0:00:00.0 Allene Helgeson (AH): And what name it is?

0:00:01.6 Vivian Smithburg (VS): A quilt.

AH: Well, this is Allene Helgeson. Today, I'm interviewing Vivian Smithburg on Borden Lake outside of Garrison, Minnesota. She brought quilts into the Brainerd Quilt Discovery Day, I think that was in 1990?

0:00:20.3 VS: Two years.

0:00:21.7 AH: Two years.

0:00:21.8 VS: Every two years.

0:00:22.5 AH: Oh, Well, that was '91.

0:00:25.2 VS: It was in '90. I'm sorry.

0:00:28.3 AH: And her name is Vivian Smithburg. Her address is...

0:00:35.3 VS: 2885 Robinwood Lane Southeast, and it is Brainerd, Minnesota.

0:00:43.3 AH: And your phone number?

0:00:44.8 VS: 612-692-4578.

0:00:49.4 AH: Your birthdate and birthplace?

0:00:52.1 VS: September 2nd, 1921 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

0:00:56.8 AH: And your national background?

0:01:00.8 VS: Swedish.

0:01:00.9 AH: Swedish. And where you lived, when you did quilting. When did you start quilting, Vivian?

0:01:08.0 VS: Well, the first quilt I ever made must have been about 53 years ago, and it was a Dresden Plate, and I did the plates as we call them, and appliquéd them onto the squares and sewed the squares together, and then my mother did the quilting for me. And the materials in there are from dresses and blouses that both my mother and myself had made for each other, and there are even pieces in there from my daughter. So it actually wasn't completed until the '50s, but it was started in the '30s.

0:01:46.6 AH: So you have materials in there all the way from the '30s through the '50s.

0:01:51.3 VS: Yes.

0:01:51.3 AH: Is that one of the quilts? Is that the one quilt that's hanging on the rack?

0:01:55.1 VS: Yeah. And that was one of them that went in the... That they took a picture of, for this project when they did it.

0:02:02.4 AH: Oh, that's right, 'cause we documented up to 1976, didn't we? You had started quilting or piecing in your teens?

0:02:13.2 VS: Yes.

0:02:13.6 AH: That would be in your teens when you made the plates. And your mother quilted, you say.

0:02:19.2 VS: Quilted.

0:02:20.3 AH: Did other relatives quilt?

0:02:22.7 VS: Well, my grandmother must have, because I have the other quilt that is in the... That they took the pictures of, and the history of.

0:02:30.7 AH: The Oak Leaf /Reel.

0:02:32.0 VS: The Oak Leaf /Reel. Other than that, I don't know.

0:02:35.9 AH: Now, they quilted in Canada with...

0:02:39.6 VS: No, this would have been here in Minnesota.

0:02:41.0 AH: In Minnesota.

0:02:41.7 VS: My father was the Canadian, my mother was the American.

0:02:44.8 AH: Oh, but you were born in Calgary?

[overlapping conversation]

0:02:46.8 VS: Yeah.

0:02:47.4 AH: Oh, cool. Great. But had they both come from Sweden?

0:02:52.3 VS: No, no, no, no. No, my grandparents had.

0:02:53.8 AH: Oh, your grandparents had. Let me see. The next thing they would like to know. Well, let's see. That is the only national influence in your family then, it's all Swedish.

0:03:05.7 VS: Yeah, both sides.

0:03:08.8 AH: Yeah. Both sides. And just your mother's side made quilts, or do you know of your dads?

0:03:14.5 VS: Yes, my Canadian grandmother made quilts, and I have a log cabin quilt here that she did. And I imagine that was done in the 1915, '16, '17 or early '20s, 'cause it has the old, old material in it.

0:03:29.8 AH: Oh, I'll have to see that one.

0:03:32.0 VS: Mm-hmm.

0:03:32.2 AH: You didn't take that one to the Quilt Discovery Days.

0:03:34.7 VS: No, I didn't. I should have, but I thought two...

0:03:36.5 AH: Yeah.

0:03:37.0 VS: Ideally was enough.

0:03:38.8 AH: I think a lot of people thought that. When your mother quilted, I haven't seen anything your mother did, have I? Your grandmother did the Oak Leaf/Reel.

0:03:53.4 VS: Yeah, Yeah. My mother belonged to the First Baptist Church Quilt Group that every once a week they met and quilted quilts for people, and she thoroughly enjoyed it because I don't remember her... As I was growing up, doing any quilting, but she did get very involved at that time.

0:04:13.3 AH: But then she didn't do any for herself?

0:04:16.7 VS: No, no.

0:04:17.5 AH: No. So you don't remember her piecing or...

0:04:21.5 VS: No. Sewing? Yes, but not anything pertaining to a quilt.

0:04:27.8 AH: Don't we all wish we'd started sooner?

0:04:29.7 VS: Oh my goodness, yes.

0:04:31.5 AH: And now we're gonna get down to your quilting. What part do you like the most, patterns, or the planning, the sewing?

0:04:41.9 VS: I think the appliqué.

0:04:43.6 AH: You like the appliqué the best.

0:04:45.5 VS: I guess that's strange, isn't it?

0:04:48.6 AH: Well, I think you're in the minority, a lot of us dodge appliqué. But I think it's more demanding, really.

0:04:57.0 VS: For my four grandchildren, well, five, actually, I have designed and done wall hangings. And the material in the two boys, particularly the material, has been material that their mother had in dresses as she was growing up, 'cause I never throw a thing away. So I have had materials from way, way, way back. And they are similar, but they're different, because they couldn't be the... And it was fun designing those. And at one time, I designed wall hangings for a children's shop out in Wayzata, but I didn't really follow through. I sold one and then just kind of got involved in something else and that went by the wayside.

0:05:40.9 AH: That would have been really demanding.

0:05:43.5 VS: Yes. And I think I thought I just can't be that tied down.

0:05:46.3 AH: Yeah. Anyone that came in could order one and have it made to their...

0:05:51.5 VS: Yeah. And that wasn't for me at that time. Now, either. [chuckle]

0:05:55.9 AH: How much did they sell for? How much did the one you...

0:06:00.3 VS: I think this had to be in the '50s, so I think it sold for about 55.

0:06:03.9 AH: That would be high.

0:06:04.8 VS: It was high.

0:06:05.5 AH: In the '50s.

0:06:05.9 VS: But it was a very exclusive children's shop, out in Wayzata.

0:06:10.1 AH: Yes. A lot of us are familiar with the Wayzata Children's Shop. Let me see. How many quilts have you made then? Do you know? Excluding your wall hangings, but you've done a quite a few quilts then.

0:06:20.5 VS: Let's see. Maybe five that I can think of off-hand.

0:06:29.0 AH: Full quilts?

0:06:30.2 VS: Yeah.

0:06:30.7 AH: Do you quilt on a frame?

0:06:36.0 VS: I like to quilt just in my lap without a hoop. I have not accomplished that to the degree that I should. When I did my queen size quilt, I used... My husband made me a big frame and I did that, and that was easy.

0:06:53.0 AH: That works really well, doesn't it, for the big pieces and keeps everything squared up?

0:06:56.9 VS: Squared. Yeah. 'Cause I think I would have... When I have done small things, I do it on my lap.

0:07:01.5 AH: You never use just a hoop?

0:07:02.8 VS: I've tried, and it seems to be in my way.

0:07:06.5 AH: It's awkward.

0:07:07.9 VS: Yeah. But I should do it because I know a lot of the girls do.

0:07:11.6 AH: I use one, but I use one about this big, it's on a stand, and it will revolve. And that works pretty well for the bigger pieces. But I'm doing a wall hanging now, and I tried to do it just without a hoop, but I kinda like the hoop because it holds everything real taut.

0:07:34.2 VS: Yeah. I'm gonna have to do it.

0:07:36.3 AH: And I kinda like that idea. I don't think I'm gonna have it done in time, but it's supposed to be for a quilt show, the 1st and 2nd.

0:07:47.5 VS: Of October? Oh you will, you might.

0:07:49.1 AH: It's just...

0:07:51.2 VS: The pressure is on. Yeah, you'll get it done.

0:07:51.3 AH: Well, I'm just quilting odds and ends in it, waves in the water and a cloud in the sky.

0:07:54.4 VS: Oh, that sounds interesting.

0:07:57.2 AH: It's a little scenic thing.

0:08:00.0 VS: Oh, that's my next project. Our son has his license to sail the big sailboats on Lake Superior. So he started out with a tiny little sailboat, and he's gradually been going up. So, his Christmas gift is going to be a wall hanging with the different sized ships and then the grass and the sky and the lake and everything.

0:08:19.5 AH: Have you designed then...

0:08:20.7 VS: Not quite yet. It's in the mind.

0:08:22.6 AH: But you're gonna design the boat.

0:08:24.8 VS: Oh yeah.

0:08:25.3 AH: You have pictures or something...

0:08:26.7 VS: Yeah, I'll have to go to a marine shop and get the different pictures and... But I think that's gonna be fun.

0:08:32.7 AH: Yeah.

0:08:33.3 VS: Now this is what I really like to do.

AH: The designing.

VS: And yet, I don't do anything when I think of some of the girls at Pinetree Patchworkers, oh my goodness.

0:08:42.9 AH: Oh, you belong to Pinetree Patchworkers in Brainerd?

0:08:47.4 VS: Yes.

0:08:48.2 AH: Yeah. That's a good group.

0:08:50.0 VS: Oh, it's fabulous.

0:08:51.6 AH: You've had things in their shows then...

0:08:53.9 VS: Oh, yes.

0:08:55.3 AH: I'm sure your quilts.

0:08:55.3 VS: Oh yeah. Yeah, my little wall hanging over the stairway had 13 votes last show. I was so thrilled.

[chuckle]

0:09:01.8 AH: Good.

0:09:02.8 VS: I was so thrilled about that. I didn't think, "Oh, I'm not gonna get a thing."

0:09:06.6 AH: Well, it's always nice.

0:09:07.9 VS: Yeah.

0:09:09.2 AH: Was it viewer's choice or...

0:09:13.4 VS: Yes.

0:09:13.4 AH: Something like that. It isn't a judged show.

0:09:16.2 VS: No.

0:09:16.3 AH: There aren't many first prizes...

[overlapping conversation]

0:09:17.0 VS: No. Which I think is nice.

0:09:19.5 AH: I think that's nice too. There's a place for judging and all the fairs and stuff.

0:09:27.0 VS: Yeah. But not in a small group.

0:09:28.2 AH: Not in a small group like that. It makes for too much... I don't know if it's competition but hurt feelings.

0:09:35.2 VS: I think so. And the way I see... Some people feel left out.

0:09:40.5 AH: Yes, I would think so.

0:09:41.7 VS: And right now it just seems like such a friendly, warm group, and I would hate to see that vanish.

0:09:47.5 AH: I think most quilt groups seem real, less political than other groups I've been in.

0:09:56.4 VS: That could be.

0:09:56.5 AH: Less competitive. Everybody seems to share more.

0:10:03.6 VS: Yes. Yeah.

0:10:04.2 AH: People don't seem jealous of their patterns or...

0:10:06.9 VS: No. Uh-uh.

0:10:08.4 AH: I was looking for a piece of material last week that was two years old, and I needed some of it. And two or three of the ladies said, "Well, I think I've still got some of that scraps or something." And one of them did, one of them came up and said, "Oh, here, use whatever you want."

0:10:24.4 VS: Isn't that nice?

0:10:25.5 AH: Yeah. I just needed a few pieces of it.

0:10:28.1 VS: But that's important.

0:10:29.0 AH: I wanted that...

0:10:30.2 VS: Particular piece.

0:10:31.1 AH: And then I was happy when I got home. I thought it did work.

0:10:34.9 VS: It did, good.

0:10:35.5 AH: The way that I had imagined that it would. 'Cause I thought, "Oh, what if I made all this search for it and then when I get it, I don't want it. You know, I'll feel... Because I'll have to put it in.

0:10:46.8 VS: Sure, of course you would. It's the right shade.

0:10:49.7 AH: But it did, it just worked fine.

0:10:51.8 VS: Good.

0:10:52.5 AH: But do you sign your quilts, or no?

0:10:55.0 VS: Yes, those I did in the show, I did. And I'm going to put my name on the older ones.

0:11:01.2 AH: Put dates.

0:11:01.8 VS: And the dates.

0:11:03.3 AH: If you can.

0:11:04.5 VS: I think I can... Yes, I'll do that.

0:11:04.5 AH: In fact, I talked to a lady named Alma Esser. She's an older lady, really classy, she's sharp. Talked to her this morning, and she had made up a little loose leaf notebook with a picture of each quilt. She hasn't made a lot, she started later. And as she was working on it... When she started it and if she made it in a class, she took classes on different things, and that made a nice little memento.

0:11:36.7 VS: Wouldn't that though? It'd be great for your daughter or...

0:11:40.0 AH: Yeah. That's what...

0:11:40.4 VS: You know, as time goes on.

0:11:41.4 AH: She thought, how long it took her or something.

0:11:44.8 VS: Wonderful.

0:11:45.1 AH: But she goes to Florida in the winter, and there's a lot of quilters in Florida, all are just thick.

0:11:51.6 VS: Oh my goodness.

0:11:52.8 AH: So there's lots of quilt shops, and there's a lot of classes and she said she really enjoys...

0:11:57.0 VS: I would think so.

0:11:57.8 AH: Going to the classes, 'cause she just kinda... You meet so many nice people.

0:12:01.6 VS: I can imagine.

0:12:02.1 AH: Yeah, yeah. That would be fun.

0:12:03.8 AH: And then they form... Keep adding groups.

0:12:07.0 VS: I suppose.

0:12:07.7 AH: Yeah. But you have a good quilt shop here in Brainerd.

0:12:11.3 VS: Yes. And now we have the Country Fabrics, which of course is all quilting, mostly quilting.

0:12:20.9 AH: I think that's the one I passed.

0:12:22.9 VS: I think it is, yeah. And then the Joann Fabrics has a wonderful selection and one of the managers of that store is a quilter and belongs to the Pinetree Patchworkers so that helps.

0:12:32.8 AH: That helps.

0:12:33.2 VS: And then Ben Franklin is getting a very fine collection because the gal that is now manager there is a quilter.

0:12:40.8 AH: Ben Franklin's has gone a lot more into that line in the last...

0:12:44.8 VS: Oh, yes.

0:12:45.8 AH: In Arizona, I know they have a... It's almost like a craft store.

0:12:49.8 VS: Oh.

0:12:50.2 AH: The new Ben Franklin's is more craft than variety store.

0:12:54.4 VS: Right. Yeah. That's great.

0:12:55.2 AH: And they have good fabrics.

0:12:55.6 VS: Yes, just as good as any of the other ones do really.

0:13:00.9 AH: And a lot of the notions and stuff. So you really got a lot available to you up here.

0:13:09.8 VS: Oh yes, yeah. And then in Crosby, there's a quilt shop, and she's one of our quilters. She opened up a shop. And up in the Nisswa area, there is a new shop, so really they're just mushrooming around here.

0:13:24.0 AH: Really? I met Marsha Stevens, she was the chairman.

0:13:27.6 VS: Oh, yes.

0:13:29.1 AH: But now she's up at Emily, isn't she? Or...

0:13:30.1 VS: No.

0:13:32.6 AH: Her quilt shop...

0:13:33.4 VS: Is right here...

0:13:34.3 AH: She did move it down into town.

0:13:35.0 VS: Yeah, she's here now. Yeah, she's in Brainerd.

0:13:37.1 AH: Well, I've always been... Gonna send something to her to machine quilt, but it takes so long.

0:13:40.5 VS: They do a beautiful...

0:13:43.5 AH: They're backed up.

0:13:43.9 VS: She's backed up, so.

0:13:45.7 AH: Yeah.

0:13:45.8 VS: Yeah. But she does beautiful work.

0:13:47.8 AH: Well, I used to kind of look down on machine quilting, but if it's done nicely, it's just...

0:13:55.4 VS: It is creative.

0:13:55.6 AH: Yeah, it's wonderful.

0:13:56.6 VS: We were down in Eureka Springs, golfing. And on our way home, we went through... Oh, now, I cannot think of the name of the town where Georgia Bonesteel has her...

0:14:10.3 AH: I have no idea.

[overlapping conversation]

0:14:14.8 AH: I know it's in North Carolina.

0:14:16.9 VS: Yeah, it's North Carolina. It's right there...

0:14:17.6 AH: Ashbrook, or...

0:14:20.7 VS: Asheville?

0:14:22.3 AH: Maybe it is. Asheville, yeah.

0:14:23.1 VS: And I said, "I have got to go in there." And it was five miles off the highway, so we went in there. And of course it's in the part of the big hardware store. I was disappointed that it wasn't as large, I expected just a huge shop.

0:14:38.8 AH: Was it smaller than the one at Genola?

0:14:41.5 VS: Oh, yes. Yes.

0:14:42.7 AH: See that one...

0:14:44.5 VS: So, surprising.

0:14:45.6 AH: Oh, I've been in Genola's several times, yeah.

0:14:47.5 VS: Oh, you have been? Yeah. Yeah. No, it was smaller. They have a huge quilting machine, and we stood and watched the lady quilt for a while. And her materials, I did buy material. Of course, what else do we do when we go in a shop? She wasn't there, which I was disappointed about. But the three ladies... And they were dressed... They had kind of old-fashioned dresses on, and then these darling bib-type aprons that were quilted. And it was fun. I mean, I'm glad that I did go, but the roadside hospitality... Well, you know what I mean. When you're coming into the state...

0:15:25.7 AH: Oh, yeah. The Information Center.

0:15:27.1 VS: The Information Center and everything, had a quilt hanging on the wall that I will never ever see again. One woman made it. I had asked the lady at the desk, I said, "Did Georgia Bonesteel make this? And she said "No." Some individual had made it. And it was the whole state of North Carolina. And every county was marked off. And in this area, the thing that pertained to that county was either appliqué, quilted, or attached in some way. It was absolutely fabulous. And no camera, I suppose I had one somewhere in the car. But now that definitely should be shown, I would say, in any quilt magazine. I don't know if it ever has been.

0:16:07.7 AH: I don't know.

0:16:08.2 VS: But oh, it was gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

0:16:08.7 AH: Well, that would be fun.

0:16:08.9 VS: Oh, it was. And I'm sure they'll keep it there all the time.

0:16:15.9 AH: Another lady... Talking about things that you see, and you'll never see a pattern for or anything, but my sister-in-law is 74, 75. Well, she was in Ohio this summer, traveling. And in a quilt shop that was closed, in the window, she saw a quilt. And it had a tag on it that gave the title. And she had never seen one like it. And she hasn't been quilting a long, long time, so she wasn't real familiar with what design it was. But she could tell me about it. And she said, "If you ever see... Have you ever heard of this pattern called Encircled Tulips?" And I said "No." But I said, "When I get back to Minnesota, I'll ask." Well, of course, the shop was closed and she was just going through, so she couldn't find out any more about it. And I asked everywhere. And I looked in books. And I couldn't see anything even called that, anywhere. So last month, I put a little ad in the Minnesota Quilters newsletter and asking for it. And a lady called me, one lady called and she said, "Where did you hear about this pattern?" And I explained that a relative had seen it in a window. And she said, "You know what? The reason I ask is that... " She had seen it. And she had never ever seen it anywhere. And she told her husband, she said, "Stop the car."

0:17:46.4 AH: She was driving to Branson, Missouri. The roads down there in Missouri, they have these roadside stands, and they have old general stores and the things with quilts hanging up. And she went in this one, and she said, "It's just beautiful." And they were selling the pattern, but it was like a little hand-made pattern like I wanted to copy off something to give to you. And it was like a sheet of mimeograph paper, and then they had attached a photo of a finished quilt on it. And that's what she got. That was the... And I think she said she paid $7 for it. But it's a Drunkard's Path variation, set in that love ring, so the Drunkard's Path are set around. And then somehow there's tulips appliquéd, but she is going to send me a copy of the picture.

0:18:48.7 VS: Good.

0:18:50.0 AH: That she got, and copy of the pattern. And I wish I could see the color picture, but I don't suppose I will. But she said it was just the most beautiful quilt she'd ever seen, and she'd seen a lot of quilts. So I'm gonna see it and send it on to my sister-in-law.

0:19:07.0 VS: Right.

0:19:07.4 AH: But somehow the tulips are appliquéd. That's why.

0:19:12.6 VS: They'd have to be.

0:19:15.3 AH: But I'm anxious. This lady was leaving on vacation right away, so... But she was real interested in how did I ever hear about this pattern 'cause she had never heard of it before.

0:19:25.8 VS: Something. There's this... Well, you've been to Berea?

0:19:30.5 AH: Yes, but I haven't been to the shop there.

0:19:32.8 VS: Oh, well, in the window, there was an ivory and blue and ivory and kind of a cranberry. They were the same quilt pattern, just absolutely exquisite. And then you go in and there must be 500 quilts in this shop. They're hanging, they're laying, they're draped over things, and then they're in these like at a quilt show when they're tacked up and you can move, they're like on the boards. Well, way, I shouldn't tell this, way, way, way back in the corner was one hanging full open, and I always carry paper and pencil. Well, I tried to quickly setting my husband in the aisle so in case anybody came nobody would see me doing this to copy the design of it. Well, it's not ever going to work, and they don't sell it.

0:20:28.7 VS: A woman, 'cause I did ask if they had the... First, I asked if they had the pattern because I thought, well, if they do, this is got... If I only make one block. But it's made by a woman out in the hills. And she said that she does not give any of her patterns in any form that can be purchased. And it is just simply gorgeous, but they're so expensive. I could not afford to have bought the quilt, to begin with, so there it is. It's in my mind, and that's where it's gonna have to stay, but...

0:20:56.6 AH: What kind of a design is it?

0:21:00.1 VS: Well, it has triangles and it had... It's a large design. So one square you would make almost a small wall hanging and she just...

0:21:09.8 AH: Like a medallion type of thing?

0:21:12.0 VS: Yeah, it's beautiful. They're little pieces and middle size pieces, but there were a lot of diamonds connecting, and if I remember, they kind of came around in a circle, and then you had a feeling of flowers in the middle, but it wasn't anything like an Album quilt at all. It was all just the two colors, the background and the plain color. So if we go back down that way, I'm definitely going back in there [chuckle] and maybe by this time she will have decided she could sell a pattern or two.

0:21:40.1 AH: Yeah. Maybe you could take a picture.

0:21:42.1 VS: Yeah. I never thought of that. There was a woman in there. This, I cannot believe. Her husband was also patiently waiting and the two fellows got talking and he said, "I don't know why she's even looking at quilt she has 300." Can you imagine?

0:21:58.0 AH: I can imagine still looking though.

0:22:00.2 VS: Oh, you bet.

[laughter]

0:22:01.1 AH: Because it's... I look at like Indian jewelry, I just... And it's just beautiful. The Navajo or Hopi jewelry. And my husband looks at me, and he says, but you have a turquoise ring, it's like, [laughter] because you have a turquoise ring or a quilt, you don't need anymore.

0:22:20.4 VS: You don't anymore.

0:22:21.4 AH: Or you can't admire anymore. But I said, well, I don't need them, but I always just...

0:22:26.9 VS: Just look.

0:22:28.2 AH: Just look because I just think they're so beautiful.

0:22:29.6 VS: Yeah, they are.

0:22:30.7 AH: And now I'm starting to try to make some more Southwestern designs, to do a few more things for that house. But I went right down when we moved in down there, and I had planned to hang a rug on the living room wall.

0:22:47.9 VS: Oh, sure.

0:22:48.8 AH: And then that didn't work out too well. And I had taken a couple quilts with me, so I hung a quilt on the living room wall. Well, you can't imagine the reaction people walking by. And of course when somebody new was moving in, how you're kinda looking at the [laughter] through the window as you walk by, they were just amazed 'cause it was... It's a red and ivory Delectable Mountains. So it's got all these peaks going out and rings, and it turned out real pretty, but it was a class project. It was a machine piecing thing. And I had it machine-quilted. So see, I don't have the same feeling for the machine-done ones that I do for the ones I've sat and quilted, but it makes a outstanding wall piece.

0:23:39.2 VS: It worked.

0:23:39.4 AH: Yeah, it really got a lot of attention. Red and ivory on the wall, and all these things. [chuckle] But it probably isn't very good for it hanging down there, but...

0:23:50.6 VS: Well, as long as the sun doesn't hit it.

0:23:52.3 AH: Well, the sun won't hit it.

0:23:53.4 VS: Oh well, then you're okay.

0:23:54.5 AH: Yeah. And nobody smokes anymore.

0:23:56.4 VS: Well. Then you're fine.

0:23:57.5 AH: Yeah. I don't know. Do you have any big deals about taking care of your quilts or anything?

0:24:04.0 VS: No. I think the one, Dresden Plate one that has been pictured for this project, the back was white, and it's getting creamier and creamier, and I suppose it has been washed, and I just wonder, well, should I wash it again, but...

0:24:25.9 AH: I don't know.

0:24:27.1 VS: We have a gal, and I wish you could meet her. She lives over in Isle that does beautiful quilting and she always gets best of show in all our quilt shows, and she does sell quilts.

0:24:40.1 AH: What's her name?

0:24:41.6 VS: Kathy Munkelwitz.

0:24:43.0 AH: Oh yeah.

0:24:43.7 VS: You've heard of her?

0:24:45.3 AH: When you said Isle, it just... Yeah, I've heard of her.

0:24:49.8 VS: And she washes everything, and she throws them in the washer, and she throws them in the dryer, and she said the more they are washed, the older they look and the puffier they get, and it's just...

0:25:02.7 AH: She just loves them.

0:25:03.7 VS: Oh, she just loves them and she does beautiful work.

0:25:09.9 AH: Well, that was one of the things I was gonna ask you. Do you know anybody else around that you'd recommend that we should be interviewing? No, I don't know even how old is Kathy Munkelwitz is, but she's not...

0:25:22.0 VS: Oh, she's in her 60s.

0:25:23.8 AH: Is she?

0:25:24.3 VS: Oh yeah.

0:25:24.8 AH: Oh, I thought she... For some reason, I thought she was quite young. I don't know.

0:25:29.1 VS: No. 'Cause she's got grandkids. So she's... I'm sure she's '60s.

0:25:35.8 AH: Anyway, so that would be one. We're trying to... Mostly, we interview people, we're trying to get more about the history of quilting in the state, and I don't know, I'm not getting much... I haven't asked you much about your grandparents or your mother, about when they started quilting or anything, but just...

0:25:56.2 VS: Well, just I know that one quilt, the oak leaf, has to be 130-some years old. And my Canadian grandmother did a lot of quilting, but of course, we lived here in the States, and she was up there so all I know is that...

0:26:13.4 AH: And Calgary isn't just over the hill.

0:26:15.3 VS: No, no.

0:26:15.7 AH: That's not like going to Winnipeg.

0:26:18.7 VS: Winnipeg, yeah. So, I really don't know, but I know that she crocheted and she knit, and my dad has made references or had made references many times that, well, if mother was really involved in something, dad had to get the food on the table, so she must have been one of these that just... [laughter] That started and that was it.

0:26:37.8 AH: Well, that must have been... Well, that's good, at least he could get the food on the table.

0:26:41.0 VS: Oh, yeah, and she does... All her crocheting is just exquisite, so... And my daughter, thankfully, has inherited that. She can sit down and watch television and knit and crotchet, and do needlepoint at the same time, so she must have gotten her Canadian grandmother's talents because it's coming out of...

0:26:57.6 AH: Does she quilt too?

0:26:58.6 VS: Not yet, but I'm getting her there. [laughter]

0:27:01.3 AH: Yeah. It's funny how things that maybe they resist as young people, a lot of us come to or they come to... My daughter wouldn't sew, couldn't sew, made a mess of every project she ever had in her school, just... And now she teaches for Bernina.

0:27:22.8 VS: Oh, isn't that something? [laughter] That is neat.

0:27:25.7 AH: She's at Bernina sewing instructor.

0:27:27.5 VS: Oh my goodness, I just... I bet you can't believe it?

0:27:31.5 AH: I can't. Then I couldn't really visualize it until she came this summer, and one of my friends had bought a Bernina about a year ago, and then had gone away for the winter and different things, and had never gotten her kind of orientation class, and so she said, "Well, maybe when Licia comes, she'll show me a couple of things." I said, "Well I bet she would." So my daughter visited us in August, and I asked, and she said, "Oh sure tell her to come on over, bring her machine." And so we set up my machine and my friend's, and Licia just... She could just... She showed me a lot of things that I hadn't ever tried or learned or...

0:28:16.3 VS: That, no, that would be fun.

0:28:17.6 AH: Yeah, I was... She was good.

0:28:20.4 VS: Great.

0:28:20.7 AH: Yeah.

0:28:20.8 VS: See, so it rubbed off.  Speaking of old quilts, I have... Well, my daughter has one that we tied, and I have the top of two, and I can't even tell you where they are right now, that were made by my husband's, it has to be grandmother, who was a Merritt, the iron ore Merritts.

0:28:43.5 AH: I actually, I don't know Minnesota, I don't know Minnesota history that way.

0:28:46.2 VS: Oh, okay, yeah. And they are... I think they must have been made during first World War because the colors are mainly reds and blues, and they're sewn together by hand, and I've got to get that one that I have out and get it finished by tying it. I wouldn't quilt them. The material is too thin. It's what I would call a very inferior material compared to what we have today, and it's not feed cloth because it's of the solid colors, but they're interesting.

0:29:22.9 AH: It would be, especially if it is a historical family too in the state.

0:29:28.3 VS: Yeah, so that... But it's just these things, I guess I have spread myself too thin in past years. I paint, and I sing, and I'm in theater up here, and I just don't find time to spend... And I know I'm not as fast as I used to be. When we get older, we kind of slow down.

0:29:49.7 AH: What do you paint?

0:29:51.5 VS: Well, that little bucket over there is painted, just kind of Germany type, more of the German...

0:30:00.5 AH: It's not rosemaling but it's...

0:30:01.8 VS: No, look, a mixture of rosemaling, German, and myself. [chuckle] Definitely me. And I did do art at the university, but that was more display type or commercial type, but I've never gotten anything with it. And then I paint bisque, not china painting, but figurines. I have done... I have Santa Clauses that are just darling and...

0:30:28.3 AH: They're just bisque-finished, but they're not...

0:30:30.0 VS: Yeah, no but that's... I prefer that to the...

0:30:34.5 AH: Yeah, its a nice thing, I like that.

0:30:36.4 VS: Well, I have three to be done that have been... I should have done three years ago, so this is the year.

0:30:41.3 AH: Are they sort of like the old world Santa that you see?

0:30:43.1 VS: Yes, the old Saint Nicholas type, yeah.

0:30:45.9 AH: I used to do some ceramics years ago. I don't do anything but fabric stuff anymore. But I don't know...

0:30:54.7 VS: Well, that's... I've got a... Well, I dont have some here, but it is time-consuming, and yet I should... 'Cause we're having a show next June, so I have to get really busy after Christmas, it's just...

0:31:08.1 AH: Putting your... In your ceramic work?

0:31:10.0 VS: No, in our quilt show.

0:31:10.9 AH: In your quilt show in June.

0:31:11.5 VS: Our quilt show's gonna be next June, yeah.

0:31:13.7 AH: Oh, I hope I can get to it. I didn't get the last one.

0:31:16.8 VS: Ain't that fun?

0:31:17.0 AH: Well, ours in Stillwater is next weekend, the 1st and 2nd, Friday and Saturday...

0:31:21.8 VS: It is?

0:31:23.5 AH: The Stillwater show is. And I'm helping hang it, so I'm gonna be...

0:31:29.3 VS: Very busy.

0:31:30.0 AH: Out of my head about Thursday night.

0:31:35.0 VS: I wish it were the next weekend, cause then we're gonna be in the city, and then we could come pick my daughter and drive down.

0:31:39.7 AH: You just spent the weekend in the city, didn't you?

0:31:41.6 VS: Yes, yes, it was a shame [chuckle] they're trying to get me.

0:31:46.0 AH: But there's... In the autumn, and in the spring, it seems like there's a quilt show somewhere around here...

0:31:50.2 VS: I think so.

0:31:51.0 AH: About every weekend. A lot of... A couple of weeks ago, I... Well, it was last weekend, I think it was in Rochester and Mahtomedi and Frederic, was it Fredric? Anyway, there were just several, but you just can't...

0:32:08.9 VS: You can't get them all.

0:32:10.6 AH: No, I went over to the one in Mahtomedi, that was a good show...

0:32:12.5 VS: Oh, I bet it was.

0:32:13.7 AH: Yeah, that was a good show, and that's a new group too.

0:32:17.4 VS: Is it?

0:32:17.5 AH: They've only been meeting for two years. A lot...

0:32:21.6 VS: You had enough to put a show up.

0:32:23.9 AH: Oh, a very good show. And a lot of them are new quilters. They picked them up out of the classes there in White Bear Lake.

0:32:32.2 VS: Oh, sure. Great.

0:32:35.5 AH: They put on a really nice show. So, we got our work cut out for us.

[chuckle]

0:32:41.1 AH: But they had a beautiful place.

0:32:43.1 VS: Oh, that makes...

0:32:43.7 AH: Good. Good.

0:32:44.4 VS: You were in Minnesota Quilters show I'm sure? Yeah. Wasn't that... My daughter and I spent the whole day practically. That's...

0:32:51.4 AH: We went down and stayed for three nights from Stillwater. Several of us went down, and we just stayed down by... Down by Chaska because we had full day classes for two days. And by the time you get out of class and drive home, or get to class at 8:15 or something in the morning from Stillwater, it's...

0:33:12.1 VS: That'd be a...

0:33:12.9 AH: Besides it's fun. It's fun to go. And we had such a good time when we went to Duluth. They had it at the College of Saint Scholastica. And you stayed in the dorm rooms.

0:33:25.0 VS: Oh, nice.

0:33:26.4 AH: One year several of us went to Saint Peter. And you stay in the dorm rooms. And it's reasonable.

0:33:34.2 VS: It is when you think about it.

0:33:35.5 AH: Yeah. And it's fun. You get together in the evening and sew and whatever.

0:33:39.0 VS: Yeah, sure.

0:33:40.2 AH: It's fun. Well, I need... What else do I need? They must be all... They like to know all of these kind of things. Let's see. What can we cover here. Because quilting needles and stitches, do you use any particular thing, or anything unusual?

0:34:03.7 VS: No, I use a number 10, nine or 10 needle. And I also sew the quilt blocks that I'm doing for our friendship quilt. I'm using that same little needle to sew everything together with. I have discovered that it's much easier to use that tiny needle than the long needle.

0:34:24.1 AH: Do you use a thimble?

0:34:25.7 VS: Oh my goodness, yes.

[laughter]

0:34:27.7 VS: Yeah. It's funny, all the years that I made clothes, I never used a thimble.

0:34:32.7 AH: You didn't?

0:34:33.0 AH: When I started quilting, you just can't quilt without one.

0:34:35.6 VS: You can't, yeah. I finally bought myself one with a little indentation so that when I start to do the actual quilting, I'm gonna be okay. And I don't know. I don't think there's anything different that I do. What kind of thread did I use? Well, when I sew the pieces together, I use regular thread, of course then quilting. Although...

0:34:58.4 AH: When you say regular thread though, do you use Dual duty?

0:35:02.2 VS: Yeah.

0:35:02.6 AH: Dual duty.

0:35:03.8 VS: Dual duty. Yeah.

0:35:04.3 AH: I've gone now to that lighter weight all cotton. I buy it on a little cone. It's a weight 50 all cotton.

0:35:14.0 VS: I didn't know about that.

0:35:16.8 AH: I bought it at Country Peddler in Saint Anthony. You know where Country Peddler is?

0:35:24.0 VS: Mm-hmm.

0:35:25.0 AH: Well, I was reading something about machine quilting, and they suggested the all cotton thread for all cotton fabrics. And I was looking for... You used to be able to buy all cotton thread in a little dressmaker spools, but I can't even find that any more. And I walked into Country Peddler, and they had it.

0:35:43.9 VS: They had it.

0:35:44.7 AH: And I was piecing one day, and by accident, I picked up some quilting thread. And then I thought, "Oh, well, this is terrible." And I had to take it out. And I picked up this all cotton weight 50, and I like that. It's a real fine look. It's a real fine thread. It's what makes it a neat seam.
0:36:07.3 VS: Nicey.

0:36:07.4 AH: Nicey.

0:36:07.7 VS: Well, I even cheated on the one that's on the bed, the lavender tool. I took regular, plain dual thread, and did the quilting in the lavender because I wanted lavender 'cause you can't find lavender quilting thread.

0:36:20.5 AH: No.

0:36:21.1 VS: And I thought, "Well, 50 years from now, I won't know if it's gonna come out or not, so... "

[chuckle]

0:36:25.4 AH: No. No. Well, that's one thing about the dual-duty, it'll be there after the quilts...

0:36:30.2 VS: Material's gone, yeah.

0:36:30.6 AH: Yeah, material's gone. But... Well, let's see. Do you... You sign and date your quilts. We talked about that. The ones that you hadn't, now you're going to.

0:36:42.2 VS: I'm going to. Yes.

0:36:43.4 AH: And we talked about you have washed some of your quilts, but you don't have any particular method, or do you?

0:36:52.1 VS: No, I... Well, I used to use the bathtub. When I did the Dresden Plate, I used the bathtub. And then, I had the long clothes line, so it would hang beautifully. I don't know if I would stick one in the dryer. They do. I know they do.

0:37:10.9 AH: They do.

0:37:11.4 VS: I know it.

0:37:11.9 AH: But I don't know. I don't know...

0:37:15.6 VS: One thing that kind of bothers me in a way, I love the look of fresh material. And they always say take it home and wash it. And there is pro and con on this. So, I have been washing it. And I don't know. Some of the dark colors will run, so it's a good thing we do wash them. But I have not...

0:37:41.6 AH: Yeah. And I wash all mine ahead. And I noticed that on a quilt that I had made in a class, in fact at Chaska, I started it. When I was... Well, I was pressing it, and I was using steam on the pieces, which I probably shouldn't have done, but it ran. One of the pieces was running. And I just got off it real quick and said I didn't do anymore to it. And it was a purple...

0:38:09.9 VS: Oh my goodness.

0:38:11.3 AH: It was a purple patch, so I hope it doesn't do much more. I'm not gonna wash it.

[chuckle]

0:38:17.4 VS: No. [laughter]

0:38:18.2 AH: I'm just gonna leave it. But then, if it runs, it runs.

0:38:21.3 VS: Yeah.

0:38:21.6 AH: There's...

0:38:22.6 VS: The old look, you know.

0:38:24.0 AH: Yeah. I don't know, we'll see. But I know I have washed all my fabrics, but maybe that one needed more. But here's a session I know you know something about. Did you every make a friendship quilt?

0:38:40.4 VS: Well, I am in the process right now.

0:38:43.5 AH: I thought you'd mentioned it. Are you in a group of...

0:38:48.5 VS: Yeah, there are six of us. Our club has... When we signed up last winter for this, I thought, "Oh, I'm not going to do this." And they like to have 12, so one for every month. Well then, finally, I just say, "Oh, yeah, I guess I will do this." So there are only six of us, and so we each have to make two squares for each girl. So we will eventually get our 12 squares, but I don't know if I'll do it again. I'm finding that I want to be working on my other quilt, and now the pressure is on to do this.

0:39:24.4 AH: But a quilt block shouldn't take too long.

0:39:28.3 VS: It shouldn't, but I'm doing... This one girl wants the basket pattern and in Amish colors, and I'm using black and purple and a deep wine and kind of an aqua. The colors are fine, but it's these little pieces that I'm sticking together, and I think this is why I like to appliqué. I just don't like this... Fiddling with all these little pieces. [chuckle]

0:39:53.6 AH: Oh. You see, that's the way I feel about appliqué, running around all those... The little circles and stuff.

0:40:00.4 VS: Yeah, but I'm getting there. I mean, she'll get them. She'll get them.

0:40:05.1 AH: But you're making two blocks, just alike, or...

0:40:09.3 VS: No, they'll be different. I have made... One girl made both her blocks alike, but I guess I feel... Now my choice is for an album-type quit. I want each one different, and I did give them a little piece... Or a quite a large, good-sized piece of material, plus the muslin, which I didn't have to, but I did. I had it.

0:40:31.4 AH: Well...

0:40:31.8 VS: And this way, I know what I'm getting.

0:40:34.8 AH: Yeah, you know the muslins will match.

0:40:37.0 VS: And so I don't have all mine back yet, which is okay. I'll get them. But...

0:40:43.4 AH: How do you choose... Do you just choose, like, yours was due in August, or...

0:40:49.1 VS: Yeah, each one of us has a month. Mine was... I was to get mine in August. Well, I only got five out of the 12. But they'll come. And now that this basket, Amish basket thing that I'm working on is... Was due in September. Well, [laughter] I'm not even through with one of them yet. But she'll get it.

0:41:05.8 AH: Well, you just have to sit down...

0:41:07.4 VS: Oh, sure. This evening, I'll just sit and... Last night, I sat and sewed, and the thing is, I didn't start out right on this one block, and I'm doing it the complicated way where I... Last night, I decided to do it a little differently, and that was the right way. It's going much faster. So it's just my own learning as I'm going along, and...

0:41:27.1 AH: I think every pattern we work, you learn something. Now I'm in a friendship block exchange, but there's 24 of us. So we'll be going for... Back until this time next year. I think we're about halfway through the list.

0:41:44.8 VS: Well then, will your quilt have that many square?

0:41:48.1 AH: 24 blocks.

0:41:49.8 VS: Oh.

0:41:50.1 AH: Well, actually, I don't think it will. I think two of the people that signed up late, they came in and they joined the group and they said, "Oh yes, they want to do that." Well, none of us have ever gotten a block from them. So maybe after they got involved, they thought all that...

0:42:05.5 VS: It's just too much.

0:42:07.3 AH: Yeah. They were newer quilters, and maybe it was harder.

0:42:12.3 VS: Yeah.

0:42:12.6 AH: So I think there'll be 23 blocks. And then if you wanna make it even, you'll have to make one for yourself.

0:42:18.9 VS: Make another yourself. Yeah. But that'd be fun, though.

0:42:21.0 AH: And some girls have done that anyway.

0:42:23.1 VS: Now, is this a specific pattern, or will each pattern be different?

0:42:25.3 AH: Whatever any... Well, like you chose appliqué blocks...

0:42:34.3 VS: No, they're pieced.

0:42:36.3 AH: Well, I chose a pattern called a friendship basket... Wild Basket of Friendship, and it's... People almost disowned me. [laughter] But it was very simple. Like you say, if you follow the progression, if you put it together the way the instructions said. But if you didn't, you got in trouble. [laughter] And someone came back and said, "Well, this one piece just didn't fit. I had to cut it over and make it longer," and I thought... A couple of people said that, so I thought "Well, maybe I did something." So I cut it out of the same pattern pieces I gave them and it fit perfectly, so I don't know what they did. But most of them came back just perfect.

0:43:17.5 VS: Now, the one that we're doing for October is... She was in a group last year where they did houses and cabins. This type of thing. So now she wants trees, so that's gonna be fun. So I'll...

0:43:32.4 AH: That'll be fun.

0:43:33.3 VS: And 12 1/2 inches high, and they can be any length. So you could do a 4-inch with a tree or a big, long one. So this is gonna be exciting when she puts it together, and she's really clever, so it's gonna be nice. So of course, there, I will appliqué at least one tree. And then the other one, I'll piece, I suppose. Now that, I find fun, for this basket. For my own quilt, friendship quilt, I'm going to have to do two for myself so that I get 12, and I just may put in the basket, because it's been a challenge. The only thing I asked them, "Please don't do the Dresden Plate, because I will have three Dresden Plate quilts," and then I thought that is two too many." So they laughed and they said, no, they wouldn't. [laughter]

0:44:18.3 AH: Not very many people do Dresden Plate anymore. It's old. Yeah. But see, you made your plates when it was real popular.

0:44:26.3 VS: Yes, yeah.

0:44:26.8 AH: I think Dresden Plate and Grandmother's Flower Garden and the Double Wedding Ring were probably the three most popular designs in the '30s. I don't know why that was.

0:44:39.6 VS: I wonder. 'Cause the Double Wedding Ring's got a lot of work to it.

0:44:41.5 AH: Oh, and Grandmother's Flower Garden.

0:44:44.8 VS: Oh.

0:44:46.1 AH: Yeah.

0:44:46.5 VS: I started one of those, and it's just started. I don't know if I'll ever do anything. Maybe a pillow for my granddaughter or something. But at our quilt show, you have all of the sales people there. And I purchased Pandora's Box and the Wedding Ring from the gal down in Montevideo. Shar...

0:45:05.9 AH: I get the two of them mixed up. There's Shar Jacobson and Sharon Hultgren.

0:45:11.3 VS: No, it's Jacobson.

0:45:11.9 AH: Sharon Hultgren joined our group.

0:45:15.9 VS: Oh. Yeah, she did a... She showed quilts.

0:45:19.8 AH: So it is Shar Jacobson.

0:45:20.5 VS: Jacobson is the one, yeah. And I bought this and they're still in the box, and I think, "Oh." But I'm an impulse buyer, so I'll use them. Yeah.

0:45:29.3 AH: Well, and I go through my materials, and then I have a tendency to stockpile. I'll have a pattern in my mind. I know I wanna make this pattern, and this material goes with this pattern, so I've got this little stack of them. But then when I go to look for something else, I forget that I've got this piece of material laying in this bag with this pattern. So somehow I'm gonna have to figure out a way to keep everything more visible, or else finish these projects, [chuckle] get the scraps back in the main...

0:46:03.6 VS: In the section, yeah...

0:46:07.7 AH: Yeah, but my husband tells me this year, I can't take so much stuff to Arizona, because I took a lot and then I didn't work on...

0:46:13.8 VS: Yeah, you didn't have time.

0:46:14.8 AH: I worked on some, but I didn't have as much time last year as I hope I'll have this year, 'cause we had a lot of work in the house. But I've got to aim... Focus down onto one. I've got a large... Well, it's gonna end up being kind of a Christmas quilt, because it was a class on stars.

(Tape side change.)

0:00:00.3 Allene Helgeson: The Hoffman reds and greens.

0:00:02.7 Vivian Smithburg : Oooh. Yummy.

0:00:03.2 AH: Different florals and stuff. And I used a moiré background. Do you know that?

0:00:09.9 VS: The cotton moiré that...

0:00:11.3 AH: Yeah.

0:00:11.6 VS: Oh, look so pretty.

0:00:13.1 AH: And the ivory. And it was very pretty, but now I've got these 16 stars. But I'm putting an applique border around it.

0:00:20.5 VS: Good for you.

0:00:21.7 AH: And that's the part I have to focus on.

0:00:24.1 VS: Oh.

0:00:24.5 AH: It's gonna be really pretty. I'm going to use pointsettias. And I think I'll use eight pointsettias around them and...

0:00:33.1 VS: Well now, see, you can do that down there.

0:00:35.4 AH: Mm-hmm. Because I'm just gonna cut each side strip, the border and it's oh, wide. And applique that...

0:00:42.7 VS: I can see that.

0:00:43.5 AH: Until I come to the corners too. Leave those until I get it attached.

0:00:47.4 VS: Oh, yeah. Oh, that'll be fun.

0:00:49.3 AH: That probably would be enough to keep me busy.

0:00:51.7 VS: Yes.'Cause there's always...

0:00:52.1 AH: For the winter.

0:00:54.1 VS: Do you golf?

0:00:55.5 AH: No, I don't. I should again. I haven't for a long time.

0:01:00.8 VS: Well you might as well now...

0:01:01.5 AH: My husband plays though. My husband plays a lot. No, I don't think so.

0:01:04.4 VS: That's what they say.

0:01:04.6 AH: My husband's pretty rabid about women on the golf course. It isn't women on the golf course. It's people who do not pay as much as he does. And he really gets rabid about the family memberships.

0:01:19.0 VS: Oh yes.

0:01:19.2 AH: And then when they come out, they run everything and they don't pay their fair share. But I just say, don't argue with me. I don't want to hear about this. But in Arizona, he doesn't mind at all.

0:01:29.7 VS: Excuse me.

0:01:30.2 AH: Because he said everybody that walks across that course pays the same amount. Yes.

0:01:33.9 VS: Pays the same amount, yeah, yeah.

0:01:35.0 AH: So that doesn't bother him.

0:01:36.0 VS: Oh.

0:01:36.3 AH: And that's fine.

0:01:37.0 VS: Yeah.

0:01:37.5 AH: But it bothers him at home.

0:01:38.7 VS: I'm sure I can see why now. We golfed last week, and there were four. One of them wouldn't move until the other one had hit. And then they all four watched. But it just took forever and forever and forever. And they came driving around to see who was holding up everything. The fellow said, "Well, it isn't you two. I know on nine," we said.

[vocalization]

0:02:01.1 AH: Yeah. And so, now...

0:02:02.1 VS: So this what... It's so irritating.

0:02:04.2 AH: My husband just gets really perturbed about holding up.

0:02:07.8 VS: Yeah.

0:02:08.2 AH: And I told him, "Well, I never heard that it was a race." Well, he says, he comes in, "Oh, we really played well today, it was only three hours and 15 minutes or something. It was three hours or something." I don't know why you think it's better. I know that it's best...

0:02:22.3 VS: No, isn't that funny. Why do we?

0:02:22.4 AH: I know.

0:02:24.2 VS: I think it's because you always know there's somebody pushing behind you. That's why I like to golf late in the season 'cause there aren't so many people out.

0:02:31.4 AH: It'd be beautiful today.

0:02:32.7 VS: Oh, wouldn't it be?

0:02:33.8 AH: I think my... I'm sure my husband's out today. He didn't golf yesterday. Our course is so wet. Oh, it's just...

0:02:41.6 VS: And you had a lot of water, didn't you?

0:02:43.1 AH: Oh, we've got so much water and they were pumping it, pumping it out, so. Out of the ponds, into other ponds. They built a dike about four or five years ago when they had a lot of water. Well, it turned out probably not to be the best thing to do. It was a stop gap thing that caused more trouble in the end.

0:03:06.1 VS: Mm-hmm.

0:03:06.6 AH: Now they say up behind there, there's 60 acres of water that has to go somewhere.

0:03:11.4 VS: Oh my goodness.

0:03:12.2 AH: They might lose part of it in the course. They'll pump it out.

0:03:16.5 VS: They'll pump it somewhere.

0:03:19.8 AH: Yeah.

0:03:19.9 VS: Sure.

0:03:20.1 VS: They're not gonna let that sit there. [laughter]

0:03:20.6 AH: Four five years ago, they were pumping it all the way down to the St. Croix.

0:03:23.8 VS: Oh, for heaven's sakes.

0:03:24.9 AH: Yeah. And that must be seven miles.

0:03:26.9 VS: Oh, sure.

0:03:28.3 AH: I guess. But maybe, they'll probably do that again. I don't know. Well, I don't know. I think we've had a pretty good talk about the quilts, but I need... I'd like to get a picture of you.

0:03:39.2 VS: Oh.

0:03:39.8 AH: And then have a cup of coffee.

0:03:41.7 VS: Alright. I'm your friend.

0:03:43.4 AH: Being a little Svenska, not supposed to go...

0:03:46.1 VS: Now, you're still going to have to have your coffee.

0:03:47.7 AH: Yeah. But I don't know if you did any particular thing about, dah, dah, dah... There wasn't any nationality influence.You don't know.

0:03:58.0 VS: No. 

0:04:00.7 AH: One way or another because you were Swedish.

0:04:01.7 VS: Oh no. No, I...

0:04:03.6 AH: And your design, I think you... And your fabrics were not bought specifically to make a quilt. You mentioned that. That most of them were from other clothing. And you know...

0:04:17.0 VS: No. Even the little wall hanging over the stairway, it was interesting that the backing on their wall hanging. I saw it on the wall, in the shop, quilt shop. And I thought, "Ah, I've got to have that." Well, being a sewer, the material that they used for their binding and on their back, is the same material that I had made a skirt out of. And I thought, "Oh, have I got enough of that material just to do the binding in the front?" Well, yes, I did. But I had made the skirt of that material and then I had made the blouse of a companion floral print. So there are the two in the quilt. So by saving everything, you know, here again, and then some of the other material I did have to buy. But, I do find that a lot of my quilt pieces do come out of my stash of material. And some of them are, I would say, some of them go back 30, 40 years. Which I have never used, but they're there and they're still good. 

0:05:18.1 AH: They're good.Sure.

0:05:18.5 VS: Yeah.

0:05:18.8 VS: And then of course, like we all do, we go into a shop and we see a piece of material and I'm wondering afterward, "Why did I buy that?" But I'll use it.

0:05:26.9 AH: Well, you've got to support your local quilt shop.

0:05:28.8 VS: You bet you do. [laughter]

0:05:29.1 AH: So they won't be...

0:05:30.3 VS: They will be there.

0:05:31.3 AH: They do seem to go out of existence every once in a while. It's hard to make a living.

0:05:36.1 VS: Yeah. I would think now this little gal up in Crosby. I don't know, they say she's terribly, terribly busy.

0:05:40.8 AH: Good. Good.

0:05:41.6 VS: And I hope she is.

0:05:43.3 AH: But there's a lot more quilters.

0:05:45.6 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:05:46.0 VS: Oh, yeah. I think one more, don't you?

0:05:47.7 AH: I do.

0:05:48.3 VS: Every year.

0:05:49.8 AH: Yeah.

0:05:49.8 VS: Because our group has grown when I joined, is it five years now? Maybe four or five? There were, I would say we're up to 60 or 70 something. And I don't think...

0:06:00.6 AH: Ooh. That's a big group.

0:06:02.3 VS: It is a big group.

0:06:02.3 AH: Do they meet once a week?

0:06:03.6 VS: Once a month.

0:06:04.2 AH: Once a month.

0:06:05.0 VS: And in the library, and it's fun. They have show and tell. And I cannot believe how these girls, same girls, month after month, show something. I just don't know how they do.

0:06:15.9 AH: Yeah. I go to the state show, you know, once a month, so. And it's all... Yeah.

0:06:20.3 AH: All quilters.

0:06:21.1 AH: And they have the show and tell. And it's just fascinating.

0:06:24.9 AH: It's the ideas and the variety and...

0:06:29.5 VS: Yeah.

0:06:29.5 VS: One of our girls, oh, she's so sweet, she does miniatures... Well, we have quite a few, but she does miniatures that are 6 x 5 or 3 x 4 or something, and because I save every scrap, I've started saving every little piece for her. So she made last... In August, we had our picnic, she had about a 4 x 4 little quilt, and she said all of these pieces came from Vivian Smithburg. And I was so pleased because she's so grateful when you give them to her. And then she made me a pair of earrings, they hang too low, but they are darling, and they've got tiny little sun bonnet girls, they're no bigger than that.

0:07:12.2 VS: She glues those or you just wonder under. But this is the type of thing she does. And if she doesn't like she'll turn, she made once she did, oh it has to be 4 x 7, maybe a little quilt, and it's all little sun bonnet girls, and all of those materials were material I'd given her. So it's so fun to give her. I'm even giving her bigger pieces... [laughter] 

AH: ..but I don't know. I used to save well just things I'd cut out and not use like square or triangle, but now I save trimmings, you know. For a long time I used to save scraps from clothing, and then I go through finally and throw a lot of that out, some of it, I knew I was never gonna use it...

0:07:56.3 VS: Oh yeah. This is true.

0:07:57.5 AH: But now when you come across cotton, I save all that, but I don't the little velveteen pieces, and I should. I should have saved some of those because now you do a wall hanging...

0:08:08.5 VS: You might want it.

0:08:09.1 AH: And you need some kind of little furry. 

VS: One of my projects is a crazy quilt, and I have one in there that my other grandmother made. Maybe it's the same grandmother that has the Oak Leaf, and it is so worn. I remember laying underneath it when I was a tiny little girl. And it has all the velvets, of course, and she was an artist, so she painted... Well, where she's painted, it's all just cracked off. But I have been collecting brocades and velvets and satins and lames and all of everything that I can get my hands on. And I am going to make a crazy quilt and not too big a one, but just one... The thing that kinda stops me there is all this fancy embroidery because...

0:08:53.7 AH: Well, that's what I was gonna ask you, do you do a lot of embroidery?

0:08:56.6 VS: I do do. I have done and I have done a lot of needlepointing. So I do like the needle, but hers is just so exquisite that I...

0:09:04.7 AH: We don't make the effort. We don't learn the things that they used to learn. 'cause all those lot crazy quilts have stitches that we've never heard of.

0:09:15.4 VS: No, never heard of them.

0:09:17.3 AH: I've seen them in some of the quilt discovery days with Turkey work and all these raised loops and all sorts of things.

0:09:26.3 VS: She has embroidered animals on here and that part is still there. And I had thought of hanging it, I don't know where I would hang it, but it's just so...

0:09:35.7 AH: It's fragile.

0:09:36.5 VS: Yeah, and it's so worn that it wouldn't be attractive.

0:09:39.2 AH: It's very hard to hang something like that.

0:09:41.7 VS: Yeah. So it's just hanging over a quilt rack but...

0:09:45.0 AH: It's probably just about as... 

0:09:48.7 VS: ...safe as any place else. And my mother kept it in a trunk for years, you know, so that didn't do it any good, I don't think.

0:09:54.8 AH: No. No, she thought she was taking good care but...

0:09:57.1 VS: Taking good care of it, well just like the Oak one...

0:10:00.4 AH: Wrapping anything in plastic and we think... When I think of all the things we've wrapped in plastic since it came out.

0:10:06.2 VS: Sure.

0:10:06.9 AH: And we've probably just deteriorated it [laughter] They get any moisture in them and they just...

0:10:13.1 VS: Now then I find over the cabin... Oh, 'cause we don't use it. Well, it's... When we moved up here, it became my storage house, and...

0:10:20.9 AH: You should have let it ... be a quilt house.

0:10:23.0 VS: Yeah, that's what... Well, that's what I should do. It's got heat, it's winterized and have my paints in one room and my quilts in the other, and the living room part there. Well, the front's all one open thing, but it's... All I hear from my husband is, "Clean it out. Clean it out." But if I needed something.

0:10:39.5 AH: Yeah, well, do you have company that comes up and stays there?

0:10:42.2 VS: No, then we have three bedrooms here. There's a full bedroom downstairs, where all my sewing machine and everything is, so like I say, nobody could lay down there either, but [laughter] if they had to, it would get tucked somewhere in a corner, stacked up...

0:10:54.6 AH: That's what I did when my daughter came. I just cleaned up that room, just looked beautiful, and I thought, "Well, now I just won't make such a mess again. I'll just bring up one or maybe two projects at a time." Well, I think there's two or three in there now, but...

0:11:11.7 VS: But you know if you... That's what I like about downstairs. If I'm sewing and the stuff gets on the floor or it's a mess, I leave it, where otherwise you're cleaning... You're spending more time cleaning than you are sewing. And I've done that thing in years past when I had the kids and all that, and I just, I'm not gonna do it that way any more...

0:11:31.1 AH: Well, for years, I had a little Singer Featherweight and I would sew on the kitchen table and every meal, picked up everything and put it away, put it out again, but now I have the room to set up. We call it our guest room, but we don't have that many guests that stay over, so it's my sewing room.

0:11:53.6 VS: Of course. That's the way it should be.

0:11:55.7 AH: We sure make a mess with it. But it's fine.

0:11:58.2 VS: It's fine.

0:11:58.6 AH: But I don't wanna stop in the middle of each thing and put it away.

0:12:02.2 VS: I know. I think we lose our interest sometimes too, if we do that, where if it's there, you can go downstairs and do it. Well, or just...

0:12:08.0 AH: Sew for an hour.

0:12:09.6 VS: Yeah, instead of doing something else, yeah, so that's fun.

0:12:13.8 AH: That's nice when we've got a little more space, but I just can't believe the people that made huge quilts years ago in some of these tiny, tiny little places with four and five children...

0:12:27.3 VS: Children running around.

0:12:27.4 AH: And only two rooms...

0:12:29.9 VS: And no electric lights even?

0:12:30.8 AH: No, no.

0:12:31.9 VS: I look at these kerosene lamps and I think, "Oh, how did they sew like this?"

0:12:38.7 AH: I can remember when I was a little girl though, we got Aladdin lanterns. They were still kerosene, but they were like daylight.

0:12:46.9 VS: Yes.

0:12:47.5 AH: It was a marvel. It was the most beautiful thing. And you could see so much better. Where I was raised we didn't have rural electrification. I don't know if they still do. They say they have it all over, but I wonder.

0:13:00.5 VS: I wonder sometimes.

0:13:01.3 AH: But when we got an Aladdin lamp, it was just like... It was just...

0:13:06.4 VS: I can remember my aunts and uncle used to have...

0:13:08.4 AH: It was a wonderful thing just... But I don't know how they sewed.

0:13:14.0 VS: Even that, but I'm sure just the plain old kerosene lamp they had to have.

0:13:18.6 AH: Yeah. Or most of them, I don't think had time to do it during the day.

0:13:23.9 VS: No, they wouldn't have, how could they. Gardens to tend and animals to take care of and...

0:13:28.6 AH: Yep. I don't know. But anyway, it's very interesting to see the things that... Let me see. We talked about frames and colors and fabrics. Oh, I didn't talk about your batting. We did talk a little bit about backing, but what do you use for batting.

0:13:50.7 VS: Well...

0:13:51.1 AH: Do you have a preference?

0:13:52.7 VS: I don't know, I'm learning. The quilt that's on the bed. I bought thick batting out at Genola. I said, "Well, what does Marsha Stevens use?" And she said, "Well, this is what she uses." Well, she maybe thought I was gonna have her quilt it for me. So, I got it home and it looked beautiful. And I got it... Took it to our quilte group once a month in the morning, they baste quilts together. And the girl said, "Oh, you can't quilt with that. You can't quilt with that." And I said, "Sure, I can." So, we based it, it all together. And I started to put it on the quilt frame and I thought, "Vivian, this is silly." So, I took it all apart. And then between my husband and I tacking it on the carpeting and stretching it all out, I used the thinner batting. And I don't know, I suppose it's that, it's Mountain Mist.

0:14:44.2 AH: Poly.

0:14:45.1 VS: Poly topping. I did at one time buy a cotton batting. Why? I suppose it was on sale. Anything on sale, I'll buy it. And I haven't used it. I don't know.

0:14:58.2 AH: Oh, I think you might like it.

0:14:58.9 VS: Really.

0:15:00.3 AH: It's really thin. It's thinner. I think.

0:15:03.0 AH: I've bought a couple and have I got one in the frame now. No, I've saved two. And there again, I've saved the two cotton bats I bought them like you say, on sale, but they were blue ribbon cotton and I heard Gwen Marston... Oh, years ago, she and Joe Cunningham were, oh, a class. They gave a class at one of the quilt shows. And she said that at that time, that blue ribbon cotton had just come out and she said it was the best batting they had ever used. They just thought it was wonderful. And it gave a kind of an old... A more old fashioned feel.

0:15:44.3 VS: Oh.

0:15:44.5 AH: To your quilt. It was flatter and more dense than the poly. And so I had bought these two then on sale.

0:15:53.6 AH: Well, then I came by what I thought was one quilt, but it turned out to be two quilts of Dresden plate blocks. Somebody had taken them apart and were gonna join them into one quilt. Well, when I got them, I bought them. I had all these blocks and they'd been cut across and taken apart. Some of the blocks were all fringed on the edges where I don't... 

VS: They just pulled, I suppose. 

AH: So, I started to put them together and I found out why this... Whoever it was had stopped. They weren't the same size and they didn't line up and you couldn't... They just didn't look right. You could have made them work, but they didn't. So, I decided, well, I'll take all these cut pieces too and make, make them right. And I took the good backing, the blocks that were in good shape and got rid of the ones that were fringy and stuff. But, so I've got two quilt tops out of them. Oh, I've got a lot more pieces, a lot more of these little fan old pieces. And I've got a bunch of the muslim pieces of that, that had been... All this stuff was just in a box.

0:17:10.5 VS: Oh my goodness.

0:17:11.9 AH: But I'm going to put a border on one of them. One's just gonna be a rectangle and the other one's going to have a scalloped half plate.

0:17:22.4 VS: Oh yes.

0:17:23.2 AH: Border around just three sides. I've got enough to do three sides of it. And so I'm gonna use the cotton bats in those two.

0:17:31.7 VS: Oh, are you?

0:17:32.4 AH: Yeah.

0:17:32.8 AH: But now, but I think I'm gonna have somebody else quilt those.

0:17:35.8 VS: Oh you are 'cause don't you have to be... Do a lot more quilting or is that just a...

0:17:40.8 AH: I think so. I think you probably should. Some of them recommend like every inch or less than that, some of them say, oh, you can get away with three and four inches between on the poly, but I don't know.

0:17:54.3 VS: Yeah.

0:17:55.0 AH: But I'm anxious to get those two done because it took me so long to put them together. Just taking them apart and putting them back together, but now I've gotta sit down and make that border up one of these days. 'Cause that'll be kind of fun.

0:18:07.9 VS: It'll be fun.

0:18:09.1 AH: But I think I'll just have a machine, quilt machine.

0:18:12.3 VS: Yeah. Is there anybody in Stillwater that does this?

0:18:14.8 AH: No, but Country Peddler does. And there's another lady that does. Well, there's quite a few now, doing machine quilting. But the thing is that they built those Dresden plates on sheeting, on old sheets. And I don't think I can needle it.

0:18:31.5 VS: Oh, that's right.

0:18:32.4 VS: Yeah.

0:18:33.1 AH: They're tough.

0:18:33.8 AH: Yeah.

0:18:35.0 VS: Pretty tough.

0:18:38.9 VS: Like wear forever but...

0:18:40.8 AH: But they'll be really pretty. They're pretty. And I think they were probably '30s.

0:18:45.2 VS: I bet they were. Sure.

0:18:45.7 AH: Yeah. Yeah.

0:18:46.5 AH: But they were built on old sheeting. And I was in that period where I wanted to keep everything really authentic, so instead of moving the plates onto some more pliable material, I left them on the old sheeting the way they had been done...

[laughter]

0:19:03.1 AH: And bought cotton fill for... Cotton batting, so we'll see.

0:19:06.9 VS: We'll see, yeah...

0:19:09.8 VS: I did a quilted jacket. Oh that was the first year we lived here, that's gotta be seven winters ago, and I used this thin, thin filler, and it... I just hate it because when your arm and your jacket body part rubs together, this stuff comes out and if you pull, you get this polyester fill, and I just...

0:19:30.8 AH: Was it that thermal fleece? Was it kind of...

0:19:33.1 VS: Yes, Yeah.

0:19:33.2 AH: Was it kind of solid? Was it batting?

0:19:35.2 VS: Yes, kind of solid. No, it's not batting, it's real solid, it's only about an eighth of an inch. And that's what they sold me, and I just hate it. If you don't say anything, nobody else is going to notice it. But it does seem to pill, and if you pull it, then sometimes you have to even cut because it'll keep pulling like...

0:19:56.4 AH: Yeah, oh, I thought...

0:19:57.5 VS: So if I ever do that again, I don't know, I'm gonna have to find out some different type of...

0:20:04.9 AH: You know some of those new jacket patterns they're making up... You don't wash your material, or maybe you do wash the material, but you make the jacket and you make it on cotton flannel, and you don't wash the cotton flannel. It's all new. Then when the jacket is done, you wash it and it pulls up and gets that kind of old aged quilt look.

0:20:30.7 VS: Yeah. I don't know if I'd be brave enough.

0:20:34.0 AH: Yeah. Over at Genola they even had the tea-dyed batting.

0:20:39.5 AH: I mean, the flannel.

0:20:41.7 AH: Flannel, tea-dyed for the darker colors.

0:20:43.6 VS: For the dark colors.

0:20:45.1 AH: Yeah. I thought it was kind of unusual, but I haven't made one, I bought the pattern...

0:20:49.7 VS: Oh did you?

0:20:49.8 AH: But I've never made it.

0:20:50.3 VS: We have a gal in our group that dyes material...

0:20:54.4 AH: Oh the girl from Cherrywood?

0:20:57.0 VS: Yes.

0:20:58.2 AH: Oh, that's the one I'd like to get the address and stuff, but I don't have her address.

0:21:03.4 VS: I'll get it, when we are through...

0:21:04.2 AH: Because I need some...

0:21:05.2 VS: I'll get it for you.

0:21:07.1 AH: Oh, her fabrics are so beautiful.

0:21:08.5 VS: Aren't they gorgeous?

0:21:09.1 AH: I talked to her at Chaska and she had on one that she'd cut out...

0:21:13.3 AH: Yes, that kind of looked like a... I'm trying to think of a kind of battenberg or something.

0:21:19.9 VS: Yeah it did.

0:21:20.3 VS: She did a demonstration, she didn't really demonstrate anything, but she showed the different jacket patterns that she had, and then the different materials and the combinations, and then she was working on this cut out one.

0:21:33.6 AH: Oh, that was in green.

0:21:36.8 VS: She, at Christmas time, if you want to, you can have a little package gift wrapped up and then there's an exchange, and I was fortunate enough to get a package of her material. I haven't done a thing with it, it's all the solid, 'cause she just does the solid colors, but I'm just gonna save, now maybe in Bob's wall hanging, there will be a reason or there'll be a spot where I'm going to need this mixed up look. And I was really pleased, 'cause normally my luck in anything exchange is just, yeah, but this time I was lucky.

0:22:09.3 AH: Yeah, good. I know. Does your group do like Christmas ornaments or Christmas block exchange, anything...

0:22:16.8 VS: No... Yeah, yes, we do. Not an ornament but a block. I suppose now, maybe at the October meeting, they will come up with a block. And one time I did that and then they may draw, all these blocks go together, and then they draw, and then that girl of course gets all of the blocks.

0:22:35.4 AH: Oh, that's different. In our group, we each just make up whatever 12-inch block we wanna make up, and we put it in with no names, it's wrapped, and we draw numbers and we each get a block back...

0:22:49.3 VS: So you each get one back?

0:22:49.5 AH: So you each get... They're all different?

0:22:50.8 VS: Yeah, that would be nice. No, we make the block and then one person ends up with it.

0:22:55.5 AH: Well, that's nice.

0:22:56.8 VS: So it's nice, but one girl has won twice in a row so [laughter] you know...

0:23:00.9 AH: Yeah. You kind of wonder why...

0:23:02.9 VS: Yeah. That could be fun though, they get one back.

0:23:05.1 AH: Yeah.

0:23:05.4 VS: You know, make sure you didn't get your own.

0:23:07.0 AH: But no I've been in it for about five years, and I've got a copy of a block that I made, I made one for me and one for the party and one, or a couple that I got in Minnesota Quilters block exchange. But I still only have maybe seven blocks so, so far I haven't done anything with them but keep them. And some of them are so crude, a couple of them are really crude...

0:23:35.5 VS: And you don't want...

0:23:36.1 AH: And some are just exquisite. So...

0:23:40.0 VS: I know it's...

0:23:40.8 AH: That's the fault with some of those exchanges.

0:23:44.3 AH: Yeah. Some of the people that take the nicest work get the...

0:23:49.4 VS: The junk.

[laughter]

0:23:49.7 VS: I wouldn't say junk, but really...

0:23:51.2 AH: Some of it is.

0:23:51.9 VS: I can... Yeah, it is.

0:23:53.0 AH: Some of it is, we're not all experts. But maybe they tried their very best and...

0:23:58.5 VS: Yeah, that's it.

0:24:00.9 VS: And you know, we have to look at it that way rather than say, oh goodness. In Minneapolis, I was in a sewing group, out of our Women's Club, and this one gal quilted and I just could not, she would quilt a quilt in maybe three, four days, but her stitches were a fourth of an inch long, they were a fourth of an inch apart and I would look at them, everybody would... And I would say, "Oh, isn't that, you know... " And think, oh yuck. 'Cause I went back to my grandmother's where they're 10 or 12 to an inch, and I thought... So I guess I tend to be a perfectionist and sometimes I wonder, but then I'm satisfied. And if it's handed down or whatever happens to it, I want whoever has it to know, Well grandma did a good job on this.

0:24:51.2 AH: Right.

0:24:52.2 AH: I... I kind of think, don't they see that?

0:24:56.5 VS: I know it.

0:24:57.2 AH: And I can excuse it when I think, No, they can't see it. They're ninety years old or, they're eighty five years old or whatever, sixty, whatever they don't see it. They're working and I know people who used to do exquisite work and they're still doing very nice work, but it's not what they used to do. They can't see.

0:25:17.3 VS: That, you can understand.

0:25:18.6 VS: But when you're starting out and you're young and you're... Someone's letting you get by in the class doing that, no way.

0:25:25.4 AH: Yeah.

0:25:26.0 AH: That was one of the things that Alma Esser was talking about too. She was a Home Ec teacher and she said, Now, they let them do all these fast things, which there's a place, but she said they don't teach them the right the... And make them do it over until it's right. She said I'm glad I'm not teaching anymore, but I think that they... She said they're phasing out Home Economics, because so many of the people go out to work and I said, I think they still and she did too...think... There's still so much learning that... Well, not just young girls, young boys.

0:26:08.0 VS: Yes.

0:26:09.4 AH: To be able to use food or to do simple sewing, even simple sewing repairs. I mean, but the difference between a good quality garment and a piece of stuff when you buy it. When they feed children. They could feed them so much better and less expensively. And they think, Well, I don't have the time. Well, there's a lot of things that don't take as much time as you think.

0:26:40.1 VS: No. It takes time to throw something in the microwave, well maybe in five minutes longer, you can could have something fabulous. That's terrible.

0:26:48.7 AH: There's a lot of things that they don't... I don't know. 'Course, we learned a lot of the things in homes.

0:26:55.9 VS: In homes. We're now...

0:26:57.7 AH: You don't throw things away. There's another use for that.

0:27:01.5 VS: Yeah.

0:27:02.7 AH: I still... Sometimes it's like I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts sometimes, but other times I buy the chicken and I bone it and skin it and I save those things, and I cook them, and it doesn't take me any longer, Well, it takes me a little longer, but then I have two or three meals. I have soup broth and I have a chicken... Almost everybody has a weekend or...

0:27:29.7 VS: Sometime they can do something. No, it's just the throw away world, I guess. Or even when you think... Even with us here, my husband took a bunch of papers into the recycling bin and we should divide our plastic and our tin with aluminum, we go, go to the Lions. So that's a good thing, but it doesn't take that much more time.

0:27:53.1 AH: No.

0:27:53.4 VS: You know to have three baskets.

AH: ..and when we started, we thought, Oh, this is really gonna be a nuisance, this recycling... Well, my garage is just off the kitchen and we have a lawn cart, that's flat in the bottom, not one of those big... But it's flat, and I set craft bags in there, one for tin, one for aluminum, one for glass, and twice a month I wheel that thing out to the curb, and it isn't... It doesn't take that.

0:28:27.9 VS: That much time.

0:28:28.2 AH: Once we started doing it, it's just automatic. You rinse the can out and throw it in the...

0:28:33.2 VS: Yeah, we have pick up and so... Well, it's so easy just to dump it off, 'cause then he has to go through it I suppose...

[laughter]

0:28:40.5 AH: I don't know. Maybe they...

0:28:40.9 VS: If they do. That's another thing, do they?

0:28:43.4 AH: I don't know.

0:28:44.3 AH: But it makes such a good sense, it just does.

0:28:49.1 VS: And then when I save everything else, I guess I should start to do and what if I just said, "Now look, we're gonna have three bags, that's the way it's going to be."

0:28:54.9 AH: That's just the way we do.

0:28:56.7 AH: Well, I think this has been really fun.

0:28:58.5 VS: Wonderful. I like...

0:29:01.1 AH: Yeah, let me see, you mentioned, oh I wanted to look at the wall hanging about the spares...

0:29:04.4 VS: Oh yes, you've got to see that.

0:29:05.1 AH: And then.