Jason Pierson

Jason Pierson

3/25/2023

NC28779-002

audio

Oral History

Jason Pierson

Amy Milne

25/03/2023

This interview was recorded as part of a Community Quilt Day in Sylva, NC. This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

This interview was funded in part by a grant from South Arts’ In These Mountains, Central Appalachian Folk Arts and Culture initiative.

Sylva, NC

Jesse Moore

Amy Milne (AM): I'm Amy Milne, and I am here with Jason Pearson, and we are here, it is March 25th, 2023, and I'm interviewing you for the Quilters Save Our Stories oral history project. We're here in Sylva, North Carolina at the Jackson County Public Library with a fantastic audience of quilt lovers and quilt makers. I want to first ask you about the quilt that you brought and tell me about this quilt.

Jason Pierson (JP): All right. Well, this is a quilt I just recently finished. It is all organic cotton that I dyed myself with natural dyes. So it is based on the traditional sawtooth star block, but then I blew it up and made several variations on that block, so there's nine different variations all pieced together. This fabric is dyed with golden rod and marigold and black walnut.

All the fabric was dyed in one day at a workshop that I held in October of 2022 in the Fines Creek area of Haywood County. Yeah, this is a really good example, I think, of the type of quilts that I make. I tend to use large, bold, geometric shapes. I don't do a lot of fussy, complicated piecing, which I very much admire in other people, but I do not do myself.

AM: Why did you pick this one?

JP: Well, part of it is that it's a recent completion, so it's fresh in my mind, but also for a couple years I've been doing really small quilts, like small wall hangings, small things that would go on a tabletop. This is the first large-ish quilt that I've done in a little while, and honestly, I'm really proud of it. I love how it turned out. I'm pretty happy with it.

AM: What will happen to it?

JP: Good question. Well, I do sell my quilts, so this one will be for sale, and that's probably what's going to happen to it. Someone's going to buy it and they will know that it's in the Library of Congress documented.

AM: Yeah.

JP: Yeah, that's the plan.

AM: Do you sell most of your quilts?

JP: I do sell most of them. When I first started making quilts, it was primarily as a gift giving thing to nieces and nephews and family members. But people only need so many quilts. Our closet is full of quilts. I don't need anymore. So yeah, I'm very fortunate that I've sold a lot of the stuff that I've made. So when it comes to an event like this, I don't have hundreds of quilts to pull from.

AM: That's a good problem to have.

JP: It is. I'm not complaining.

AM: What is your first quilt memory?

JP: That is a good question. I'm not sure I know the answer. I have a quilt that my great-grandmother, Anna Gabler made for me when I was a baby, and it's just one of those traditional blocks of a boy from behind with the big hat and the overalls, which we saw recently in Cherokee. It's a blanket stitch applique, and it's all attached to one big polyester thick blanket and that was the extent of my great-grandmother's quilting skills.

That's probably my earliest memory because I've had that my whole life, even though it was considered a really special thing, so it was up in the closet. It was not on a bed. But I grew up in Michigan, which definitely has a quilting tradition, but it's nothing like the south where I live now, which feels like it has a much more vibrant and longer quilting history.

AM: How do you connect the dots between that relative and you're quilting now? Is there any connection? Did you think about it?

JP: I don't know, if there is much connection, other than just an appreciation for handmade things. My great-grandmothers on both sides were quilt makers. I don't have a lot of examples of their quilts, but I know they made at least one or a couple. But then my grandmothers and my mother were not quilters at all. They did a little bit of garment sewing, but I've never lived in a house that didn't have a sewing machine in it. Whether it was operational and whether you could use it or not is a different story.

So yeah, I think just the connection of just valuing handmade things is the one connection. I didn't sit at my grandmother's knee and learn quilting.

AM: Were you curious about the sewing machine?

JP: Oh yeah, definitely. In high school, I definitely wanted to alter my clothing, but I was terrible at it. I think a lot of people often buy a sewing machine to think about garment sewing, and it's very difficult and I still don't make garments at all. I will not hem anyone's pants, but-

AM: Harder than it looks.

JP: It is much harder. Yeah, so I've always been interested in it, and I made curtains, stuffed animals for nieces and nephews, and then made my way to quilts, on my own.

AM: How did that happen?

JP: Well, a book from the library. We're in a public library at the moment, so I randomly picked up a book at the library, School of Sewing, or School for Sewing by Shea Henderson. It's just a project based book, like a lot of craft books, but it's the only one I've actually ever worked my way through the entire book. I did every project in the book, and it builds up your skills and the last project in the book is a quilt. So that was the first actual quilt that I ever made, and once I made that, I was like, "Oh, I can make quilts."

AM: So you didn't have any in-person help from anyone?

JP: No.

AM: You were just doing it from the book?

JP: Yeah.

AM: Did you look up YouTube videos?

JP: I have since then to learn specific techniques or to identify a particular quilt block, and I follow a lot of quilters on Instagram, which is an endless stream of quilt and quilt ideas. But my learning how to make them was solely from books. A little bit of YouTube, but really just books from the library.

AM: Wow. That's a really great testament to public libraries.

JP: Public libraries.

AM: Also, just the resources that are out there now that you don't have to come from a family of quilters, I guess.

JP: Yes. Yeah, exactly.

AM: Does anybody else in your family quilt now?

JP: Why yes, as a matter of fact, my mother-in-law who's here right now. Lorelei Yerse, she is a quilter, and my mom is interested in making quilts. She's a little scared of the process. But other than that, yeah, I don't think there are any other quilters currently in my family.

AM: Yet.

JP: Yes.

AM: Do you have any concept about if people can draw anything about you as a quilter from your quilts, say this quilt?

JP: A lot of my quilting, I take traditional quilt blocks and then play with them, so with the scale or with the colors. So I think that there is an appreciation in my work for the tradition of quilting, but then putting my own spin on it. And besides the materials that I use, I'm very focused on sustainability and reducing my footprint in the world, especially through my art making, so you can see that maybe from my quilts. But I think just an appreciation for the traditional craft, but then bring it to a modern context and something that appeals to me visually.

AM: And your appreciation for crafts personship.

JP: Yeah.

AM: Definitely.

JP: Yeah, for the hand, for hand work. I use a sewing machine for most steps in my quilt making. I piece it with a sewing machine, I quilt with the machine. I do hand sew the binding around each one. I really like getting my hands into it in the final step. But I really love seeing the hand all these quilts that are here today that are from previous generations that were all hand sewn, I'm just in awe of the hand sewing. You can see the uneven stitches that were made by someone's hand how many years ago.

AM: But yeah, so that's important to you. If your quilt was perfect, that wouldn't have as much appeal to you?

JP: To me, yeah. Perfect, quote, unquote. But yeah, I mean, there are sometimes, say at goodwill, you see a quilt that draws your eye. If you look closely, you can tell that it's made in a factory, and there's still beauty in it. There's still value to be had in it. But yeah, I really like seeing and being able to tell that a person's hands made something. In other art forms too, in pottery, I love seeing the potter's fingerprints in the glaze, and I love woodworking, all kinds of different fields. But yeah, I do love seeing the hand in the work. That's what makes it special to me.

AM: Yeah. Do you do other craft or art forms?

JP: I do. I've had about 25 hobbies over the years. I've bounced around a lot. I've done a lot of bookmaking. I'm into watercolor painting now, go figure. I went to school for theater, so my degrees are in stage management, actually.

AM: What?

JP: Which is art making, even though it's a very-

AM: Yes, it is.

JP: ... organizationally based art making. But yeah, I've tried a lot of different things, a lot of textile based things, cross stitch. I don't knit. That's about the only textile thing I haven't explored, so I've tried a lot of different things over the years, but quilting has really stuck, and I don't really know why. I just like it a lot. And that's one of the hobbies that has stuck with me, even when all the other things are now just a pile of old supplies.

AM: Interesting. Did you feel like you were more connected to a community with quilting than you were with the other crafts or art forms?

JP: I think so, yeah. Part of that is just a matter of timing. I got a smartphone and discovered Instagram about the time I started quilting and so that was like a builtin community because there's such a community of quilters on the internet. With some of the other things I did, specifically bookmaking, I found it hard to get involved in the community with bookmaking for a variety of reasons. I tried to meet with local people, but quilting, it feels like just a really vibrant, kind, supportive community for the most part. Everyone's doing something different. I don't think two people could make the same quilt, even if they tried and that's something that I really appreciate about it.

AM: Do you belong to any guilds or groups?

JP: I don't belong to any guilds. There is a newly active, I believe, Western North Carolina Modern Quilt Guild, so I'm getting connected with them, even though I just discovered them. I'm part of an online community. It's called the Quilty Nook, and it's run by Zak Foster, who I know you know. And that is basically my quilting community.
Some of those folks are local, but they're people from all over the world, and it's the kindest, most supportive community I could even imagine.

AM: Totally.

JP: If you need a ego boost, just post a quilt on The Quilty Nook, and you'll have people oohing and aahing and fawning over your work for days. At the moment, my quilting community is really online based.

AM: Yeah. I follow you on Instagram, and I enjoy your posts because you talk to your community through your posts. You do video recordings, and often, it's about what you're working on or how quilting is fitting into your life at the time, and it's really cool. Do you feel like that's just a way of journaling about your quilting, or how does that serve a purpose for you?

JP: It does serve a form of journaling. Part of it is, I think, and this is no secret to anyone, that a lot of online personas are very curated. You see the beautiful final picture, maybe every now and then you hear about a fail, but it's mostly about the beautiful finished product. I would really love to break the mystique of that, realize that I haven't sewn for two weeks because I'm busy. How many people online say that?

AM: Reality.

JP: And just like, "Oh, hey, I had a really busy weekend and I'm tired, but I'm going to make myself do a little bit of sewing today." Yeah, I would love to break that mystique, like I said, of the perfect art and craft maker. We're all people who have lives. Some of us busier lives than others, and we value this enough that we make time for it, and we make space for it, even in otherwise very busy lives. I love that. I love people that have, and specifically an online presence where it's less pretty. I love the pretty pictures, and those are the ones I save.

AM: No, I appreciate it. That's why I appreciate it, because it's that idea of not showing the back of the quilt or the stitches that aren't as perfect. I find the dissonance as interesting as the perfection.

How old were you when you started quilting?

JP: Oh, geez.

AM: Were you a working person out in the world?

JP: Yeah. I think I'm made my first quilt in my mid-thirties. I'm 44 now.

AM: Okay. Yeah.

JP: So I've only been quilting for seven, eight years maybe. Yeah, I think it was, like I said, a lot of different crafts and different media I was exploring until I discovered quilting. I didn't even discover it until my mid-thirties. Yeah.

AM: That's cool. I think that's common for a lot of people who either work or something was keeping them from really exploring it more full time. Let's talk about your quilting space, how many hours you devote to it, that kind of thing.

JP: Sure. Well, until very very recently, it was just in my house. We live in a very small, 600 square foot house, so it's hard to fit a lot of quilting into a tiny house, so every nook and cranny had different things stored in different places. Then very recently, I set up a sewing studio in a friend's house because he has more house than he needs, and I have less house than I need, so I'm just taking a bedroom in his house, and it's set up as my sewing studio. So now everything is in one place, I can leave a mess. I don't have to clean up every day when I'm done and it's working out great.

For years, I thought it'd be so nice to have a studio space, but you look at them and either they're a half hour, 45 minutes away, or they're just expensive, honestly. I can't afford it. So it was nice to think outside the box and be like, "Oh, I have a friend who has rooms that he never even opens. Maybe I could use one of those."

AM: It's so out of the box thinking as far as how to make a space for your quilting.

JP: And as far as time, it totally depends on the week. It depends on what I have coming up, how busy work is that week. I have an 9 to 5 job. If I have an event coming up where I want... If it's an art market where I want to have a lot of stuff on my table, I might really push for a few weeks to really get a lot done. But I'd say on an average week, I spend, it's hard to say, 5 to 10 hours sewing, maybe more, sometimes less.

AM: What amount of time are you spending in developing yourself as an artist? I mean, the business part of it.

JP: Probably not enough. You hear artists complain about taxes and paperwork and all the businessy stuff, but you don't really realize until you're doing it how annoying all that stuff is. I just want to sew. I don't want to deal with all this other stuff. So the business part of it, probably not as much as I should, but as far as creative development, I feel like I'm always doing it. I'm always reading a book about creativity, listening to podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so I feel like I'm always looking to keep my creative practice refreshed and interesting and new in a lot of different ways. But the businessy side of it, not enough time.

AM: Do you experience any people being surprised that you're a quilter, because you break the stereotype of that... None of us really like hearing how narrow people think quilters are, like we're all grandmothers and... No, not at all. Have you experienced that, and if you do, how do you react to that kind of thing?

JP: Yeah, sometimes I encounter a little of surprise that I'm a quilter, but I've never had any negative comments about it. I've just this summer met someone who's part of a local guild and they're like, "Oh, you're a quilter?" There's a lot more male quilters than they used to. I think I'm not the first that people I've heard of to be a male quilter, so there's a little bit of surprise, but I feel embraced by the quilting community.

AM: Good.

JP: I think the modern quilting world has a lot more male presence than maybe a traditional quilting world did. But yeah, I feel pretty welcome. I think one of the things that spurred me to even consider making a quilt in the first place was moving to the south and just seeing quilts everywhere for one thing. But then meeting my husband's mother, who again is here and realizing that, oh, a regular person can make a quilt. You don't have to be retired, or you don't have to be-

AM: You don't have to wait.

JP: ... living in a log cabin somewhere. It's a thing that a normal person in today's world can do and it's just discovering that, oh, that's a possibility. Oh, I don't have to have permission to make a quilt, I can just do it.

AM: Do you feel that, along those lines of any judgemental or policing of technique when you share your quilts, or have you experienced that? If you've entered your quilt or presented your quilts, or have you not encountered that?

JP: I mean, nothing overt. Like I said, I don't do a lot of complicated piecing. From a distance, all my points match, but if you look up close, they do not all match. I'm honestly fine with that. I do what you're supposed to do to make them match, but I don't stress about it if they don't.

AM: Pretty good.

JP: But the fact that I use big geometric shapes, I feel like 80% of my sewing is half square triangles, because I just love them, because you make a bunch at a time. So I think I don't feel a lot of judgment, but maybe some surprise. There like, "Oh, you just use two different kinds of fabric and just cut some big shapes and sew them together." It's not like a accepted pattern. It's not something that people have seen before. So surprise, if nothing else.

I get more surprise when people find out that I dye all my own fabric.

AM: Yes.

JP: That all the fabric is exactly the same when I get it. I buy it by the bolt from India and I dye it all myself and that surprises people more than the fact that I use a modern quilting style.

AM: So tell about what your technique is like and how you developed it.

JP: Sure. So I'd been interested in natural dyeing for years. I felt like when I first started quilting, I went the route that a lot of people do. You buy fabric at the fabric store and you buy batting when it's on sale. But I felt like as I got into it more, I realized that it wasn't in sync with the rest of my life, which is focused on low waste, recycling, don't use pesticides in my garden, don't buy new clothes, only by used, but then I'm buying all this new fabric, made in a factory, which is totally fine. It just didn't feel good for me.

I started exploring some other options. I discovered organic cotton muslin, which I really liked, and I finally got over my fears of natural dying and just tried it. Every book you look at has different instructions on how to do it, and I always tell people, just pick one. There are lots of ways to do it, but it is a constant learning curve. There's so much to learn about the world of natural dyes.

It's a long process. It's not quick. You can't just throw plants in a pot and get it to die fabric. It will, but it'll all wash out. So they're scouring to remove any stuff that's left over from the manufacturing process. So even the organic cotton that I buy still has oils in it, because you have to use oils in order to get cotton to go through modern machinery. So there's some oils in it that you have to get out before you can naturally dye it, so that's just boiling with soda ash.

Then the mordanting step is the thing that I think scares most people because it's can be complicated. I use a two-step process that includes tannins that I get from staghorn sumac leaf. Sumac grows in vast abundance around here. Staghorn sumac leaf has one of the highest tannin contents of any plant in North America, and it grows everywhere here so that's very easy. Then I use then an aluminum sulfate mordant. It's like that alum that you can buy at the grocery store for pickling. It's basically that.

AM: Describe what mordant is.

JP: Oh, yeah. I believe it comes from a French word, which means to bite, so the mordant is a chemical process, more or less natural, that binds to the fabric, and then that is what the natural dyes bind onto, because they don't inherently want... Some do, but most of them do not inherently want to bite onto the fabric themselves, so we have to help the natural dyes to bind to the fabric.

AM: That's so cool.

JP: And I'm no chemist, believe me. I feel like a chemist when I'm doing a mordanting, measuring out very specific amounts of different things. But basically, the mordants are what binds to the fabric, and then the natural dyes bind to the mordant, and that's what gets you a permanent color in the fabric. It's a lot of trial and error, honestly.

AM: I bet.

JP: But once you figure out something that works and that works for you, it's really fun to play with. There's a whole world of altering your dye baths to affect the pH, which I don't get into very much, but you can add iron to it to darken any color that you make, so it's a whole world. I could talk for hours about it.

AM: And that's must be exciting, and just its own set of process that's pleasing about it.

JP: Sure, sure. I feel like my natural dying practice, it feeds my quilting practice because it provides the raw materials that I use to make my quilts, but it feels like just as much of my practice as the actual quilting itself.

AM: You've taught one workshop and people are really excited about taking the-

JP: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I taught one natural dye workshop last October, which is where all of this fabric was died, and that went really well. It's just making it happen again. Yeah.

AM: Yeah.

JP: With the job and family and other obligations.

AM: So would you say that's one of your biggest challenges in your quilt life is just balance?

JP: I think so, yeah. I'm interested in a lot of things so my mind pings around a lot of different things. I volunteer with Haywood Waterways Association. I'm getting involved in the end of life doula world. I'm doing my training next month. So I have a lot of interests in different things. I'm sure I'm not the only person in the room right now who feels like this, that it's hard to find a balance between all the different things that you need to do and that you want to do.

AM: Say a little bit about the burial cloth.

JP: Oh, yeah.

AM: That work that you've been doing.

JP: Sure, sure. So I've just started this, I'm creating burial shrouds. I'm using my organic cotton fabric. So a burial shroud is basically just a big piece of fabric that you can wrap around a body for burial. Many cultures around the world have used them for millennia. With the increase in natural burial these days, which is a whole world into itself, there's a lot of desire for these burial shrouds, because they're organic cotton, so they're biodegradable. They'll completely disappear in the dirt. But it's a simple thing to do to enhance the ritual around end of life care. Caring for the body soon after death.

I've had a lot of interest in that. I have several people contacting me, and so I'm making shrouds based on the person's body size, so that it's based on their height and their width, so there's enough fabric to wrap around the body, and it feels really, really interesting and important work and just something that is fairly new.

AM: Is it decorative Jason, or is there some personalization of it?

JP: Right now, the people that are contacting me are people who are planning to have many decades of life left. So for them, it is something that they will decorate and alter in the time between.

AM: Themself.

JP: So sewing, dying, painting, I'm working with a friend to hopefully, hopefully fingers crossed, later this year, have a burial shroud workshop where we'll-

AM: Whoa.

JP: Yeah, I'll get everyone's measurements beforehand, provide a shroud, and then we can spend some time painting, sewing, drawing on it. It feels very woo-woo hippie Asheville, but there is a lot of interest in it, and it feels really good. I mean, the first shroud I ever made was for someone who was in their final days, just a few weeks ago. In the planning and talking to his family, he realized that he didn't have a burial shroud, and he really wanted one because he was doing natural burial. So a friend of a friend contacted me and said, "Can you make one?" So I made him one and delivered it to him. I got to talk to him for a little while, and three days later he died.

AM: Wow.

JP: They wrapped him in the shroud that I'd made, and that's what he was buried in. And that feels like... Ugh, glad we have the Kleenex. That feels really special-

AM: That's intense. Yeah. That's intense.

JP: ... to be involved in someone's end of life story.

AM: We hear about quilts made in memorial to someone, or even before they pass away with their clothing or after, but that's a whole another use for cloth meaning.

JP: Yeah.

AM: That's so interesting.

JP: Yeah. It's nice when you have two very different interests, but you can find ways to make them intertwine a little bit.

AM: Are there any quilters that you really appreciate their work, that you follow? Any contemporary quilters?

JP: There are so many. I don't know of a lot of people, offhand at least, that make quilts that look a lot like mine, which I think is the beauty of quilts that I use all naturally, dyed fabrics that I do, that I use big geometric shapes. So there are a lot of people who I admire, but I don't feel like I look at someone's quilts and say, "Ooh, I want mine to look like that." I just appreciate how everyone's quilts are different.

Even on the Quilty Nook, some people do very traditional, some people do very improvisational, nothing matches up, type quilts, which I love the look of. I can't think of a lot of names offhand that are quilting influences or someone that really inspires me to quilt.

AM: Is there a stylistically or a pattern or a type of quilting that you're interested in doing next, that you have in your head like, "This is something I want to take on?"

JP: I got away from it for a minute, but I'm really coming back to what I've mentioned a couple times already, like a traditional quilt block that I then blow up really huge or do variations on. That feels really interesting and exciting to me because people can recognize a sawtooth star because you've seen it a million times. But then to just play with the expectation that's inherent in a traditional quilt block. That's something that I'm coming back to. I have another quilt that I am finishing piecing right now that uses traditional steps to the altar block. Just blowing it up to one block to be the whole quilt, and I'm really enjoying that.

Yeah, I'm always interested in new surface decoration techniques, eco printing, dying with different plant materials. There's so much, I could never in one lifetime do all of it, so I'll just keep playing.

AM: That's the cool thing about quilts. It's just you could never do or see or all of it. What do you think makes a great quilt?

JP: That someone made it. I don't know.

AM: Yeah.

JP: I think every quilt that-

AM: That's a good answer.

JP: Every quilt is great. Someone so much time and effort into this quilt. Like I said, I don't find a store bought factory made quilt to be very interesting. I mean, it's economical, for sure. It serves its purpose, for sure.

AM: Mass-produced-

JP: Yeah, mass-produced. Yeah. It serves a purpose. It keeps you warm in the winter. That's great. But a great quilt to me is just one that's made by someone's hands. Yeah.

AM: Yeah. Let's see, why is quilt making important to your life now? What is the most important thing about it in your life? How it operates?

JP: Yeah. I think one reason that quilts are attractive to so many quilt makers is that it's not just a creative or art form, or creative outlet, but it's also something that can serve a purpose. You can put a quilt on your bed, and like I said, it keeps you warm in the winter. I lost my train of thought there.

AM: Yeah, it's utility.

JP: Yeah, utility.

AM: And so it's double purpose.

JP: I think because of the world of the... My personal definition of a quilt is so broad that there's a world of exploration you can do within it and that's what I really like. A quilt I make this year is going to be vastly different from a quilt I make two years from now, because I've discovered new techniques, new ideas, new designs. I like that there's so much variation in it. And yes, there might be some people that say there are rules, but I think most quilters aren't really interested in the rules.

AM: Yeah. I think that's true. I think some people are maybe, love the challenge of making it perfect, the pattern and the picture of the pattern, and really nailing it-

JP: Sure.

AM: ... but it's good to know if you're that person or not that person.

JP: Yeah. Exactly.

AM: Let's see, I'm going to wrap it up now. What do you think about preserving quilts, and is it important to you that people a hundred years from now know that you made this quilt?

JP: Yeah. I think it is. Yeah. I've had the thought recently that, maybe it's because I'm exploring the end of life world, so I want to leave the world full of my art and at the moment, that's quilts. Yeah, I think it's not essential to me that someone knows that I made this quilt, but it would be nice.

AM: It would be nice.

JP: That's why I label my quilts, and hopefully someone will leave that label on so that someone knows that, "Oh, this person made this quilt in this year, in Canton, North Carolina." Yeah, I think that's important for, not just for my posterity, my family, but just to know who the maker is. If you see a painting in a museum, you want to know who painted it.

AM: Contributing to the history of that time period.

JP: Sure.

AM: Or informing it.

JP: Sure, sure. Yeah. I mean, I have several quilts from great-grandmothers, like I said, and they're not labeled. They will soon, I promise.

AM: Yes. You shared one of them on the fourth, right?

JP: Yeah.

AM: I believe your grandmother's quilt.

JP: Yeah, and that one was a friendship quilt that was probably not sewn by her. It was probably sewn by people that she knew. But yeah, I have always been envious of people that know a lot about their family history, and I don't know much. I've done a little bit of genealogy work. It gets kind of boring, honestly. But yeah, I think it's great to know that history, where you came from and where your craft came from.

Some of the quilts that are here today are very old quilts, and I think they're so interesting. I just want to know the story, and unfortunately, most of us don't know the story about the heirlooms in our house. We might know, oh, that was grandma's sewing cabinet. Maybe, Great-Grandma's. I don't even know where they lived. I don't even know who they... I don't even know their name. To me, it feels important to pass that information along if you can.

AM: Yeah. Well that's a great note to end on because... Thank you so much for doing this interview with us, this QSOS interview, and we'll all be able to look at the interview and read it and listen to it on the QSOS website and then your future generations of your family and your friends will be able to see it.

JP: That's great. Thank you.

AM: Thank you.

JP: Thank you very much.

AM: Fantastic.

5.4Interview with Jason Pierson, March 25, 2023NC28779-002qsosncQuilt Alliance’s Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories Oral History Project: North CarolinaQuilt AllianceJason PiersonAmy Milne0https://quiltalliance.net/qsos-audio/NC28779-002 Pierson.wavOtheraudio0About the touchstone quiltI'm Amy Milne, and I am here with Jason Pierson. It is March 25, 2023, and I'm interviewing you for the Quilter's Save Our Stories oral history project. We're here in Sylva, North Carolina at the Jackson County Public Library with a fantastic audience of quilt lovers and quiltmakers, and I want to first ask you about the quilt that you brought. Tell me about this quilt.Pierson discusses his touchstone quilt, which he just finished making. It is organic cotton that has been dyed using natural dyes including goldenrod, marigold, and black walnut. The pattern is based on the traditional Sawtooth Star block, but Pierson enlarged the pattern and made nine different variations of the block that he pieced together. He dyed all of the fabric in one day while teaching a dyeing workshop in Fines Creek, North Carolina. Pierson explains that this quilt is a good example of his work, because he tends to use large, bold geometric shapes instead of smaller pieces.Amy Milne;Fabric - Hand-dyed;Fabric dyeing;Fiber - Cotton;Fines Creek;Male quiltmakers;Natural dyeing;North Carolina;Piecing;Sawtooth Star - quilt pattern;SylvaMale quiltmakers;Quilts--United States82Why Pierson chose the touchstone quilt / Selling quiltsWhy did you pick this one?Pierson explains that he chose this quilt because he finished it recently, and it is the largest quilt he's made for several years. He was previously making smaller quilts to use as wall hangings or on table tops. Pierson's proud of how the large quilt turned out. He does sell his quilts and plans to offer the touchstone quilt for sale. Pierson mentions that whoever buys the quilt will know that it has been documented by the Quilters Save Our Stories project. Pierson says that when he first started quilting, he would give his quilts away to family members. Now Pierson and his family have too many quilts to keep for themselves. Pierson doesn't have a large collection of his quilts at home because he has been successful in selling his more recent quilts.Quilt Purpose - Home decoration;Quilt purpose - Personal income;Quiltmaking for family;Selling quilts155First quilt memoryWhat is your first quilt memory?Pierson still has a quilt that his great grandmother, Anna Gabler, made for him when he was a baby. It has a traditional block with a pattern of a boy wearing a hat and overalls. Pierson says that he and Milne recently saw a similar quilt at a Community Quilt Day event in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is a blanket stitch applique attached to a thick polyester blanket. The quilt was considered special when he was growing up, so it was stored in a closet instead of being used on a bed. Pierson explains that he grew up in Michigan but now lives in the South, where there is a longer and more vibrant quilting history. Applique;Community Quilt Day;Fiber - Polyester;Grandchildren;Grandmothers;Michigan;Quilt purpose - Birth;Quilt Purpose - Gift or presentation;Quiltmaking for familyQuilts--United States211Learning to sewHow do you connect the dots between that relative and your quilting now? Is there any connection?Pierson says that he's not sure if there's a connection between receiving a quilt from his great grandmother as a child and his quiltmaking now. He has an appreciation for handmade things, and both of his great grandmothers were quiltmakers. His grandmothers and mother weren't quilters but did sew some garments. Pierson explains that he's never lived in a house that didn't have a sewing machine in it. He didn't learn how to quilt from his family, but he became interested in using a sewing machine and started altering his clothing in high school. Pierson doesn't do garment sewing now, but he eventually learned to quilt on his own.Grandmothers;Home sewing machine;MothersSewing296Teaching himself how to quiltYeah how did that happen?Pierson discusses teaching himself how to quilt after checking out a book from the library: School of Sewing by Shea Henderson. He completed every project in the book, which increased his sewing skills. The final project in the book is a quilt, which was the first actual quilt that Pierson made. After finishing that project, Pierson realized that he could continue making quilts. He taught himself how to quilt solely from library books, but he has since learned more about quilting from Youtube and by following other quilters on Instagram.Books;Instagram;Learning quiltmaking;School of Sewing;Shea Henderson;Social media;Youtube376Other quiltmakers in Pierson's familyDoes anybody else in your family quilt now?Pierson says that his mother-in-law, Lorelei Ursey, who was in attendance for the interview, is a quilter. His mom is also interested in quilting but is hesitant about the process.Family;Family life;Mothers406Quilting style and processDo you have any concept about what, if people can draw anything about you as a quilter from your quilts? Say, this quilt?For a lot of Pierson's quilts, he takes traditional block patterns and modifies them, often changing the scale or colors. He explains that his work shows an appreciation for traditional quilting, while putting his own modern perspective on traditional designs. Pierson also focuses on sustainability when considering his fabrics and quiltmaking techniques. He primarily does his quilting using a sewing machine, but Pierson likes to sew the binding onto his quilts by hand. Hand quilting;Machine piecing;Modern quiltmaking;Modern quilts;Quiltmaking inspiration;quiltmaking process;Sustainability;Traditional quiltsMachine quilting497Importance of handmade objects / Other crafts and artSo that's important to you, if your quilt was perfect that wouldn't have as much appeal to you.Pierson explains that he likes being able to see that a person made something with their hands. This is true of quilting, but also other art forms like pottery or woodworking. Pierson has also practiced arts and crafts other than quilting including bookmaking, watercolor painting, and cross stitch. He also went to school for theater stage management. Even though he has tried a lot of arts and crafts, quilting has really stuck with him.Hand quilting;Hobby;Painting;PotteryArts and crafts602Quilting community and groups / Social media presenceDid you feel like you were more connected to a community with quilting than you were with the other crafts or art forms?Pierson started quilting about the same time he got a smart phone and joined Instagram. He found it hard to connect with the bookmaking community, but Pierson has appreciated finding more community through quilting, especially online. Pierson plans to participate more with the Western North Carolina MQG (Modern Quilt Guild). He is also a member of The Quilty Nook, an online quilting community run by Zak Foster. Pierson discusses his thoughts about using social media to show a more realistic portrayal of his experiences as an artist and quiltmaker, instead of a perfect, curated online presence. Instagram;Modern Quilt Guild;Online quilt communities;Quilt guilds;The Quilty Nook;Western North Carolina MQG;Zak Foster817When Pierson started quiltingHow old were you when you started quilting?Pierson has been quilting for seven or eight years. He tried other crafts before discovering quilting in his mid-Thirties and then began to focus on it more. Hobby;Learning quiltmakingArts and crafts856Studio space / Time spent quilting Let's talk about your quilting space, how many hours you devote to it, that kind of thing.Until recently, Pierson's sewing space was in his 600 square foot house. His sewing studio is now in a friend's house where there is more room to work. He wanted to have a studio space for years, but they either seemed too far away or too expensive to rent. Pierson was able to think outside of the box and come up with a solution by using extra space in his friend's house. He works full-time in addition to quilting, but quilts on average about 5-10 hours per week. Pierson also spends a lot of time developing his creativity by reading books and listening to podcasts, and he discusses needing to spend more time on the business side of being a professional artist. Home studio;Podcasts;Professional quiltmakers;Quilt business;Work or Studio spaceQuilting--Vocational guidance998Being a male quiltmaker / Reaction to his quiltsDo you experience any people being surprised that you're a quilter?Sometimes people are surprised when they find out that Pierson is a quilter, but he says that male quilters are more common now. He hasn't heard any negative comments about it. He feels welcomed by the quilting community and thinks that modern quilting probably has more male quiltmakers than traditional quilting. Pierson doesn't feel a lot of judgment about his work, although people are surprised about his large geometric patterns and hand-dyed fabric. Fabric - Hand-dyed;Male quiltmakers;Modern quiltmaking;Modern quilts;Quilt policeMale quiltmakers1182Natural dyeingSo tell about what your technique is like and kind of how you developed it.When Pierson started quilting, he bought fabric and supplies from the fabric store, but that didn't align with the other sustainable practices in his life. He discovered organic cotton muslin and began trying natural dyeing techniques for his fabric. Pierson says that natural dyeing is a long process and has a constant learning curve. He explains the steps and ingredients he uses for preparing and naturally dyeing his fabrics. Natural dyeing feels equally important to Pierson as the quilting. Pierson has taught one natural dyeing workshop and plans to teach others as time allows.Fabric - Hand-dyed;Fabric dyeing;Fiber - Cotton;Teaching quiltmakingColorfastness (Textiles);Cotton fabrics1424Other interests / Making burial shroudsWould you say that's one of your biggest challenges in your quilt life, is just balance? Pierson says that is hard to find a balance between all of the things that he needs and wants to do. He has other interests and obligations outside of quilting, including volunteering with the Haywood Waterways Association and training to be an end-of-life doula. He has started making custom organic cotton burial shrouds that are used for natural burial practices. He's received a lot of interest in them and is hoping to lead a burial shroud workshop soon. Making burial shrouds feels important and meaningful to Pierson, and it connects his different interests together.Burial shrouds;Fiber - Cotton;Haywood Waterways Association;Quilt Purpose - Memorial;Time management;Work and life balance1634Appreciating other quilters / Plans for future quiltsAre there any quilters that you really appreciate their work, that you kind of follow?Pierson says he admires a lot of other quilters, but he doesn't think many other quilters make quilts that look like his own. He appreciates how everyone's quilts are different. Pierson is interested in continuing to make quilts based on traditional patterns, while modifying the scale and elements to create more modern quilts. He mentions the Sawtooth Star pattern used in the touchstone quilt, as well as a quilt he's currently piecing that uses an enlarged Steps to the Altar block. Pierson is also interested in using new surface decoration techniques, eco-friendly printing, and plant-based dyeing.Fabric dyeing;Modern quiltmaking;Quiltmaking inspiration;Quiltmaking style;Sawtooth Star - quilt pattern;Steps to the Altar - quilt pattern1758What makes a great quilt / Importance of quiltmakingWhat do you think makes a great quilt?Pierson thinks that every quilt is great, because each quilt required someone to put a lot of time and effort into it. He appreciates handmade quilts that people have created on their own, as opposed to factory-made quilts. Quilts are a creative outlet but can also serve a practical purpose. Pierson likes that there is so much variation to explore with quiltmaking techniques, ideas, and designs. factory made quilts;Quilt purpose - Art or personal expression;Quiltmaking inspiration;Techniques1889Quilt preservation and documentationWhat do you think about preserving quilts, and is it important to you that people one hundred years from now know that you made this quilt?Pierson does think that it's important to leave a legacy of his art and quilts for future generations. He has considered this recently when assisting with end-of-life care. Personal recognition isn't essential for Pierson, but he does label his quilts so that other people will know who made them and where they came from. He appreciates when people know a lot about their family's history, and labeling his quilts can help pass that information along to others, especially because families often don't know the details about their heirlooms.Quilt documentation;quilt label;Quilt preservation;Quilt purpose - HeirloomFriendship quiltsAll rights to the Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories (QSOS) oral history project, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred from the Quilt Alliance to the University of Kentucky Libraries. Please contact the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History regarding rights pertaining to individual interviews.audioInterviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.0https://quiltalliance.net/ohms-viewer-master/viewer.php?cachefile=

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