If you are attending QuiltCon consider bringing a quilt with you to share with the world! Our new project, “Go Tell It at the Quilt Show!” is designed to capture the stories of quilts where quiltmakers gather. The formula for Go Tell It! is simple: one person talking about one quilt in front of one video camera for three minutes. Unlike our Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories project where the interviewee must be a quiltmaker, the Go Tell It! interviewee profile is much broader.
Go Tell It! interviewees can be the maker of the quilt they bring to talk about, they can be the owner of the quilt, or they can tell the story on behalf of the quilt’s owner or maker. Maybe you’d like to tell the story of your first quilt, the history of a special family quilt, or one with a funny story. Whatever your motivation, every quilt has a story and we are eager to document, preserve and share that story for the education and inspiration of today’s quilt lovers and tomorrow’s historians and genealogists.
To reserve a time slot for your Go Tell It! interview, just sign up on this online schedule. On the sign up sheet, please add your full name and select up to 3 time slots that you would be available during the show to show & tell the story of your quilt. Then email us (qsos@quiltalliance.org) with your name and cell phone number so that we can notify you of any schedule changes during the show. We will then reply with day/time confirmation, information on what to bring with you to your Go Tell It! interview (your quilt!) and what you can expect. There is no charge to participate, but we hope that once you see this project, and all the work we’re doing to save quilt history, you’ll want to become a Quilt Alliance member.
During the show you can sign up for a Go Tell It! interview time slot by coming to the Quilt Alliance booth (#107). We have a limited schedule (Thursday-Saturday), so sign up today!
The Quilt Alliance launched the Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! project last year at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina, . We were excited to partner with OS&QE along with Quilters’ Newsletter TV to pilot this video oral history project. Interviewees featured on this gorgeous video are Frieda Anderson, Sherri Driver, Tula Pink and Diana Bell-Kite.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nTdFAk2mXs?rel=0]
The amazing creative team at Original Sewing & Quilt Expo have also conducted Go Tell It! interviews (watch the one below with quilter Dorenda Hubbard), and we also documented some wonderful interview sessions at other Alliance events in 2012 (those coming soon to the Quilt Alliance Youtube channel).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qml3sqjVj4I?rel=0]
We envision this project as a grassroots oral history collection. In the next phase of development, quilt lovers everywhere will be invited to document the stories of quilts with equipment as simple as a cell phone and upload them to the Go Tell It! archives for all to see and remember.
Hope to see you at QuiltCon!
I can’t go as far as NC; will you be doing an online version of Go Tell It, perhaps via Skype or YouTube?
Hi! There are a few Go Tell It! videos already shared as you saw in my post, and we’ll be posting more soon. As far as the interviews going and participating, the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo are conducting Go Tell It! interviews at most of their shows. You can check their 2013 schedule here: http://www.sewingexpo.com/Home.aspx. And later this year we will release guidelines on how anyone can record Go Tell It! interviews in their community and upload them to the project archives to share with the world.
Do we have to have the quilt in our hands, or can it be a quilt in the show at QuiltCon? I would LOVE to tell the story of the makers and the recipient of the quilt my bee made and was accepted to the Group/Bee category of the competition, but won’t be able to take it down. I’ll fill out the information and submit it as you stated above, but others might have the same question. 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Melissa, glad you’ve signed up! We’ll try to do your interview right in front of your quilt in the show. We’ll be back in touch by tomorrow to confirm your time slot. Can’t wait to see your bee quilt and hear its story!–Amy
Thanks a million, Amy! I’m more excited than ever. Now to get the laundry done so I can have clean clothes to wear to QuiltCon!
Oh, me too, Melissa. :0
I had requested afternoon slots on Friday, but need to switch to morning slots and I can’t figure out how to do it on your website. Can you help me?
Hi Kisha, I think you can edit your choices by mousing over the icon beside your name on the Doodle sign-up sheet, which should reveal a pencil icon. Click on that to enable editing to your entry. Let me know if that doesn’t work and I’ll change. Thanks!