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Audio Recording "This one is called the Wishing Star."

"This one is called the Wishing Star."

About this Item

Title

  • "This one is called the Wishing Star."

Names

  • Johnson, Geraldine Niva, 1940- (Interviewer)
  • Stanley, Lura (Creator)
  • Stanley, Lura (Interviewee)

Created / Published

  • Laurel Fork, Virginia

Headings

  • -  Quilt patterns
  • -  quilt lining
  • -  star quilts
  • -  wishing star quilts
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  Interviews
  • -  United States -- Virginia -- Laurel Fork

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Lura Stanley was interviewed on September 28, 1978, at her home. Geraldine Johnson described Mrs. Stanley's quilts as "truly exquisite." She grew up on a farm and learned to quilt as a child, worked as a school teacher, and now makes quilts for herself and her family. She also has some older quilts which she bought at auctions. The highlights of this interview include Mrs. Stanley's comments on individual quilts as they were photographed.
  • -  Transcription: LS: I like my colors to, to, be right. Let's see if I can show you about my colors in this quilt here. Well, I chose this lining, because it went with this. Best I could find. You see, the quilting doesn't show up on that figured lining. The lining, there. And, these are cotton prints. / GJ: Yeah, they're real pretty, red, and black, and blue. And what is this pattern called again? / LS: Wishing Star. / GJ: Wishing Star. Okay. / LS: And it could be made, every, every square the same. But I, I just made mine different. But I put, I had a lot of red, and I used red in every one. / GJ: And the kind of ties it all together. Now you quilted this in white. But you can't really hardly, like you say, notice it on the back, especially when it's a figure. / LS: Yes, I like figured linings, but some people don't but I do. And I worked out this, uh. This, I did myself. I just, something that'll go in it. You have to figure it out. And I did that with a spool, and I cut this one out of cardboard, and just marked it around it. / GJ: You mean that's a sewing, like a sewing spool? / LS: Yeah, that circle. Or maybe it's a fifty-cent piece. Or quarter. Anything that's round and just mark around it, you see, and then I, I cut that with cardboard, the rest of that design. / GJ: Now is this your plate again, or something? / LS: Yes, uh huh. That's a saucer. / GJ: Now that wreath looks different than the other one you made. / LS: Well, it is different. The other one, this is the inside. / GJ: Yeah, yeah. So you vary your / LS: I varied it. I didn't want to do this one inside so I did that, you see. / GJ: I see. But you have, do you have that same feather pattern that you use all the time? / LS: Yeah, I just cut this, I just cut this out of a little cardboard and mark around it. Just to keep a place and around, mark it around it. / GJ: You make a new pattern for every quilt, or do you use the same one all the time? / LS: Well, I could cut 'em, I know how to cut 'em, so I, if I lose the pattern, I, it doesn't bother me, I can make another one. And mark around 'em you see, you mark around 'em. / GJ: But you have a store-bought one then that you use for that also? / LS: Well, the store-bought one that I have is not the right size. You've got to fill it out, fill your square out, so you have to adapt it to the size you want. You adapt it to the size, and so, this saucer, or round disk here, gives you, then you add the petals. Get your, you fill in, you see, and I don't always get it quite centered, but you don't notice that. / GJ: So you make up a feather pattern out of cardboard to fit around that circle. / LS: Yeah. Just use one little, just one, right there.
  • -  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-R106

Source Collection

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

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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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, Lura Stanley, and Lura Stanley. "This one is called the Wishing Star.". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000197/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Stanley, L. & Stanley, L. (1978) "This one is called the Wishing Star.". Laurel Fork, Virginia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000197/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Lura Stanley, and Lura Stanley. "This one is called the Wishing Star.". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/qlt000197/>.