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Audio Recording "I draw my patterns from magazines."

"I draw my patterns from magazines."

About this Item

Title

  • "I draw my patterns from magazines."

Names

  • Johnson, Geraldine Niva, 1940- (Interviewer)
  • Todd, Zenna, 1916-2012 (Interviewee)
  • Todd, Zenna, 1916-2012 (Creator)

Created / Published

  • Ennice, North Carolina

Headings

  • -  Quilting
  • -  Quilt patterns
  • -  quilt piecing
  • -  fan quilts
  • -  Dutch girl quilts
  • -  monkey wrench quilts
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  Interviews
  • -  United States -- North Carolina -- Ennice

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Mrs. Todd started making quilts for her family to use when she was 25. She teaches quiltmaking and makes quilts to sell through a local shop to supplement her income. Geraldine Johnson described her as "a bubbly, enthusiastic person who would be a natural à interpreter of Blue Ridge quilts." This interview includes good information on the economics and practice of making quilts to sell, criteria for selection of materials to use in quilts, and how quiltmaking has changed over time.
  • -  Transcription: GJ: What do you draw your patterns up on? / ZT: Well, mostly sandpaper. They don't frazzle away, or fray away, as bad as they do on anything else. It's, and it's, it's stiff and, and if you turn the sandpaper part down on your material, it holds the material and it just, it works better. But you usually, if you have to do very much cutting, if you have a lot of little pieces and a lot of, lot of cutting to do, you'll have to have at least two patterns before you get one top cut out. The way I usually do mine, I lay my material down, and I cut my, lay my pattern on top of the material on the back side, and mark it. With a pencil, or pen. And when I lay my quilts off, now, like, if I'm going to do a quilt and it's got, uh, set up with unbleached muslin, or got a where I have to have a pattern, I'll lay it off with a hard lead pencil. And then, by the time you quilt it, and, use it just a little bit, that mark's all gone. But you got to have that hard lead. The soft lead'll just smudge, you know, and make it look ugly.
  • -  For rights information please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Medium

  • Sound tape reel : 7 in.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1982/009: BR8-GJ-R102

Source Collection

  • Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (AFC 1982/009)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that some of the materials in this collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions, and are therefore free to use and reuse. For example, the fieldwork in this collection is in the public domain in the United States.

However, the Library has obtained permission for the use of other materials, and presents additional materials for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. For example, some of the recordings contain copyrighted music, and not all of the performers and other individuals who were recorded signed releases for public use of their work.

In addition, the American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance. Rights assessment is your responsibility. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. 

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Credit line: Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project collection (AFC 1982/009), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Zenna Todd, and Zenna Todd. "I draw my patterns from magazines.". Ennice, North Carolina, 1978. Audio. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/qlt000094/.

APA citation style:

Johnson, G. N., Todd, Z. & Todd, Z. (1978) "I draw my patterns from magazines.". Ennice, North Carolina. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/qlt000094/.

MLA citation style:

Johnson, Geraldine Niva, Zenna Todd, and Zenna Todd. "I draw my patterns from magazines.". Ennice, North Carolina, 1978. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/qlt000094/>.