Preserving Quilters’ Oral Histories: The Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories Project Model Workshop

featuring Susan McKelvey, renown quiltmaker and author

One of the best ways to learn about quilts is from quiltmakers themselves. This workshop highlights the importance of saving quiltmakers’ stories, and introduces an enjoyable and simple way to capture these personal stories and make them part of history. Using the model of the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.), a project of The Alliance for American Quilts, this workshop will prepare you to go out into the material world to conduct guided recorded interviews with any quiltmaker! As an added bonus, you will witness a demonstration Q.S.O.S. interview with well-known quiltmaker and author Susan McKelvey.

Friday, March 30th 2:30-4:30 p.m. (For more details, http://www.winterthur.org/calendar/quilts_conference.asp#preserving)

Given by:

Demonstration interview: Susan McKelvey: author, quiltmaker, and teacher

Susan McKelvey is an artist, author, teacher, designer and entrepreneur, who “caught the quilting bug” in 1977. Well-known in the quilt world, Susan wrote her first quilt book, Color for Quilters, in 1984 — the book on the subject meant expressly for quiltmakers, and the only book of its kind for many years. Currently, Susan teaches and lectures on color and applique, and is the founder of Wallflower Designs, a company that manufactures and sells quilt tools, and quilt-related books and patterns. Susan received her B.A. in English from Cornell College, and her M.A. in English from the University of Chicago.

Workshop leaders Patricia J. Keller and Janneken Smucker.

Patricia J. Keller is an experienced instructor and student of American quilt history. Pat brings more than twenty years’ experience in designing and conducting recorded oral histories. She helped co-found the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories project for The Alliance for American Quilts in 1999, with Dr. Bernard L. Herman, and has recently completed her Ph.D. dissertation about the history of quilts and quiltmaking in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, at the University of Delaware.

Janneken Smucker’s interest in quilt history sparked with an oral history interview she conducted with her grandmother, a prolific quiltmaker. Since then, she has continued to study Amish quilts and quiltmaking by talking to quiltmakers, who always have the most insight into their own quilts. Janneken is a Ph.D. candidate in American Civilization at the University of Delaware and is currently compiling a long list of individuals to interview as part of her dissertation research.

“What incredible creativity and craftsmanship. The quilts look even better ‘in person’ than they did on the website. I love the roof that is capturing and holding quilter’s ideas.” Laura Jean

“I am overwhelmed. Christine

“Wow! So many different moods…such colores! Sinead

“The exhibition is a wonderful concept that stresses outreach and community.” Peace, Arturo

Winterthur’s first quilt exhibition will feature approximately 50 quilts, outstanding documents of the history of their time and their makers. They range in date from the 17th to the 19th centuries, but the exhibition is particularly rich in examples from the late 1700s and early 1800s. Quilts in a Material World is a unique opportunity to view some of the most outstanding quilts from Winterthur’s superb collection.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. will publish a book, also called Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Museum.

Quilts in a Material World focuses on an extraordinary whitework quilt made in 1815 by Mary Remington of Warwick, Rhode Island. The incredible survival of a cache of Mary’s letters establishes a rich cultural framework for interpreting the quilts in both exhibition and book. Some are discussed in terms of the textiles from which they were made, while others are interpreted through the stories they tell about women’s lives.

The conference on March 31, 2007 brings together quilt scholars and historians for a day of lectures. Speakers include Lynne Bassett, Amelia Peck, Kathryn Berenson, Laura Fisher, Sarah Fatherly, and Linda Eaton.

Workshops on March 30 and April 1 include topics such as conservation and restoration of quilts, dress prints of the early 19th century, differences in historic and contemporary quilting techniques, oral histories (given by Alliance board members Pat Keller and Jenneken Smucker), and women’s genealogy.

Quilts in a Material World specifically illustrates the relevance of quilts in the lives of their makers, both past and present.

For further details please call 302.888.4996 or check www.winterthur.org

Additional info about the show will be made available at www.tcquilters.ourwest.com/show.html as it becomes available.