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Minnesota Quilt Stories - Anna Wacker
Le Center; Minnesota; United States
Anna Veronica Spaetgens, at the time of her wedding in 1930 to Anthony Wacker, Le Center, MN. Used with permission, from the collection of Kathy Jerrow.
Anna Spaetgens Wacker (1912-2007) recalls her quilting history, and speaks about family and local history, primarily in Le Center, MN. Margaret Traxler, interviewer, January 10, 1994.
0:06:50.5 AW: Yeah, maybe that would be [0:06:52.0] ____.
0:06:53.4 MT: There. Okay.
0:06:56.1 MT: Just tell us your name and your address. And...
0:07:00.1 AW: My name is Anna Wacker. And our address is Rural Route 1, Box 266, New Prague, Minnesota 56071.
0:07:13.0 MT: And now tell us when did you start to quilt?
0:07:19.8 AW: Well, I would think in about 1933, maybe. I don't know what I had down, what they had down on the...
0:07:30.9 MT: Oh, did you answer that question before?
0:07:32.8 AW: One time at the...
0:07:34.2 MT: After, when we recorded the quilt.
0:07:36.0 AW: Recorded the... See, but I wasn't quite, I know it was when my first son was born. It was, and he was born in '31 and then it would've been either '32 or '33 in there.
0:07:54.8 MT: When and I should have said that the number of your quilt was 006 at the show.
0:07:56.3 AW: Mm-hmm.
0:07:56.3 MT: Okay. Who taught you to quilt?
0:08:00.2 AW: Well, nobody really did. I just sewed, did sewing and then watched my aunt from Montana do, you know when she did hers put her blocks together and I just put it together and just did it by myself.
0:08:14.2 MT: Oh, that's great. And did you quilt often?
0:08:19.3 AW: Well, when I don't remember how many, it took me a while, you know, before I got it done but...
0:08:26.2 MT: I know.
0:08:26.6 AW: With the baby and all, see that's how come I did it in spare... and staying home in the wintertime, it was, he was born in September. See, and then that way it would have been over winter and them days with the cars and stuff you didn't go like we do nowadays.
0:08:44.9 MT: That's right.
0:08:45.5 AW: And then for that was my pastime. To sit down and quilt.
0:08:49.5 MT: Yeah. About how many quilts do you think you made?
0:08:54.1 AW: Well, this is really the only one like this I made. I made just a lot of different patch. So just with the sewing machine after I got a the sewing machine, but this is the only one I did by hand.
0:09:03.8 MT: By hand, entirely by hand.
0:09:05.5 AW: By hand. That's the only one I did by hand.
0:09:09.3 MT: And what were then the, you mean you just put blocks together and things on the machine. And did you quilt those then to, or did you tie them?
0:09:17.2 AW: No, I just tied them.
0:09:17.7 MT: You tied them.
0:09:19.3 AW: Mm-hmm.
0:09:20.0 MT: Okay. And where did you get this pattern?
0:09:26.0 AW: From my aunt Gertrude Cohen from Glendive Montana. She was here visiting and she had, was making one.
0:09:35.6 MT: Oh, okay.
0:09:36.2 AW: And had part of her stuff along, you know? And that's how, that's where I got the pattern from that time. Because the reason I liked it was, I thought you can use little scraps, it was a nice pattern that you didn't need great big pieces of material. And that's how come I could get enough to make each block different.
0:09:57.5 MT: Oh, and how about how many blocks are in there?
0:10:00.8 AW: Oh, I don't know, I have never counted. I never tried it. I never even thought of counting them.
0:10:04.2 MT: Well, there are many, many blocks.
0:10:05.4 AW: Yeah. There's a lot of blocks there...
0:10:06.8 MT: And so what name did you, do you think this is called?
0:10:09.4 AW: Well, I never did know until they're at the show.
0:10:13.2 MT: I see.
0:10:13.7 AW: Is that one of them said, I think the Arkansas Snowflake is what they called it there.
0:10:18.6 MT: And I have another name, a Snowball, if you look at just the white areas, it looks like snowballs.
0:10:24.8 AW: Snowballs.
0:10:25.3 MT: And another name for it, I think is, or did you have another name for it?
0:10:29.0 AW: No, I didn't have a name for it because I never did really know what, what I don't... I imagine she told me what it was, but all those years, I just simply forgot about it. I just...
0:10:41.4 MT: You just did it.
0:10:42.2 AW: I just did it. And, but then there, there at the show when you had it at that time. Well, where that's, what, one of the ones that were the, I don't know where they came down from and, or, and then that's what they had the name was on it.
0:11:00.5 MT: Let's go back a little bit to where you were born. I think that's kind of an interesting history. You were telling me before where you were born.
0:11:08.6 AW: I wonder what the, I don't know what really that building was called. It was a Moudry store, it was when I was born. The Tom Moudry store. And then there was the upstairs on it and that's where I was born next to [Johns Price] tire shop.
0:11:27.6 MT: And also next to Mangan's...
0:11:29.4 AW: Mangan's baker shop. I don't know who or somebody, I don't even remember Mom saying who was in there, when first I remember was Terry, when they had the baker shop and upstairs right on Main street.
0:11:44.3 MT: Oh, that's really interesting. And...
0:11:50.5 AW: And then see, my dad was deputy sheriff.
0:11:53.6 MT: Oh, and what was his name?
0:11:55.0 AW: Joe C. Spaetgens.
0:11:57.1 MT: Joe C. Spaetgens.
0:12:00.2 AW: Mm-hmm. And then he was under three sheriffs, for Traxler and Keogh and Bolke.
0:12:09.0 MT: Oh.
0:12:10.7 AW: And he died when the flu was around when Bolke was the sheriff at that time.
0:12:13.8 MT: Oh, your father died.
0:12:15.0 AW: Yeah. Yeah. He was only 30 years old.
0:12:17.5 MT: Oh, is that right? And he got the flu?
0:12:20.1 AW: No, he had the flu, but he got over it. And then he went and overhauled the old model T or whatever, the first car the Sheriff's got in an open garage. And he... came home. And he told mom, he said the bones in his hands, he washed all the stuff in gasoline and in the parts. And then he said, when he... That his bone hurt up to his elbow. He said, my... From that cold. And he
got a mastoid. See, it was... He didn't get a relapse of the flu, but he got a mastoid and them days, they never knew what to operate.
0:12:55.4 MT: Sure.
0:12:55.8 AW: And see, when that broke, then it went to his heart, they said. And that's what killed him.
0:13:00.2 MT: Huh? 30 years old.
0:13:01.2 AW: Yeah. And she had the three, it was me and Zoe and Joe, and then Mary was born in June. And he died in December and Mary was born in June. So she was left with us four little kids.
0:13:14.8 MT: What did she do then to support your family?
0:13:17.1 MT: Well, see, Grandma Moudry helped a lot. And then after us kids got bigger, then she used to sell stockings and perfumes and stuff. I forget for some California company, she went around and did a little bit of that. But otherwise she raised the vegetables in the garden and then Grandma would bring the wood. See, we had a wood stove, a furnace or a stove or whatever it was them days. And they'd bring in from the woods and the eggs and all that stuff helped her out. And that way, because I said, then we didn't have the welfare like they've got nowadays.
0:13:58.0 MT: People helped each other. Didn't they?
0:14:00.0 AW: Yeah. And then the clothes too. See, Mrs. Wrabek was in the courthouse and old Frank and then she used to work there. And she used to get a lot of clothes for us that mom would make over. Mom was a great sewer. I never had a boughten coat until the year before I got married. It was the first boughten coat I ever had. See and Jane was a teacher. And she used to...
0:14:22.6 MT: Jane Moudry.
0:14:23.9 AW: Yeah. She kept her coats. Well, she'd have dressed better than what a lot of them around here would. And then she'd give them to mom. And mom would make them over into coats for us kids and all of our clothes, dresses and all that stuff. She always made all. So I said, "She's had now, you know...and she's a 104 years old." So I said...
0:14:46.0 MT: And she's still living?
0:14:47.7 AW: Yeah. And she's still living at the nursing home.
0:14:49.1 MT: At the nursing home?
0:14:50.5 AW: But I said, you know, when you think back now she did have a hard life.
0:14:54.2 MT: Yes, she did. Yes, she really did.
0:14:55.6 AW: Raising four kids like that.
0:14:58.6 MT: But it must have been good for her.
0:15:00.7 AW: Yeah.
0:15:02.3 MT: She seems healthy. Doesn't she [laughter]
0:15:03.1 AW: Seemed to. Yeah. Yeah. I said too it... yeah, he was only 30 years old when he... They had him talked into running for sheriff, the next time because he wasn't afraid of nobody and afraid of nothing. She said he was just one of those that was... And then in them days, the sheriff, a deputy had to help with the washing. He had to do on the washboard. Mrs. Traxler and or Mrs. Keogh or whoever was the sheriff at the time. And all the garden work, dig the potatoes and all that. Then he used to come over to the hotel, see my grandparents Spaetgen's run the hotel and mom worked there. And he had that great big kitchen. He used to come and help her scrub the kitchen. That way, I mean she tells things back like that and the stuff. And... 0:15:57.0 MT: What was the name of the hotel?
0:16:00.0 AW: Let's see what I used to think of. What the heck did they call it? It's in our book, but I haven't gotten my book yet.
0:16:05.8 MT: Was it the De Ganda hotel?
0:16:07.0 AW: No, that wasn't the De Ganda's. See, this was right across from the courthouse where... Christian's office there.
0:16:13.2 MT: Well, where Christian's office is now.
0:16:16.7 AW: Yeah where Christian's office it was there. And then that empty space in between. See, there isn't the space still there yet between that?
0:16:24.0 MT: Yes.
0:16:24.0 AW: Yeah. See, that was... It was and they had...well a bar and a liquor store. I mean they called it a saloon in them days.
0:16:33.9 MT: I didn't know there was ever a hotel there.
0:16:35.6 AW: Oh yeah. And where the hotel part is now where Mrs. Selly used to live back of the nursing home. You know that house right back there?
0:16:42.8 MT: Yeah.
0:16:42.9 AW: That is part of the old Spaetgen's hotel. They moved that Selly and... Who was the other man? Well, Mr. Selly and another man bought that part and then they built it, made it into a home.
0:16:58.1 MT: They moved it out?
0:17:00.3 AW: I forget what part. Yeah. They moved it out of there. I remember that part of it. And I said, "If that hotel stood there today, I can just go through every part of it." And I wasn't too big that time either, but I can remember the old dark stairs going up. And then they had one big place where they kept all the sheets for all the beds. And then they had a back stairway where the boarders could go up the back way and a great big kitchen. And then there was three, four steps going up to the dining room. And then on the west side was a room, the lobby like they'd call it.
0:17:36.3 AW: And then, off the lobby was the liquor or the saloon they used to call it them days. And then, see, Grandpa had rheumatism real bad. And he was in a wheelchair and then different men worked for him and helped him. And I can... Oh, I just... I see. I can see all that. Just so clear and plain yet. I see it when I think back of them days to all the things that went on used to go on there. And then when I was real small, why the boys used to bring him beer and pretzels about at 10:30 into his room when he was in the wheelchair. And it... I knew if I was at the hotel and knew, I mean, I couldn't have been too very big, but I always had to run there and have a taste of his beer and the pretzel. And I was just a little kid, and they let me. [laughter]
0:18:33.5 MT: You have a little taste of beer.
0:18:35.1 AW: Have a little taste of the beer. I'd always be there when he'd get his beer. [laughter]
0:18:40.1 MT: Yeah.
0:18:40.5 AW: So today, but I don't know. It don't bother me today.
0:18:41.9 AW: It didn't affect at all. Did it?
0:18:44.8 AW: Uh-huh.
0:18:44.9 MT: That was just a good association.
0:18:47.1 AW: Yeah.
0:18:48.5 MT: Now in those days, did people stay in the hotel like month after month or did they just come and stay overnight?
0:18:54.0 AW: Well, mostly they had the biggest business when the court was going on. And then when they built the courthouse, building the courthouse too, then grandma had all the ones that built it. And my dad up in the very top of that courthouse, there's a, I don't know if it's on the marble, I'd love to have somebody that would go up in there. He's got JCS EAM, their initials before they were
married, are carved up in that courthouse. Up in the dome of that courthouse someplace. But I said, if we could only get somebody that would go up in there and see if it's still up there, I don't know what it was. It was on something that's up in the dome. Is where he's got it carved in the, I don't if it was the wood or if it was marble or what she said that time. I said, it's too bad. We didn't write down a lot of that stuff that she used to tell.
0:19:52.9 MT: Did he help build it up there or why did he put his initials?
0:19:56.5 AW: No, he used to just go up into the courthouse a lot and, from the jail, they'd be going back and forth and then he used to do a lot of wood burning. These pictures and that stuff, and I haven't got my book here either. Now, it's too bad I haven't got that. I think Marcy's got it over there. And they've got a lot where they go in. I don't know how they run the thing. They used to run over to the courthouse. It wouldn't be electric in them days. I don't know how they run the...
0:20:25.7 MT: To run the wood burner. What burning set...
0:20:26.6 AW: Burning set, where they'd go over and then he got, he had one of the first Victrolas that they had in the town. That with the round records, my son, Tony has got, then he had a big case filled. I don't know. He must have a hundred records or more. And then he used him and his brother, Charlie, and some of them used to sing on them. I know that in the book where they wrote down, mom kept kind of a diary. And they got in there that we were over in the courthouse, at the Victor phonograph is what they called it. They had that going and we'd be recording on it and...
0:21:05.9 MT: And they could do their own recording?
0:21:09.0 AW: Yeah they did their own recording. Yeah. We got all his voice on, but my son, Tony, Ma gave it to him.
0:21:12.5 MT: Is that right?
0:21:13.6 AW: Yeah.
0:21:13.9 MT: Was your mother a quilter? I don't suppose she did.
0:21:17.4 AW: I don't remember that.
0:21:19.2 MT: Because she probably was too busy raising the family.
0:21:22.2 AW: Yeah, raising family. She did make, out of the wool quilts and things like that, that we used to use. But, I don't remember that she.... Well, she did make me one before I got married. It was an orchid and white, but I don't know what that was called either, but I think she did that on the machine. It was all in blocks too that time. I always liked orchid and green were my colors and this was orchid and white for one bedroom. And then my bedroom I wanted in green, but I didn't have a quilt. I had just a bedspread and then Grandma Moudry made me a crocheted, a great big crocheted bedspread.
0:22:00.3 MT: Do you still have that?
0:22:00.9 AW: Yeah.
0:22:01.2 AW: And I put that over my green one. Over my green bed spread. Yeah. She made Zoe, Mary and I all, on the bedspreads, before she died that time and she used to love to crochet. She made the alb, whatever they call them that the priests wear. Father Jiracek was buried in it.
0:22:28.1 MT: Oh Father Jiracek, is that right.
0:22:30.4 AW: The one he was buried in, she made for him all crotchet. He saved it purposely for his funeral. He wanted to be buried in it.
0:22:42.2 AW: What were the main nationalities of the people in your family?
0:22:47.6 MT: Well, grandpa came from... Moudry came from Czechoslovakia or whatever, I don't know what it is nowadays, but he came over when he was six years old on the ship. And then Gramma she was a Schleiss from Montgomery. And so she was Czech too, and then my dad's side, they came from, I don't know where the back when, I've got a granddaughter that's got that all wrote up where they came from. Can I get up and go over here or will I spoil it? I was gonna see...
0:23:29.5 MT: I can stop it for a minute. [background conversation]
0:23:32.3 MT: Now, we looked it up and the Spaetgens family came from...
0:23:39.3 AW: Germany.
0:23:42.9 MT: From Germany.
0:23:44.4 AW: On the Netherland border, near the Netherland border. And then, grandma was a Weiers and they came from some part of that part too of Germany I think is where they did. And then they went to Wisconsin and... No Grandma, or what did I say? Think she was born in Sheboygan Wisconsin.
0:24:08.6 MT: Yes. You thought Grandma...
0:24:09.3 AW: She wasn't from over there. Grandpa was from Germany and she was born in Sheboygan Wisconsin. And then they...
0:24:15.4 MT: And how did they happen to wind up in Le Center Minnesota?
0:24:17.8 AW: They moved to Union Hill, and they were married. I don't know if that's, if Kathy's got that in here. I don't think she has, they were married at Union Hill and then, they have two girls that are buried in Union Hill that died when they were babies. And then Grandpa just came to Le Center and then he started... I think it tells in that book..the Le Center book. What he did first, when
he came into Le Center, and then, because they lived up where we lived, on Montgomery street, was their house. My dad bought that from them when they went into the hotel business. And then they went into the hotel business and...
0:25:05.3 MT: And you have a nice picture of the hotel here. Yeah. And that hotel has been moved away from there.
0:25:11.7 AW: So you went in here to the lobby, and then this one on this side was the saloon part of it. And then upstairs, all the, what'd you call it, there was a little thing built over, and then there used to be a George Harlan. I don't know, he was some kind of a took or some kind of business in town. He lived or had a business in the next building to it. Because there was a sidewalk, wooden sidewalk that went down to the back door. Wooden planks.
0:25:42.5 AW: Then they stayed in it until, let's see, 1920. When did Grandma, did Grandma leave the hotel businesses? Has Kathy got it in here? She's got what the whole thing was inside. I mean how the room's all were she's got that all down here.
0:26:09.2 MT: But what I wanted to see was what... The meals cost 25 cents?
0:26:13.3 AW: Yeah. They used to have meals. They took in boarders and roomers. And the dining room was... I see, like I said, the steps up, and then Anna Butler, she used to work there. You don't remember the Butler's either... See either before.
0:26:30.1 MT: No, Ann Butler.
0:26:32.1 AW: Yes.
0:26:32.5 MT: She was married to [Axler's] sister, right?
0:26:35.1 AW: Yeah, she worked with my mother in there.
0:26:39.0 MT: Oh, she worked there too?
0:26:42.7 AW: Mm-hmm. And then Anna Vince, Vance, Vince, or, Anna Traxler as she used to be, and she married Vance and then she married Selly.
0:26:48.0 MT: Oh, I see.
0:26:49.5 AW: See, after she worked in there too. Yeah, the meals were, but later they raised them for 50 cents and then see it whenever there was any farm institutes or any, oh, like on New Year's and all them dances, they used to have [ ] Webers, Webers drug store and see, they always served meals. That was what the 25 cents I think was for those evenings, because some place too where it
did... But it isn't in here now. It's all they... used to be... come and tell how many cakes they had to bake for those.
0:27:23.0 MT: Yeah.
0:27:24.1 AW: For those things, and what'd you call it so.
0:27:33.0 MT: Well, that's really interesting. I think we'll go on here now and talk about, did you make your quilt on a quilting frame?
0:27:47.5 AW: Mm-hmm.
0:27:48.5 MT: And what kind, what, how was that made?
0:27:52.4 AW: It was one, that they're just boards.
0:27:54.0 MT: Boards?
0:27:56.6 AW: Yeah. It had the board frame and then the screws, you screwed it together on the sides.
0:28:03.5 MT: Sides. And then did you roll it?
0:28:04.8 AW: Roll it as we went along. Yeah, I rolled it.
0:28:07.7 MT: And did you quilt on it all by yourself or did you have...
0:28:09.4 AW: No, I have a sister-in-law Anna, another Anna Wacker, Tony's brother Bill's wife when she'd come out sometimes in the day that she'd help me some days help me with it, but I did most of it myself, but she has a little sewing on it that she did.
0:28:26.7 MT: Now every block in that quilt is different. Where did you get all those different fabrics?
0:28:32.1 AW: Well, see them days, we used to make all our clothes and I don't know. It just seemed from... Well solid colors I bought.
0:28:43.7 MT: Oh, you did?
0:28:43.8 AW: Mm-hmm. The solid colors I did buy so much, so many pieces of the, or part of that, but the other ones I didn't buy any. I got them either from different people they'd give me the... And then mother made always so much clothes for us kids and...
0:29:03.7 MT: I suppose you had lots of places you could find fabric?
0:29:05.2 AW: Yeah. A lot of fabric, and different ones would save them for me. Then I think my aunt from Montana, I think she gave me some...
0:29:13.9 MT: I bet as long as she was working on the same quilt.
0:29:14.8 AW: If she was working on the same quilt.
0:29:15.8 MT: I'll bet.
0:29:19.7 AW: She gave me blocks too.
0:29:21.2 MT: What kind of batting is in between or is it batting?
0:29:23.9 AW: Yeah. It's that what they used to use then... Oh, it was kind of like a cotton, you know you unroll it and spread it out.
0:29:33.3 MT: A cotton batting.
0:29:34.8 AW: Cotton batting is in between it.
0:29:37.8 MT: And did you sign your quilt?
0:29:39.4 AW: Uh-huh.
0:29:42.7 MT: Did you put a date on it any place?
0:29:42.8 AW: No. Never put a date on it. [chuckle]
0:29:43.5 MT: I would suggest that you take some embroidery.
0:29:46.3 AW: Yeah.
0:29:46.7 MT: And, write it out first and then embroider that on fabric.
0:29:50.9 AW: I never even thought of it. [laughter]
0:29:52.8 MT: Yes. You should do that.
0:29:54.6 AW: They should do that.
0:29:55.4 MT: Yes. It'll make it that much more valuable to the person that you're gonna give it. Now who... What is the name of the person you told me that you were gonna give it to?
0:30:02.6 AW: Carol [Mager] Wells is one of my grand-daughters.
0:30:08.1 MT: Uh-huh.
0:30:09.2 AW: Is one day she's gonna get the quilt.
0:30:10.0 MT: Do you remember we talked about that at the quilt show.
0:30:12.3 AW: Yeah, I know you said, because I had told you, I had one, the daughter of the son that was a baby is the reason I was gonna give it to her because, as long as it was her father, that was the baby at the time that I did it [laughter] I thought, but then after I got to thinking and a lot, well she maybe would take good care of it maybe too, but I know this one here would treasure it and take better care of the quilt than the other ones.
0:30:40.7 MT: And that's more important to you isn't when you spend that much time on the thing.
0:30:48.5 AW: Right.
0:30:50.8 MT: Right. Did you ever participate in any quilting activities in the...
0:30:54.9 AW: No.
0:30:55.2 MT: The community?
0:30:56.6 AW: I have never did.
0:30:57.9 MT: You just always did it on your own?
0:31:00.2 AW: Just did it it on my own.
0:31:01.8 MT: How old were you when you made this quilt? Do you remember?
0:31:05.8 AW: Let's see, I was married when I was 18 and I must have been, about 21, 22 in there somewhere.
0:31:14.2 MT: So how old would that make that quilt?
0:31:15.9 AW: We'll see. So I'm 81 now.
0:31:18.7 MT: So it's about 60 years old then isn't it?
0:31:20.4 AW: Yeah, it would be.
0:31:20.5 MT: That's great.
0:31:23.5 AW: Yeah, see, it was in 1930 when we I think we put 33 or 31 or something down yeah. Yeah. The quilt must be, yeah, it must be that old.
0:31:31.9 MT: It's in just perfect condition.
0:31:34.4 AW: I used to use it for anything that went on, like when Rita Ann got married. Then I...
0:31:39.1 MT: You put it on your bed for special...
0:31:41.3 AW: For some specials. Special occasions. I would use it. But then otherwise I didn't.
0:31:47.9 AW: You know, not just for every day. I didn't use it too much 'cause I always treasured it so too, you know?
0:31:57.1 MT: Yeah.
0:31:57.3 AW: With all the work and stuff in it, and so I just...
0:32:02.6 MT: And what was the name of the lady again from Montana?
0:32:07.5 AW: She would have been Gertrude Spaetgens Colin. She is McCabe's... You know August McCabe and all those?
0:32:14.4 MT: Mm-hmm.
0:32:15.3 AW: She was married to their uncle, August Colin, he was in the courthouse in Center. He worked there, but then he...
0:32:23.7 MT: Colin?
0:32:24.5 AW: Colin.
0:32:25.4 MT: K?
0:32:25.6 AW: C-O-L-I-N.
0:32:26.4 MT: Oh, C-O-L-I-N? Okay.
0:32:27.2 AW: C-O-L-I-N, mm-hmm.
0:32:27.9 AW: And then he worked where August McCabe used to work in the courthouse in Center, and then he went to North Dakota, and then from there, they went to Glendive, Montana, and he was in the courthouse in Glendive there till he died. It was all those years. Many, many years, he was in the courthouse in Glendive, Montana.
0:32:49.9 MT: And she's the one who inspired you to do this?
0:32:52.2 AW: Yeah.
0:32:52.7 MT: Yeah. That's nice.
0:32:54.4 AW: And then Mary Ann Lammers, I don't know, Spaetgens, you know?
0:33:00.1 MT: Mm-hmm.
0:33:00.6 AW: She's another one just like Aunt Gerty. She's great for doing all that. She goes any place, she takes her work along with her too.
0:33:07.7 MT: Oh her quilting, huh?
0:33:09.1 AW: I don't know if she quilts, but I know her embroidery and crocheting and all that stuff. She'll take it along, and if they're driving along, she just...
0:33:17.6 MT: That's what I do too.
0:33:18.6 AW: That's the way Aunt Gerty was wherever she'd go, and she'd do it. And she did, and she reminds me a lot of Aunt Gerty too.
0:33:32.3 MT: Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, let me see here. I'm trying to see some other questions here. And you said you did do embroidering too when you were younger, right?
0:33:52.8 AW: Yeah. Well, I did use to take a lot of stuff to the fair...
0:33:58.4 MT: Oh, you did?
0:34:00.8 AW: When we used to have a fair, and I did a lot of embroidery work.
0:34:04.6 MT: Mm-hmm. Were they stamped on when you did embroidery?
0:34:07.6 AW: Yes.
0:34:08.0 MT: Mm-hmm.
0:34:08.5 AW: Pillowcases, you know, and dresser scarves and all that. See, when we went to St. Mary's School and Sister Methodia was our teacher and she used to teach us. She taught me to darn stockings, and every time... I loved to darn stockings, even though [chuckle] nowadays you know they don't do it, but I still do.
0:34:29.7 MT: Oh, [0:34:29.7] ____.
0:34:30.0 MT: And they taught that in grade school.
0:34:32.9 AW: In grade school.
0:34:33.0 AW: And whenever I'll darn a stocking, I think of Sister Methodia. She was very... She was the cook at the convent at that time.
0:34:40.8 MT: And then she would come over to the classroom?
0:34:42.7 AW: And then she was... Yeah, she'd come over. We'd have a kind of class, a class of it. And then she was an artist too although she had her paint... Pretty pictures, and we used to have to make... Around Christmas time, she'd have us bring a Christmas card, and then we'd have to print or draw the form of it and then we'd have to paint it, a picture of it. And...
0:35:08.2 MT: Do you have any of those?
0:35:09.5 AW: Yeah, I've got one in the other room.
0:35:11.0 MT: You do?
0:35:11.9 AW: Mm-hmm.
0:35:12.1 MT: I'd like to see that after we're done.
0:35:17.4 AW: While we're still talking, I was gonna say I don't know what you're calling I'd go in there and get it.
0:35:22.5 MT: We'll look at it after a while. Do you remember the name of the company that made the quilt batt?
0:35:33.9 AW: No, I don't remember.
0:35:35.1 MT: You don't remember? You did buy it though, right?
0:35:37.8 AW: Yeah, I bought it. It was boughten, but I don't remember...
0:35:40.2 MT: Did you send for anything, like to Sears or anything, or did you buy or go to a store and buy your fabrics and your quilt battings?
0:35:48.6 AW: I just wonder where I got my quilt batting now. I must have just got it in Le Center in the store, I imagine.
0:35:54.2 MT: Huh? I suppose they did have it there sure.
0:35:57.1 AW: Yeah, see [Elvis'] used to have a lot of that stuff at the store.
0:36:02.8 MT: Okay. Well, I think we'll take another little break, and we'll think about this a little while and then we'll record again if we...
Written by Minnesota Quilt Stories;Minnesota Quilt Project (1994)
MQP OH-01, Audiocasette Box 01, (original audiocasette); digital audio files are held at the Minnesota Quilt Project Archive, and at the main office of MN Quilters, 253 State St., St. Paul, MN.
Anna Wacker (interviewee)
Margaret Traxler (interviewer)
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Minnesota Quilt Project Documentation Project
Minnesota Quilters Inc.
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1930-1949
Arkansas Snowflak... Anna Veronica Spaet...
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Collection
Minnesota Quilt Stories
Minnesota Quilt Project
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