Dorothy "Dot" M. DePouw Naegele

Dorothy "Dot" M. DePouw Naegele

MI49016-053

Dorothy "Dot" M. DePouw Naegele

Joyce Rupp

2011-08-24

Susan Salser

Battle Creek, Michigan

Eleanor Wilkinson

Joyce Rupp (JR): This is Joyce Rupp. This interview is being conducted for the South Central Michigan QSOS, a project for the Alliance for American Quilts. Today I am interviewing Dorothy M. DePouw Naegele. We know her as Dot, at Battle Creek, Michigan at Westlake Presbyterian Church. Today is August 24, 2011, and the time is 10:55 [a.m.]. Dot, tell me about the quilt you brought in today.

Dorothy M. DePouw Naegele (DN): Well, it's about my family, that goes way back, like my mother's mother and dad, my father's dad. Two of them came from across. A couple came from Holland, my father's side. Then my mother was born here but on my husband's side, his father came from Germany. And then it goes on down from there.

JR: And that includes?

DN: My children, my children's children and I think that's as far as it goes. I believe I had five generations, six generations.

JR: So, there must be a grandchild there, a great grandchild?

DN: Oh, yes. No, I don't have any great grandchildren on the quilt, but I do have six of them.

JR: So, each of the blocks talked about both you and your husband's parents and then all of your and your husband's family?

DN: Right.

JR: Why did you choose this quilt for the interview?

DN: I had the pictures of my ancestors and I think that is pretty important at this time of the year. Because a lot of the people from the United States, their ancestry exists somewhere else. I just think it's wonderful to have had grandparents like that. My Dutch grandparents, one could speak English. The other couldn't and it was so much fun talking to them.

JR: Learning about their lives?

DN: Yes, it was wonderful. I can see them now, with their long dresses, hair on top of their head and everything. They were wonderful grandparents. On my husband's side, I didn't know many of them too well, but it was interesting. His father came from Germany and that was interesting. Anyway, I just wanted it recorded so I could leave it to my daughter and my daughter can hand it down to her daughter and so on and so forth. It'll be something that they will be interested in for years.

JR: Are all the names and any dates included with your pictures on your quilt?

DN: Yes, I think they are. I think all the names and dates are on there. [looks at quilt.] Yes, they are. When they were born is on there.

JR: Or when you were married?

DN: I know all the dates of us kids and everyone that's on there, when they were taken.

JR: That will be good in years to come.

DN: There is something of 12/ 2000. [moves quilt.] I think it's good record. It's easy to lose a paper record, maybe but this won't be so easy to lose.

JR: That's true. Anything else you can think about regarding your quilt that I didn't ask?

DN: All my girls are just this one.

JR: This one?

DN: No, I thought it was very exciting. I had to take these old photos down to a special place and have them re-photo'd so--

JR: So, they could be put on fabric?

DN: Yes, so they could be put on fabric. They weren't dying stuff, so they were processed that way.

JR: And you enjoyed the process because you got to look at all the pictures.

DN: So, anyway, I had to do that before I even started to make the quilt.

JR: And it's in an attic window setting and your favorite colors?

DN: I'm a quilter, what--

JR: Well, you enjoy doing things in autumn tones.

DN: Well, with these the pictures made you use certain things. I used a white background, so they'd stand out, of course. I probably had the other material on hand so that's why I used it.

JR: Out of your stash?

DN: Right.

JR: Tell me about your interest in quilt making. How did it begin.

DN: I'm trying to think. I think it was June Swartzle, I was friends with her even those year when I was in Arizona. She was into quilting. She was into quilting. She came over and brought a quilt and one day I said, that looks interesting. I think I'd like to try that. And so, I tried it and I'm still doing it. That's been twenty years.

JR: Yes, I was just going to look. It said that you began quilting in 1992. Do you think that's right?

DN: I thought it was earlier, but that's close enough.

JR: June started quilting in '86, so it was around that time. Had you been involved in any other quilt making through your grandparents or other friends before you and June started out?

DN: Not at all.

JR: So you hadn't been exposed to quilt making?

DN: But I did make all my own clothes and made my daughters' clothes. I sewed a lot, so--

JR: It was just a natural progression? How many hours at the peak of your quilt making did you quilt?

DN: You mean all together?

JR: Well, how many hours a week.

DN: There were times when I probably quilted five hours a day, maybe I'd take a break and go back, but probably twenty hours a week at least.

JR: Are you able to do that much anymore?

DN: I do, but I don't do it very often. I've got so many and I'm running out of ideas. I've got material I bought years ago that isn't too appealing now, but I'm still going on trying to get rid of all that material.

JR: That's your passion in life?

DN: Right. Use it up.

JR: Tell me about friends and family that quilt.

DN: Well, my daughter quilts.

JR: And her name is?

DN: Sharon Eshlaman.

JR: Okay.

DN: And she can beat me, she can run circles around me. She probably does two or three times more than I do and she does beautiful work. It's really gorgeous work. Very original.

JR: Did you get her started?

DN: Oh, yes. When she saw me make a quilt that was it. But she always made her own clothes before then. Actually, she made the dress that she got married in. So, it came to her naturally, the sewing part.

JR: Well, that leads into a question that says how does quilting impact your family? Have you made quilts for all of your--

DN: Well, yes, I think most of them have got a quilt. Of course, they love them. They're nice and warm in the winter. I think they're quite surprised with what I'm able to do.

JR: Can you think of any amusing experiences, maybe at your retreats or in a learning experience, or the guild, that you can remember?

DN: Not right off hand.

JR: Maybe you'll think of one. What do you find most pleasing about quilt making?

DN: You've made something. You admire it and friends sometimes admire it, like it. I feel like I've accomplished something instead of just sitting around. I've done something with my hands and my brain. It means a lot.

JR: What aspects of quilting do you not enjoy?

DN: Binding. Making the binding, mostly, putting it on. It's something that's not too hard. It's kind of relaxing. It's a long way around some of those quilts.

JR: Not as creative as the rest of it. Have advances in technology influenced your work?

DN: Oh, yes. The difference in material now and twenty years ago. I can remember when you could walk in a room, and it wasn't very big and it had all the material that you could use. My mother sewed for years and would get material and the room was probably, maybe, twenty by twenty and that was it. Now it's endless, the amount of material and colors and stuff, I cannot believe. It just goes on and on and on. And that's very interesting, too.

JR: What groups do you belong to, or have you belonged to, in the past?

DN: With quilting? It was just this group right here.

JR: Which is?

DN: Ladies of the Lake, that was in Battle Creek. June Swartzle got me interested and I joined that. It wasn't too much after that my daughter joined, too, and enjoyed it very much. I've gone camping with them and been out of town, different states concerning quilting, with them. It's been wonderful.

JR: Did you belong to a guild, or do you belong to a guild?

DN: Yes, the one in Battle Creek.

JR: Which is the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild?

DN: Exactly, Cal-Co Quilters. Still do belong.

JR: What are your favorite techniques or materials?

DN: I don't know as I have any favorite techniques, particularly. I like colorful quilts that I can do. Flowers I guess I like to do. The [inaudible.] are not very pretty. And blending of the colors is interesting. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. That's fun. Actually, shopping for material, now, to get things matched is so different than years ago, so it's a new experience almost every time you go and look at stuff.

JR: Do you use a design wall? How do you lay your blocks out?

DN: Probably on the floor or my bed.

JR: Did you ever have a design wall?

DN: No. I usually use my bed. Or I had a big, long table, too, that I used once in a while.

JR: How do you go about designing your quilts?

DN: I get the pattern and I look at the block and I make a block and then I decide how many others I want to make or while I have different spaces, and I'll go from there. Sometimes I'll have a plain block in between. Sometimes I go diagonal and sometimes across. I'll lay it out before I'll sew it together to see how I'm going to like it.

JR: So that's your design process? Can you think of anything else about how you [papers rattle.] are involved in quilt making? Do you belong to any groups, or have you, that may be in quilt shops or taken any classes?

DN: I've taken classes years ago. You go use their machines and learn how to operate that particular machine and learn tricks of the quilting, that you have to do every once in a while, or you forget. So, I've done quite a bit of that, yes.

JR: Okay, we'll go on to the next. What do you think makes a great quilt?

DN: I suppose that's certainly a personal opinion. Different people like different things. [unidentified sound.] I like something that's soft and calming. Some things are just out of this world. The colors and everything, you think how did they put that together. It's interesting, it's nothing that's boring at all. I've gotten some very, very old, antique quilt blocks, actually, that no one ever used, so I put them together. I actually got a ribbon and a judge's okay on making it look old when I had to find some fabric today to look old. It really did look like it was old. The color weren't always very pretty way back then, I don't think.

JR: Well, I don't think that they had the dyes and the ability to run things through so many times.

DN: Yes, the colors were limited and all that stuff. It was interesting.

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

DN: I think color has a lot to do with it. And also, I think, the shape of the designs and stuff has a lot to do with it, too. And then if everything blends together well, I think you've pretty much got it made. Different people like different things and different colors and sometimes your plainer quilts feel very good and sometimes more drastic ones are gorgeous and very interesting. I guess I can find something good about every type of quilt, because it's so interesting.

JR: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection?

DN: I don't know. I never did figure that one out. I think it's the people that's picking them out, what they like.

JR: Or if it's a certain subject?

DN: Right. And I think they might start with years ago and work their way forward. I'm not sure about that, but everyone has different ideas about quilting, and they would be all their ideas.

JR: What makes a great quiltmaker?

DN: That's a good one. I have no idea. I would call my daughter a great quiltmaker.

JR: Because she's a great technician?

DN: She has different ideas. She's very fast. Everything's got to be just perfect. That's the way she is. If it's not perfect, she'll redo it but everything has got to be just so. And she enjoys it so much. That helps a lot.

JR: Whose work are you drawn to? Any particular artists?

DN: Famous artists?

JR: Maybe famous, renowned quiltmakers.

DN: I really can't think, at the moment, who that might be.

JR: What teachers or artists have influenced your work?

DN: Well, mostly at sewing material places and they had sewing machines and they taught artists and they showed you samples of their quilts and what they could do, and if you had any questions, they could answer almost any question you wanted. Which is nice.

JR: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? And then long arm quilting?

DN: I've done a couple quilts by hand, at the beginning. It was kind of fun. It makes you feel kind of good, I guess, in fact I've got one that's been pinned for about nine years. I ought to do that. It was a small quilt for our anniversary. The machine quilting is absolutely gorgeous. They have such beautiful patterns and everything. I can't help but like them. And I admire anyone that can hand quilt a huge quilt anymore this day and age. You have to have a lot of patience, I think.

JR: Why is quilt making important to your life?

DN: Well, it's the one thing that I do that I like. I always did sew, clothes for my daughters. It's just one of my things that I like to do is sew. So, it's very important. And then when you come up with all these different ideas and different materials and this and that, that's very interesting, too. You kind of look back and remember some of the stuff you had to work with years ago and you are kind of in awe now for the stuff use and couldn't get years ago.

JR: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region where you live?

DN: I'm not sure that they do. That's a hard one. I have no idea, really. Unless, maybe, I see something at an exhibit and maybe pick up some of the ideas, other than that I don't know how to answer that question.

JR: What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life?

DN: I think it's very important. Years and years ago my grandmother had a quilt. Of course, I didn't realize it then and when I think about it now, I don't even know what happened to that quilt, but I think, 'Oh, my goodness.' Of course, I was just a little girl and that didn't mean that much to me, but it sure does now. So, evidently, they made them, maybe not as fancy or as colorful as they do now adays, but they were quilts none the less and made by hand. Very interesting. I wish I had one.

JR: In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America?

DN: Well, I think it's very important. It shows that we can do things by hand. We don't have to go to the store and buy it. We can still make it, create it yourself, and I think that's very important.

JR: Part of women's art?

DN: Yes, I think that people should be able to do things like that. Some people just love it and want to go at it, and I think that's wonderful. It makes them happy, too.

JR: You've shown in this quilt that you brought today, that it's a documentation of history in your family.

DN: Yes. That's very important to me. It's wonderful to be able to look back. My Dutch grandparents came over to this country and stopped at, I'm trying to think, the place you had to stop.

JR: Ellis Island?

DN: Right. And I think that's so interesting, and so exciting. I imagine it wasn't very modern. It took a lot of time, but that's the way things were long ago. Maybe if we were a little like that now adays we'd be better off.

JR: What has happened to the quilts that you have made for those of friends and family?

DN: They still have them, the ones that I know of, and they're adoring them. They like them. And I've got to make some more. Some of the grandkids, even, have them. So, they appreciate them. Sometimes they become a favorite blankie.

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

DN: There's designs in everything. Some people do fantastic designs. And I think there is so much competition. If you are doing it for competition. Not everyone is. I'm not. We just don't know what's going to come up next, with color, with design, with shapes I mean. When you think of years ago how many choices you had there wasn't many. Now it's just unbelievable, the choices and ideas and colors and all this. I think it's wonderful. That's what makes people different and keeps them busy.

JR: When you were thinking about bringing your quilt today and having this interview with me, are there any other thoughts that you had that maybe we haven't covered today?

DN: No, I think you've covered pretty much everything. Originally, I was going to show that other one that I did by hand, but then I thought about this, and I thought, 'Oh, I've got to show that.' It means a lot to me.

JR: It's a wonderful memory.

DN: It'll probably end up with my daughter.

JR: We will conclude the interview and I thank you for taking the time to do it.

DN: It was interesting. It was fun. Thank you.

JR: The time is 11:20.