0:00:00.7 Boni Matton: October 12, 1993. This is an introduction to the interview of Gertrude Pritzel for the Minnesota Quilters' quilt research project. Gertrude was born in Woodbury, Minnesota, August 28, 1902 and at the time of the interview had just passed her 91st birthday. There are three things that come to mind when you speak of Gertrude: Her quick, subtle, wry sense of humor, and in her quilting, her innate sense of color and her intuitive use of space. Gertrude knew how large a pieced block could be before the pattern fell away. She could see appliqué placement the size of the background square or space, with the borders' depth, dark-light balance and then the quilting design in relationship with the overall appearance of the quilt. Gertrude may have had fine initial instructions, but you could always seek Gertrude in her quilts.

0:01:09.1 BM: She did custom quilting plus making quilts for her immediate family, relatives and friends. About 1938, Gertrude and Mrs. Millie Wolf, a widow and a member of her church began quilting together. They continued to do so until Mrs. Wolf entered a nursing home. In 1966, Emelda Dornfeld, a recent widow, also a member of her church would come by. Emelda had previously tied quilts, so Gertrude taught her to do quilting. Imelda thought she would never make such small stitches, but she did, and she and Gertrude quilted together many years. In the 1920s, Mrs. Wolf brought into being the Helping Hands Club. Gertrude later became a member and then Emelda came in. This is where I met Gertrude. We began quilting together in 1979.

0:02:10.6 BM: Emelda moved to a nursing home and Gertrude and I quilted together until she moved to the senior high-rise in Hastings in 1988. At one time, we tried to estimate the number of quilts Gertrude was involved in, through custom quilting, making her own or in Helping Hands. I think 600 would be conservative. Gertrude took great pride in her work, the ribbons, and the State Fair grand sweepstakes, but none has meant as much to her as her church and family. She is the oldest, longest member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Woodbury and attends church as often as possible. Her daughter, grandchildren and great-grands are a joy, she can't wait to tell you about their latest endeavors. Just think of her life and all the pleasure she has given.

0:03:23.8 BM: This is September 20th, 1993. I'm at the home of Gertrude Haase Pritzel at Oak Ridge Manor in Hastings. And this interview is conducted for Minnesota Quilters' research project.

[background conversation]

0:03:44.3 BM: Okay, Gertrude, I guess we should get started. You can tell me where... You were born and raised in Woodbury?

0:03:54.1 Gertrude Pritzel: Yeah, I was raised in Woodbury.

0:03:57.1 BM: And your membership in which church?

0:04:01.1 GP: St. John's Lutheran Church in...

0:04:03.2 BM: That's still...

0:04:04.2 GP: Woodbury, it's still there.

0:04:06.8 BM: Okay, and we need to know when you made your first quilt.

0:04:12.6 GP: Oh, when I was about 15 years old, my grandmother helped me.

0:04:18.5 BM: And did you... Was it tied or did you quilt it?

0:04:22.5 GP: I think that one was tied.

0:04:24.6 BM: And then, you started by what lady? Which grandma was it?

0:04:32.2 GP: Grandma Bielenberg.

0:04:34.1 BM: And then there was another lady you mentioned.

0:04:37.8 GP: Yeah, Mrs. Gorgus used to come over to our place and help us. So we'd done some quilting then.

0:04:47.4 BM: Okay, and what age did you say you were?

0:04:51.1 GP: 15.

0:04:51.4 BM: About 15.

0:04:51.7 GP: Yeah, about 15.

0:04:53.2 BM: Okay, and where did you quilt?

0:04:56.3 GP: At the home there, at my folks.

0:05:00.1 BM: And what kind of a frame did you use?

0:05:02.5 GP: Ordinary quilting frame.

0:05:04.3 BM: An open frame?

0:05:06.6 GP: Yeah, and we had to use chairs for legs to hold it up.

0:05:11.3 BM: Yes. Did they have pegs? Or was it...

0:05:15.6 GP: Yeah, it was with pegs.

0:05:18.2 BM: It was with peg. Now this was your first one, you did your... First one you said you saved?

0:05:24.5 GP: Yes, the first one I saved. And after that, I don't know how many we made.

0:05:29.1 BM: Yeah, and you gave those away mostly as presents.

0:05:31.5 GP: Yeah.

0:05:31.7 BM: Okay. And you first lived at your family home, and then how many brothers and sisters did you have?

0:05:40.5 GP: I have two brothers and two sisters.

0:05:44.4 BM: And this was all in Woodbury, on the Pritzel farm?

0:05:49.0 GP: On the Haase farm.

0:05:51.0 BM: On the Haase farm. Okay. And then you were married?

0:05:57.2 GP: April 8th, 1926.

0:06:01.9 BM: And who did you marry?

0:06:03.0 GP: Ben Pritzel from Lakeland.

0:06:05.2 BM: From Lakeland? Okay. And you lived first where?

0:06:10.4 GP: Right in town, at Lake Elmo.

0:06:12.8 BM: Okay. And then you lived various odd places in Lake Elmo.

0:06:16.4 GP: Yeah.

0:06:16.4 BM: And then you built your house?

0:06:19.9 GP: We built our own house and I don't know it must be 40 years... We lived there 40... Or I lived there 40 years.

0:06:28.3 BM: Okay, now, I guess I need to know when you first began quilting, was before you joined Helping Hands, and you mentioned an aunt that used to come?

0:06:45.2 GP: Yeah, she showed me the good ways of how to quilt and mark stuff.

0:06:51.3 BM: And what was her name?

0:06:52.4 GP: Annie Vollmer.

0:06:53.0 BM: Annie Vollmer, and she was...

0:06:56.4 GP: My dad's sister.

0:06:57.6 BM: Okay. And the first quilt, well not perhaps the first outstanding quilt, but one of the quilts that you liked the best was that Maple Leaf.

0:07:08.7 GP: Maple Leaf.

0:07:09.7 BM: This is different. It was a...

0:07:11.7 GP: Appliquéd, that one is...

0:07:13.6 BM: It's all appliquéd, isn't it?

0:07:18.0 GP: And quilted.

0:07:18.1 BM: Yeah, it's just absolutely beautiful. Your first... Then Ben passed away. Did he pass away before you joined the Helping Hands club?

0:07:31.9 GP: No, he was living yet.

0:07:32.3 BM: He was still living. Did you start quilting with Mrs. Wolf then?

0:07:37.4 GP: Yes. When I moved over to that farm there at Lake Elmo there, and then I got acquainted with that quilting group there, and there was a Mrs. Wolf in there which... She was real interested in my quilting, so we...

0:07:57.0 BM: You quilted together.

0:07:57.3 GP: We quilted together, we done a lot of work together, custom work.

0:08:00.7 BM: Mm-hmm. And it was more than she could do, then she...

0:08:05.7 GP: Yeah.

0:08:05.7 BM: Got you involved in it.

0:08:07.2 GP: Had more than she could handle, so she'd tell me to take it home and do it.

[laughter]

0:08:13.2 BM: One time you told me that you had a quilt going in the living room and one in the kitchen.

0:08:19.8 GP: Yeah, that was when Melda was... When I was with Melda.

0:08:23.1 BM: Yeah, yeah. And Ben didn't mind your, the quilting so much?

0:08:27.3 GP: No he never cared. He... If he'd get home and come out of the garage in the evening, so he'd just get himself a pillow and lay down underneath a quilt if he wanted to watch something on TV.

0:08:38.7 BM: Okay. Okay. Then, let's see, after... You always quilted then in your living room...

0:08:47.9 GP: Yeah.

0:08:48.1 BM: Or wherever. Okay, and then you next, you quilted with Imelda, and after Ben passed away, then she used to come out on Sundays after...

0:09:00.1 GP: Yeah, Sunday after church, we used to cut quilt blocks or do some quilting or something.

0:09:04.3 BM: Okay, and can you tell us a little bit about the... Can you tell us about the material that you used? You had cotton?

0:09:19.4 GP: Well in those days, I think it was all cotton. Also, I imagine some wool pieces if we'd had made a log cabin quilt.

0:09:27.2 BM: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and bleached cotton?

0:09:31.4 GP: It was just ordinary cotton and then during the hard times, we had used feed sacks.

0:09:36.7 BM: Okay, and your size needle that you used at the time?

0:09:43.1 GP: Well, that was... They were larger than what they use now.

0:09:47.9 BM: More like a darning size?

0:09:48.9 GP: Yeah, they are more like a half a darning needle.

0:09:51.2 BM: And you used more of a running stitch rather than a quilting stitch?

0:09:56.0 GP: With the perle thread, we had to use a more running stitch.

0:10:00.3 BM: Okay, and then you used a larger needle, then you went to the real small ones. Now you're back to the larger ones now.

[laughter]

0:10:10.8 BM: Okay. And you used perle cotton. Okay, and your machine... You did hand piecing?

0:10:22.2 GP: Hand stitching if they had to be. And then I quilted or sewed a lot by machine.

0:10:27.8 BM: Okay, you did a lot of appliqué. And then as you said, you did the appliqué, and then when the piece is built up, you cut the pieces and stitched them into squares. Okay, and you copied quilts from the paper?

0:10:54.5 GP: Yeah from the paper. If I seen a good pattern that I liked, I used to copy it.

0:11:00.5 BM: Okay, and your batting that you were using then?

0:11:03.8 GP: Well, that was a regular Mountain Mist we used.

0:11:07.9 BM: Cotton?

0:11:08.0 GP: I think first I just used a regular outing flannel.

0:11:09.3 BM: Yeah, outing flannel. And then?

0:11:13.2 GP: And the just an ordinary Mountain Mist quilt batt.

0:11:19.9 BM: And you used wool?

0:11:22.5 GP: Well, I think we used wool off and on, but that was hard to get too.

0:11:26.6 BM: Mm-hmm. And then you went to the Dacron or the polyester as we know it.

0:11:35.7 GP: [0:11:35.8] ____ the way it was... It is now.

0:11:38.2 BM: Okay. And the first machine that you used, the first sewing machine that you used was a treadle machine?

0:11:46.6 GP: Treadle machine, yeah.

0:11:48.4 BM: And then you used... Had an electric machine.

0:11:53.5 GP: Yeah.

0:11:54.1 BM: And what tools did you use to mark your quilts with?

0:12:00.0 GP: What tools?

0:12:00.7 BM: Mm-hmm.

0:12:01.1 GP: Well, a pencil or a chalk pencil or something like that.

0:12:06.3 BM: And you used a yardstick?

0:12:09.2 GP: And a yardstick.

0:12:10.7 BM: And you cut yours to fit the quilt?

0:12:13.6 GP: Yeah, to fit the quilt and the pattern that would fit in each block or something like that.

0:12:20.0 BM: But your templates then were usually made of cardboard?

0:12:22.9 GP: Yeah.

0:12:23.7 BM: Okay. These, all you made yourself, all of the templates, you made them...

0:12:31.7 GP: Yeah. Them, I all made myself.

0:12:32.5 BM: You made them yourself. And then we used to laugh about them, but your wieners that you used to call them were really leaves or pumpkin seeds, your biscuits were your clamshells.

0:12:44.5 GP: Yeah. They were all border liner, border liners are what you'd call them.

0:12:50.7 BM: And then the inside squares were more or less taken from appliqué pattern that you had... For the plain block.

0:13:03.2 GP: Yeah. Some of it, what would fit in a block.

0:13:05.8 BM: And then if it didn't, you cut it up or cut it down a size.

0:13:10.4 GP: Yeah. Something like that.

0:13:13.5 BM: What was the worst quilt that you ever tried to quilt?

0:13:19.6 GP: Some lady brought a... I think it was a Chinese Lantern.

0:13:23.9 BM: Oh, I remember that.

[laughter]

0:13:27.2 BM: It was...

0:13:27.6 GP: I think that was one of the worst ones, we pulled in all directions, but we made a good job out of it. She was very happy with it.

0:13:34.1 BM: Yeah, it was feed sacks, wasn't it, on the diagonal, in a skinny diamond?

0:13:39.2 GP: Oh, she..., I don't know if... That crinkly stuff, wasn't it?

0:13:43.6 BM: Yes. It was terrible. I remember that, but the quilt looked nice.

0:13:49.8 GP: We got it... Well, you got it to make... Looked like something.

0:13:53.4 BM: Yeah, and the lady from Mahtomedi that had that pink and green thing.

0:14:00.0 GP: Yeah, and there was another one.

0:14:00.5 BM: And we did all of the Bible quilts, that one Bible quilt that had...

0:14:04.2 GP: All the little faces.

0:14:06.3 BM: And the little tiny strips of yarn wool at the corners that made it like a trapunto. That was a neat looking quilt.

0:14:16.0 GP: Yeah. It was pretty.

0:14:16.7 BM: And then that boy's graduation quilt. Remember that one? That we... That had the little thinker on there?

0:14:24.0 GP: Oh, that one... The boy's football stuff.

0:14:30.0 BM: Yeah, and we marked it and then to get the markings out. We hung it on the line and washed it.

[laughter]

0:14:36.3 BM: Oh gee, that was fun, we had so much fun. Okay. And you're still involved in quilting and the people still come to you here in the building to ask you about quilting.

0:14:50.1 GP: Yeah. Asked me about and says, "We wanna start a quilting bee", but I says I'm not gonna volunteer for nothing because I'm too shaky.

0:15:02.5 BM: Aw. Did... How many ribbons do you think you won at the fair?

0:15:10.7 GP: I never counted them.

0:15:11.6 BM: 50, 60?

0:15:12.0 GP: Oh, I suppose around 30.

0:15:15.0 BM: Oh, I counted... In your pictures, I've counted over 55, 60.

0:15:19.8 GP: The pictures are over... They are 75.

0:15:24.0 BM: There are 75?

0:15:26.0 GP: 75 pictures.

0:15:26.2 BM: Oh my. More...

0:15:26.3 GP: That's what my family got.

0:15:28.7 BM: The quilts that you... That your family received.

0:15:30.8 GP: Yeah.

0:15:31.1 BM: Okay.

0:15:32.4 GP: Besides those that are home yet.

0:15:32.8 BM: Yes. Then, what do you... How many... We were talking the other day and you estimated how many quilts you either quilted for other people or that you worked on, or that you were involved in?

0:15:46.2 GP: I just couldn't tell you. There was lots of them. I was busy all the time.

0:15:54.1 BM: Do you think... How many hundreds do you think that you were actually involved in?

0:15:58.4 GP: Must have been a couple of hundreds.

0:16:00.8 BM: Oh, I'm sure of that, I could easily count that many that you did through club. Oh, lots and lots. Okay, let's see here how this goes...

[background conversation]

0:16:13.1 BM: Gertrude and I have listened to the tapes and there... And she would like to add a few more comments. You wanted to talk about why you and Imelda had two quilts on.

0:16:33.5 GP: I can't... I don't know, I think it was her wedding quilt or something that had to be done in a hurry and I had another one up, so she'd come with that one and we quilted that in the kitchen then.

0:16:45.4 BM: Okay. And you wanted to tell us about all the quilts that you made for the grandchildren and the grandbabies, and weddings and Christmases, and whatever?

0:17:00.6 GP: Well, my girl... My grandchildren, they really knew that when Christmas'd come, that they'd get a quilt from me.

0:17:08.4 BM: And how many years has that been going on?

0:17:10.5 GP: Well, I suppose they're... Well, see, the oldest one is maybe 15 years.

0:17:16.0 BM: Okay. And how many great-grandchildren?

0:17:19.3 GP: There's nine now, but I had...

0:17:21.5 BM: With baby quilts.

0:17:23.2 GP: Baby quilts. They all got their baby quilts.

0:17:25.1 BM: At Christmas. Yeah. And after giving everything away and when you went to move, what did they discover in your closet?

0:17:31.7 GP: I had, in my closet, I had 18 more quilts stacked up there.

0:17:36.8 BM: Yeah, yeah. And you've quilted for Don's mother?

0:17:42.5 GP: I made, yeah, I quilted two quilts for her because she wasn't able to do it anymore.

0:17:49.4 BM: Mm-hmm. And how much did you and Mrs. Wolf charge to quilt?

0:17:54.3 GP: We got as high as $35 that we had to divide that too, yes.

0:18:00.4 BM: 35 whole dollars. Oh, gosh. You also did repair work.

0:18:07.3 GP: Yes, I've done that, too. The dog chewed a hole in it at the top or something like that.

0:18:15.9 BM: And then we did one that wasn't fit to be used, as you said? [chuckle]

0:18:21.1 GP: Yeah, there was one that was... Well, it was so bad and all the way through, they wanted me to put... It was a flower garden and it had... I had to put new little flower patches in there. That was an awful job.

0:18:35.0 BM: And what about, how many of the Bible quilts did you do?

0:18:38.5 GP: I made three... Well, I quilted three of them and I know, one of them went to German... To...

0:18:49.3 BM: Sweden?

0:18:49.2 GP: Sweden.

0:18:49.3 BM: Sweden. It came from Sweden...

0:18:49.8 GP: Yeah.

0:18:51.0 BM: For you to quilt.

0:18:51.1 GP: And they took it back again.

0:18:52.7 BM: And they took it back again. Okay, alright.

0:18:55.9 GP: I don't know...

0:18:56.7 BM: And, and then you just think that you just did 200 quilts, I don't believe it. [chuckle] Oh, twice that many, I think perhaps.

0:19:08.4 GP: Could be.

0:19:09.0 BM: Yeah.

0:19:09.2 GP: I wish I would have kept track, but I just didn't. I don't know, it just seems...

0:19:22.2 BM: You never thought that you would have that many.

0:19:23.8 GP: No, I don't think, I never thought I'd... Be at it that busy and that much, and that long.

0:19:30.3 BM: And you really quilted up... Well, you were still working on a quilt here, so...

0:19:35.2 GP: Yeah, when I... First come here, I finished up one quilt that I had started over there, but after that, the room is too small here.

0:19:44.4 BM: And that, that would have meant that you were still quilting at 89.

0:19:49.7 GP: Yeah.

0:19:50.0 BM: Yeah. Little thing. [chuckle]

0:19:53.0 GP: I had one here that I'm supposed to finish it, I don't know if I will or not.

0:19:57.3 BM: Oh, I bet you do. I bet you do, yeah.

0:20:00.1 GP: I'm gonna try it.

0:20:01.2 BM: Okay. Well, a nice, nice visit on an old rainy gray day, with a good friend. This is Boni Matton.

0:20:18.8 Allene [Helgeson]: Well, Gertrude that was a really nice interview that Boni did with you, but we didn't bring out the fact, let me see now... Tell me again how long you did custom quilting from...

0:20:32.9 GP: Well, I don't know, ever since the time I started with Mrs. Wolf had come up. Had someone who wanted something...

0:20:39.2 Allene: That was in the 1920s?

0:20:41.3 GP: What was that, 1920s?

0:20:44.3 Allene: Well, you were quilting in the 1920s and I think early 1930s, you quilted with Mrs. Wolf.

0:20:50.8 GP: And after that, well, she had a quilt that she couldn't hem anymore, and she got sick and she asked me to do it for her.

0:21:00.6 Allene: So then you did custom quilting from... Well, for...

0:21:05.1 GP: 60 years.

0:21:05.5 Allene: 60 years, probably, from 19... In the '30s anyway then until 1988.

0:21:16.6 GP: She used to...

0:21:17.6 Allene: 1988, you were still doing...

0:21:20.0 GP: It wasn't too much but I had some work every week or every month, and like that, but you know, they come. Maybe sometimes a couple quilts a year.

0:21:27.4 Allene: And Boni mentioned while we were having coffee that your work or you and Mrs. Wolf, your work together got pretty well known in Highland Park and a lot of the quilts came from certain areas.

0:21:40.6 GP: They come through Mrs. Wolf, a lot of them...

0:21:43.4 Allene: Yeah, different groups continue to bring quilts to you. And you quilted on just about everything, from wool, to feed sacks to some of these designer cottons now?

0:22:00.3 GP: Drapery material, too.

0:22:00.5 Allene: You quilted on drapery material? That must be fun.

0:22:04.5 GP: Oh, it was never... I can't remember how big that quilt was. It must have been a 140 by 120 I think, till it just took care of my whole front room.

0:22:16.8 Allene: When was that?

0:22:17.8 GP: I don't know, 50 years ago.

0:22:21.8 Allene: Oh. 50 years.

0:22:23.9 GP: Oh no, not quite. We would..40. We lived over that place though, really.

0:22:35.6 Allene: Did you get very small stitches in that drapery fabric?

0:22:40.9 GP: No. And she used... We could only use sewing machine thread. And it was, when we got through with it, it weighed 35 pounds.

[laughter]

0:22:54.9 Allene: That was a big quilt, it was a lot. [chuckle]

0:22:56.8 BM: Tell Allene what you said afterwards that the people had parted?

0:23:04.9 GP: Yeah, I think that they were together about a year, after that, they parted. I don't know if it was on account of the quilt or what. [chuckle]

[laughter]

0:23:13.6 Allene: I wonder who got the quilt after all that. Let me see, I'm trying to think of other things that you mentioned in that first tape that I wanted... Oh, you mentioned quilting with perle cotton. Did you use perle cotton to quilt with?

0:23:31.4 GP: That was real pretty.

0:23:33.0 Allene: I bet it was. It has kind of a sheen.

0:23:37.2 GP: Yeah, but it only could take a lot more stitching, but the short stitching would be showing. No, you just... I got, I think I got one at home yet that is with perle cotton and it's real nice.

0:23:48.0 Allene: I've never seen one, I don't think quilted with perle cotton. But it would be very attractive.

0:23:53.6 BM: Very attractive.

0:23:55.0 GP: Try it on a little piece of material once and see.

0:23:55.7 Allene: 'Cause it has a shine to it.

0:23:57.9 BM: We used it on sateen.

0:24:01.4 Allene: Ooh.

0:24:02.2 BM: And when we did comforters.

0:24:04.7 GP: Yeah, we've done some satin quilts on those too, sateens or whatever they call them.

0:24:08.7 BM: I think it's perle cotton. It was stronger. There wasn't quilting thread as such then. 

0:24:18.8 GP: At those days, but now the perle, there's nothing that's real thin... Real perle...

0:24:22.6 BM: Yes, it isn't good, in fact it's reversed. I think Gertrude said at one time that they used single thread and if they had enough thread the right color, they used double thread.

0:24:35.0 Allene: Even in your regular thread, just...

0:24:36.7 BM: In regular thread, so that it would be strong enough.

0:24:42.3 Allene: I see. Looking through your book, I see you've done a lot of patterns over and over, you'd make the pattern and do it.

0:24:49.2 GP: Once somebody would like it, I liked to make it and I had the material, usually when I cut a block, I never cut just for one block, I'd rather, I looked ahead for another quilt.

0:25:01.4 Allene: Not just for one block, but... Not only that, but not for more than one quilt, too.

0:25:08.0 GP: For more than one quilt.

0:25:10.3 Allene: Yeah. I see a lot of appliqué patterns in your book that I'm not familiar with. I'm familiar with... They look kind of like others I've seen, but there's a little difference in a lot of your... Like there's several tulip patterns.

0:25:26.5 GP: I like to do them. I think I got a bag about that full of patterns, I think, at home.

0:25:36.3 Allene: Boy. You've got them at your daughter's house?

0:25:39.7 GP: Yeah.

0:25:40.4 Allene: Oh, that would be a treasure trove to get into.

[chuckle]

0:25:41.3 Allene: A bagful.

0:25:42.9 GP: I think it would be.

0:25:45.5 Allene: Yeah, you say you didn't order many patterns from magazines.

0:25:50.2 GP: No, very few. And then of course, she helped me out, too, Boni. She had a pattern I liked, she'd give it... She'd let me use it, too.

0:26:01.1 BM: We exchanged patterns and exchanged quilting designs...

0:26:03.7 Allene: Don't you find that with a lot of quilters though?

0:26:08.9 GP: We exchanged a lot of patterns.

0:26:10.6 Allene: Other quilters, too, years ago, did you? Didn't you?

0:26:14.0 GP: Yeah. If there was something that I liked, I'd go home and copy it.

0:26:16.5 BM: Oh, I thought maybe people would just give you the patterns.

0:26:19.3 GP: Well, some did, here and there, they'd give it, but usually, if I think I had something that matched up pretty well, I'd just copy that one. Then a lot of times I'd wake up during the night, if there's something that I haven't discovered the night before, how to do it, it comes to me during the night, then I would get up and do it.

0:26:38.9 BM: Or write it down...

0:26:39.9 GP: Something wrong up here. [laughter]

0:26:42.0 BM: No, I think that was the creative senses working over time. I think Gertrude was just great at it.

0:26:49.3 Allene: I think a lot of people do that. I mean, sometimes when you're looking and thinking and thinking about something, it just doesn't quite come. And then when you relax and let your mind just kind of drift, then...

0:27:01.5 GP: You haven't done that all the time, have you?

0:27:05.2 Allene: I do. I think it's still running... Looks like it's still running, Gertrude.

0:27:11.4 BM: That's the kind of thing that... It's easier to record.

0:27:16.2 GP: I should keep still like this.

0:27:17.6 Allene: I should keep still and you should be talking, but I've gotta think of the questions to make you...

0:27:27.8 GP: Stop...

0:27:27.9 Allene: And make you talk.

0:27:28.2 BM: I think that one thing that Gertrude, we would stand and look at a quilt and we would discuss, as Gertrude would call 'em, excuse me, border liners which is the quilting pattern in, within the border. And you can look to see what fills a space. Gertrude was excellent at it. And we would cut things freehand and we would try it a little skinnier, a little fatter. We knew how, the space that it had to be done, we knew the length it had to be, but it's how well you fill within that border.

0:28:08.4 GP: Yeah. How wide everything else is.

0:28:12.5 BM: Yes. And Gertrude had a tremendous eye for that.

0:28:16.7 Allene: That sort of thing adds so much.

0:28:18.3 BM: She had a... As like I said, a feeling of a sense of space. And it wasn't... In the beginning, they had did far more intricate quilts, intricate appliqués than we did later on. And the quilting followed that. And it was far more ornate quilting. They also were using cotton batts then and they had to quilt more closely.

0:28:53.6 Allene: True.

0:28:54.4 BM: And then as it, as she progressed in her quilting with the polyester batts, then she was able to eliminate some of those lines. Well, you still have to fill that space and it has to come out with reflecting of what is in the quilt. And Gertrude knew that. She just knew that that's was the way it should be.

0:29:16.8 Allene: And you mentioned, and I saw too, looking through the picture, your birthday book of your quilts, that you used your colors so well. It seems like you...

0:29:29.0 GP: I don't know why, I just...

0:29:29.7 Allene: Do you like certain colors better than others?

0:29:32.0 GP: Yeah, well, they didn't [0:29:33.6] ____ certain colors. 'Cause sometimes they... I thought that sometimes it took me a couple days to get a good block that really, that I liked, I would work on with different colors. I usually worked with what material I had there. I didn't really go out... And well, I had bought enough, but they were the... Sometimes they were the right thing.

0:30:03.5 Allene: Where did you get your materials and scraps?

0:30:07.6 GP: In yard goods stores. I mean...

0:30:11.8 Allene: There used to be a lot more yard goods stores for making...

[Other side of tape]

AH: You just, you made a few things for her, and...

0:00:03.3 GP: Yeah, I made her clothes until she was ... going to school already and after that, I... For a couple of years, I suppose I had [0:00:12.9] ____ the hand-me-downs. [chuckle] But after she went to school, she started taking sewing right away and she went to the top two out-of-town fairs.

0:00:29.0 AH: Is she still... Your daughter lives here in Woodbury?

0:00:32.0 GP: No, Cottage Grove.

0:00:34.4 AH: Cottage Grove.

0:00:35.1 AH: Real close.

0:00:38.6 AH: And she has... You have... That's where you have your storehouse of fabrics and patterns and stuff?

0:00:40.9 GP: Yeah.

0:00:44.5 AH: I see you're working on this blue.

0:00:51.4 AH: I still like... It's not a star flower but it's... It's somewhere between a sunflower and a Dresden Plate combination.

0:00:54.7 GP: I can't remember... Was it eight? Eight star? Eight patch or eight... What did they call it?

0:01:02.6 AH: I don't know what the name of it is.

0:01:07.7 Boni Matton: But don't you remember, first it was, that material was given to them.

0:01:10.7 GP: Who?

0:01:12.4 BM: Eileen. I think all the club members sort of got together and gave a piece of fabric.

0:01:19.6 GP: Yeah, and then Eileen passed away. 

BM: And Eileen and I put it together and we gave it to Gail for her 90th birthday. 

GP: or something.

0:01:27.0 GP: She gave it back to the club again.

0:01:30.4 BM: And then we gave it to you.

0:01:30.8 GP: Then you gave it to me from...

[laughter]

0:01:33.1 AH: Now you've gotta make something of it.

0:01:33.5 GP: It is a favorite. [chuckle]

0:01:34.9 AH: Yeah.

0:01:37.6 GP: So I'm still working on this.

0:01:38.6 AH: How many blocks do you have done?

0:01:41.6 GP: I think I only got six done but now I can't find the middle blue now. So I was wondering if I can make this lighter shade of blue in the middle of the other six and vice versa.

0:01:53.5 BM: And then mix them up in the quilt?

0:01:55.3 GP: And mix them up.

0:01:55.9 AH: Mm-hmm.

0:01:56.5 GP: Because the tops I think they're all done except maybe one or two. My stitching don't wanna get so small anymore. 

0:02:04.3 AH: Well, it's difficult. You put a lot of small stitches in a lot of quilts over the years, Gertrude.

0:02:15.8 GP: Something, I knew... One doctor told me, you'd sit a certain way by sewing, that's why I got so much backache. Could be, I don't know.

0:02:25.5 BM: I think it could be because haven't you caught yourself sitting cross-wise or leaning toward the light, or something?

0:02:30.1 GP: Oh yeah. That's the way I sit. 8 o'clock in the morning or 8:00 or 9:00... 9:00, or 8:30 there, not until 12:00... Until my husband come in from the garage, I usually worked until he got in. Or even over, after he was sleeping already. Because, I have nobody bothering me there and I like the work, so I just kept on going.

0:02:55.9 AH: Did you set certain hours or just do what you had to do otherwise, and then quilt the rest of the time?

0:03:02.4 GP: I didn't do any more than I had to in the house.

[laughter]

0:03:07.1 GP: Made something to...

0:03:08.3 AH: We can all...

0:03:10.1 GP: Make something to eat for my husband, and that's what... After he was gone, then I just nibbled on what I had there. [chuckle]

0:03:19.7 AH: Oh, I think we can all appreciate that because it's time taken away from what we want to do. But you've got beautiful, beautiful quilts. I wish I could see.

0:03:30.1 GP: I've got... There's a pretty one on the bed there too, go and look at that one.

0:03:30.7 AH: Well, I'll do that.

0:03:31.8 GP: Don't forget now.

0:03:33.4 AH: I think we'll end...

0:03:34.2 GP: That's just a you know boughten piece of material but it's... I quilted it. That quilt I got two of them here but after that it's no use of trying to put something up in here, but too small of corners here.

0:03:48.9 AH: Boni, can you think of anything else that we should really touch base on and get on this tape? I can add things in writing and stuff later if I think of it, but we've hit the high spots. Some of them. I think there have been a...

0:04:04.9 BM: As Gertrude and I visit, we visit current things but now we're trying to remember what did we do together 10 years ago and what we quilted together and the things that we did...

0:04:17.7 GP: We made a hanging thing for the house there, the apartment there in Stillwater.

0:04:23.4 BM: Oh yes, we did, that apartment house.

0:04:25.1 GP: Yeah.

0:04:26.8 BM: Their welcome something. Welcome something.

0:04:28.6 AH: Banner. A welcome banner.

0:04:31.1 BM: Yeah, that was a nice thing.

0:04:32.9 AH: And you worked on those banners up at Lutsen. The ones that are up at Lutsen.

0:04:35.4 GP: Yes. Spooks like that... Well, weren't they?

0:04:39.8 BM: Yeah.

0:04:41.3 GP: They did right across my table.

0:04:42.7 BM: Yeah, yes.

0:04:43.9 AH: They turned out beautiful.

0:04:44.6 BM: Yes. I felt that one person just needed to do the appliqué on it. One person should do an entire job. When you're doing, again, custom work, if you can get certain individuals who can do certain functions better than others, they should do as much of the whole project as can be. And Birdie worked on a portion of it. And Gert did a portion. And I did the designing and the quilting designing and then I set the banners and then we quilted them. But that was a project.

0:05:26.6 GP: It was quite a project.

0:05:28.9 AH: But this, the Helping Hands group. Now, Gertrude, I guess you are a founding member of the Helping Hands. Were you one of the original? No? You weren't one of the originals? Was there a Helping Hands as such before you joined? Did they call it Helping Hands?

0:05:47.1 GP: Let's see.

0:05:48.5 AH: Before you joined.

0:05:49.1 GP: They had... When I joined it they didn't have no name at all.

0:05:51.1 AH: Oh.

0:05:52.6 GP: They just started off with a few country or neighbor women. But they never...

0:06:01.3 AH: And you quilted?

0:06:01.4 GP: I don't know, I think maybe... I mentioned that they should call it the Helping Hands because we did do a lot of helping hand. There's one member of the family there, she passed away, and the husband was left with quite a few little kids and we used to go over there... Darn. So then from then on, I don't know if... Who started it, I can't tell you but those three women, Mrs. Wolf and Richard and... Who was the other one?

0:06:37.4 BM: Mrs. Ricard.

0:06:39.6 GP: There's two Richards.

0:06:40.9 BM: I think those two and Mrs. Wolf. I think Mrs. Ricard did it originally.

0:06:47.6 GP: Yeah, she come over there...

0:06:47.7 BM: It was sort of like a quilting group and then Mrs. Wolfe...

0:06:50.9 GP: And then we moved, happened to move in there that spring or something like that.

0:06:53.0 BM: Right, that was in '24.

0:06:56.9 GP: And they come... They come in to see me and then they found out I knew how to quilt, so they got me in it right away.

0:07:04.9 AH: And you stayed with it until...

0:07:06.1 GP: Yeah.

0:07:06.5 BM: Well, she still...

0:07:07.1 AH: You're still in the group.

0:07:09.3 GP: Mm-hmm.

0:07:10.0 BM: Did we mention there that the group figured in '78 that they had worked on 1200 quilts?

0:07:17.5 AH: I don't think that's on the tape before, no.

0:07:19.5 BM: Yes. I think that it's...

0:07:22.8 AH: GP, just as a member of Helping Hands has been a part of at least 1200 quilts.

0:07:26.6 BM: Yes.

0:07:28.0 AH: And that has nothing to do with her own personal work.

0:07:30.8 BM: Yes, work.

0:07:32.0 AH: That she's done from start to finish.

0:07:34.3 BM: Yes, yes. And the Helping Hand group did not do Gertrude's custom work.

0:07:42.9 GP: No. No.

0:07:43.9 BM: That was individual.

0:07:45.9 BM: What we did in Helping Hands is that we quilted for charities.

0:07:50.9 AH: For charity and for each other.

0:07:51.2 BM: For each other.

0:07:56.3 BM: So it's... That lady was busy.

0:07:58.6 AH: Yep. I think that's a wonderful thing.

0:08:01.0 GP: I know I was quite busy. I had to turn some down, I remember that.

0:08:08.4 BM: Kept you out of trouble.

0:08:09.0 AH: Yeah.

0:08:12.3 GP: You know you wanna do it decent, and the older I got the better I tried you know to do their work.

0:08:18.2 BM: Mm-hmm.

0:08:19.5 AH: Well, evidently, your work and fame went before you if they kept bringing you more work from word of mouth, word of mouth. You always had enough to do evidently. I think I'm gonna turn the tape off now, and go look at your pretty quilt in the bedroom. And see...

0:08:41.4 GP: It's kinda wild in there because I'm just in between the spring and fall clothing.

[chuckle]

0:08:46.5 AH: I don't worry about that. Thanks a lot.