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Audio Recording "This craft business, they want you to create your own."

"This craft business, they want you to create your own."

About this Item

Title

  • "This craft business, they want you to create your own."

Names

  • Johnson, Geraldine Niva, 1940- (Interviewer)
  • Todd, Zenna, 1916-2012 (Interviewee)
  • Todd, Zenna, 1916-2012 (Creator)

Created / Published

  • Ennice, North Carolina

Headings

  • -  Quilting
  • -  Quilt patterns
  • -  income
  • -  applique quilts
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  Interviews
  • -  United States -- North Carolina -- Ennice

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Mrs. Todd started making quilts for her family to use when she was 25. She teaches quiltmaking and makes quilts to sell through a local shop to supplement her income. Geraldine Johnson described her as "a bubbly, enthusiastic person who would be a natural à interpreter of Blue Ridge quilts." This interview includes good information on the economics and practice of making quilts to sell, criteria for selection of materials to use in quilts, and how quiltmaking has changed over time.
  • -  Transcription: GJ: Did you ever make applique quilts? / ZT: Oh, yeah. Well, now that Dutch Girl's appliqued. You look at that, if you go back down there, you look at that. I think that's all the applique quilt I've got down there. / GJ: Do you do any applique patterns from kits or anything? / ZT: I think I did one, one time, the Tree of Life, and it was a kit. It's, it's, it was very nice, and it's all right. This craft business, they don't want you to do that. They want you to create your own, and I try to stay away from that all I can. Well, it is better to, use your own imagination. Like if you want to change a pattern, say that you're got a pattern that you want to change it, change it some way you know. You can imagine up how that it, and change it, and maybe it'd be altogether a different design, different quilt and so on. So they like for you to do that. And I think it's good for you. I think it's good to have imagination that you can create things like that. They wanted me to come up with some kind of pattern, just, you know, that I could do. Something that I would think about creating myself. Very creative. But I've never got in on that. I told 'em I didn't want to, didn't want to concentrate that much on it. I don't mind changing something just a little bit, or maybe, doing it a different way to what somebody else has done. But, they said that that was really craft when you done that. And I guess it is.
  • -  For rights information please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Medium

  • Sound tape reel : 7 in.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1982/009: BR8-GJ-R102

Source Collection

  • Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (AFC 1982/009)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that some of the materials in this collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions, and are therefore free to use and reuse. For example, the fieldwork in this collection is in the public domain in the United States.

However, the Library has obtained permission for the use of other materials, and presents additional materials for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. For example, some of the recordings contain copyrighted music, and not all of the performers and other individuals who were recorded signed releases for public use of their work.

In addition, the American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance. Rights assessment is your responsibility. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. 

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Credit line: Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project collection (AFC 1982/009), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Zenna Todd, and Zenna Todd. "This craftbusiness, they want you to create your own.". Ennice, North Carolina, 1978. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000090/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Todd, Z. & Todd, Z. (1978) "This craftbusiness, they want you to create your own.". Ennice, North Carolina. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000090/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Zenna Todd, and Zenna Todd. "This craftbusiness, they want you to create your own.". Ennice, North Carolina, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/qlt000090/>.