Terri Sharpe

NC28723-002

Terri Sharpe

Susan Scooda

June 7, 2012

Aurifil

Cullowhee, North Carolina

Hannah Sailar

Susan Scooda (SS): Hi, this is Susan Scooda and I’m interviewing Terri Sharpe for the Quilter’s S.O.S. Save Our Stories project. We’re at the North Carolina Quilts Symposium at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is 4:44 p.m. on June 7 of 2012. Let’s begin. Hi Terri.

Terri Sharpe (TS): Hi, how are you doing?

SS: I’m great. Can you tell me about the quilts you brought with you today?

TS: I brought a t-shirt quilt that I made for my daughter last year for her graduation. The t-shirts that I saved from her little collections since she was probably four or five years old until her senior year of high school.

SS: So what was the occasion that—

TS: Graduation from high school

SS: Graduation. What was her reaction when she got the quilt from you?

TS: She thought it was awesome, she loved it.

SS: What does she do with it?

TS: Take it to college with her.

SS: Does she?

TS: Yeah she did.

SS: What—

TS: The only reason that I have it now is because she’s home. [laughs.]

SS: Does she still use it?

TS: Oh yeah she does.

SS: And what does she plan to do with it in the fu—

TS: I hope she’ll keep it and cherish it and [3 second pause.] maybe pass it on.

SS: How did you become interested in quiltmaking?

TS: Well since I was probably nine or ten because my mother was a seamstress. So she made our clothes and things like that and I just like creating things so I naturally was drawn to sewing since mom sewed so I’d make little, little doll clothes and things like that and then I’d try to make my own clothes when I got older too in home ec. and so about mid nineteen I mean the mid nineteen eighties I started quilting.

SS: So who taught you how to quilt?

TS: Well, Georgia Bonesteel still did by TV [laughs.]

SS: Tell me about that, how old were you?

TS: Let’s see, in mid-eighties I was twenty-six, twenty-seven.

SS: And—

TS: She had a show on PBS and I started watching her show and I would tape it. That’s back when we had video tape and I would tape her shows and just watch them. I bought her books and things like that so Georgia was my first teacher sort of kind of.

SS: And your mom was a seamstress, did she have a—

TS: She never quilted. She never quilted—

SS: And did you have any other quilters in your family?

TS: No, well I said no on the sheet but I believe my grandmother kind of put together a hodgepodge of fabric from her sewing and she put a blanket between both sides. Both sides are the same it’s a hodgepodge of fabrics she’d used for different things and I guess you could call it a quilt. I consider it a quilt and it’s worn now because I use it a lot.

SS: So how did you use your grandmother’s quilt?

TS: As a cover.

SS: Is that your first quilt memory in your—

TS: I guess it is, yeah, my first quilt memory.

SS: Okay. Any other quiltermakers among your family and friends?

TS: Not among my family. Of course I belong to a guild so I have lots of friends that quilt.

SS: So how does a guild enhance your life or what does it mean to belong to a guild to you?

TS: Well in the early 2000s I was looking for a guild and cause Sanford didn’t a guild and there’s a little newspaper story in our local paper that there is a guild that formed and they were going to meet following February this came out end of June. The next meeting was February I can’t remember the date, but it snowed. So they cancelled that meeting so I didn’t get to join until March of 2000.

SS: And what’s the name of your guild?

TS: Hearts and Hands Quilters Guild.

SS: And you’re also on the North Carolina board?

TS: Yes.

SS: So what do you do on the board?

TS: We kind of help plan symposiums, symposia [laughs.]

SS: Okay. What do you enjoy about quiltmaking?

TS: The creation, just working with my hands and creating something out of fabric and it’s hard to explain I guess.

SS: And you also do wearable art?

TS: I think of wearable art as little pins and buttons and things like that.

SS: So do you do a lot of that or—

TS: Not as much as I did the quilting.

SS: And what do you do with your quilts that you create?

TS: A lot of things I’ve given away like gifts and things but now I’m doing more commission work and making quilts for other people for money and gifts you’d say.

SS: Is that through your guild or—

TS: It’s just my personal—

SS: When you’re making for someone for commission quilt, how does that process go with the inspiration from the person? How does that process work?

TS: Well most of the quilts I’ve made are t-shirt quilts for others and we’ll talk about what I need and what kind of t-shirts. Give me all your t-shirts and then I show them what I’m going to do with it. I might have a picture of this one to show them what I’m going to do with it and I’ll tell them how many shirts to give me and I’ll ask them what color scheme are you looking for the front, the back, and most of them are like mine, college related. And I’m getting ready to do a memory quilt from baby clothes for a mother of the daughter, is going to be two soon. So she got all of her baby clothes, give me your baby clothes. I’m going to do a memory quilt with her baby clothes for Christmas.

SS: So how are you going to put them together?

TS: I don’t know yet, I’m just going to cut through and I may cut out pieces from the fabrics and make blocks and I’ll use the graphics from different shirts and bibs and what not. I can design that, I don’t have to have that finished before Christmas. I’ve got time to play around with that.

SS: Do you have any special techniques for working with these t-shirts and they would take special techniques? Do you have any special processes that you use for this kind of a quilt?

TS: You have to stabilize the shirts.

SS: And how do you do that?

TS: With fusible interfacing or fusible stabilizer. You have to do that first. Yeah, there’s a process of prepping the shirts. In fact, the prep work takes longer than actually sewing the quilt together.

SS: Which involves stabilizing and—

TS: Cut your t-shirt apart then you have to rough cut whatever design you’re going to use. Then you cut your stabilizer, iron it on the back, then you final cut. Now this t-shirt is a twelve and a half inch block as you see. Some of the twelve and a half inch blocks are pieced, you’ve got some that are six and a half by twelve and a half, one and a half by twelve and a half, eight and a half by twelve and a half. And then I’ve got little four by fours down there from the little pocket area of the shirt or a sleeve. So I’ve tried to incorporate all the little pieces of the shirt. If I’ve use one of the pieces that are like half of a block in a whole block, you’ve got that wasted space you could have put another piece of shirt on.

SS: Interesting, and it looks like you’ve use a couple different techniques as far as the quilting itself.

TS: Right, the blocks themselves are tied with embroidery floss and I machine quilted the sashing in the corner stones. But since that quilt’s been made I have started to machine quilt the blocks.

SS: And how do you—

TS: I just meander around the graphics because the needle doesn’t like all that ink. It’s really thick. Some of it is really thick and it doesn’t like it so I meander around. Just to hold it together. The one I did turned out really well so—

SS: So is that your current preference or—

TS: It’s my current preference.

SS: Very interesting, do you have an amusing stories? Anything from your quiltmaking, has anything funny ever come out of it? Any good stories?

TS: [phone rings.] Well my daughter’s claimed that my dog has eaten or swallowed a needle or two which I don’t know if she has. [laughs.] Gosh, I don’t know, I’m trying to think of some funny stories. We just have a good time when I get together with guild members or I teach a class, we just have a great time.

SS: Tell me about what kind of things you teach.

TS: I do teach this as a class, the t-shirt quilts just in this format because you can do t-shirt quilts in lots of different ways but I like to teach this format because I think you get more t-shirt out of it than if you did the little fancy ones where you have like six blocks and most of it is just quilt. I teach applique, a lot of applique classes and hand quilting classes.

SS: Do you have a preference, hand quilting, machine quilting, long arming. Do you have—

TS: I wish I had time to hand quilt everything, but I don’t. I had to finally realize that there’s not enough time to get everything hand quilted. So I did start machine quilting and I do it with my Bernina. I don’t have a long arm.

SS: So you do it with your home machine?

TS: My home machine, yes. I was a traditionalist, always has to be hand quilted and nothing else is going to do it but I finally had to cross that bridge to machine quilting. And that’s fine, if I want to get more done. It is sad that you don’t see a lot of hand quilting today.

SS: So would that be your preference?

TS: Oh it would be my preference, if I could do it faster.

SS: What do you think makes a really great quilt?

TS: Oh gosh, I think the, just the quilting on the quilt.

SS: And what makes a great quilter?

TS: Oh gosh, what makes a really great quilter? I guess someone that love creating things with fabric. You can take a piece of fabric and just turn it into anything.

SS: Any you said you make some small things, some smaller—

TS: Oh yeah, wall hangings, placemats, just little things.

SS: And these things, do you keep them or do you give them away?

TS: Those are usually gifts, gift type things.

SS: Okay. Describe to me your sewing space, your studio space.

TS: Oh gosh, this is awful. Well I live in a small three bedroom house. Most of my sewing things were in my bedroom. Well my daughter went to college, I took her bedroom over. So now I finally had a sewing room with her bed in it. That’s all that belongs there is her bed [laughs.] and she joked with me, ‘don’t you take my room over when I leave because I have to have somewhere to sleep’. The first time she realized I’d done that she wasn’t surprised.

SS: Do you have a design wall in her room?

TS: I have a tiny one, just a little tiny one. I don’t have enough room for a big one. Because she’s got some things on the wall I didn’t want to disturb. I thought ‘I’m taking her room over let’s leave this up and this up’. But it’s just like a tiny one.

SS: How do you use that in your quilting or how—

TS: I don’t use it that often. I’ve got a block up there now of a quilt that I’m working on. I haven’t done any quilts that would require me placing them, placing pieces on right now.

SS: Are there any specific quilters, designers, or artists who influence you or whose work you really enjoy?

TS: I love Becky Goldsmith. I took a class from her at a symposium in Charlotte.

SS: And what is it about her work that you—

TS: I love applique and I always wanted to learn needle turn and who best to learn it from? So she’s one of my favorites.

SS: So you did that at a symposium or—

TS: Yes a symposium in Charlotte.

SS: Any you’re on the board. So this is part of, can you tell us what guilds and symposium, symposia. How that brings to the quilting.

TS: Well we are a board of twenty-one members, we help plan the symposia. You have a host like the Smokey Mountain Quilters are the host for this one. And we kind of give them seed money, get them started, and were here to help them all through the process of symposia. It was started by Jane Hall from Raleigh. I think she was probably on the first board. It was just a way for quilters to get together to learn. The workshops, the venders, the quilt show.

SS: You mentioned also about working in the quilt shop and teaching in the quilt shop but you also have mentioned working with your guild or getting together with your guild. What’s the guild experience like for you?

TS: I think it’s just a bunch of fun, we just have so much fun. We help each other, we have new members come in. It’s fun to learn and I love beginners. They are just so enthusiastic. I’m teaching an applique class at the college and I just love just teaching this new thing for them. It’s an old hat to me but it’s new for them.

SS: Your students, your new beginning quilters come from all walks of life—

TS: All walks of life.

SS: What kind of certain ages anything, just demographic?

TS: Let’s see, I have one, two, teachers, a school central office staff worker. And I have a, oh gosh, an ultrasound technician. You have all kinds of folks.

SS: All ages?

TS: All ages, yeah.

SS: So what do you like best about teachings?

TS: Passing it on, passing it on.

SS: So what do you look at when you think about quilts as a part of an expression of women or a part of our culture? What role to quilts play in expressing our times or—

TS: Well we’ve gotten away from the utilitarian type of quilts more. And that’s what they were for in the beginning, to keep warm. In fact, I also lead a 4H group, called the Crazy Quilters, and are going to do a 4H booth for the fair this year and I think we’re going to do ‘Quilts Aren’t Just for Beds: the Different Ways Quilts are Used and Utilized’. Besides a bed quilt, wall hanging, place mats, wearable art, just art itself, pieces of art.

SS: So what are your students like in your 4H class? What age group?

TS: I have nine to fifteen in my group, I mean age wise.

SS: So how do they like the quilting at that age? How do they enjoy that?

TS: I have one little girl that is very creative, and all the scraps we have she has to take home with her. She wants to do things with that. She reminds me of myself when I was that age. ‘Can I have those? I want to do something with those.’ [laughs.]

SS: How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future? What’s the role of a quilt years from now?

TS: I guess it depends on what it was made for. This is a memory quilt for her to remember when she was younger and before she graduated high school. All these piece have a memory for her. Her first concert was the Backstreet Boys, she plays volleyball, she swam, she did a little gymnastics when she was younger, what high school she went to, elementary school, church things. I mean it’s all kinds of memories for her. I did a quilt for a lady, actually for her husband for Christmas. She’s good friends with a lady whose son was killed in an automobile accident. And for some reason butterflies mean something to her about him so I made a butterfly quilt for him to give her for Christmas to remind her of Josh. Things like that.

SS: Were you able to see her after she received the quilt?

TS: Oh yes, oh yes.

SS: So what part do you think that quilt is going to play in her life?

TS: It’s always going to remind her of Josh. It’s a special quilt to her.

SS: You seem like obviously you are very prolific. You do a lot of quilting. How many hours a week do you quilt?

TS: Not enough. [laughs.] I just retired. Actually Tuesday was my last day working as a teacher assistant for thirty years. So I’m hoping to do a lot more. I would say hours per week, gosh it depends on the week, some weeks none and some weeks twenty. It just depends on the schedule—

SS: You have so many [SS and TS speak at the same time.]

TS: Exactly, I did have a lot of irons in the fire.

SS: I mean how do you manage your time? You do things for commission—

TS: Yes that I do as I can. I hope to do more of that now that I’m going to retire. I have 4H, I have the guild, I have church activities. It is very busy, very busy. Plus I teach classes, but I don’t teach every week. I may teach three classes a month depending on my schedule.

SS: How does quiltmaking impact your family?

TS: Well they know I’m all about it. [laughs.]

SS: You’ve talked to me about using quilts, different people using quilts for a difficult time. How do you think they play a part in people’s lives as far as just the impact that quilts have on their lives.

TS: Well I think if you make a quilt for somebody or somebody has a quilt made for you, that that just means a lot because they have made it with their hands. They didn’t just go out and buy it. It’s just different when somebody makes you something like that. I made my future mother-in-law, actually it was from a class I took a long time ago, a stained glass cardinal. I happened to come across that so I finished it for her, because she loves cardinals and she’s going to hang it on the wall. She loves it.

SS: And how does that make you feel?

TS: Wonderful, I mean this was a quilt I never finished and there was a reason why I didn’t finish it until now. What, five, six, seven years later. I always wondered why I didn’t finish that quilt and then I come across it accidentally. Mother’s Day was coming up, finished it. Yeah.

SS: What are you favorite techniques and materials?

TS: Applique, applique materials oh my gosh. There’s so many, thimble.

SS: Tell me about the applique that you do?

TS: I do all kinds of applique, but my favorite’s needle turn applique. I do of course fusible web, the easy stuff, I call it the easy stuff. But I love the needle turn applique or I’m learning a new technique that doesn’t use templates. It’s hard to explain but I’m going to teach my class how to do this and laughing I’m going to teach them. I’m doing an applique class with four different methods. I’m doing it by hand, so they can decide when they are done with the class which one they liked the best. Of course they have already told me which one they like the best, which is fusible. Because we’re getting ready to needle turn next. [laughs.]

SS: What do you think that someone who is looking at your quilts that you create, what do you think that your quilts say about you to someone who is looking at your quilts?

TS: I like bright, cheery fabrics. I always use bright fabrics in my quilts. I say always, usually, it depends on if I’m making it for me it has to have bright colors. I always wanted to do an applique, with a black background. And the applique was fusible with hand blanket stitch and with bright colors. I don’t think I have a picture with me but it’s just bright.

SS: Do you have a collection of quilting or sewing memorabilia?

TS: I have pin cushions. I’ve started collection pin cushions. My pride and joy you could say is my 1958 featherweight Beulah Bell.

SS: Beulah Bell.

TS: And I take her with me when I can if it’s just straight sewing.

SS: How often do you use your featherweight?
TS: I used it last night as a matter of fact, I had to sew some panels at church for our stage so the pastor had asked ‘Can you bring your sewing machine?’ and I thought I don’t want to take my Bernina cause it’s just too much trouble so I’ll just take Beulah Bell. So I took Beulah with me.

SS: Do most people name their featherweights?

TS: I don’t know but I did [laughs.]

SS: Why Beulah Bell?

TS: Cause it’s an old name and it’s an old machine.

SS: Have you travelled in your teaching and you’re and instructor, have you travelled outside your home town?

TS: Yeah, I do classes at the quilt shop in Southern Pines.

SS: And how far is that from you?

TS: Well, thirty-five minutes away.

SS: Okay. Have you ever won any awards?

TS: I’ve won blue ribbons, I’ve won a best handquilting award, that was my most cherished one.

SS: Oh tell me about your other ones though too.

TS: Oh just first place, oh gosh, I’ve got several first place. The black quilt won second place at the quilt show which I was a little bit disappointed about but only because the one that beat me was a rival quilter friend of mine. She said she’s going to put it in the state fair and see how it does but I was hoping to get it in this show but I procrastinated and didn’t get it in.

SS: That’s another thing about balancing your time.

TS: That’s right.

SS: So you did things for commission, you do things for people for gifts and commission and pleasure. How do you work the pleasure in?

TS: Not very often, for myself not very many. I always have a project going, so if I have time I might make something for me. The black quilt I’m talking about took me probably five or six years to complete because I would take it to volleyball games to work on. Things like that, because it was all hand work. So very little do I get to do for myself, it’s usually for somebody else or for commission or for a gift or whatever. But the commission work I have just started that, I’m hoping to get more into that.

SS: And what type of stuff do you do mostly on your commission?

TS: I’ve done more t-shirt quilts than anything else.

SS: Okay. And how have you gotten the word out that you do that, is it word of mouth or—

TS: Word of mouth and I do have cards, business cards.

SS: Okay, is there anything else about quilting that you would like to talk about and how you feel, maybe how it reflects your region or quilting as a whole.

TS: You hear about quilting as a dying art. That’s one reason why I like to teach it to the kids. I do a quilt camp in the summer for 4H. I do two, one for the beginners and one for the girls that have been in quilt camp before or that have taken sewing class. But I like the way that people react to them. It’s a blessing for them but they don’t know how much it blesses me to see that they enjoy it. Even just a small thing, a small quilt, a small something that’s been made means more than something that you would go out and buy.

SS: Is there anything else that we didn’t touch on that you would like to tell me about or—

TS: Now my daughters, I know you’re probably wondering do your daughters quilt. Well back when they were like nine they were in the 4H group and they were in it about two years and they said ‘this is not for me, this is not for me’ which is okay. I mean yeah I’m heartbroken but it’s okay if they don’t enjoy that. But I think my youngest one may when she’s a little older may get back into it.

SS: How old is she now?

TS: Fifteen. She tried it for a couple years, it was not her thing. The oldest one who is nineteen, it’s not her thing.

SS: But they did the 4H.

TS: They did it for a couple years, to please mama I think. Because I said if you don’t like it you don’t have to do it. I mean I’m not going to make them do something they don’t want to do. Because they would really hate it, but I think the fifteen year old when she’s in her twenties I could see her going back to it because she’s my creative child.

SS: Very good, I think we’re done. Unless you have something else you would like to add. I appreciate your stories.

TS: I hope I didn’t talk too fast. I tend to do that from time to time.

SS: I appreciate you and Thank you so much and—

TS: Well thank you for having me.

SS: The time is 5:11 and we’ve had a wonderful interview, I appreciate you.

TS: Thank you so much.

SS: Thank you.