Arveda Jean Yeo

MI49016-058

Arveda Jean Yeo

Eleanor Wilkinson

2011-09-10

Susan Salser

Battle Creek, Michigan

Annella R. Rocha

[This interview takes place on the floor of the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild Annual Show. Background sounds include conversations and announcements.]

Eleanor Wilkinson (EW): This is Eleanor Wilkinson. This interview is being conducted for South Central Michigan QSOS, a project for The Alliance for American Quilts. Today I'm interviewing Arveda Jean Yeo at the MAC Center in Marshall, Michigan. This is the occasion of the CalCo Quilters' Guild annual show and today is September 10, 2011, and the time is 2:37 p.m. Now we are ready to start talking and I would like you to start by telling me about this quilt that you have brought in today.

Arveda Jean Yeo (AJY): We have three friends that get together and we make these quilts to send to the veterans coming out of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have made approximately 135 over the last five years. We have one gal who lives in Saint Claire Shores, Michigan, one gal lives in Climax, Michigan, and I live in Delton, Michigan, and a gal who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our husbands all have antique military vehicles, and we were talking one day that we all like to sew quilts and we said we ought to get together and make some of these quilts. We started making them. One weekend we ran into a lady who belongs to the Blue Star Mothers of Michigan, and we were talking to her, and she said she could get them sent over to the hospital in Germany, her son is a chaplain there. So, we've been sending them over there for about five years. We make simple patterns, made the Turning Twenty. The one that we took a picture of is the Five Yard quilt, you just take 5 fabrics, 10 ½ inches by the width and sew them together and put a border around it and then we quilt them. We are not trying to make masterpieces; just good warm quilts and our aim is to let the gals and guys know that we appreciate their sacrifice away from their families and the dangers they face. I make quilts of my own for my own self, but I have 2 beds and about 8 quilts a bed, so I wanted something to do that someone else could appreciate.

EW: Would you explain a little bit about the Blue Star Mothers?

AJY: The Blue Star Mothers are mothers of people who are in the service. This gal has a son who is a chaplain there. I don't know how they sign up for it. It's a chapter like a quilt guild but it's just, they get together and I'm sure--

EW: And they are associated because their son or daughter is in the service?

AJY: Correct, correct.

EW: And that pretty well explains why you chose this quilt for this interview then doesn't it?

AJY: Yes

EW: What do you think someone viewing this quilt might think about you?

AJY: I hope they know that I am a caring person and that I want to create something that means something to someone else, also. I am not a person who cares if I get a lot of accolades or ribbons, you know, because I enjoy doing it and want someone else to benefit from it.

EW: So, your intended use of this quilt is solely to be sent to Germany to be given to the veterans?

AJY: Right, and hopefully one day, in the not-too-distant future, we won't be needing to send them over there, but I'm sure that there will be soldier and sailors somewhere in the world who are in harm's way.

EW: It seems like that doesn't it?

AJY: It does. It really does.

EW: Let's talk a little bit about your interest in quilt making now.

AJY: Yes

EW: What age did you start quilt making?

AJY: Actually, I've only been quilting--I guess maybe I was 50 when I started quilting. My son had moved on into his college years and doesn't need mom around. I tried golf but I'm terrible. [laughs.] I hit it straight but not very far. Anyway, I thought that would be a good inexpensive way to--

EW: It turns out that way?

AJY: It turns out it was not that. True, but a good way to have something of use after you were done. Not just a little card with a score on it.

EW: That's true. Now, did someone teach you to quilt or are you self-taught?

AJY: Mostly self-taught, but I read some books and I started sewing with a friend of mine, Opal Allen, and she is also a member of this guild. My first quilt I made was 12-inch squares sewn together, which turned out cute but let's just say wasn't very challenging. [laughs.] But it is still in use. Anyway, mostly self-taught.

EW: Have you ever taken any classes?

AJY: I've taken some. Some through the guild and I took a class in quilting at Quilt & Go.

EW: Did you learn any new technique?

AJY: Yes and watching what other people are doing helps. [Pours water from plastic bottle.]

EW: That helps a lot, doesn't it? How many hours a week do you quilt?

AJY: Probably six or seven, because I work full time still.

EW: Oh, you do?

AJY: Yes. I work at the Battle Creek Federal Center.

EW: Oh, yes, I remember that now.

AJY: And so, if I get an hour a night and on Saturday.

EW: So, did I ask you how many hours a week you quilt?

AJY: Yes, you did that one. [laughs.]

EW: That's what I thought. What is your first quilt memory?

AJY: I thought this ought to be fun and cheap, because you can sew all these little pieces, scraps, well little did I know that that's not true because you get to seeing all these pretty fabrics and you want some and you want to do something with it. And besides cheap fabric is cheap fabric. You can feel the difference.

EW: Old fabric is sometimes. Did you have any quilt memories from your childhood?

AJY: No, my mother sewed a little, she made doll clothes but, not quilts. We bought an old farmhouse about 10 years ago, and it just seemed like the right thing because there is no heat upstairs. The little hole in the floor is all you get, you know.

EW: How does quilt making impact your family?

AJY: Well, it keeps us warm at night, and then my husband will take me from quilt store to quilt store in a 1953 Dodge power wagon army truck. And he entertains the people who run the store while I shop, and I meet friends that way, through the guild and then my friends who we make the veterans quilts for.

EW: Have ever used quilts to get through a difficult time?

AJY: Yes, as far as making quilts and giving to, I've given quilts to people who are sick at work. A friend of my niece has had cancer and I gave her a quilt, a comfort quilt. Myself, it just keeps my hands busy.

EW: Have you ever had an amusing experience connected with quilting?

AJY: I can't really think of one. Other than sitting around and laughing with my other friends.

EW: That's different.

AJY: Yes.

EW: What is that you find pleasing about quilting?

AJY: Just sitting there doing something routine, you know if you are chain piecing you get in the rhythm of it and I want to see it done. After a while I think isn't this ever going to get over with you know.

EW: Finishing a project then is an important thing.

AJY: Yes.

EW: What aspects of quilt making do you not enjoy?

AJY: I, on purpose, don't pick quilts that are one-inch squares, [laughs.] something that goes a little faster since I work all day, I don't want one that takes two years to finish.

EW: That is very understandable. Are there art or quilt groups that you belong to?

AJY: The Cal-Co Quilt Guild is my main guild. There is one in a town close to me, but I thought about joining but that is another night away from quilting.

EW: So, you have the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild and then the groups that makes the--

AJY: Yes

EW: --the veterans quilts?

AJY: Yes, right.

EW: Do you have a name for the quilt, or that group?

AJY: They are called Trail Ride Quilters.

EW: And now what advances in technology have influenced your work?

AJY: Let's see. I started out with an old Bernina about forty years ago. I have moved up to a computerized machine, but my favorites are my two Featherweights. So, I guess I am going backwards. [laughs.]

EW: But you are making straight stitches.

AJY: That's right.

EW: And are there any gadgets or gizmos that you find especially useful like rotary cutters and stuff like that?

AJY: The rotary cutter is your friend, and I have a string where I hang my scissors around my neck, so you don't have to hunt for those. I like the simple things, some of the gadgets you can find out there turn out to be money takers. They actually don't add a lot.

EW: Describe your studio, or the place that you create.

AJY: Well, I do have a sewing room upstairs in our old farmhouse, but in the wintertime I have to heat it up with a kerosene heater and in the summertime, I have to run an air conditioner and my husband, and the television are downstairs, so I have put up a big table and I sew in my living room downstairs when my sewing room is really upstairs. But I have about three bookcases of books and a couple of shelves of other stuff and down in the basement, when we bought this house they put a hole in the wall somewhere, sometime, and you crawl through there and they cemented a floor the size of the kitchen, but you can only crawl around on your knees, and my husband is 6'3" and 280 lbs. And he doesn't fit through the hole. So, what I do is I box up my fabric and hide it in my dungeon, as we call it. So, it's there.

EW: Ah ha, out of sight but you know where it is.

AJY: I know where it is, yes, yes.

EW: Do you use a design wall?

AJY: No, not really

EW: How then do you arrange your quilts, and do you need to lay them out somewhere where you can--

AJY: I can lay them out on the floor in the sewing room upstairs or on the bed. But a lot of it's in my mind where I'm wanting to go with something and then lay it out and then say, 'Oh that's not going to work.' And I move it around. I know what a design wall is for. I guess one of these days I will have to put one up.

EW: Well, your bed seems to be serving now?

AJY: Yes.

EW: How do you balance your time?

AJY: I promise myself maybe an hour a night. You know, after I get home my husband seems to think he needs to be fed. And then maybe throw a wash through the wash. I try to do an hour a night and one day on the weekend, I spend most of the day doing sewing.

EW: What do you think makes a great quilt?

AJY: A great quilt is one that is made with love and doesn't necessarily have to be fancy, and it doesn't have to win a prize. It's just, my husband calls it, it's warm.

EW: In more ways than one.

AJY: That's right.

EW: And, ah, what do you think makes a quilt artistically powerful?

AJY: I like the old-style quilt. I'm not fond of the real artsy-fartsy quilt as I call them. I want something that maybe brings back memories of the way people used to make quilts.

EW: Something traditional?

AJY: Traditional, yes.

EW: What do you think makes a quilt appropriate for museum, for a special collection?

AJY: Well, there again, I like the old style, someone with balance and color and someone who has used their talent to the best of their abilities. I'm not sure that outdoing the next person is why a quilt should be made.

EW: All right then, that leads us right into what makes a great quiltmaker?

AJY: A great quiltmaker is someone who really, that is what they really want to do above all others. Other than spending time with your family, that's what you would rather do than go out on the town, or what you'd rather do than go dancing or something like that.

EW: Now, whose works are you drawn to?

AJY: I like Thimbleberries, although that is kind of, I don't see that as much anymore. I like the older style quilts, the log cabin and the traditional.

EW: Are there any artists that have influenced you?

AJY: I can't think, other than Lynette Jensen/Jennings that does the Thimbleberries, I would say her talents of designing and artistic--

EW: That really suits your sensibility.

AJY: Right

EW: How do you feel about machine quilting verses hand quilting?

AJY: Well, since I work full time, I think machine quilting is just fine. I have done a little bit of handwork but that's just not me because like I said I want to get it done, and I don't have two years to do it. [laughs.]

EW: That's right. Now, what would you say your favorite technique is?

AJY: I like stippling, when I am quilting them myself. Chain piecing is good because it gets things going.

EW: You mostly like to piece rather than something like appliqué?

AJY: Yes.

EW: Do you have any favorite fabrics?

AJY: Brown, or gold or green cotton.

EW: Okay, definite favorites. Why is quilt making important to your life?

AJY: It's important because it gives me a chance to do something I really want to do. Obviously, I go to work because I need to earn a living. But it's not, I don't know, and I like the people, I don't mind the work, it's just not what I want to do for fun. So, I guess it's just what I like doing,

EW: The quilting process?

AJY: Yes

EW: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region?

AJY: Oh, probably because since I tend to like the traditional quilts, we do live in a rural traditional area, and so it's probably not going to be the fancy thing like you would find in New York City or Detroit, somewhere like that.

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

AJY: I think that at the time that people started quilting it was the way they could dress up their lives and yet have something functional. Because they did not have the time or the money to just make artsy things.

EW: They could use fabric from good parts of worn-out clothing and things like that?

AJY: Right. And feed sacks and all that other stuff. That gave them a medium of art that they could use to keep their families warm.

EW: Have you ever used feed sacks?

AJY: No, I don't own any.

EW: In what way do you think quilts have a special meaning for women's history in America.?

AJY: Because they were the, I've read where they were the way that women could express themselves artistically. [PA announcement.]

EW: Did you finish with that answer?

AJY: Well, what was I saying? [laughs.]

EW: We were talking about women's history.

AJY: Well, women had so many things to do that they didn't have time to have, free time, pleasure time. So that was something they could do to express their artistic side and yet have something useful.

EW: What do you think quilts can be used for?

AJY: Quilts can be used to make people feel good, I made a quilt and gave to a fellow at work whose wife has multiple sclerosis and is bed ridden and every time I see him, he tells me how people come and tell or say how they like the quilt--

EW: Isn't that nice?

AJY: Or the quilts that we are making and sending overseas, it's these young people give up their lives, their time in their lives away and they get injured and some of them drastically and so they ought to have something from us here saying we appreciate it.

EW: How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future?

AJY: Well--

EW: Or do you think they can?

AJY: I think they should be. How can they be? Well, those of us making them can take care of them and learn how to take care of them, and make sure that our people, our kids and our grandkids know what went into making and the appreciation they should have for them.

EW: And what has happened to quilts that you have made or those of friends and family?

AJY: Well, my grandchildren have several which they curl up with. My son has some, I have given them to my nieces and my sister, and these people I don't even know, over in the hospitals.
And I hope that that they know that someone is making them because they want to.

EW: And your intention is for them to use them and to sleep under them?

AJY: Yes, yes.

WE: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quilt makers today?

AJY: Finding the time to do it and with the increasing cost, watching quilt material go up to eleven or twelve dollars a yard.

EW: Kind of a shock, isn't it?

AJY: Yes, it is if you are making them to give away, you watch the JoAnn's coupon sales.

EW: This brings us to the end of our assigned questions. Now, is there anything else you would like to talk about?

AJY: I think this is a great project.

EW: Thank you, I do too.

AJY: That too often in the past people haven't noticed the importance that women have contributed, besides just their family needs.

EW: We thank you so much for your taking the time.

AJY: You're welcome.

EW: This has been a fun interview and I'm very glad that you did that.

AJY: Okay

EW: The time is now 3 o'clock.