Barton Snedaker

NY13185-DAR001

Barton Snedaker

Jeanne Wright

04/13/2011

Susan Salser

Norwich, New York

Jeanne Wright

Note: Barton Snedaker is not a member of the DAR. While this is a DAR quiltmaker documentation project, membership within the DAR is not required.

Jeanne Wright (JW): Today is April 13, 2011. It's 2:45 in the afternoon and I'm in the home of Barton Snedaker in Norwich, New York. Barton has agreed to be interviewed for the Alliance for American Quilts, their project Quilters' S.O.S. I would like to thank you, Barton, for having me in your home. Tell me about the quilt that you have hanging today.

Barton Snedaker (BS): Well, the quilt was made for my partner Bob. He was a business officer for the State of New York, and he had an ugly office. He had a big, huge space over his desk, and I thought it would be perfect. He happens to love Canada Geese so when I saw the pattern, I ordered it and had it and I decided to surprise him with it. I found one night that he was in the room adjacent to my sewing room looking in the mirror which reflected what I was doing. I said, 'If you want to come in, just come in.' He surprised me by retiring three years early, so I had to finish it up. It was the type of quilt--I was relatively new to quilting. I figured that it wasn't that big. It was something I could handle. It was machine appliqué which is something that I had done a lot of, but it was also pieced. It's the only quilt that I bought all the material for [at the same time.] except one. I went in and bought it in the quilt store, knowing what I was looking for and basically following the color suggestions that came with the pattern, but using some of my own judgment toward it. I guess part of me thought that because it was a quilt that had to be hand quilted because I had made it, even though it was all machine pieced. It took a while to get it hand quilted. It was the first quilt I started but it was not the first quilt that I finished. It has hung in that room [adjacent to the interview room.] almost since that room was built. I put it up there very shortly after that. It's probably not the best location for it, given the amount of sunlight, but, oh well.

JW: But that's where you enjoy it.

BS: That's right. I enjoy it very much. I have one that I'm working on to hang up there to let that one relax for a while, but I haven't got it finished yet. It is a kind of Oriental style.

JW: Have you hand quilted since then?

BS: I have tried. Like I said, my metacarpal joints have arthritis which has gotten progressively worse and every time I think really, all quilters need to hand quilt or hand piece something. I am at the point where I can't even do that. I do have another quilt that's basted together that I want to hand quilt, but I couldn't do it. Now after my surgery I'm hoping to be able to get to it. I expect, especially if a quilt is going to be an art quilt, and I don't mean that in the exact sense that most people think of art quilt, that it's not going to be a utilitarian quilt, that hand quilting is probably what you should do. Where if it's something that is going to get tossed in the washer and dryer and be used for kids, it's probably something that should be machine quilted. I guess it harks back to that's what my grandmother did and everything that she would hand piece and hand quilt.

JW: How old is this one?

BS: I just was trying to figure. I think it was completed somewhere around 1990. So, it's eleven years old or so.

JW: It's in very good condition for that age. What special meaning does this quilt have for you?

BS: I saw the pattern and it was this instantaneous, 'Oh, I will make that for Bob.' Just he--I would hate to say loves, but he really likes Canada Geese, and it was one of the first things that I had seen about that. It was the combination of the colors I could use and the designs on the fabric that I could use and the design of the quilt. It was--it didn't look like it would be anything too difficult and with the machine appliqué I knew I could do that. It's just kind of bright. It's not heavy looking like some quilts are.

JW: Were you considering any other quilt for today?

BS: Well, the other quilt that I would gladly have shown if I had had it, was a quilt that was a blue and white quilt that I had seen it as a very geometric quilt. There's interlocking squares. They cover it, go across it, in dark blue which almost looks black and white. There is something about the graphic quality of quilts that draws me to it. Sometimes when I see quilts that, where their colors blend too much or there's things that weren't distinct, I'm not as drawn to them as I am to the ones with very clearly graphic design. High contrast, large shapes that interact.

JW: You don't mean geometric necessarily, or do you?

BS: Not necessarily. Although, I think quilt piecing is by its very nature is typically geometric because you've got the angles that go together and the shapes that go together and those types of things, but it's the overall graphic quality. It's that red and white one. It's the same graphic quality. It's made up of geometric shapes but it's the overall piece of it.

JW: What do you think that someone looking at the quilt we are talking about today might conclude about you?

BS: I guess that there is a nature part of that one. The geese are obviously very recognizable as geese, but they are more fluid than the pieced block that goes with it, which was called Geese in the Pond, which is a very old pattern, and then the Flying Geese border. Probably some people would think I was crazy for doing it.

JW: Why do you say that?

BS: Because it looks more difficult than it was, I think. Like I say, the machine appliqué, I've had people say, 'I can't do that.' To me that really was very second nature to be able to do that and run the machine and follow along the lines because I had done so much of it earlier with the stoles I had made for my father.

JW: The quality of it, the preciseness of it does not look like a first quilt.

BS: Well, thank you but it was my first. I had a mentor, my friend Tina Hagen, who took me through the piecing part. She wasn't a machine appliqué person, but she helped me through the piecing part. She helped me do the piecing part. She was the one who talked to me about the idea of surface textures on my prints, my fabrics rather than solids and those types of things. I had knowledgeable leadership or guidance, I guess.

JW: Mm-mm. What are your plans for this quilt? Is it just going to hang here?

BS: Probably. Whether it becomes an heirloom, I would love for it to, but I don't know. I hadn't really--I'm hoping that I will have it around for a few more years, that I'll be around to enjoy it a few more years.

JW: So that's its home.

BS: That's its home.

JW: Okay. Now you have not only a quilting background, but you also have a clothing or sewing background. Could you tell me just a little bit about that?

BS: Well, I actually went to college at Pratt Institute in Fashion Design. As much as I loved it, it was just way, way, way too cutthroat. We had field trips into the fashion industry and so on. As much as I loved it and as much as I loved flat pattern making and those types of things, it's just-- this is not me. I still love fabric so I kind of went into the home sewing industry. We had courses there that we could take on that. I just decided that I didn't want to stay in New York. That wasn't where I wanted to be. So, I have all of that couture background. I have the training in fine sewing, not necessarily that I do it, but I have the training. So, I know how garments are constructed. I know what makes a quality garment. It's the puzzle. You've got a flat piece of fabric. How do you make it drape here? How to you make it round there? How do you make it fit around a round body? I was always fascinated by that. Quilting is kind of the next step, where it's still flat, but how do you combine these shapes to make this design? It is going back to that kind of the geometric and graphic pieces of what quilting is.

JW: Well, how did it get from there to your interest in quilt making? What was the changeover?

BS: Clothing got to the point where it was almost too expensive to make. It was cheaper to buy for a while. But then the production of clothing got shoddier so if you wanted something well-made it was easier to make it yourself. I probably made more shirts for myself than anything else in past years.

JW: But you've made wedding gowns?

BS: Oh yes. I've made wedding gowns. That's probably my favorite thing now to do is to have a bride, it's mostly been for family, nieces and so on, but there were a few, a couple of women that I've worked with who were second marriages and they wanted something nice, but they didn't want to pay a fortune for it and so on. I said, 'You buy the material and I'll make it. That will be your gift.' There, that's a whole different set of pleasure because I enjoy again the puzzle because they want this, they want this, but they have to love it when you're done. So far and to the best of my knowledge, they all have. The first one I made, she said, 'I want to sparkle when I come down the aisle.' The second one that I made, which was for her cousin, she said, 'I do not want her dress.' She was very plain, very simple, column. The first one was lace with appliqué things and cutout hearts. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to do it.

JW: Weighing the two types of things, which do you prefer, quilting or sewing?

BS: [pause.] Quilting, well, quilting is more artistic for me. But I guess also when I'm making a wedding gown it's, this is what they want. What do I do to the fabric to make it do that? That's, the overall bride is artistic, I guess, but the dress, the construction. Where with a quilt the construction is generally the same. I mean you sew two seams together; you iron them. You sew the next two and so on, but it's the variety of what you come up with is almost infinite. With a wedding dress it's white. It's beaded. It's, you know, those kinds of things, where with a quilt, you've got it, again, with a wedding dress like the first one, I went with her, and she tried dresses on, and we talked about what she wanted and so on and she was a size this here and a size this here and a size this here. She wanted the back laced but she wanted it longer. I was able to do all those things for her. I have pictures of when she first tried it on. She was just beaming. That made me feel good. Her mother, after her wedding, came to me and she said, 'I don't know if I should tell you this or not,' she said, 'but Chris said to me as we were getting ready, she said, "Mom, no one is going to believe this was made for me."' That is like THE compliment for me that she felt that way about the dress. When I made her sister's years later, she was here. I think she was pregnant for her first child as a matter of fact, it was almost a year later, and she said, 'I haven't been able to put my dress away. It lays on the bed in the guest room because I just want to go in and look at it.' Those are very sincere compliments to what I was able to do, and they liked it. So, I don't get those from quilting, necessarily. Although the quilt that I gave to my niece, she gushed over it, but it's not quite the same.

JW: What age were you when you started quilt making?

BS: When I started quilt making? It's been about twenty years, so I was in my early 40's. Again, I was working. My friend Tina was working with me. She was quilting and I don't know when she had started. I think it was still a relatively new thing for her. She had, has, this incredible color sense. The fabrics that she chose to put together and the designs that she used with that and so on, I was fascinated by what she had produced. It wasn't necessarily that I wanted to copy her, but it was an exciting introduction to the possibilities. She said, 'Why don't you try this? Why do this?' I really hadn't thought of it. I have made, my father was a United Methodist Minister. I had made stoles for him which were various types of piecing and appliqué and embroidery and so on. So, it was just the next logical step to that artistic expression I guess that you chose the colors, you chose the pattern, you chose the prints, you chose the things. Now how are you going to put them all together?

JW: Mm-mm. Would you--did Tina teach you how to quilt or are you self-taught?

BS: No. I was, again, I was self-taught. I can read directions. I have handled fabric since I was eight years old. It is the difference between a 5/8-inch seam when you are sewing a garment and a quarter inch when you are sewing a quilt. But, you know, I mean I can operate a sewing machine. I can use a rotary cutter, I could use scissors, I could measure, I could do all those things, so it really was not a fearsome step. Okay, I was doing this and now I'm doing this. It was not a huge difference I don't think.

JW: I know you work outside the home.

BS: Mm-mm.

JW: So how many hours a week do you get in to quilt?

BS: It depends. During the winter, I mean it's funny, my mother's family were farmers. My mother always had handwork, always. She had knitting, she had embroidery, she had cross-stitch and so on. I grew up with that. You had something to do. During the winter when there is less to do outside, that's when a lot of women in those days quilted. So that is basically what I do. During the summer I hardly have any time at all because there are the gardens and the lawn and all kinds of things that are outside to get done. But it varies. If I had my druthers I would spend a lot of time quilting, a lot more than I have time to now.

JW: Do you have quilts in progress right now?

BS: I have lots of quilts in progress, various stages. From, here's the magazine, here's the fabric I got that I think it would be nice to make up a sample block so that that's there and I tuck some other fabrics in there in a bag. Then I have orphan blocks. Then I have tops that are done. Then I have ones that are sandwiched together and basted together. I have some that I started to quilt, and I wasn't satisfied with the way it was quilted so I've got to do something with that. I do have one that's pretty well done. Again, it was hand quilted. I had to stop due to the problem with my hands. So that's probably one of the first things I'm going to try to get done. But, yeah, I have fabric ready. I know, purchased for this quilt, those kinds of things.

JW: Of the quilts that you have actually started in some measure of progress, how many of them do you think you'll get done? 100%?

BS: Yeah, yeah.

JW: Yeah. What is your first quilt memory?

BS: Of my own or just first quilt memory?

JW: First quilt memory.

BS: Probably at my grandmother's, my maternal grandmother's. They had a wing at the back of the house which was only heated by convection. If we went there in the winter and stayed out there, we were under a pile of blankets and quilts. I remember there was a quilt on the bed. I have no idea what the pattern was. It probably was a very simple Hole in the Barn Door or Churn Dash or something, that was on the top of the pile of blankets on that bed. They had a very particular smell. It was that, not musty, but unused, but not unpleasant. It was just very warming. I remember getting in and the sheets being so cold, into that bed, but how fast they were warm. That would probably have to be back then.

JW: Mm-mm. Have you ever used a quilt to get through a difficult time?

BS: Mmm. No, I can't--you mean wrapped up in it or making it? No. I don't think so. I know that there are people who talked about their mourning quilts and so on, you know working on it when they were going through something. I don't know. My mother passed away a couple of years ago at the age of eighty-six. She had made a quilt. She had carried the pattern for years. It was something that she--she was the Director of Christian Education, and this was in a magazine, and it was basically a two-color quilt, and it was pretty. She had collected fabric for years and years and years. At the age of eighty said, 'I'm going to make this quilt.' So, she sat down, and she figured out the patterns. It was all crosses, all different kinds of crosses. She hand quilted it. I made a couple of the blocks for her. She hand pieced some and machine pieced some from all these fabrics she had selected, she bought very few. We bought the sashing to put it together. I think that that quilt actually helped my whole family. There were six of my siblings when I left. What do we do with it? We finally donated it to the District, Binghamton District, so that it would hang in their offices of the church. So that helped us through because we were all very proud of it and the fact that she had decided to do it and she got it done.

JW: So, she actually completed it.

BS: She, yes, she got it completed. She sewed the binding on by herself and everything.

JW: Good for her.

BS: But myself, I can't think I have. No.

JW: Okay. What about an amusing experience that has occurred with your quilt making? Something that just cracked you up? [paused while he considered.] You have to think on this one?

BS: Yeah, I, that's--

JW: Maybe you'll think of that one.

BS: Yeah, I don't--

JW: What do you find pleasing about quilt making?

BS: Oh, the whole process. It's tactile. It's visual. It's movement. It's everything. It's that combination of all of those parts that make it. You can't do it without having all of those present. I also find the puzzle quality of it, I like that. I try to do Sudoku. I can do it up to a point and then I'm flummoxed. With a quilt I don't, you know I don't get that. I get to a point where, okay. I also look at the old patterns and say, okay, how can I do this rotary cutting? How many of these pieces can I make up at once, cut them apart so they will go back together? There's that brain activity.

JW: Now you are a teacher, correct? But you're not a mathematical teacher.

BS: No. No, I teach Special Ed. So, I have to think outside the box already for that. I like to tell myself that I do that well.

JW: Mm-mm. What aspects of quilt making do you not enjoy?

BS: When it gets tedious. If I had to make a hundred blocks exactly the same, I would be bored out of my mind. I think probably, you asked about earliest quilt memories, I'm sure any of my quilt memories go back to scrap quilts. There were no two pieces the same. You have a, maybe a couple of blocks that would be similar, but not exactly. I think of that. But when I'm thinking of making all those blocks and they all have to be identical, it's just, I can't.

JW: Do you belong to any quilt groups?

BS: I do. I belong to our Chenago Piecemakers [Quilt Guild in Norwich, New York.]. I believe that I am the first and only man that is a member. They--I was recruited in a lot of ways. People said, 'Oh, I've got to talk to you. You've got to go to guild. So and so told me that I need to talk to you. You've got to join the guild.' But the thing with the guild that I would like to have been true is that you have something all the time. People are always bringing in show and tell.

JW: Excuse me. You are making hand movements, but it's around. Do you mean have something you're giving?

BW: No.

JW: Or perhaps something you are getting?

BS: No, have something that you are ready to take and show. Like something you've done.

JW: So that you've done and want to share?

BS: Right, right.

JW: Okay.

BS: But the other thing about the guild is, okay, I've got this far but I'm stymied. Or, I have this pattern and I need this color. And every, it's just a fantastic group to share. And I think that the guild, they give you a common vocabulary. They give you a chance to expand your skills. They give you the chance to question. I did this but why didn't it work? You know, all those types of things. There are also, the skill levels of the people just run the gamut of inexperienced to very experienced to people who do very simple quilts to people who do very complex quilts, people who are designing their own, people who follow the book exactly. It's all part and parcel of the way that we learn. One of the ladies said, 'It's a guild. It's not a club.' And that the idea of a guild was training. When you go back to the Renaissance where guilds were started it was to train and teach the next generation of people who are coming up.

JW: What about advances in technology? Has that influenced how you quilt?

BS: Oh, rotary cutters. [laughs.]

JW: You remember before those days.

BS: Oh, I do, I do, I do. I remember scissors, oh yeah. In fact, the quilt there [pointing to a quilt.] was part of the reason was that it was rotary cut. You took strips, your rotary cut strips, you sewed them together, then you cut them apart, sewed them back together to make the different elements of the designs in the block. I thought, oh man, this is just incredible. Yeah, that's huge, and when I look at old quilts, you know I have one that my grandmother started and my mother finished for me, and thinking, this was all cut by scissors. When you look at them and you think, how many pieces. And even scissors, the type of scissors we have now with titanium blades and ever sharp and all those things were very different than what ladies, I will say, quilters had thirty years ago even.

JW: Mm-mm. What about your sewing machine? Have you had an old favorite or have you--

BS: I have.

JW: --moved on?

BS: I have, I've had several. My very first sewing machine, I kick myself every time I think about giving it up. It was an old "Black Widow Singer," I called it. It came in a wooden box. I think I might have paid either thirty-five or forty dollars for it. It would sew through eight layers of canvas. The book that came with it said, 'This is an electric machine. You must have electricity in your home in order to operate this machine.' All it was, was the head from an old treadle machine that had an electric motor put on the back of the belt. It was beautiful. It was beautiful, but I sold that, and I bought a Singer. I have several Singers. I then went to a Pfaff. I've had a Pfaff for a long, long time. For my sixtieth birthday I said, I want a Husqvarna Sapphire and so that's what I got. I got some bells and whistles with it. I'm very pleased with it. It's gone from the electronics. My mother, still, in my mother's house is her gear-driven Singer. I just have to sneak it here somehow. I also have a Featherweight that I take if I am going to a class or someplace. I love that, but for general sewing I like my new Husqvarna. Not that I'm advertising, but-- [both laugh.]

JW: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

BS: Like I say, the rotary cutting piece is such a time saver. I--even if I'm sewing clothing I prefer to work with natural fibers, cottons and so on. I don't like real sheer things to work on. I shy away from those. I do have a, I have two sergers so that simplifies the sheer piece for me.

JW: What about batting? What do you like to use?

BS: I, it's never really been an issue for me.

JW: That's okay. You use what you want when you make that decision?

BS: Yeah. Yeah.

JW: What's your favorite color?

BS: Red.

JW: Red, that seems to be a popular color.

BS: Yeah, yeah.

JW: Can you describe for me, you don't, well you have a studio of sorts. Can you describe your studio to us?

BS: Well right now my studio is a mess. We've added the addition on the front of the house here a while back. I thought, empty it's a great size room. When I started putting stuff in it, it got real small real fast. There's shelving in there for my books. There's shelving for fabric stash. The cutting table I have, my father made me. He had made me one which I really liked it so that it folds out to four by eight feet. Then he made one for my mother. The one he made for my mother ended up being too big, too tall for her, so we traded. So, I have that, which is really nice when it's cleaned off and it's open for cutting out and if I am doing garment sewing, I can see the whole thing. It's great for laying out a quilt when I'm doing it. I don't have enough room for a design wall, which I would love to have in there. But it's good light. The light switch when you walk out shuts off all the light outlets so if the iron is on or the sewing machine is on, they are also shut off.

JW: Does your quilting come out into the rest of your house with you then?

BS: At times, yeah.

JW: It follows you out.

BS: My living room is a whole lot more comfortable to sit in. I can sit on the comfortable sofa if I'm just sewing a binding or whatever. Yeah, it does.

JW: What do you think makes a great quilt?

BS: [paused to think.] It makes you go, 'Wow.' That can be very individual to that quilt. It could be a color. It could be the design. It could be the finesse with which it is completed. It could be just the evidence that the quilter took so much time with it.

JW: Mm-mm.

BS: I see, like a Baltimore Album quilt, I would never do that. It does not interest me, but when you look at the appliqué and the tiny pieces and those kinds of thing, it really is a "Wow" kind of thing. We were able to attend a regional quilt show in Syracuse a few years back and it was just a constant "Wow." Everywhere you look it was like, 'Oh my, look at this.' You know, you wanted to get right up and see how the piecing was done, what the fabric really was, those kinds of things. I think that's probably, when you talk about the technological pieces, the cutting and so on, that makes a lot of difference now too. But when you look at the old quilts and the colors and the designs, it gets to me. From your own head, what you are looking at, at a particular thing, you may be with somebody who the quilt that you are thinking, holy crap, they are just thinking--so it really is different.

JW: So, for a quilt to be artistically powerful for you, what would it be? When you walk in and that one grabs you.

BS: I think it goes back to when I was talking about the graphic quality of a quilt. There's a book out now, some of the quilters in the South. I can't think of it. It's in a particular area.

JW: Gee's Bend?

BS: Yes. I keep thinking I want to buy this book. I want to buy this book, but I haven't gotten it yet. But just looking at the pictures of those quilts, they are amazing. They are not amazing because of the layout. They are not amazing because of the color. But they are. All of those pieces are in there. I can honestly say that I can look at most Amish-inspired quilts and they don't really do anything for me until you get up and look at the hand quilting, if it's there. But yeah, it's that graphic quality. I think the Gee's Bend, that's what it is with those. It's that graphic quality and the depth of them that is in them. And I have not read the book, but it sounds almost as if they are simply by-products of these women's work. Not necessarily a lot of thought put into them. When I think back, again, you asked about early equipment, people in the 1970's, people were cutting up velvet and cutting up denim and cutting up this and putting it together to make quilts for their mini-vans or their VW buses. Again, it was, a lot of it was the graphic quality of the colors and until you got up and knew this was velvet and this was denim, and this was satin, and this was, that was another piece of that when you got up to it.

JW: What makes a great quiltmaker?

BS: Probably just their passion for it.

JW: And you can see that in the work?

BS: Yeah, I think so, I think so. You may have someone who is not a great quilter or would not necessarily be considered a great quilter, but they are proud of what they produced. It may be a very simple design. It may be something, but if they are growing and they are learning. Every quilt should teach you something. That becomes evident, I think, in work. I think also one the things that might make a great quiltmaker is someone who can pass on what they know about quilting in a very easily understood way. We had a woman come, I had known her before and met her and loved her. She was just great. She talked about crayon boxes and the different, you've got your eight piece and your sixteen and so on in color theory. It was just so clear, boom. It was like, oh, I understand that now, the idea of contrast and so on. So that would be another part of it, but without being pushy about their knowledge, willing to share it, but not the idea that theirs is the only way.

JW: How is quilt making important in your life?

BS: It gives me the opportunity to combine a lot of different things that I like. I like fabric. I like color. I like design. I like being able to produce. I like the artistic angle of having a product when you are done. And using your background and your knowledge to come up with that. It can be very therapeutic, although I don't think that, per se, I've had that to be therapeutic. But being able to just, okay, I've had a rough day. I'm going to go quilt. I, leave me alone. I've got to go and do this kind of thing.

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

BS: Oh, I've read a lot about, I have books about quilts in the Civil War. I have a book about the quilts that were, well actually it's a quilt addend. How the farmer's wife, the utilitarian quilt versus a masterpiece quilt, those kinds of things. But when you look back in United States history, it, I mean we have it all the way through. My guess is that at some point there will be a whole avenue of historic, where, okay, this is what was happening in history, and this is what was happening in quilting.

JW: Mm-mm.

BS: And this way we have, this was happening in history, this is what we have in art, this is what we have in music. My guess is that that will be something that will happen. I hate to see quilts that have been destroyed for various reasons, but that is also part of the life of a quilt. Now I have a pad that my grandmother made for me, which was my sleeping pad when I was in kindergarten and first grade, which is half a quilt covered with new fabric. I keep thinking I want to take that fabric off and see what's in there, but I have, it's hard to do it because I don't know what's in there.

JW: Mmm. Do you have any, what's your best tip for a beginner?

BS: Don't be afraid. If you want to do it, do it. It's only fabric. If you make a mistake, it can be redone. Yeah, this is what it said in the book. This is what it said in the pattern. But try your own. Yeah, this says it's for an advanced quilter and you're only an intermediate or whatever, try it.

JW: Try it. What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

BS: Boy. I don't think there is as much of a challenge now as there was even fifteen years ago. There's quilt shops in virtually every small town. You've got mail order things that you can do. I guess it would just be, for me it's, okay, what do I really want to do? What do I really want to spend my time on to have a finished product and like it at the end? Fabric dyes don't fade any longer. There's a plethora of people who make that, companies who make that and so on. I don't know. It's, now I don't think it's an acceptable art form but it's a generally understood form of art now, I think.

JW: Quilting?

BS: Yeah, quilting. Yeah.

JW: And your particular challenge? What's been the biggest challenge?

BS: Time is probably the biggest thing. There just doesn't seem--I want to go do it, but I've got this pressing thing, or I've got to get this done. Let me go in there, please. Just leave me alone. I just want to sew.

JW: [laughs.] Well speaking of time, I'm afraid we are out of time. It's 3:00 [4:00.] in the afternoon and our interview is concluded but I would first like to thank you for being a part of this very important--

BS: You're very welcome.

JW: --Quilters' S.O.S. project. Thank you.

Interview concludes.