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Audio Recording "She'd use cotton filler or old blankets."

"She’d use cotton filler or old blankets."

About this Item

Title

  • "She'd use cotton filler or old blankets."

Names

  • Johnson, Geraldine Niva, 1940- (Interviewer)
  • Schockley, Maggie (Creator)
  • Schockley, Maggie (Interviewee)

Created / Published

  • Hillsville, Virginia

Headings

  • -  Quilting
  • -  recycled fabrics
  • -  quilt lining
  • -  batting (textiles)
  • -  feed sack quilts
  • -  tobacco sack quilts
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  Interviews
  • -  United States -- Virginia -- Hillsville

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Although Geraldine Johnson's notes indicate that this interview was cut short due to Mrs. Shockley's need to leave to take care of her mother, they nonetheless covered a lot of useful information within the limited time. Mrs. Shockley learned to quilt as a child, has made numerous quilts for her family, and sells quilt tops at a flea market. She talks a lot about her mother and has her mother's collection of quilt blocks. (Although not addressed in the interview, these blocks probably served as a reference collection, to remind the maker how the block goes together.) This interview is particularly interesting because of the amount of detail on the activities of an earlier quilting generation and because of Mrs. ShockleyÆs poignant comments about her realization that quilts are her motherÆs legacy.
  • -  Transcription: GJ: What would she use as a filler then? / MS: Well, sometimes she would use old blankets, and . . . but at that time she, you could buy the cotton filler, and she did the, used the cotton filler. I think that I saw a star here in the shape that she / GJ: And then what would she use as the backing? / MS: Now this is the type of star that she made with the ones that we pieced. Well, the backing was, like the feed sacks, you know, you got flour, flour come in sacks. And it had printed letters on it. A lot of that was used. And sometimes you know she would, material was not too expensive but money was kind of scarce. Sometimes she would buy the little gingham checks or chambray, or whatever, you know that she could find. And I remember one time she sewed together a quilt lining out of Prince Albert smoking tobacco bags. If you ever saw those little bags, they're about so long and when, well when they're opened up they're not more than like five inches, I would say, and she sewed a quilt lining together out of the Prince Albert smoking tobacco bags. She washed these, and my dad smoked, and anybody else that would save 'em for her, you know. And so she made, has made quilt linings out of things of that type.
  • -  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-R103

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.

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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, Maggie Schockley, and Maggie Schockley. "She'd use cotton filler or old blankets.". Hillsville, Virginia, 1978. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000158/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Schockley, M. & Schockley, M. (1978) "She'd use cotton filler or old blankets.". Hillsville, Virginia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000158/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Maggie Schockley, and Maggie Schockley. "She'd use cotton filler or old blankets.". Hillsville, Virginia, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/qlt000158/>.