Mimi Ayars

Mimi Ayars

Mimi Ayars has her Ph. D in sociology, and began quilting in 1954 after making a trip to a fabric store. She taught herself how to quilt, and enjoys piecing because she likes challenging herself. For the most part she likes to hang her quilts in her house to add a bit of color, especially the ones with fall colors because she misses northeastern autumns.

TX76121-051

Christine Sparta

Mimi Ayars

Jane Kucko

Karen Alexander

Fort Worth, Texas

Pam Luke

**This transcript was created by QSOS volunteers and was reviewed and, in some cases, edited by the interviewee. It may not exactly match the audio recording. For citations and interview quotations, please refer to the audio-recorded interview.** Jane Kucko (JK): This is Jane Kucko and it's Friday, May 17th, 1:05 p.m. in the afternoon and we are at the Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild Show where we are participating in the Quilters' [S.O.S.-] Save Our Stories project and today we have Mimi Ayars with us and I really appreciate you being here and I see you brought a beautiful quilt with you. Let's begin by having you tell us about your quilt.


Mimi Ayars (MA): Tell you about the quilt?


JK: Yes.


MA: In Albuquerque there is a Pueblo Cultural Center built like a huge doughnut. And in the center, which would be equivalent to the hole in the center, right, there is an open area surrounded by an adobe wall and on that wall are paintings by famous Indian Americans, all the way around. This particular painting caught my eye and absolutely, totally captivated me. I kept going and looking at the blue ribbon winners inside and then I'd run back and look at this wall painting; at this wall painting which was about six feet by nine feet. The others were more elaborate but this one was, I thought, dramatic. And it seemed to keep calling to me as they looked like masks and it was very contemporary which excited me. It was dramatic in color which excited me and I kept thinking, 'Oh, I wish I had brought my camera because I would like to translate this into a small wall hanging.' The next year we went back to Albuquerque and I brought the camera and took lots of pictures. Then I began to collect the fabric. I looked in my stash to see what I might have for backing and, lo and behold, there was a piece that was adobe color. So, I figured that's the size it's going to be 'cause that's all the bigger it was. So that's how it got to be this size. This is around two feet by forty inches, something like that. Then I collected the fabrics and it took me a very long time because I wanted to see how well I could duplicate color intensity, her variety, the texture that she had and that sort of thing. And I was overwhelmed when I found the turquoise. I couldn't believe it. They were the last thing I came across. I don't honestly remember how long, but I'd say it was close to two years that it took me to collect the fabric. I'd bring it home and try it by the photograph because I wanted it to be an authentic translation. When I went back the second time was when I discovered what the wall painting was called "Voices" and I go, 'Why of course! They've got their mouths open, they're calling and they're calling Mimi! They kept calling Mimi.' So I thought this was a very apt name for it. It was painted by Little Pine Tree. So I have a little pine tree embroidered on one and my initials on the other corner. What else could I tell you about it? Is there anything that interests you in particular?


JK: Well, Mimi, tell us about why you chose to bring this particular quilt because you have made how many quilts in your life?


MA: I don't know how many but lots.


JK: A lot. So what types?


MA: Different colors, appliqué, and pieced quilts. But I like pieced quilts. That's what surprised me about how this took over my life because it's an appliquéd quilt and you have kind of reverse appliqué in some places and you have the other kind. Also, I found that I loved the echo quilting because, again, the voices reverberated outward. I have to tell you about this piece of fabric. My husband asked me to sew up the seam in his pajamas and I go, 'No, I need the pajamas.' But I really didn't. I went back in the scrap bag and looked as I wasn't looking for anything like that and I said, it really wasn't there because I had made the pajamas so long ago. So many little things occurred. It's a very emotional quilt for me. I really felt drawn to it. I felt a kinship with the artist. When it hangs, (I change quilts in the hall, because of the West exposure), I never just walk by. I walk by and take a look. So I think the quilt and I interrelate, more than any other I've made.


JK: When did you first learn to quilt?


MA: In 1954 about. My children were preschool. I went into a Penny's store. I used to do a lot of sewing both for myself and the children and Penny's at that time had cotton but if I remember correctly it was called percale and it cost twenty nine cents a yard and it was thirty six inches wide. Now, this is how my memory goes, I might be wrong, but I think. And they had hanging up in their fabric display a quilt top of a star and I didn't know what patterns there were. I'd never seen a quilt. I didn't know what a quilt was. But I thought, 'That might be fun to do,' because I was into other kinds of needlework. So I got the pattern which was a Mountain Mist and it cost five cents. That I do remember.


JK: [laughs.]


MA: And I still have it. And I went home and cut out the pieces and I could work in squares. So I knew I could handle that and I figured I could appliqué anyway. So I took it with me when I went to the children's affairs and by the time I got it all done I had to wash it before I could do anything else because all these pieces were pretty dirty. But at any rate, I got it sewn together and I finished the binding but I didn't know how to quilt it so I put it away. I pulled it out occasionally as a summer spread. So when I moved to Texas I knew how to quilt and I finished it. I've forgotten the year, but it took thirty five years from the beginning to the end. So I'm one of those people who takes her own time and still hangs in there. It's certainly not my best quilt. But that was my first experience.


JK: And do you have ancestors who quilted?


MA: Nobody. I never saw a quilt. My mother never quilted. Nobody I knew. I won't say nobody did but nobody I knew. I never slept under them as a child. Even my grandmothers I don't remember.


JK: So you are self-taught then?


MA: To quilt more or less.


JK: What is your favorite quilt that you have made?


MA: I think this wall hanging.


JK: This wall hanging here?


MA: I like some others and I have fun putting them up but I like some because they're colorful. For example, being a northeasterner I really miss the fall colors in Texas and we've been here for twenty-three years which is longer than we ever lived anywhere. We moved like every four or five years. And there seemed to be few fall colors so I made a fall quilt, "Autumn Leaves," with all the fall colors. I put it up when it's time for the leaves to fall. So I like that one, but it doesn't stay up very long.


JK: Now you talked about this quilt being an appliqué which was something new to you. You don't do that or?


MA: No, it wasn't new cause remember the Ohio Rose--


JK: Right, that's right, yeah.


MA: The Ohio Rose was the first one. I don't think I knew anything about piecing. Since I didn't know anything about quilts, I didn't know that that was an alternative. I learned since then the whole quilt world is divided in two. Piecers and patchers and I'm a piecer. [laughs.] But see, I'm a patcher, too.


JK: Right.


MA: The reason I think I liked the piecing was because it was a tremendous challenge in terms of precision sewing. My mother taught me to sew and she was one of these perfectionists. Everything had to go together well. In fact, I would be complimented sometimes by a sewing friend, 'Mimi, you can wear that dress wrong side out.' Because Mama said, 'If you do it right on the wrong side it will show on the right side and if you do it wrong on the wrong side it going to be ugly on the right side.' So I was always very particular and of course she had to inspect them when I was young. 'I think you ought to rip that out and redo it.' So she acted as this model in sewing that fit in with the piecing. So I wanted that to come, I won't say they all do, but I wanted them to come together. I wanted whatever to come together and of course I carried it over into the appliqué. But the piecing, I was always looking for a greater challenge and there are challenges in piecing not just gorgeous appliqué quilts but making them come together is the secret to their success and I find that a challenge. But I think the greatest challenge was a pattern based on an Escher drawing where there are three values. They're all the same shape, but there are three values. And if you don't put them together right, even though the lines are straight, hey won't fit together into those three final shapes. There was no way I could do it except to pin each piece onto a board in its proper position. Then I stitched it together. I'm very pleased with it. It was in the show. This was my most challenging quilt.


JK: Do you do all of your work by hand?


MA: No, no. In the past, I have quilted what I had hoped to be heirloom quilts. I don't do anymore. I have about six tops that need done and I will probably have them professionally machine quilted. They'll be gifts and they'll be used.


JK: So you are defining heirloom obviously as something that you would give to family members.


MA: Heirloom is something that I hope will last a number of generations because I have this very romantic idea about one generation being connected to the next generation. I can't think of a nicer way to connect than literally by threads. And I find even though I never made my grandchildren any of these little cuddly you know, drag-around quilts, I made them quilts but not that kind. But if I leave this one to a great-grandchild I hope she won't use it for a dog bed.


JK: Right.


MA: So I call this an heirloom and my workmanship is the best I can do. It may not be the best in the world. It may not win a prize. I've never been in a competition but it's the best that I could do at that stage of life. And talking about that stage of life, and we all go through this, some of us like me, kind of hate to face it, but those stitches are kind of big. You know, poor thing. Well, I've got the beginning of cataracts. Naturally the stitches are kind of big. One of the old quilts I made by sewing scraps three and a half inch squares put together for a twin bed. One was a white top with the pieces around. The other one was pieces in the middle and the white around. So I never got the second one quilted and I was going to take it over to the machine quilter and I thought no, I'll try to do it because it will probably look like the older ones and then people will think it was made at the same time because my stitches are going to be big. There aren't any knots on the back of that one. That's one thing I learned. [both laugh.]


JK: Did you learn that the hard way?


MA: No. I didn't but, anyway, cause I learned it from a friend, she said don't do this Mimi.


JK: Have all of your family members received a quilt from you?


MA: Probably. Probably.


JK: What a treasure. You certainly have been involved in quiltmaking for a long time and you have been involved with the Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild. Are you a charter member of the guild?


MA: Yes. Yes.


JK: But can you comment on how you remember that all came to be?


MA: I had moved from Chicago to New Jersey in 1976 and in Chicago, in the Chicago suburbs, I belonged to three guilds. But I really didn't know that much about quilting. And when I moved to New Jersey I was so homesick for those women that I didn't know what to do with myself. So I went to the local library and there was an exhibit. Not a show, just an exhibit in the room. So I took down everybody's name, went and looked them up in the phone book and I said, 'Hey, come on over to my house.' So I founded in a sense, a guild in New Jersey. It is still in existence today. It had no organization. Quilters don't believe me but we had no by-laws, we had no dues, we had no officers, we had nothing like that. We made a list, we went to people's houses, we made a list at the beginning of the year whether it was at your house or your house or whatever and if you had to change then you traded with somebody. There was nobody in charge and nobody to call up. We met once in the daytime and once at night because some people worked. I got a piece of fabric from one of these women about five years ago so I know it existed that long and we've been here twenty three years. So it went on a long time. It can happen. But when we came here one of the first meetings, it may have been the first meeting, people told about the ladies of the guild and I told about the guild in Chicago. So of course we fit into a regular pattern which we should have. They knew were going to be big. And none of the members in particular [inaudible.] were very, very faithful and very articulate. We can't do that Mimi, we can't do that. So that's how we actually started. At the beginning we had programs. We had officers. We started with our first president. We had exhibits at the meetings, and we had other committees. We had a show. I don't remember which year it was, maybe the first or second year, but I think that there is a newspaper picture of several of us standing around with a cloth laid over a table because we didn't have anywhere to display them so you folded them up and it spread it out. And then we moved and we moved and got more members and more members. This group is really a talented, loving, wonderful group. I've done a lot of different jobs; I've met a lot of different people. I'm very, very grateful to it.


JK: Now, have you been president?


MA: No, I've been secretary a couple of times, I think.


JK: I know you've been real active.


MA: I've been chairman of things and I've been on committees. I've climbed up those poles to hang quilts. Go home dead. You're so tired. Go home half sick.


JK: Now you did a study of the guild.


MA: It wasn't a study. I was historian and we used to keep a scrapbook and I don't know if they are still around. But, each year the historian got the old scrapbook and we added the new scrapbook. And they became the record they could easily have been destroyed because you know how scrapbooks are. But one year I got the idea to make some audio tapes of some of the old timers because I was looking around and I thought some of them were really experts and they weren't going to be here forever and so I loved doing it. I loved what they told me. It's kind of fun to be on this cutting edge, Jane. [laughs.]


JK: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.


MA: I don't know if they're any good. They were on the cheapest tape available on the cheapest recorder, but we did get some stories from them, wonderful stories in terms of feminism. You know, whatever you label them, but those of the guild.


JK: Now, you have published books.


MA: Yes, Pat Campbell, who is a quilt artist and I. In fact there is a quilt in the show that either a student has done or somebody has used the pattern in one of the books. She is the artist and I am the writer illustrator. And six books were published from I think '93 to 2000. One came out translated in French so we're international. [laughs.]


JK: That's great.


MA: It was great fun. And I've written articles for Quilt World, I think eleven. Probably in that same time period.


JK: Wonderful. Now, you have your Ph.D. also. What area is that in?


MA: Yes, in sociology.


JK: In sociology. Do you see the relationship between what you studied there and quiltmaking?


MA: Yes and no. Yes in terms cultural reflections. Yes in terms of women finally being recognized as artists. Yes in community response of the woman to what's going on in the community whether it be fund raising or to commemorate something. Definitely yes. You know, not one on one, but influentially.


JK: Yes, definitely.


MA: And I think I appreciate our ancestors better, our quilter's ancestors better than I would have. And I don't know the designs yes because they reflect ethnicity and color sense, quilter's speaking where certain colors are popular in one culture. Yes, yes.


JK: That's wonderful. Have your quilts won any awards?


MA: Never any awards but my honor is that one of them, my Bicentennial, was displayed in the AQS [American Quilter's Society.] museum show that commemorated fifteen years after the Bicentennial and so they were chosen and actually hung in the exhibit. And that made me feel very good because, I'll tell you why it made me feel good. I really had to have my arm bent to make the thing to begin with. I hate red, white and blue. And don't forget this was sometime back, 1976. Even though I was in the Navy, incidentally, during World War II, the WAVES [Women Accepted for Volunteer Enlistment Service.], and I was in for two years two months and two days. I am very patriotic. I just don't like that red white and blue palate. My friends, my new friends, who had actually also gotten me to start quilting said, 'Oh, but everybody who lives through the bicentennial has to make a quilt. Think how beautiful and think how few of us really get to live in this period of American history.' You know, they really, really laid it on me. 'And think about how many 1876 quilts were a joy.' 'Okay, I'll make one.' So I did make one. And then when it was one of the ones chosen, I go, oh that helps.


JK: Do they still have it?


MA: No, no. It was strictly for one show. One thing that was honored that they said incidentally is that I made all the states abbreviations around the edge and they're all the old abbreviations so they know it has to have been made before 'X' year even though I put on the quilt the information. In fact, this quilt I started in the fifties that took thirty five years I wrote, I actually spelled it out, 'Commenced in Delaware in nineteen, whatever the year, and completed in Texas, whatever year, and it goes all the way across the top of the quilt so there is no doubt how long that took to make. [laughs.]


JK: That is wonderful. Well, have you been able to, since when you first started quilting, even though it took you thirty five years to finish that quilt, have you fairly consistently quilted throughout your life?


MA: Yes, I can't tell you because it's kind of a feast or famine and when I'm teaching. And I don't remember what years they were but those years there were not many projects.


JK: What do you enjoy most about quilting?


MA: The planning. Choosing how it's going to be. And what I hate most. I thought it was the binding until I realized this past week. I was trimming the back part of a pieced quilt, all those ravelings off. That's the worst part.


JK: Now, do you design a lot of your own quilts? You've talked about your inspiration for the one you brought today.


MA: I think it would be better if I say I adapted. Like the one I have in the show of the fans and cranes. I don't know if you saw it. It's blue with floral colored cranes. The original was just fans and they were not identical in size. The cranes I added for good luck because they are good luck symbols for the Japanese and the fabric is from Japan.


JK: What do you think makes a great quilt?


MA: The impact; the impact of the design with the fabric. Yes I like it well made. But, I'm not going to give that one a prize because it's beautifully made but it doesn't have that impact in my mind at least. I want it to do something as a whole. For example, you can't look at a piece of it. You have to look at the whole thing to say her design is best. Then, okay, now we can say, 'Hmm, what about the quilt?'


JK: What do you think makes a great quilter?


MA: Anybody. I told you I was a romantic but I'm also idealistic because I remember the woman in our bee who could not tie a knot in thread. I am not kidding you. She could not. We had to teach her how to tie a knot and she ended up making very lovely quilts. I won't say they're prize- winners but that's no big deal. But, they're beautiful. So is she a great quilter. Yes, she's a great quilter. She stuck at it 'til she learned it. Then there are those people who are unique. They just are. And Pat Campbell who does the art work for our books is one of these. You know some people who sing perfectly on key. She's got one of these perfect visual color senses. And so she puts these awful colors together and they come out to be gorgeous. She's got it. I think that's a great presentation. I don't think that it necessarily makes her any greater than somebody who doesn't. In terms of greater. I guess I don't like that term. Look around here and you'll see so many different kinds of people quilting, enjoying it for different reasons. I think they're all great. I do.


JK: What are some of your primary reasons for quilting?


MA: That's easy. Recreation, relaxation, experimentation, social contact. Did I say learning? I'm not sure that I did. I love to learn. And I like to teach too. That's fun. I need to talk about teaching. I need to tell you I taught my mother to quilt when she was over eighty. She said I was having so much fun she couldn't miss out on it. 'Here's how you do it, Mom.' And then I helped her quilt it.


JK: So you do teaching?


MA: Well, I used to. I do it for fun. I belong to a little bee and they say, 'How do you do a Hawaiian quilt?' And then we have a little session, nothing formal. But I have in the past. I like to do that and I love beginners because they can find a shortcut because they didn't know any better. [laughs.] And that's good. And I always like to tell them, too, that what's great about quilting is that there's only one right way, that's your way. There's an easier way. There might be a better way but your way is the right way for you. And I remember a woman who made a Texas Star with satin materials. Can you imagine that with all the triangles and it went together. I don't believe it. It was a bedspread. She just put a lining on it and quilted it. Fabulous.


JK: Are there particular colors that you work in or?


MA: I thought I liked the earth colors best but I find that I love purple. But you'll see there's probably no purple anywhere. And I have other things that have no purple in them. But I look at my stash and my red is very high therefore I'm not using a lot of red. My purple is very low so I'm using it in something. Greens are used a lot because greens you don't have to worry about. They goes anywhere. No matter what shade it goes anywhere. [noise in the background.]


[tape is stopped for a few moments.]


MA: I haven't really told you everything in my mind but I expect quilting to go on. I expect the techniques to change. I expect the fabrics to change and to vary and the people may be who are doing it like men, although I suspect in the past they past they were doing it. They just didn't do it up front where everybody could see. Look at "The Quilters," the book "The Quilters" you may be familiar with or the play. [Mimi is referring to the book "The Quilters; Women and Domestic Art; An Oral History" by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Buferd.] There were some husbands who were in it. So I'm hoping that that trend continues. And I would like to tell you, too, about two women that I met that illustrate this for me. In "The Quilters" book, if you have never read it, I recommend it. It changed my life. It was so influential. Not so much the quilts, but the quilters. They're the artists of course and I see them as holding [inaudible.]. My husband was a Boy Scout Executive and we went to Philmont Scout Ranch incidentally where he was training and one year I talked him into detouring to Clovis, New Mexico. I mean, that's a place to go, Clovis, New Mexico. So I could meet a couple of these women who had been interviewed by the authors of the book. I called up a woman named Quirl Havenhill. And I told her who I was, I told her I came from the East Coast and could she possibly spare time for me to come see her quilts. She said, 'Oh, sure come on over'. And I said, 'Are you sure I won't bother you?' And she said, 'Bother me? At my age, honey, I need bothering.'


JK: Wonderful.


MA: So we went over and we not only saw her quilts which had been prize winners. This is a little town, mind you. She and her husband had built their house and he died in the midst. She finished that house. She built the kitchen cupboards. We saw all of this. She laid the floor, she built their bed and I don't remember what else she did. This woman by herself did this. She said, 'This is how I handled my widowhood. I didn't know what to do with myself.' This woman was a feminist but she didn't have any label. She didn't think of it as, 'that's what you did.' The other woman I called up, I went to see her the next morning. Her name was Metcalf, I didn't know her first name. [according to the book, she is listed as Mrs. A.I. Metcalf.] Her husband was either a teacher or the principal of the school, at any rate, he worked at the school. When her children grew up she said, 'You had your chance at college. I am going to college, too.' And she did and she graduated and she became a teacher. This is a feminist, no label. And I felt so proud of our maternal ancestors that that's what I like to do and when I give talks to community groups I tell them about the people. Those people back then, these people that are of the depression, these people today who come to the guild meeting with a baby on their back or in a pack on their front. I find that really exciting.


JK: Those are wonderful stories. Do you see any trends in quiltmaking that either excite you or concern you?


MA: More technology, faster, more people involved. A woman called me up yesterday and said, 'I've got myself into a bad problem because I should have talked to you first.' She brings it over to me to help her find a faster way out.


JK: Figure it out.


MA: But she would never make a quilt. But she has a grandson. Oh, that makes me think of something else. That's one thing I really like that I do [inaudible.] talk about yourself. I make a first time grandmother a baby quilt and I tell her this is not for your baby, this is not for your daughter. This is your quilt. You keep it at your house because this is a rite of passage from one generation to the next and you can have the quilt [inaudible.] eventually. It's not an heirloom, you put it on the floor, put it in the yard. If he up chucks on it, it doesn't matter, you'll wash and dry it. But it is recognition for the next generation. I want you to pass one on too.


JK: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I'm sure that means a lot to them.


MA: Well, this is the woman who decided she needed to make her grandson a quilt. And she said, 'I'm not putting yours down on the floor.' I said, 'Oh, yes, you are.' It's a Twisted Ribbon so I knew the baby would like that. It's a challenge to make incidentally if you want to make one.


JK: I've never made one. Is there a quilt that you haven't made that you want to make?


MA: That I want to make. Yes, a Log Cabin. Everybody has made a Log Cabin. I have never made a log cabin so I am working on at the present time, and again it's a lot of work because it's going to be about this size and it's going to be butterflies, three butterflies--giant, made up into the log cabin pattern. So, yes, that's my challenge.


JK: Do you have that all designed?


MA: Oh, yeah, and pieced together. I'm just now working on it. That's my current project. And it will probably be quilted by this year.


JK: Do you have your own sewing room?


MA: Oh, sure! [laughs.] I have a dream sewing room with my studio. It's the whole house. I cut on the bar in the library because it's not a game room; it's a library so the bar is the right height to cut on. I sew in my little room. My husband and I each have a little room. We are both retired so we each have a little room. I have in my little room a computer, two sewing machines, a desk, filing cabinets, a bureau, a bookcase, fabric. Did I say bookshelves? I'm not sure. And a door that closes. That's like a one, the one room that's bad. But I can get around. Then in the living room I lay the quilt out on the floor and pin it for pin basting. In the dining room I machine quilt. In the laundry, of course, I wash the fabrics that I wash all the fabrics. In the bedroom I iron because I have no place to iron. There is no place in my little room for my ironing board. And my husband won't tolerate that so it's in the bedroom. So yes, all over the house.


JK: And that's your studio?


MA: That's my studio.


JK: Wonderful. This has been terrific, Mimi. Are there any things you would like to say or any questions that I haven't asked that you wish I had?


MA: I wrote you some notes and they are really for me. The only other thing that I can think of and I don't think it's really significant is that Connecting Threads interviewed me for a program on the internet and of course it's no longer on there but it was fun to do because they asked weird questions. Like 'What's you favorite food?' Are we still recording?


JK: Yes.


MA: Will they write all of this down? Will this be on the internet?


JK: Only with your approval.


MA: Oh that's good, we can talk off subject. But, what I was going to tell you, for my sixty-fifth birthday. Wait, I'll back up. Every year I make a goal for the next year. Write down your goals. I write down my goals. It took four goals to getting my doctorate. And if I hadn't had goals I would never have done it. And each year my husband would ask what I wanted for my birthday and I would say I wanted to ride an elephant. Of course, I had never ridden an elephant. So my sixty-fifth birthday he said, 'What do you want to do?' And I said the same thing. If we don't get me on an elephant, I won't be able to get my legs wide enough to get on the elephant's back. So we found a preserve or whatever and they were giving elephant rides. We were expecting them to. And there were these two little kids who were scared to go. And I said, 'Come on let's go'. We have pictures of the three of us on this elephant and that is a high point of my life. That was a goal and they published it in their interview. So I show people, 'Hey, I really did get to ride an elephant.' [laughs.]


JK: That is terrific. That is terrific.


MA: Ask me questions if you want to. You know if you pull my string, I take off.


JK: Well, Mimi, it's been a real pleasure interviewing you. You have been such a mainstay. Everyone knows you in our guild. It was really important to have you participate. I just want to thank you again, Mimi Ayars, for being a part of our Quilters' [S.O.S.-] Save Our Stories project. At 1:45 in the afternoon our interview is now concluded. Thank you, Mimi.


MA: I enjoyed it.