This recording of Alma Esser talking about her quilting was recorded in 1993, after a Minnesota Quilt Project Documentation Day in Spring Grove, Minnesota. Alma was a Home Economist responsible for many counties during the WPA period, first based in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  Esser recalls her quilting history, and speaks about family and local history, in Houston Co., MN, and later in Brainerd, MN. Two quilts were documented, a Grandmother's Flower Garden made by her aunt and another made by her mother. 0:00:00.0 Alma Esser (AE): Now, I started this. You know you start every project and you're doing it according to [0:00:06.5] ____ doing it perfect. And with the big pieces there, I tried to get it on, on the straight... Of natural ends, but on the weft or the woof. But you cut all of these pieces and when you start... I took a class in this, and we had every unit here pre-cut. We cut them and put them in plastic bags for each one. Oh, when you start putting the little bricks together, I know I had a lot of them going the wrong way.

0:00:41.7 Allene Helgeson (AH): Yeah, that's easy to do. This is Allene Helgeson, and we're interviewing Alma Esser today in Brainerd. And she's telling us about some quilts that she's made, and her aunt and her mother's quilts.

0:01:04.9 Speaker 1: Should we tell about the aunt's and the mother's quilt first?

0:01:06.8 Speaker 2: I think that might be interesting. Which one taught you to quilt?

0:01:13.7 AE: Mother.

0:01:13.8 AH: Your mother taught you to quilt? How old were you?

0:01:14.9 AE: I think I started using a needle before I could walk. I can't remember not having sewn and actually I didn't really pay too much attention to the quilting part of it, as much as the basics of sewing and really haven't gotten into making quilts of my own until the last 10, 15 years. But I've always been interested in any sewing. I was a Home Ec teacher back when...

0:01:44.7 AH: When did you teach Home Ec? I know from your biography that you taught in the southern part of state, didn't you?

0:01:52.2 AE: Well, no. This is kind of interesting, I graduated at the end of winter quarter, at the university. And back in '35, there were no jobs for a teacher, in fact there were... About a fourth of your class wouldn't be at school, so... It was during the Works Progress Administration, and so one of my friends had taken this job every... The state was divided in seven regions, each one had to have a Home Economist. And she got a better job with General Mills that we thought would go on forever, and we thought this would probably be a summer job. So I took that and went out to Detroit Lakes, and I was a Home Ec consultant for 15 counties, and then I was transferred to the...

0:02:37.1 AH: The Works Prog... WPA as we all...

0:02:40.9 AE: We had the... It was a Women and Professionals Projects, we had the sewing. And it was the beginning of the hot lunch program. There wasn't any before that. And then all the arts. That's where... And then I was transferred to New Ulm, that's what you're thinking. I had 33 counties out there.

0:03:01.8 AH: And you always worked as a Home Economics, first with the WPA and then you ended with the schools?

0:03:07.8 AE: Well, actually, I didn't go... Then I got married, out of New Ulm. So, I didn't actually go into teaching until I substituted after my nest was empty, and then I taught tailoring in the vocational. And substituted, which I didn't like. In Home Ec, clothing. I wasn't into foods at all.

0:03:30.5 AH: Yeah. I understand, but first, your mother taught you. She and your aunt both quilted, and...

0:03:38.2 AE: Did all kinds of handwork.

0:03:39.4 AH: So I'm kind of following this thing, because you have already said what aspect you did, first you were more interested in the piecing, just putting things together than you were in the quilting. What patterns did you do when you were...

0:03:54.9 AE: The first pattern? First thing I made was The Lone Star.

0:03:58.4 AH: Yeah, pretty ambitious.

0:04:00.6 AE: Well, I took the class, maybe we'll have time to meet Debbie. I made this one for my sister-in-law, I guess it's upside down.

0:04:10.3 AH: Oh, this is after you... In these last few years. 1980.

0:04:15.4 AE: I really didn't do anything.

0:04:17.2 AH: You didn't do anything like that as a child, and you didn't put together any Flower Gardens or....

0:04:21.1 AE: I suppose I made doll quilts, I was into clothing more. And handwork. Needle point, you name it. But quilting itself hadn't got popular until... Actually, this was the first time she had a class, in 1981.

0:04:41.2 AH: Well, that's a difficult pattern to start on, a Lone Star, don't you think?

0:04:44.7 AE: Oh. It was.

0:04:47.2 AH: Because there isn't anything on the straight.

0:04:49.9 AE: No, but this was a quick method. There was a strip method.

0:04:54.6 AH: Oh, was it Blanche Young's? Blanche Young's strip method?

0:04:58.0 AE: I don't remember, I have the book down in Florida so I don't even have it. I like... Okay, This is the quilt. Kathy has this one. It's the cathedral ceiling and it wouldn't show off on a bed. And I took that class in Florida.

0:05:16.5 AH: That's a curved two-patch?

0:05:20.8 AE: [0:05:20.8] ____ something like that.

0:05:25.9 AH: I recognize the design, these are cute.

0:05:30.5 AE: This is one I did for my brother and sister-in-law's 60th wedding anniversary, and I took houses and on the lintel, I found copies of all my brothers and sisters who have gone and copied that on the lintel, and he was just delighted.

0:05:47.3 AH: Oh, I'll bet.

0:05:48.4 AE: And I've done...

0:05:49.4 AH: Things like that are so personal.

0:05:52.0 AE: I've done, for both of our sons at their cottage. This is a quilt I copied design, we use a sphere.

0:06:03.4 AH: On an applique? So you've done a lot of different designs and these...

0:06:08.5 AE: And then this was a class we took in Florida, which was kinda fun. And one of my granddaughters loves Navajo rugs, so I just design one.

0:06:18.4 AH: I do too. That's something that I'm very interested in and trying to learn about.

0:06:23.6 AE: Shadow cats, and then I did the Homer package for Drew.

0:06:27.8 AH: Yeah or... grandsons?

0:06:30.0 AE: These are the quilts, I haven't worn. But this was the project Cathy and I did this summer. Our one son had their 25th wedding anniversary, so we copied the pictures...

0:06:41.2 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:06:41.9 AE: And then...

0:06:43.2 AH: Did you send them away to be copied?

0:06:45.0 AE: Cathy did.

0:06:46.2 AH: There is a way, and I don't know how.

0:06:47.9 AE: If you have the knowledge, you can do it yourself. You can have them copied, but it costs 20, $30 a square, and she was... Had just beautiful.

0:07:00.6 AH: And it doesn't hurt the photos?

0:07:02.0 AE: No, you take a copy of the photo first. You're not using the actual photo.

0:07:08.6 AH: Okay, I see.

0:07:09.1 AE: You're using a copy of it.

0:07:11.1 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:07:11.6 AE: That's fun.

0:07:12.5 AH: That's darling though.

0:07:13.9 AE: Then we made... She just had a granddaughter, so each of us made three... Six of the Sunbonnet Sue. Put things that... This is the granddaughter, the other children are [0:07:27.4] ____. That's all we've done now recently.

0:07:31.4 AH: Aww you really... Well, I can see where Cathy fell right into it too, because it sounds like you've jumped in...

0:07:36.8 AE: She started in Home Ec too, but she changed her major later on.

0:07:42.6 AH: I started in Home Ec too.

0:07:44.7 AE: Did you?

0:07:45.4 AH: And got married, and never finished.

0:07:48.2 AE: In Montana?

0:07:49.8 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:07:50.7 AE: It's a good basic course.

0:07:54.0 AH: Well, when I went to school, it was considered a science.

0:07:57.2 AE: When we had it, yeah, true.

0:07:57.6 AH: You had your, how many English credits, in what language, and all that. Home Ec was considered a science.

0:08:06.0 AE: Well, it was one of the most difficult, because we had classes in every one of the colleges except business at the university. We took psych, and we took physiology with beginning pre-meds on the main campus. After the first two years we just had one Home Ec course, and all the rest was science, but it's going down the drain. It's being phased out.

0:08:39.5 AH: How do you feel about that? Having it phased out?

0:08:47.2 AE: Well, I guess you have to go with the times, and maybe a lot of these younger people... I guess I look at it two ways. They have to go out and work, and frankly, I don't know how you reach the students in the high school. So teaching it, I would hate to be teaching right now.

0:09:18.6 AH: I think so too. I agree with you.

0:09:20.1 AE: I think Home Ec is necessary, but maybe...

0:09:23.1 AH: I think there must still be a lot of things to teach them that would make their homes, and their lives, and their children [0:09:30.1] ____. It's hard for them to balance the going out into the work and then coming home, but there must be a lot of things that they could learn.

0:09:41.2 AE: If you can afford four years of college, I think they need some of those basic fine things, not just science.

0:09:49.1 AH: There's a lot of things you can teach people that would be economical and time-saving for them, that aren't just fast food restaurants and that.

0:10:01.3 AE: We're just going too fast.

0:10:03.0 AH: Mm-hmm. I think so, but I think it would be nice to keep teaching some people still. So I can see from your works that you like the colors. The colors work in the quilt too.

0:10:20.4 AE: I love that color.

0:10:21.7 AH: Yeah.

0:10:22.1 AE: There's a new book, to me, on color theory, but it really is... Did you take color in Home Ec?

0:10:29.9 AH: Uh-huh.

0:10:30.0 AE: Color and design?

0:10:32.0 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:10:33.4 AE: This is what... You've heard of the Goldsteins at the university, they just built a new museum in their name, and they were on faculty when I was there, and the color theory is just what they taught. So it wouldn't hurt the youngsters to have that at school.

0:10:55.3 AH: No, it wouldn't, but I haven't even been over there. I haven't even been to the new history building.

0:11:00.4 AE: I haven't been on campus, for the last... Not campus, but I haven't been to the Goldstein... You haven't been to the museum?

0:11:08.0 AH: Uh-huh.

0:11:08.1 AE: It was just opened, was it this summer?

0:11:09.3 AH: It just opened this summer. Spring, I think, but that's where we're hoping to have the first exhibition. And then maybe with a travelling show. Probably a smaller group of quilts that could go well, to Moorhead, for instance, and maybe Duluth, probably Brainerd but do something in each part of the state. We did the documentation.

0:11:41.6 AE: Yeah.

0:11:42.2 AH: It's hard to know. So trying to follow this questionnaire to some degree, which is difficult for me, because our conversations don't follow that sort of [chuckle] thing, but...

0:11:57.3 AE: All this conversation is for you to go back and try to build something out of it, right?

0:12:04.9 AH: Mm-hmm. Build some...

0:12:05.1 AE: Verify.

0:12:05.2 AH: Verify and sort of find out what you did as a quilter. What your aunt and... Can you tell me again about the difference in these two flower garden quilts?

0:12:19.6 AE: Okay.

0:12:20.1 AH: The way you see them?

0:12:22.7 AE: One is my mother's and one is my aunt's.

0:12:26.2 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:12:27.6 AE: And I see their two personalities in the quilt. Mother had six children, and I've covered this before.

0:12:34.0 AH: But not on tape.

0:12:35.4 AE: [chuckle] Okay, mother had six children and didn't have time to do all of the little fussy things, and I remember playing around the quilt frame, and can you imagine having half a dozen kids running around the house?

0:12:49.0 AH: No.

0:12:49.6 AE: And trying to do it as carefully as aunt Dina?[JLC: Pronounced Deena] But she loved doing that sort of thing, she was a needlewoman. And as you can see, it's been used, but it's soft and nice, isn't it?

0:13:05.0 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:13:05.3 AE: And her colors are soft like she was, and my aunt, who was a single person, with all the time in the world, and I loved her, there still was a stern part of her. And I think just the colors here just tell you that this is a stern, methodical person who's...

0:13:33.0 AH: It's a much heavier quilt.

0:13:33.1 AE: Who would not have half a dozen kids running under though.

0:13:36.3 AH: It's a lot heavier quilt too, isn't it?

0:13:40.2 AE: Yeah. Now I don't think any of these are flour sack. I think they used to order the quilts. Well, I'm talking about 1920 on to '35. They were doing these things. Well, I'm sure mother was doing it like that, they probably both were. Like 1910, '15 on.

0:14:06.0 AH: Mm-hmm. Patience.

0:14:06.7 AE: But when they were little... Country stores, that would have just bolts of fabric, and I think they did a lot of exchanging with everybody for it. Much of it was just utilitarian, and I think they were just exchanging... The flour sack is so popular now, but then most of the flour sacks were heavier fabric than this.

0:14:31.8 AH: Yes.

0:14:32.8 AE: And this is a light feel.

0:14:35.6 AH: I think you're right.

0:14:37.3 AE: I can see house dresses and...

0:14:39.8 AH: Aprons, I see...

0:14:40.0 AE: And aprons, and I can see where the two of them have probably exchanged. I don't see any pattern that's exactly alike.

0:14:55.2 AH: Have you looked?

0:14:55.9 AE: No, I haven't really, really looked, but they were farm... These were farm people.

0:15:03.2 AH: Both of them lived on a farm?

0:15:04.6 AE: Mm-hmm.

0:15:05.4 AH: Your aunt too?

0:15:06.2 AE: Mm-hmm, and adjoining farms.

0:15:09.8 AH: Oh.

0:15:10.5 AE: So I would... Yeah, there we are.

0:15:13.1 AH: There's a match, and that purple pull-over. I bet there's several. Bet there are several.

0:15:21.3 AE: I'm sure that we'll find that. I'm sure I recognize that one.

0:15:25.2 AH: This one right here?

0:15:26.8 AE: I'm not sure, but there is a difference and you can feel it in the quilting and in the finishing.

0:15:33.6 AH: Your aunt had all new fabrics.

0:15:41.6 AE: I think mother's was all new too. It's been used, but I don't remember ever using used... Cutting up... Even for just a simple block pattern that they would tie for comfort, I think they were all new fabrics. 

AH:Because some of the quilts we've seen, were obviously cut up from used fabrics, because you can see a stain.

0:16:05.7 AE: In Minnesota?

0:16:07.6 AH: Mm-hmm, and the stain will be on some pieces and not on others, so you know that it was stained before it was cut up. It wasn't stained after it was made. But...

0:16:20.8 AE: I'm sure none of this is old.

0:16:23.5 AH: It's old now.

0:16:25.1 AH: They're very pretty... All these small prints.

0:16:28.4 AH: Now they're reproducing them. Now you can buy a lot of the 30s ones. Now, back to the 1890s, they're reproducing those, and I think a lady called Ellie Sienkiewicz, that does Baltimore Album kind of things, has even put out a line of fabrics for applique that will duplicate those old colours.

0:16:54.1 AE: In a kit.

0:16:57.3 AH: No, I think on the bolt.

0:17:00.3 AE: Oh.

0:17:00.7 AH: Over at Genola the other day, they had some in.

0:17:05.2 AE: You mean in a cheater fabric or...

0:17:07.0 AH: No, it's a solid colored fabrics that she just felt that the certain colors... To reproduce the old applique album quilts and stuff, she had to have it put out by one of the fabric companies, like P&B.

0:17:23.4 AE: Well, it's interesting 'cause when I did the star quilt, it was just the beginning really around here of anybody really getting together with friends to quilt, and then there were maybe... Bonesteele is about the only book.

0:17:40.0 AE: And now look how the market is [0:17:40.1] ____.

0:17:43.7 AH: Do you get together with friends to quilt now?

0:17:47.2 AE: I don't as much here as I do in Florida. Summers are busy. I do in Florida.

0:17:55.8 AH: In your group in Florida, is it a church group or just a quilting group?

0:18:01.5 AE: No. Actually started when you take classes, and you're together, six, eight people for eight weeks, you get to be friends, and that's how they all started.

0:18:14.3 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:18:14.7 AE: Then they all joined the big group, and that's the big one (too big).

0:18:23.0 AH: Well, it's like a county or city group or something.

0:18:26.7 AE: Well, it's the whole locality, and of course this is all...

0:18:30.9 AH: Retirees.

0:18:31.5 AE: Retirees, and that's why I enjoy the one here, 'cause these are all young enthusiastic [....ina] is in her 30s. Or I can say 40's, but they're young and very few. I feel out of place.

0:18:48.3 AH: I don't think so, but I guess I haven't...

0:18:55.5 AE: Actually, I am not as fascinated with any project that is just busy work, just to be doing something. I like to make something. I like to create something.

0:19:12.1 AH: You asked me earlier, I guess, what I was involved wasn't... Right, we have to make... Well, we've been asked to make a wall hanging or a small item for a small quilt auction, and I did it because it's a fundraiser, but basically I'm not much into wall hangings.

0:19:35.8 AE: Oh, see I like wall hangings.

[overlapping conversation]

0:19:37.1 AH: I just started... A lot of people do but I get started. And even when I've taken a class that was supposed to be where you could make nine blocks and it would be a lot. I make 48 blocks. I want...

0:19:51.0 AE: You want to finish. Yeah.

0:19:52.4 AH: I want a full quilt, that's just... And yet one of my best friends said she loves to make wall hangings.

0:20:00.5 AE: Oh, I do too.

0:20:00.5 AH: Because she can try this design and color, and then it's done.

0:20:02.7 AE: Before we go, I wanna show you one that we did in the class.

0:20:06.2 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:20:08.8 AE: Well, there's a limit to how many quilts we do use.

0:20:13.8 AH: Well, now see, I don't see a limit on those, but I see a limit in how many wall hangings I can hang.

0:20:20.0 AE: Oh, that's true, you can always one down, of course you can take a quilt down.

0:20:23.2 AH: I have a full quilt hanging on our living room wall, and when it's down that wall, I hang pictures or something on it, but it looks kind of bare, but all the differences... But...

0:20:36.7 AE: Actually it's too bad you don't have... There aren't some who are actually quilting in this era, in 20s and 30s. There aren't any of them left.

0:20:53.7 AH: That's exactly why we have to get out and do this. There are some, and that's the ones that we've tried to pick from those first interviews down at the Quilt Discovery Days, but most of them are like you. Their old quilts, they brought in, were their mother's or grandmother's, but we tried to pick people then who are quilters themselves. Who are quilting now. Whether they did it in the 20s and 30s, but at least they know.

0:21:26.7 AE: Well, we went through that period, where when you're at school and you just don't have the time, or we didn't have the time or the inclination, but not all young people... You wouldn't give a quilt to everybody. They don't appreciate it, and won't appreciate what goes into it.

0:21:58.7 AH: I know I've held some that I'm giving to my children. I haven't given them to them yet because I think their children are still too little and they're awfully careless. I don't think you need to just fold them up in a trunk somewhere, but I think you have to have some kind of care.

0:22:17.4 AE: I had a friend that gave one away, and the next time she visited that house, the dog used it as a blanket, and I'm not about to do that. [laughter]

0:22:26.9 AH: No. Me neither.

0:22:28.3 AH: It's too much, but what part of it do you like the best? You got into it really, sort of in your... Well, in the 80's I guess. You said '81 you took your first class at Lone Star.

0:22:41.6 AE: I love classes.

0:22:44.5 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:22:45.3 AE: I suppose that's part of... And you could always learn something new. I have an awful lot of part projects. Where I've started in a class, and you have to do some from your memory. But I like the color choice, choosing the color, but I like creating it. I get a little bored with just putting piece on piece, same thing over and over. I'm doing one now that I wish I had never even started.

0:23:15.6 AH: What is that?

0:23:16.3 AE: It's a fan. Grandmother's fan. I just...

0:23:19.9 AH: Oh. That was one of my first choices.

0:23:23.9 AE: Well...

0:23:25.3 AH: Because...

0:23:27.3 AH: I did mine as a friendship quilt. So each of the ladies in this quilt group made a fan block form, and it turned out to be a beautiful quilt, just beautiful.

0:23:39.8 AE: When I started this...

0:23:39.9 AH: It's a nice fan, nice pattern.

0:23:46.2 AE: I made these for our bedroom in Florida, and this is wrong.

0:23:51.9 AH: Oh.

0:23:52.5 AE: I did one of the colors match this one, and it ended up a much bigger quilt than...

0:24:01.8 AH: This is a pretty quilt.

0:24:03.0 AH: The baby [bonnet?].

0:24:07.9 AE: Well, I made a mistake too, many years ago...

0:24:11.1 AH: That's the wrong pattern, isn't it? This one looks like a bud to me, but this one doesn't.

0:24:21.0 AE: Just because of the colour?

0:24:23.7 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:24:23.8 AE: It was a scrap quilt.

0:24:26.5 AH: Because this one I can see the bud and the stem.

0:24:29.6 AE: You wanna know what? That's one of my mistakes. That piece should have been...

0:24:36.0 AE: Well then, I never noticed that before.

0:24:37.8 AH: That you're humble.

0:24:38.8 AE: Yes. That piece should have been there.

0:24:41.9 AH: I've got one that hung on my wall for about a year, and I took a picture of it. It was even on a Christmas card. I think I'd had it all finished, I hand quilted it, and I had it for about a year and a half, and all of a sudden I was sitting there, I thought, "That's wrong." I'd turned one of the blocks... It was very obvious, and I had turned one of the... I didn't think people could really do that. [chuckle]

0:25:08.5 AE: On a simple thing like that, I don't either.

0:25:09.8 AH: I didn't too.

0:25:10.8 AE: I didn't.

0:25:11.9 AH: Yeah, but it's a pretty little pattern.

0:25:15.8 AE: But I do like the color.

0:25:18.0 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:25:18.9 AE: I like the quilting. Now, that is the part of it that is relaxing to me. Sit and quilt.

0:25:28.8 AH: You do all hand quilting?

0:25:31.4 AE: I've never gone into, uh old small quilts like placemats I have machine quilt, but I don't have a machine to do it. You have to have an open arm really, don't you?

0:25:45.3 AH: Pretty much.

0:25:47.2 AE: Do you do any?

0:25:48.4 AH: Very little, because like you, I haven't gotten into it, and I've done small things like a really usable baby quilt, or pillow tops, that sort of thing. Just something to get it stuck together.

0:26:05.6 AE: I made place mats as Christmas presents last year, and I did machine quilting. And with that thermal backing with a...

0:26:17.3 AH: Fleece?

0:26:18.5 AE: Filler, it's easy to quilt. And they stay really nice, they don't get lumpy, they don't bunch. One of the reasons why I dislike this, because I had a batt that I won, being the 1000th person to come to a quilt show in Florida, and I've had that around for over five years, and I thought, "Well, I've gotta use it. And it's too heavy."

0:26:41.4 AH: What kind of batt is it?

0:26:43.1 AE: It was a poly.

0:26:44.4 AH: Oh, I see.

0:26:46.1 AE: But it was just...

0:26:50.2 AH: What do you normally use?

0:26:50.4 AE: Well, it may have matted a little bit.

0:26:51.9 AH: What do you normally use for batt?

0:26:52.0 AE: Well, I like a low loft. I use a poly, I haven't used this new cotton. But for hand quilting. I like that. And I... 

AH:It makes a soft, not too heavy, 

AE:and liking to do small projects like hangings. That's heavy enough.

0:27:18.5 AH: But the thermal fleece works really well for a place mats because... Did you just turn them like an envelope thing, or did you cut 'em and then put a separate binding on your...

0:27:32.9 AE: I think I bound it all the way around, it was a pattern that was in the Christmas magazines. Do you subscribe to that one?

0:27:41.9 AH: A lot of them, I don't know which one but...

0:27:43.7 AE: It's just called Christmas.

0:27:46.3 AH: Oh.

0:27:46.4 AE: It comes... Anyway, it was just the right thing to give us two place mats as for Christmas.

0:28:00.8 AH: That's a nice project. I see, I hear some people saying: Oh, it's so nice, you can make gifts for people, but that isn't...

0:28:09.8 AE: You have to be careful.

0:28:11.7 AH: I have to kind of laugh. My dentist told me that his wife had started quilting, and I kind of laughed and I said, "Well, that will be nice, and she'll really get involved in it." And he says, "Oh yes, and she can make Christmas presents for people." And I thought, "You're missing the point, Doctor. That's not the product." The product, usually isn't the point in my quilting. Is it in yours?

0:28:39.2 AE: No, it's the creating.

0:28:42.3 AH: I think that's...

0:28:43.8 AE: I guess I have an eye for the finished product. But for a certain place, a certain person, I wouldn't just make it wholesale and give it out as that.

0:28:56.2 AH: And you have never done any for sale or anything like that? But a lot of men particularly, unless they're involved in some art form, or maybe woodworking or model building or something, don't understand. 

AE: My husband does. 

AH: He understands that it's the creating.

AE: Yeah, and he's in with me in all my hobbies.

0:29:25.5 AH: Good.

0:29:26.6 AE: My other big hobby is pressed flowers. Before you go, I wanna show you.

0:29:30.6 AH: I'd love to see it.

0:29:33.3 AE: Well, I actually, I don't know how much you could use for me. 

AH: Well, everything you have to tell us.

0:29:42.3 AE: Can't tell you anything that isn't already written up or... I do like those documentary sheets that were given out, and I made copies to give to my daughter and to my granddaughter who's also into it. I wish I had, I wish everybody would like mother and my aunt had done that back when they did their quilt. I keep a diary.

0:30:09.1 AH: Or maybe you wish that I had...

0:30:10.7 AH: I keep pictures of everything I've made, and I always think I'm gonna well, I'm gonna write down everything about it, but I haven't written down anything about it. I kept, started too late, like you do everything. This maybe...

0:30:28.3 AH: Well, I wish I had started quilting.

0:30:30.4 AE: I have a book like that and I just kept a diary of when I started it, what I did different, and wouldn't that have been fun to have this back in the 20's.

0:30:42.0 AH: Because that's the sort of thing that they look for in journals now, "...quilted all day...".

0:30:49.4 AE: Right, and that could have...

[overlapping conversation]

0:30:51.3 AH: There's quite a few those.

0:30:55.4 AE: The stairs, sitting there quilting when the [0:30:56.0] ____.

0:30:56.2 AH: Did she quilt on a frame or a big frame?

0:30:58.6 AE: Yeah, definitely. [0:31:02.8] ____.

0:31:02.9 AH: And do you quilt on a frame?

0:31:03.0 AE: No, because they're not small, honestly yeah.

0:31:07.1 AH: Hoop or...

0:31:08.9 AE: Hoop for the big quilt. Anything smaller I use one of those plastic [clips?].

0:31:14.5 AH: Oh yeah that [0:31:18.8] ____.

0:31:19.1 AE: Yeah, I like that.

0:31:20.2 AH: Yeah, I don't have one of those, but...

0:31:22.9 AE: They're fine and then Mel made, it came with a long rod. And he's made smaller ones. So I did them at all. It is, is a plastic tube from the hardware store. He just kind of pop it into [an elbow?] [0:31:37.4] ____.

0:31:37.4 AH: It's really simple, and somebody came up with a great idea when they did that.

0:31:41.8 AE: Yeah, right.

0:31:43.2 AH: And the cost. 

AE: Yeah, for a pittance, really.

0:31:46.5 AH: I don't know how much the floor model is, that's about this, that's a pretty good size, but it's kind of pricey for what it is, it's just that...

0:31:56.9 AE: It is all of this. Actually, it's not an expensive hobby.

AH: So that's why I laughed when my dentist... My dentist plays golf and he bass fishes and I said something about, your wife will have to get a hobby so you'll feel more comfortable with you're spending. And he says, "Oh, she's taken up quilting." And I laughed. I said, "Well, that might get her even."

0:32:25.3 AE: Okay this was a class we did.

0:32:32.5 AH: That's fascinating.

0:32:35.6 AE: And that's the church, and this is our house, this is a cottage on one of my sons, and my previous house. I had to do a little poetic license on Kathy's condo, and then these are two grandchildren, and that's a store and that's our church. I have it outlined...

0:32:52.8 AH: Did you take pictures of the whole...

0:32:57.9 AE: Mel. This is Mel, my husband. I'm with Anne... Allene Helgeson, from Stillwater.

0:33:05.9 AH: How are you? Happy to meet you.

0:33:11.8 AE: They moved, they're fairly new in Stillwater, she says. They're from Montana. Are we talking quilts?

0:33:20.3 AH: Talking quilts. Whenever two quilters meet, it's either recipes or quilts.

0:33:26.0 AE: Yeah. True.

0:33:31.4 AH: This is a beautiful... Did you do this one in Florida too and this...

0:33:36.1 AE: Yeah. It was a class.

0:33:37.9 AH: Oh, Debra's quilt basket. Then you took photos of your drawings?

0:33:42.7 AE: That's where I was at a loss because I was in Florida and I didn't have any pictures. But I had the kids send pictures. And then she had a basic perspective of different shapes, but then you had to do your own sketching, and then you had to do... What's going on? You're not through your journal.

0:34:00.0 AH: We can turn this off.