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Audio Recording "This is a quilt my great-grandmother made."

"This is a quilt my great-grandmother made."

About this Item

Title

  • "This is a quilt my great-grandmother made."

Names

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

Created / Published

  • Laurel Fork, Virginia

Headings

  • -  Gifts
  • -  Quilt patterns
  • -  Dyeing
  • -  quilt tops
  • -  quilt lining
  • -  basket quilts
  • -  flower basket quilts
  • -  memory
  • -  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: That is a quilt that my mother gave me before I married because I loved it so much, and always liked quilts. And that is a quilt that my great-grandmother Terman made, I understand. And I have had it all these years, and I don't use it. But it has beautiful quilting on it and is a beautiful quilt, I think. / GJ: What pattern is it called? / LS: It's called a Flower Basket. / GJ: And what kind of backing does it have? / LS: That backing is unbleached muslin, dyed, with walnut hulls. They made their own dyes, and that is walnut hull, I'm positive, dye. / GJ: Is that right? / LS: Right. They, they took the walnut hulls and boiled 'em. When they, walnut hulls turn brown when they ripen, and then they take the walnut hulls, hulls, and boil 'em and strain 'em, and then use the, that for dyeing. That is the way that is dyed, I'm sure. / GJ: That's real interesting. Now when might she have made that? If you had to estimate, how old is that quilt? When was it made? / LS: Oh, let's see. Oh, back in the early 1800s, I would say. At least. / GJ: When did your Grandmother Terman live? What was her dates? / LS: My grandmother, now I understand, and I could be mistaken, I understand that my great-grandmother did that, but if my grandmother did that, my grandmother died in 19 and three. / GJ: Ah, so your great-grandmother / LS: I, I understood that, but it could be that it was my grandmother. I just can't quite see her mother making it. But, I always had the understanding that it was my great-grandmother, but I, I like to believe it was my grandmother Terman. She died in 1903. So that would make it way back in the 1800s that she made it. / GJ: Absolutely. And it was dyed / LS: With walnut hulls. / GJ: The backing was. What was it pieced with, do you think? / LS: Well, those, they call 'em calico prints, those prints in it are calico prints. And the others are material that they bought from the stores. In those days I understand there were peddlers that came through. I guess they had some stores. But they had peddlers that came through, and had dry goods, that sold, sold 'em their materials. And it's cotton, I'm sure of that, positive it's all cotton.
  • -  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-R108

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.

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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 is a quilt my great-grandmother made.". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000218/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Stanley, L. & Stanley, L. (1978) "This is a quilt my great-grandmother made.". Laurel Fork, Virginia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000218/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Lura Stanley, and Lura Stanley. "This is a quilt my great-grandmother made.". Laurel Fork, Virginia, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/qlt000218/>.