PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
July 2, 2009
Contact:
Amy E. Milne, Executive Director
(828) 251-7073
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org
ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -July 2, 2009 – How often do you see a quilt and wonder, “If only this quilt could speak; if only the quiltmaker could tell us about this work?” Unfortunately, quilts can’t speak, and all too often the quilts we see have been detached by time and circumstances from the hands and voices of their makers. Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories, an oral history project of the Alliance for American Quilts, celebrates the fundamental connection between objects and voices with nearly 1,000 interviews and 10 years of service.
Pictured from top to bottom are: Q.S.O.S. interviewee Christine Carlos, “Waterfall,” a quilt by interviewee Duncan Slade, and interviewee Kellie Wachter.
In October 1999, recognizing the fragility of the bonds between quiltmakers and their quilts, the Alliance for American Quilts initiated Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.) in partnership with the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware. The purpose of Q.S.O.S. is to record, preserve and share the stories of quiltmakers and their quilts on the Alliance’s website. In January 2007, the project’s archive moved from the University of Delaware to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
Nearly 1,000 full-text interviews with photographs are available to date, with more being added all the time. The interviews include quiltmakers who are professional to those who simply dabble. For the last three years, there has been a focus on including interviews with Latina, Native American, young, male, longarm and older quiltmakers.
In addition, the online downloadable how-to manual, which guides volunteers through the interviewing process, has been a key factor in the growth of Q.S.O.S. interviews. More than 300 volunteers have conducted the interviews and more and more quilt guilds and quilt organizations are beginning to document their members. The DAR has been documenting their members and members of their communities since 2004.
“Quiltmaking has traditionally been a way for women to express and share themselves. And while quilts can still be utilitarian, many of today’s contemporary quilts are an edgy and aware medium in which artists react to and comment on their world,” says Karen Musgrave, Q.S.O.S. Co-Chair. “Few people truly understand the scope of today’s quilt world and we are only beginning to understand the value of this body of documentation. I am proud of the contribution that Q.S.O.S. has made to not just the quilt world but the world. I would love to be a fly on the wall 100 years from now when people read these interviews and view the quilts.”
The interviews are being used in ways that were not foreseen in the beginning. The interviews are being used for masters and doctoral theses, writers are using them for their books and articles, guilds are using them to determine speakers and teachers, quilts are being purchased, and long lost friends and family is being reunited.
Sue Reno said about her experience, “I felt very validated by the finished transcript; it helped me self-identify as a serious artist.”
One of the newest features added to the website is an online publication of the interviews of quiltmakers inspired by President Barrack Obama. A goal of the project is to provide audio excerpts of interviews online and other resources aimed at providing students, educators and quilt enthusiasts everywhere with new ideas and tools for using this powerful collection of interviews in the near future.
A public service announcement by Quilter’s Muse Publications
