Susan Jorena

Susan Jorena

MI49016-060

Susan Jorena

Eleanor Wilkinson

2011-09-11

Susan Salser

Marshall, Michigan

Eleanor Wilkinson

[This interview was conducted on the floor of the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild annual show. Background conversations and announcements will be heard throughout.]
"
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 am interviewing Susan Jorena at the Marshall Activities Center in Marshall, Michigan. This is the occasion of the annual quilt show of the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild. Today is Sept. 11, 2011, and the time is 12:26 p.m. I think we are ready to begin talking about the quilt you have. This is an unusual quilt for this kind of an interview. Why don't you describe it for us?

Susan Jorena (SJ): I started out getting ready to teach a group in Florida in our park and I had a pattern and the group, and I were going to make one. I had one girl in the group that wants to quilt really, really fast, so she did hers entirely differently. Well, I was really kind of fussing about whether I wanted to do it like the picture in the pattern, so I ended up not doing it the way of the pattern and did it my way, with that in mind that I was going to put it in a picture frame. So, I started cutting and cutting and cutting, fussy cutting, everything. I sat there and finally decided I like this fussy cutting. It taught me patience at that time, that I could just sit and relax and not feel like I was hurried. So, I had my little pile of fabrics that I was going to use, and I started cutting and it just was very relaxing. I didn't want television on; I didn't want the radio on, and I just cut everything in hand, whether I was going to use it for the picture or not because I enjoyed the fussy cutting. So, when I started building on fabrics and just continued to keep adding to it as I went along. I think it either 27 or 30 fabrics that I used, but it was fun looking through fabrics that I had. It was a good teaching thing and I think it expanded my horizons. It taught me a lot of things. You could almost sit and look at the picture and kind of daydream about it. It was basically inventing a new piece of fabric that wasn't there before. I wasn't sure how I was going to quilt it and I then I thought, 'Oh, I'm getting a little tired of working on this, but I know that I need to get it done.' And so, it hung on my door in Florida for quite a while before I decided how I was going to quilt it. So, I just did a wobbly line all the way through, back and forth, and back and forth. The original pattern wanted you to turn under a little bit and do appliqué that way, but I don't do well with that kind of appliqué so it's rough edged. When my sister saw it a couple of weeks ago, she s thought it was a picture that had been painted with oil paints and I said, 'You've got to look at it up close to realize how the raggedy edges showed.' I wasn't thrilled about the raggedy edges. I thought that maybe that would take away from it, but the more I thought about it I wanted people to realize that they can do simplistic things and still come out with things they can enjoy. It's just a technique that everybody should try. There's all different kinds of techniques and things out there, but this was kind of a new thing for me to do, to make a picture. I guess that's really about all.

EW: It looks like it was fun.

SJ: It was.

EW: And you could tell a story. What do you think someone viewing this quilt might conclude about you?

SJ: All I can think of is 'unbelievable.' [laughs.]

EW: Does the picture evoke any special meaning for you?

SJ: No, not really.

EW: And how do you use it?

SJ: Because it is in a frame it will be hung on the wall.

EW: Do you have any long-term plans for this?

SJ: No, not really, probably pass it on to one of my kids that show an interest in it.

EW: Let's talk about your interest in quilt making now. How old were you when you first started quilting?

SJ: I am 65 right now and I started, my daughter is 43, and I started when I was pregnant for her. And just newly married, there wasn't really any money to go out and buy fabrics, but because my mother [Joyce Wilbur.] lived across the street and she was a professional seamstress, so I'd go over and ask Mom for fabrics. I went over there and each one of those squares that I cut out was a square from a dress that my sisters or I wore, or even my mother. So, I made this quilt. I backed it with, I didn't know anything about quilting, and I just backed it with about two or three layers of a cotton, a flannel cotton sheet. As a matter of fact, my daughter [Wendy Eifler.] came over last week and wanted me to replace some of the worn-out pieces. I've been quilting since she's been born which would be 43 years. Some were just thrown together and there were other ones that I just loved from books or magazines and went from there. But it's one of my most favorite things to do.

EW: Were you self-taught, or did someone teach you?

SJ: I was self-taught. I took sewing classes in junior-high and high school, so I was very fortunate to have a couple of teachers that I just dearly loved. They were good teachers. She didn't have patience because I was left-handed. So that was basically how I learned. And a good use of the library, also, wonderful, wonderful books. Then I became friends with other quilters, and I have to say I could go to one of our quilt groups and sit there and learn, but I have two groups that I belong to, and I really cherish those ladies. They've all taught me things that I had no idea what to do with or how to do it. But all the quilters that I've ever met have been just absolutely wonderful. I think everybody's got a story [EW, inaudible.] and so it's just a wonderful thing to be able to quilt and share your times with these ladies.

EW: How many hours a week do you quilt?

SJ: Oh, gosh, probably I'm at the machine four or five hours a day. And I have a wonderful husband [Warren Jorena.] that I think really appreciates what I'm doing. He's picked up words and he says, 'Well, I know the name of that.' Or we'll go to a quilt show, and he'll say, 'Well, they did this and this and this.' And I'm a little amazed that he remembers the names, or he can tell you what kind of fabric it is. I just love that we can do that together.

EW: Ah, yes. What is your first quilt memory?

SJ: I guess the very first one has to be the one that I made when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. I was so excited about being pregnant and I wanted to make something that was strictly for the baby. That's all it took, once I thought about it I was hooked.

EW: Were there any other quiltmakers in your family?

SJ: No, surprisingly, my mother was not. She tried it once and she said, 'I can't get into that.' And I said, 'Okay, Mom.' [laughs.]

EW: And, of course, you have lots of friends that you've already talked about. How does quilt making impact your family?

SJ: They love it. My son [Joe Jorena.] asked me last week if I had any quilts that I could donate to him that he could donate to United Parcel's fundraiser for United Way. So, I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that. I make the quilts, I give them away, or I put them away until the appropriate time is to give.

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

SJ: Yes, I have. I certainly have.

EW: How did it work for you?

SJ: Well, you know, since today is [the anniversary of 2001.] Nine-Eleven I was very emotional, and I get that way right now. I felt that I was abandoning everything if I didn't watch television. I was able to move my television where I could sew and it would be a moment of relief when I really had to pay attention to what I was doing, or I would get up and go in the other room where my husband was, and it was just something I felt like I needed to do. I needed that time to relax, a sort of strange way of relaxing when you've got tears in your eyes.

EW: I know.

SJ: You think, you know, all those people. But that was a time that I think that was hard for a lot of people. I just think that really helped me.

EW: It helped you keep grounded?

SJ: Yes. And a more recent time was when last August I had two knee replacements and so hobbling around wasn't anything a lot that I could do. So that kept me busy in thoughts of quilts. Then this summer I broke my leg and so there was a lot of sewing on quilts. My husband brought my stash to me.

EW: Oh, yes.

SJ: So, I was able to sew and get into that and it is such a relief.

EW: Is there any kind of an amusing experience that has occurred in connection with your quilt making?

SJ: I really can't think of anything about being amused. But, I have only three grandkids and I love them dearly. I wish I had more grandkids. Its two boys and a girl and I started teaching all three of them how to sew. The oldest one was ten. The next one was eight and then the next one was seven. I have pictures of them where they are standing between my legs and they're sitting or standing there at the sewing machine. The youngest one is a girl, and she loves stickers and she stuck stickers all over my sewing machine. Now, if it would have been my own kids, I wouldn't have allowed that, but they would stand between my legs and I controlled the machine, but they knew what they had to do with their hands. They learned how to piece fabrics together and that was probably a very precious time that I had with my grandchildren. And to this day, every once in a while, we have to get together and we have to sew something.

EW: Oh, that's cool.

SJ: The oldest one now is seventeen. I should say that I've got an added step grandson. He hasn't had the experience yet. The oldest one is seventeen now and I can't get him to participate. There were a lot of things that I wish, now, that we could have done more of, but at the time they lived in Toledo [Ohio.] and we were here. Anytime we got an opportunity to sew, we did.

EW: That sounds like a good time. What is it you find especially pleasing about quilt making?

SJ: The satisfaction for myself that my husband is very interested in what I'm doing. It makes me happy when somebody can appreciate something that I've done. So often, oh, what do I want to say, compliments. I think a lot of times compliments aren't enough, or somebody just kind of lets it go by and doesn't say anything. So, I try and be real attentive about that, that I can say to somebody you did a beautiful job. They may have heard it a thousand times but so what. I want them to know I have appreciated what they have done and how it has enriched my life.

EW: It does, doesn't it?

SJ: Yes, I just think that's so important.

EW: You don't lose a thing by telling somebody else about wonderful work.

SJ: It's just like a smile; you don't have anything else to give but you have a smile, and it doesn't cost you anything and it doesn't cost the person that you give to. Every single one of these quilters are just [unidentified sound.] excellent and I just appreciate that so much.

EW: What aspects of quilting do you not enjoy?

SJ: I don't care for hand quilting. I do not get it right. It doesn't look well, and I have done several projects where appliqué is supposed to be there, and I don't like it. The only thing that I can say is that I enjoy appliqué when I'm doing a Celtic quilt. I want that all done by hand so I really strive to do that. I just need some more work on my appliqué. [another unidentified click.]

EW: When it's important I'm sure you can do it.

SJ: Yes. I can, it's just impatience.

EW: What art or quilt groups do you belong to?

SJ: The one quilt group that I really enjoy is the one that started at Burnham Brook. We moved from there to Spring Arbor University, they let us quilt at their building and then they were going to move to a bigger facility in Battle Creek [Michigan.] and so we moved to a church in Battle Creek. We meet there every Friday morning.

EW: Does this quilt group have a name?

SJ: Spring Chix. I have to say that Beth Payne Howard was my mentor, and she did something so precious for me. She was working on a black, small quilt and she was sewing it with bright colors, a fan, and hand quilting and she just up and gave it to me and I cried. I just couldn't get over that somebody gave me a piece of their art.

EW: A nice gesture.

SJ: Oh, gosh. She jumped right in when I was old enough to join Burnham Brook, and that's how I got to know that. She's a precious person.

EW: Yes, she is. Are you also a member of the Cal-Co Quilters' Guild?

SJ: Yes.

EW: What advances in technology have influenced your work, if any?

SJ: I think just a simple thing, and maybe you can't call it simple, but the thing with the rotary cutter and the cutting mats and all the variety of rulers that are out there. Every time I see a ruler, I think I need one and then I have to quit doing that [both laugh.] because after while I forget what I have. Just those things in itself. Of course, the sewing machine. I think those are probably the four things and of course all the things that you can do on your sewing machine. I'd have to say that was it.

EW: Do you have a favorite technique?

SJ: No, I don't and that's probably a bad thing in a way because I will be working on a quilt or quilting something and then a new technique comes out and I think I've got to try that. I've really got to try that. So then, what I'm doing gets put aside and I start that. I like to try them all. Whether I will continue with it or not I have to try them all. I look at it that if I don't try it, I might be missing something. So that's what I have to say about that.

EW: And what about materials? Do you have favorites?

SJ: I can't say that I have. Of course, it's cotton but to decide on whether I like Americana or if I like the rustic quilting, I like it all. I love paper piecing and Celtic. Those are probably my two all-time favorites.

EW: Two rather precise methods.

SJ: Yes. I just want to try it all. It's [unidentified click.] interesting.

EW: Very good. Describe to me your studio or the place that you create.

SJ: When we used to live in the country, I had a closed-in front porch that was good and I always said to my husband, 'If we ever move, I want to be able to have a room that I can have you in there.' So, it's kind of his room, too. He has his computer. I have a davenport in there and lots of stuff. [laughs.] I couldn't tell you the size of the room, but it's never big enough. You can't always spread out when you need to. I love having him in the room with me. I quite often ask for opinions and he's very good about it. If he doesn't like something, he tells me. So, I think that's important, too. Then the room next to that, I refer to it as my cutting room because I have a wonderful, big countertop that somebody has given me from their kitchen, and with two end cupboards. So, just a lot of room, and I can just throw it on the floor. Sometimes he'll sweep because he's tired of the threads and stuff, so I don't track them upstairs. I love my room. It has good light. It has a window and I have three machines that I use when the call is for that. I have shelving and I have a bulletin board that I really like. It's at my height when I sit down and it's on two walls. It's cork, I think 12" cork tiles and they go around like this and like this. [gestures.] So, it's a good thing. And then he put the trim above it, so it looks like it's kind of framed in. But it's the size I want, and I can just look right at it and not have to fool around flipping papers or anything like that. It's good for me.

EW: Do you have a design wall?

SJ: No, I don't. I'm trying to decide on what I want to do in order to come up with a design wall. I have a space that's available, but it would be right in front of the door that you have to open up for the fuse box. Not that we get into it a lot, but I got to have it so it's convenient for both of us to use. But someday I'm sure I'll come up with something that I can do for a design wall.

EW: In the meantime, how are you handling your designing project when you're doing a quilt big enough to need something like that?

SJ: I go into our family room which is just huge, and a big floor area, and sometimes I have to stand on the davenport and look down to get the view that I need. It looks so differently on the floor than what it does up--

EW: That's right. I've heard of some people using ladders for that.

SJ: So, my husband gets in on that, too. He'll help hold, if need be, and whatever is needed.

EW: Tell me how you balance your time.

SJ: You know what? I don't balance my time anymore and if I have dust sitting on my countertops or my dining room table, my mother always said it's going to be there. It's not going to go away. Don't worry about it. So, since my husband's retired, he does most of the cooking and he just encourages me to quilt if that's what my heart desires. He was a city firefighter, so he worked twenty-four-hour shifts and then he worked another job besides that, so he knew how important it was for me to sew, so when he retired then he took over a lot of the duties that were normally mine. It's something I can do and quilt more.

EW: Sounds good. What do you think makes a great quilt?

SJ: That makes a great quilt? I have to say love first because I think if you didn't complete a quilt, it's always going to be something that you wish you could, but I think you have to have a great want and when you look at quilts and really get up there and look at them, I think you can see where people have loved doing them. I think it just shows in their work. I think even when you need help with a quilt, and you need to ask somebody for some guidance and you're willing to ask for that. A lot of times we don't like to ask somebody, you want to do it all yourself and nobody else really wants to be involved or does want to be involved. I think when you're working with somebody else, just sitting across from one another, I think you can see that in their work and I think my kids see that with me, that they know. When they can't find me, they always go downstairs and find Mom sitting at the sewing machine. They realize how I feel about that.

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

SJ: I think that the colors that you use. I try to use different kinds of colors, whether it be Thimbleberries type colors or just your basic colors or if you see a fabric that is so totally out of your box, I like to try that, too, even painting on the fabric for quilts, and just to be able to explore. One thing I can say as years have gone by, I think my horizons have expanded. Normally I wouldn't have done any art quilts but now that I've done it I think that there's other things that I would do to step out of my box and try something entirely different.

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

SJ: To me it seems like it would be, if you hand quilted. Of course, the colors, the design. I don't want to say if they were antique-type quilts. Of course, they have their place, too. But I think the new quilts are going to be fabulous down the road when our kids can see them hanging on a wall or in a picture frame. I like the history. I love reading the history behind a quilt, whether it was made umpteen years ago or whether they were just made yesterday. I think that's about it.

EW: What do you think makes a great quiltmaker?

SJ: The want to do it. If you don't want to do it you don't do a good job. If you enjoy it, part of it is going shopping and finding the fabrics that you want. That's a thrill in itself. We just got back from Pennsylvania a week ago and there's many, many quilt shops that we were to and found that they are less expensive, and they are the same quality that you can buy in a quilt shop up here. It's interesting to see these Mennonite and Amish ladies with their white caps on and how simple their lives are and be able to come up with the beautiful quilts. That's a fun part. This last experience I had down there I was able to go in and buy nine different fabrics. Sometimes my mind isn't working to pick out fabrics. It just is a hard thing to do. That was a thrill in itself right there, so now I'm really anxious to get started on that. So that means that I have to put something else away. And start the new one.

EW: Whose works are you drawn to?

SJ: I guess I can't say any one person because I think they're all outstanding in the things that they do. If I see something that I like I want to copy them or at least do as much as I can to be like them and have the smarts like them. It just fascinates me how a person can make a pattern. How they can come up with the ideas I am so interested in that, or how can somebody write a book, a quilting book. Quilting books, to me, are like recipe books. You can just keep reading them over and over. It's such a nice relaxing thing to sit down and read books. I belong to a guild in Florida and that is a lot of fun. It's entirely different than what this Michigan guild is. It's really an interesting concept between what they do and what we do down there. We do charity work like the guild does here for children. It's just so fascinating to see the difference. You can take a quilt that you made up here, take it down there for show and tell, and it's just so different. It can be the same pattern but everybody's interpretation of that. It's just outstanding. Again, I have to say if I was writing a line of my favorite things about quilting it would be quilting but it would also be the friends. It just stuns me. Like Lori, that we were talking to earlier, I taught craft classes at Wal-Mart. It was the only store in the United States that allowed any quilting classes and craft classes, so I kept saying to the girls, 'You know, I'd really would like you to start quilting. I think you would really enjoy it.' And they balked at it and balked at it. I finally got them, so it wasn't a craft class anymore. It was quilting. And the girls that were usually there are the girls that we meet once a month with and we meet at a different church than this other group that I'm with. We have so much fun and help each other in different ways. It's the same core group that I had that I was teaching before I retired, and we still get together once a week and do our own little thing and now the girls are deciding for themselves what pattern they want to use. And Lori happened to be one of them. I don't even remember when it was, but we had a guild meeting, our guild here and they were talking about joining small groups of quilters and I stood up and I said, 'If those who haven't belonged to a small group of ladies that like to quilt, you don't know what you're missing.' So, I went on and on and Lori happened to come for the first time to the guild and I think she took it at heart about wanting to belong to a small group, so she joined our group and so we had more contact with one another, and we've gone places together and it's just fun, just outstanding. Like I said earlier, quilting and then friends, they go together. They are on the same line.

EW: Are there any artists that have influenced you?

SJ: No, not really. I like them all. Something that I found very fascinating was Eleanor Burns' sister [Patricia Knoechel.] comes to our park in Florida and does a presentation and that's really good. She brings rulers or books that she and her sister have put together and listening to her private story is very interesting, how she has gotten along since she lost her husband a few years back. Probably at the time that I'm doing a quilt, that's probably my favorite designer and if that's the case, then maybe next month it might be someone different.

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

[short interruption to answer someone else's question.]

SJ: Machine quilting is for me. I have a hard time sitting long and trying to hand sew and I'm never going to get this done. It doesn't show up fast enough for me. So, I have to say the majority is machine quilting. And I have a wonderful machine that does everything. It doesn't wash dishes.

EW: That's what husbands are for.

SJ: Yeah. [chuckles.] But other than that, it's my sewing machine.

EW: Why is quilting important in your life?

SJ: It helps me through happy times, sad times especially when I think about my mother. She passed away and we used to discuss sewing a lot. She made wedding gowns. She was self-taught. When she would run into a problem, she would call me and say, 'Now, how would you do this?' or 'What's your suggestion?' That's what I miss, and I know she respected the work that I did, as I did hers. It just makes me happy sitting at my sewing machine, and I feel content and I think that's an important thing, too, to feel content whether you're sitting there doing a little project or a big project, or who you're going to give it to.

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

SJ: I can't think of anything.

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

SJ: Oh, I think they're very important, so telling, and I strive to tell everybody to make a label for their quilts. I've been known to do an 8 x 10-inch label. This was years ago, I had gone to a big sewing function in Toledo [Ohio.] and they had a display of quilts that were nothing but yellow, orange and white. Each one of them had a history. This was a collection of this man's quilts, and they all had some kind of a story, or he would have just a little bit of information, but he was still working on the information. A lot of the quilts didn't have any names on them, but the next step was being able to go through the colors that were available in that region of the country. I found that very interesting. I think people are realizing that labeling your quilts, no matter whether it's a wall hanging or a little dinky thing, how important that is.

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

SJ: I think a lot, whether it was, oh, what is the one, the fancy--

EW: Baltimore?

SJ: No, the ones that used ribbons and silks? Crazy quilting. That slipped my mind. Whether it was the Crazy Quilting or whether it was a utilitarian quilt, it just lets us know what was going on in that time of their lives. I saw one in Pennsylvania that was all made out of old wool from uniforms, from service uniforms to old antique, I don't know if antique's the right word, old suits of men, and this one particular one was made out of one the Southern States and the Confederate and the other, and that was very touching to me. And of course, the story, and I never remember her name, that came out with the quilt books to read. I think Civil War time I really enjoy the reading and when that one came up about Underground Railroad and quilts that they used to tell what the next step was. I think that's all, so important. I looked at that little wall hanging that's over there that has something to do with tissue paper [small art quilt in Cal-Co show by Nancy Wilkinson.] I can't wait to find the person who made that because I want to learn how to do that. So, there's several quilts in here that I am anxious to talk to somebody about just to find out. There is another one down the road that Lynette Wilson made. It's called Arches. I think it's beautiful. I want to know--

EW: It's interesting, isn't it?

SJ: Yes. I have no idea how that was done, so these would be new techniques for me. I'm just ready and rarin' to get into that to find out how it's done.

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

SJ: Oh, my. I guess I have a hard time thinking that if I was to give a quilt to somebody and they didn't appreciate it, whether it was a wall hanging or it was a big quilt, and if they didn't like it, I really have to ponder over who I want to give my things to. If they're going to let the dog lay on it, forget it. Now my oldest daughter, she loves that, and I just thoroughly enjoy giving to her because I know that she appreciates it. I want her to be able to use it, but not to let the dogs lay on it.

EW: What has happened to the quilts that you have made?

SJ: That's what my husband always says since I gave them away. [both laugh.] I going to hang it on the wall. I do have an antique quilt that when my daughter, my oldest daughter lived in Toledo, she worked at assisted living, she was a program director, and when she had to take inventory at this job, she was in the closet with all the art things. She came across a brown grocery sack that had two quilt tops in it. She went and asked her boss what she should do with them, and she says, 'If you quilt go ahead and take them home.' So, she called me, and she says, 'Mom, do you want these.' And I says, 'Yes, I do.' And I believe it was Jacob's Ladder and it was all hand pieced, and I was just thrilled. I was so excited to think that I had something that had belonged to somebody that really took time to do this. So, I took it to Florida with me and we've got about half a dozen girls in the group that love to quilt. They put it on the big frame, and they sit there and talked and quilted. So, when they got it done, I brought it back home, here, and I'm in the process of getting ready to hang it up. And I have huge bare walls and that one's going to be beautiful. And the other part of a quilt that she gave me was the Dresden Plate and I just debated about what I should do with it because it was all hand pieced, but when you laid them out, they wouldn't lay out because there might be one section that was too big. So, I took those out and I ended up being able to have enough from what I took out to make two blocks. So right now, I'm in the process of appliquéing them with a buttonhole stitch onto muslin. Some are skinny, some are big, but I didn't want to lose the integrity, so I can't wait to get that done.

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

SJ: Well, I don't know if you'd call it a challenge, but I think the price of fabrics. I think maybe the supplies, but if you have the basics, you know, your rotary cutter and your mat and all of that, I think that would be a challenge if you didn't have them. And when I first was quilting, I used scissors and I don't cut straight. I think that is a challenge and if you don't know anybody, get to a group that can help you so it's not a challenge anymore. Other than that, as far as a challenge, you just have to find somebody that can tell you to get over that hump and continue. Don't give up on the first one.

EW: Very good advice. This brings us to the end of our assigned questions. Is there anything that you would like to say in addition?

SJ: No, I can't think of anything, but I know I'm a talker. I love to talk.

EW: Susan, this has been one of the nicest interviews--

SJ: Thank you.

EW: I've been involved in, and I do appreciate your taking the time to do this. Now it's 1:17 and this is concluding our interview.