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Audio Recording "What makes a quilt attractive?"

"What makes a quilt attractive?"

About this Item

Title

  • "What makes a quilt attractive?"

Names

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

Created / Published

  • Laurel Fork, Virginia

Headings

  • -  Quilting
  • -  aesthetics
  • -  hand quilting
  • -  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: GJ: What makes a quilt attractive, do you think? / LS: What makes a quilt attractive? Many things. Workmanship, and the colors, and what else? I said many things, and I've just come up with two things. The colors and workmanship. / GJ: What kinds of colors? What about the colors? / LS: The colors, I think bright colors go well, and colors that blend together. / GJ: And what about the workmanship. / LS: That's, workmanship is good quilting. Small stitches, and smooth, and even, and so forth. And piecing a quilt, the workmanship has a lot to do with it. Hand done, sewed by hand, and, and, pressed and ironed out well before you put it together, and, and, many things, sure enough, goes into it. Little details. Your pieces meet where they should and, and so forth. / GJ: Your corners where the, where the pattern comes together, they should / LS: Should, yes, uh huh. / GJ: What do you look for when you see other people's quilts at a quilt shop or something? What's the first thing you look for? / LS: Well, the first thing I look at the colors. You know, whether it's attractive or not. Pretty, bright colors, blending together. Then, when I look at it closer, I usually look and see the kind of quilting they've done. I don't like long stitches on quilts. And I try to see if it's hand done, whether it was pieced by hand or not. But that doesn't make any difference if it's, as much difference if it's put together well. And, just a good job.
  • -  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-R107

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, Lura Stanley, and Lura Stanley. "What makes a quilt attractive?". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000215/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Stanley, L. & Stanley, L. (1978) "What makes a quilt attractive?". Laurel Fork, Virginia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000215/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Lura Stanley, and Lura Stanley. "What makes a quilt attractive?". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/qlt000215/>.