ: Oh, pillows and table runners and there was a grandson, nothing but computers and so he loves cats. I've made a cat drape over the top of the computer and have it look like that's a wall hanging. And on the computer are all the e-mail addresses of all his family members, you know, for all their e-mail addresses and his cat's sleeping on top of his computer so that's a little wall hanging for his bedroom. [laughs.] And these are giveaways for the Rotary auction, the library auction. They don't bring a lot of money but they're a pleasure for me to make and that's okay.

LR: Well, this is quite a wonderful memory book and you certainly have spread quiltmaking starting with your own family and into your own creative efforts. So, Louise, thank you so much for coming and participating in this interview, and our interview was concluded at 9:27 [a.m.]. So, thank you very much.

LQ: You're welcome. It was a pleasure.