QSOS Interview with Sharon Gaylord Chambers

Angela Steiner (AS): Okay, this is an interview of the Q.S.O.S. Quilters Save Our Stories project of The Alliance for American Quilts. Today is February 15th, the day after Valentines day, its easy to remember and it is, well use Eastern time, 3:28 in the afternoon Eastern time. Our quilter today is Sharon Gaylord and Sharon youre from where in Arkansas?

Sharon Gaylord Chambers (SGC): Im really Sharon Gaylord Chambers.

AS: Chambers, right.

SGC: I am in, living in Mena, Arkansas, and that is halfway between Fort Smith and Texarkana on the Oklahoma border.

AS: Okay great. So were going to go through our questions and at the end Sharon, and especially since youve done this before, I will give you an opportunity to add anything else.

SGC: Okay.

AS: Because I know youre one of the Texas quilters too and we want to cover that, and if we dont within this, we want to make sure we do. So the first questions are about the quilt that you chose to be your touchstone quilt. Can 00:01:00you tell me about it?

SGC: It is a folk art quilt. I was teaching in Texas with a small group and wanted to share my enthusiasm about just taking patterns, putting them together and creating a folk look. Ive been to some of the stores and seen some of the folk art quilts being done and so I started pulling patterns and ideas and put this together as a project for them to do. Kind of like a mystery quilt, they didnt know exactly what it was going to look like until the end and [laughs.] and that is what it looks like.

AS: They must have been happy [laughs.]

SGC: Oh they were. They werent happy because I was using plaid backgrounds you know instead of the typical backgrounds. They were not thrilled but I think 00:02:00the end result was worth it.

AS: Yes, yes, absolutely I think its what makes the quilt so special. What special meaning does this quilt have for you?

SGC: It just, as I have progressed in my quiltmaking I tend to lean towards that style, more than anything else so it represents me and something that I have done and way of being creative. Not original because nothing is, none of the patterns, you know Ive taken patterns and ideas and just accumulated them into what I consider an original style for me, but its a style that I like and I can be recognized as.

AS: Why did you choose this quilt to bring to the interview, because Im sure you made lots of others? [laughs.]

SGC: Well, because it was so different.

AS: Mhm.

SGC: And using the plaid backgrounds and the style and the way it was put 00:03:00together, it is just a good representation.

AS: Very good. What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you?

SGC: That I can be creative, that I am outside the box sometimes.

AS: Mhm [laughs,]

SGC: [laughs.] I do encourage my friends here in Mena [Arkansas.] to be a little more outside the box and its very difficult for them to not do exactly whats there.

AS: Quiltings a good avenue for it.

SGC: Uh-huh, yes, yes.

AS: How do you use this quilt?

SGC: I just use it as a wall hanging in display at my house.

AS: Mhm. Do you have any further plans for it?

SGC: No.

AS: Okay. I would go along, I know you know this from before, but if there is any question that just isnt pertinent, sometimes I skip over ones that I know arent, but if theres one youre just like, "Huh? I dont have an answer for that," thats fine.

SGC: Its okay.

AS: Okay [laughs.] The next questions are about your involvement in quiltmaking. Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking.

SGC: Give me a lead as to what you mean by interest. I spend all my waking hours thinking about quilts.

AS: [laughs.] So you have no interest in quilts, right?

SGC: [laughs.] I go to a fabric store and Im just lost in all the color and the fabric. I want to spend every free moment that I have. I am currently out in my special little hiding place, my husband says, "Oh youre going to dessert me now, again." Ive been working for the last couple hours and Ive 00:05:00just enjoyed the heck out of it and I want to continue to do that.

AS: Thats great, you answered the question well. What age did you start making quilts?

SGC: I started making quilts in 1974 and so that would probably have been my mid-thirties.

AS: Wow, wow. From whom did you learn to quilt?

SGC: I taught myself.

AS: Good girl [laughs.]

SGC: My husband, you have to understand is my, gives me a lot of latitude and he also gives me suggestions and one day he suggested that I make a quilt and Im thinking, "Ive never, I dont even know what a quilt is," because I was not raised with them. So I started looking at what quilts were and of course he wanted a corduroy quilt [laughs.]

AS: [laughs.] Where did he get that idea?

SGC: He loves corduroy, I mean [laughs.]

AS: Did he have quilts in his past, because somehow he knew what a quilt was.

SGC: He must have had. His mother never made quilts but I imagine, I think his grandparents, mother did. So there was this idea and so I started researching and started with the basic four inch square whatever it was, and started making scrap quilts and took that corduroy quilt down to the Texas State Fair down in Dallas [Texas.] and said, "Here, Id like to enter this in to the quilt exhibit," and they said, "Thank you." The next day they did call me back and say, "Come and get this quilt." [laughs.]

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: But that quilt, corduroy quilt, is still alive and every October it comes out and is on the bed.

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: Its not in good condition but you can imagine its quite old.

AS: And it has a lot of meaning.

SGC: Yeah.

AS: How many hours a week do you think you quilt?

SGC: Oh I try to do two or three hours, appliqu in the evening, so youre probably looking at two to three hours a day, five to seven days, so thats, Im not real quick, twenty hours, thirty hours.

AS: Yeah, around there, thats great. What is your first quilt memory?

SGC: That one is hard because it starts out with the story of the corduroy quilt and I dont have any memory from childhood because there was never any quilts in our lives so that would probably be the first memory.

AS: Mhm. Do you remember the first time you saw a quilt? After once, you know once your husband said something about it? First time you went to a quilt show or something?

SGC: Oh it wasnt too long after that that I discovered one of the very first 00:08:00Dallas [Texas.] quilt shows and went to it and was just so impressed and did not know where, you know what I was really getting involved in and then discovered if you look in the phonebook you can find quilt stores and [laughs.] found those and that was a big step for me, to go from what scrap fabric was at home with the kids clothing that I had made to making quilts with real, really quilt fabric. And then not too long after that that I started taking quilt magazines and discovered that theres such a thing as the Houston [Texas.] quilt show.

AS: Oh [laughs.]

SGC: That led to fanaticism and [laughs.] then you slowly develop your small group and in Dallas [Texas.] theres a big Dallas guild had a lot of small 00:09:00satellite groups that were part of the guild and those were dear close friends.

AS: Bees?

SGC: Mhm, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

AS: So how does quiltmaking impact your family?

SGC: Oh, it, thats a hard question because it impacted completely. I decorate my house with my quilts, my quilts are with me all the time, whatever project Ive been living in, they, the children, grew up with having quilts on the beds, so they know and appreciate them. It has a, it always seems you know, thats me, they dont, I dont think they think about me as anything else but working with quilts.

AS: [laughs.] Thats great. Have you ever used quilts to get through a difficult time?

SGC: Oh yeah. Always. The, that is to me when you can sit down and quilt, 00:10:00actually do the handquilting on a quilt, you can lose yourself in time, and then you have your little barrier from the world and so whenever you have some major, Ive had both my knees replaced and during the recovery Id been quilting on quilts and that it seemed to make it so much easier to et past the time you couldnt be active.

AS: Yes, being productive.

SGC: Right. Anytime I have to deal with my husbands family, the quilts around [laughs.] You know the little project is, so you know, dealing with uncomfortable situations, theres always that.

AS: Do you handquilt all your quilts?

SGC: I am, used to, yes. Im doing more, realizing my time is getting away 00:11:00from me and I need to do more quilts, and taking more advantage of the machine quilting, but got one ready to be handquilted now, I just need to mark it. But yes, I used to do all of my quilts by hand.

AS: Mhm. Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quiltmaking.

SGC: Im going to have to ask you to pass on that one because it doesnt come to my mind right ahead.

AS: Yeah, some people they hit and others you know, it doesnt. What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking?

SGC: Taking, the finished product when you finally finish one and it looks good and youre proud of it that is an accomplishment, its like raising a child.

AS: Awe.

SGC: youve put all this work into it and sometimes theyre not great, and sometimes theyre great and sometimes, you know everything is just perfect and the one Ive just finished that Im going to be handquilting is a wonderful quilt, but its not great [laughs.]

AS: Oh.

SGC: You know those little extra errors that you make because youre doing something wrong, youre not paying attention, bygone Im going to finish this quilt and its going to be, but its going to be a good quilt.

AS: So why handquilt that one then?

SGC: Because it just calls for it.

AS: Okay.

SGC: Its an appliqu quilt, are you familiar with a piece of cake people?

AS: Oh yes, beautiful, beautiful.

SGC: I love them--

AS: Oh their color, their design.

SGC: Yes, their design. Well Ive taken whimsical which is one of their little packets of flowers and birds, and the flowers are very whimsical and used absolutely the brightest yellows and greens and purples and pinks and created this and made an appliqu boarder. Its just not perfect, but its so good [laughs.]

AS: Okay, okay. So are you a perfectionist?

SGC: No.

AS: Okay, good.

SGC: No, no, then you never get anything done.

AS: Right. What aspects of actual quiltmaking do you not enjoy?

SGC: Im not a good machine quilter. I keep forcing myself to machine piece but Im not a good machine piecer so I really try to avoid doing that, but 00:14:00Im right in the middle of a machine piecing one now just to force myself [laughs.]

AS: [laughs.] Good for you.

SGC: Im making a six-inch courthouse square in Civil War fabrics.

AS: Oh.

SGC: And I really think this is going to be great, but its not perfect [laughs.]

AS: [laughs.] What art or quilt guild groups do you belong to? I think you may have already answered this.

SGC: Within Mena [Arkansas.] we have a guild and theres such a thing as, and we have a wonderful quilt shop show every year here, so Ive kind of moved on from the Dallas [Texas.] area because weve been here now ten years, and youd have to be here but so I teach lessons at the quilt guild and I have a 00:15:00little group that we go every Tuesday we go and handquilt on a frame that comes down from the ceiling and theres about ten of us that we spend the day, take a lunch, go out to this little Baptist church out in the country [laughs.]

AS: Oh what fun.

SGC: Its a storybook. Then the frame comes down and we sit and we quilt and we talk and we share you know life experiences like women do, and its one of those groups where you moan and groan like yesterday it was so foggy you couldnt see to drive and it was so cold and damp, but we bundled up and went to this church, and theyve got a gas, propane gas heater and it just barely keeps us warm [laughs.]

AS: Oh.

SGC: But there were about six of us yesterday, and were working on a new quilt and its not really a wonderful quilt but we sit there and complain and 00:16:00start talking about you know, whats going on in the community and whos who and whats doing.

AS: Good, therapeutic.

SGC: Very much, very much.

AS: Have advances in technology influenced your work at all?

SGC: Give me an example of the technology.

AS: Oh, like using any kind of anything online or longarm machining or anything like that.

SGC: I think if you consider back in the seventies when I first started quilting that you had cardboard or milk carton plastic to make your templates with, it is amazing the rotary cutter and the ruler, Im still very slow in progressing in using the technology that is available. Im not sure if I want to use Accu-Quilt, the machine that makes these appliqu shapes.

AS: Yeah.

SGC: Because Im thinking, "I enjoy doing, drawing my own designs and cutting my own stuff,' so you know Im not ready to progress that far but just when I first got a rotary cutter and a mat, it didnt even have the lines on it, so Im wondering, "So how do you use this?"

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: You know, cut straight [laughs.]

AS: Revolutionary wasnt it?

SGC: Oh yes. There are lot of things that are worth it, and I enjoy having the progress, and there are some I think, "Well, not today."

AS: Yup. What are your favorite techniques and materials?

SGC: Techniques, I love appliqu, thats my favorite. Materials, do you mean by working with, or fabric, or?

AS: Fabrics or anything else that you use.

SGC: I guess my favorite thing lately is discovering freezer paper; it makes wonderful [inaudible.] you dont waste the money on the plastic templates.

AS: Yeah.

SGC: And you can reuse the freezer paper over and over again for your templates and especially if youre doing appliqu, you dont need to have a whole bunch of plastic.

AS: Right. Describe the area in which you create.

SGC: This is just a delightful place. We moved to Mena, Arkansas, we are on almost thirty acres of woods, dont want to have any pasture, dont want to have cows or chickens, and so I, we built a second garage, because we didnt have enough room, and I said, "Well, put a room on it." So I have a huge window 00:19:00that looks out into the woods and right now because there arent many leaves on the trees, I can see the mountains.

AS: Oh how nice.

SGC: And so its, no one has gone in and cleared up the woods and so its kind of wild.

AS: Yeah.

SGC: But its so nice and then in this room I can also convert it to a guest bedroom because it has a full bathroom and a closet full of fabric and I can make all the mess I want and close the door and go back to the house [laughs.] It is just wonderful. So that is where I spend a lot of my time.

AS: Sounds heavenly.

SGC: Mhm.

AS: Do you use a design wall?

SGC: Yes, yeah, yes its very important. I think another tool that is important is the reducing glass.

AS: Ah.

SGC: I just now think about it but I connect that with the design wall because once you put it up there and look at it through the reducing glass, you can see your errors.

AS: Yeah.

SGC: Or you can see that its good the way it is.

AS: Right, yup. Were going to switch to the aesthetics, craftsmanship, and design aspects of quiltmaking. First question is, what do you think makes a great quilt?

SGC: The balance of color.

AS: Mhm.

SGC: And it doesnt have to be necessarily original but you can see that it all does works and the color is smooth through the whole thing and one thing doesnt just stand out and glare at you.

AS: What makes a quilt artistically powerful?

SGC: Thats a hard one, Im not sure. I think, again it has to be a balance, the color has to be smooth throughout, the design has to be all the same you know subject matter, is that the right term?

AS: Mhm, mhm, yup.

SGC: Yeah, I think thats it. It just, Im very much a tradionalist and so I love to look at old quilts that have been done and how they are well done, they speak to you, a real, and then I like to take that and twist it just a little a 00:22:00tiny bit to bring out more brighter colors and make it my quilt.

AS: Ah yes, yes. What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection?

SGC: Just if somebody likes it and wants to spend--[laughs.]

AS: [lauhs.]

SGC: I dont know. It has to be in fairly good condition and I mean youve got to have taken good care of it. You dont want to have a rag in there.

AS: No.

SGC: But you want, a good antique quilt would be wonderful for a museum collection and I think some of the ones that were selected for the Texas book are just amazing museum pieces.

AS: Yeah. What makes a great quiltmaker?

SGC: Oh thats, I dont know, dedication, the desire.

AS: Yeah.

SGC: And a someone who allows them to do it.

AS: Yeah, support.

SGC: Yes, support.

AS: Are there any quiltmakers that you find that their work is, youre really drawn to?

SGC: Oh yes. Not that I want to duplicate a lot of them, but I recognize their work and I think, "Oh yes," and quite of few of them. I was very very very fortunate to be involved with Pat Campbell and her Jacobean stuff. Took one of her lessons in her restaurant, one of the first students in her restaurant and seeing her with her style of the Jacobean appliqu, its one of my favorite things to do, theyre so flowing and smooth and wonderful to do and Ive done several of those. And you see some of the artists in the book like Libby 00:24:00Lehman, I think is wonderful with all of her designs, its not what I can do, but I appreciate it and love to see it.

AS: Mhm, yup. Lets go to the function and meaning of quilts in American life. Why is quiltmaking important in your life?

SGC: It allows me to be somebody.

AS: Oh, wow.

SGC: Most of women are identified with a job or you know, but I was a homemaker and I did have a job, but I didnt want to be identified with my job, and now 00:25:00I can be identified with the quilts. And in this small community I am the quilt lady.

AS: Oh, wonderful, wow.

SGC: But I think it allows them to be, its like an artist and her painter, the quiltmaking allows the women to be or the artist to be, be an artist.

AS: Yeah, its your way of expressing yourself. Its your medium.

SGC: Yes, yes.

AS: Do your quilts in any way reflect your community or region?

SGC: No.

AS: I figured not especially since you transplanted [laughs.]

SGC: [laughs.]

AS: What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life?

SGC: Thats an interesting question and thats a harder one to come up with. I dont see in everyday life at this present time is quilts being important in 00:26:00life. It was in the past and I think it can be, but I think its up to the individual family to have a quiltmaker to make them important. My children, and I think the children of the quiltmakers, are the same way, they admire, take home, they use the quilts, theyre wrapped up in the quilts, but on an average life, I dont think that happens.

AS: Yeah, yeah. In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for womens history in America?

SGC: Women have used the quilts to make it through the trauma in history you know, the civil war quilts, the bible quilts, its in a way they can express 00:27:00their feelings with their designs.

AS: Mhm. What has happened to the quilts that youve made or those for friends and family?

SGC: I have given out a few quilts to my friends and family, to my family more than to my friends, and they use them. Most of them I keep, Im not really yet fir them to take quite a few of the quilts because Im not sure yet if theyre going to keep them safe.

AS: Right, yes.

SGC: There are, anyway, so I dont know whats going to happen to my quilts [laughs.]

AS: Oh.

SGC: But Id like to be able to give them to somebody, someplace where they 00:28:00can be used and seen and appreciated.

AS: And safe?

SGC: And safe.

AS: Yeah, yup. What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

SGC: I think finding time to do their craft, their art. You really have to be able to do that. With most of the women these days working outside the home, its difficult because Im privileged to have been able to work and do my craft and then retire and do my thing here.

AS: Mhm, very much so. Now, tell me about your quilt was in the Texas quilt book.

SGC: Yes.

AS: Correct?

SGC: Yes.

AS: Tell me about that.

SGC: I have two quilts.

AS: Oh.

SGC: In the book and I was just so flabbergasted, it was one of those experiences that, it was just beyond experiences.

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: I was thrilled. The one of the quilts is a Pat Campbell Jacobean that I did in her class, so again, there is her influence, it is using fabric with a printed background where everybody was still using solids for their quilts and they kind of, "Im not sure if you should do that." [laughs.]

AS: Oh.

SGC: And I didnt realize that I could piece with machine piece that lattice border, so I had to appliqu it, I appliqud all of that [laughs.] but it is a 00:30:00delightful quilt. And the second quilt is a very traditional feathered, princess feathered, and I call is Feathered Rose because it, I love princess feathers. The rotating stuff that goes on and I love the red and green quilts, and so this is a variation of a red and green quilt where, and a four block quilt, and each block is the same thing of the feather and the rose in a circular pattern.

AS: Pretty.

SGC: And its I reds and again Ive pieced the background fabric and every background is a different color for each of the squares but they blend all together. I like scrap quilts the best and I love using different types of 00:31:00backgrounds on my quilts to make them, to make it look a little harder.

AS: Ah [laughs.] Tell me about how you get chose to be in the Texas quilts book.

SGC: Oh, I dont know [laughs.]

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: I really dont know. I was sitting at my computer and got an email from Barbara Hartman and she is a Dallas [Texas.] quilts person and it said, "Sharon, where are you?" and I had that feeling of, "Sharon Im sitting here at my desk, what do you mean where am I?" And she was passing on the email of a list of quilts that they wanted to put in the book and I recognized the Feathered Rose name and it was just the names of the quilts, not the names of the quiltmakers and, "If you recognize this as you quilt, then let us know." So I 00:32:00emailed them back and said, "I recognize Feathered Rose as my quilt," and then they said, "Well what about the other one?" and I said, "Oh?" and I looked at the list, couldnt remember what I had named the Jacobean [laughs.] and it was listed so it was just a fluke that I got in there because somebody found me.

AS: Oh, do you know how?

SGC: Well Barbara, Ive been in and out of the Dallas [Texas.] area and I havent really changed my email since then, so its kind of on a list somewhere in the Dallas [Texas.] and Barbara must have just found me.

AS: Oh wonderful.

SGC: Yeah I cant thank her enough.

AS: Yes, thats incredible. One other thing I picked up on is you do do some teaching?

SGC: Yes, yes, yes.

AS: Just for the guild?

SGC: Yes. Yes just for the local, I used to do teaching in Texas when I was 00:33:00there and I do it here for our guild. We just finished up a project and this is an amazing, we started out with just a half dozen or so people and then our leader dies, and Im trying no to be the leader because I dont want to do this you know, and Im slowly saying, "Okay guys, what do you want to do?" and the year before last they did a star sampler that somebody kind of thought, and so I said, "Ive got some quilts here and I can help you and we can do one of these." So I showed them some of these, my quilts, and they said, "They want to do that," so we did over, starting with last March and finishing it up in November, one of the folk arts that I do. Not the one like you have a picture of, but another one. I had twenty-nine people getting patterns and packets.

AS: Wow.

SGC: It is amazing to see the creativity, the people that have never done 00:34:00anything, and its a very difficult quilt to do because theres so much appliqu, theres so much piecing, then because Im and of flaky and I had no idea what its going to look like when it ends up, or where we were going or how big it was going to be and they all wanted to know these questions and I said, "I cant tell you, because I make it us as I go." [lauhs.]

AS: [laughs.] Follow me blindly.

SGC: Yes, exactly right. Its amazing. We had a showing of the ones that were just about completed, they ran with that, one lady did hers in navy batiks.

AS: Oh.

SGC: Yes. I thought, "No, no, no, no this is not the right way to do this."

AS: But it worked.

SGC: But I didnt say that to her because I didnt want to squelch her, and it is the most beautiful thing youve ever seen.

AS: Oh.

SGC: Then the other ladies have done their styles, they didnt all, but they picked their own fabrics to use, and I was thinking, "oh gosh this is going to look terrible," [laughs.] but I didnt say that to them because they were working at it. Oh to see the end product of all these and am hoping to have it displayed at our quilt show in June with the folk art quilts that theyve done.

AS: Oh great.

SGC: Yeah, its just amazing how they just took, and every one of them did their own thing, and learned, and that to me is I did a good job.

AS: That is success.

SGC: Yeah.

AS: Well I have just one more question, and that is because your husband is the one who suggested you start quilting, what does he think of all of this?

SGC: Oh he is very, very supportive. I cant, in the other interview I gave them a copy of an article he wrote for the Quilters Newsletter and I hope 00:36:00thats going to go in the archives. He had supported me from day one and allows me to take off and doesnt question the money you spent.

AS: [laughs.]

SGC: Oh you know he makes fun of the fact that Ive now spent three or four hours out here while hes in the house, you know [laughs.] but oh, I think hes a little proud.

AS: Good.

SGC: Yeah.

AS: Good.

SGC: Yeah, it is, he has been extremely supportive and I just cant say how much. There are some people in my life, Ive mentioned Pat Campbell, there want another lady who moved from Chicago [Illinois.] into the Dallas [Texas.] area and she started up bus trips where we would go up for two of the Amish communities in Iowa and we would stop at every antique and quilt store and these 00:37:00learning experiences and her dealing with color has helped me so much to be able to say, "Yes this is good," and people feel like I can see good color, but I only learned it from this person.

AS: Oh, wow.

SGC: So theres, we had a small group in Dallas [Texas.] we called ourselves Material Girls, it started out as Think Tank but it changed names, but we had a good group of people that just made us grow, and Ive always been very grateful for that.

AS: Yes, yup.

SGC: And my husband. Im very grateful.

AS: Yeah, yup. Is there anything else you want to add?

SGC: No. I did want to make sure I recognized, that I did talk about my husband before and I do feel like if it wasnt for him that I wouldnt be here.

AS: Well he, you didnt know what a quilt was before he mentioned it, so yes.

SGC: Right, right.

AS: Thats amazing.

SGC: It is.

AS: Good, good. Well if theres nothing else you can think of.

SGC: I think we, unless you can, I think were good.

AS: Good, excellent.

SGC: And you like the little folk art quilt that you saw?

AS: Love it, yes, really I love the plaids and I know theyre harder to work with, but still.

SGC: [inaudible.]

AS: Im going to hit star two, lets see if this works. So this concludes our Q.S.O.S. [Quilters Save Our Stories.] interview. It is still February 15 and its now 4:07.