About the Scholars Program

The Quilt Alliance established the Ardis James QSOS Scholars Program  in 2013 with the support of the Robert and Ardis James Foundation to support research that draws on the rich resource of over 1,200 Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (QSOS) interviews collected by the Alliance since 1999. Scholars use the QSOS archive to produce original research to disseminate as essays, exhibitions, curricular materials, and interactive content.

QSOS interviewees share how quilting impacts their lives, including inspiration found in unlikely places, comfort during times of grief, and joyful artistic collaboration among friends. Our interview archive is a valuable resource for anyone interested in quilts and quiltmakers, as well as craft, folk art, and the process of making things. It’s our hope that the Ardis James QSOS Scholars Program will enable scholars to dig into the archive and investigate those stories, making connections among interviews, finding common themes, placing histories in context, and spotlighting incredible moments.

About Ardis James

Ardis and Robert James

Ardis Maree Butler (December 5, 1925 – July 7, 2011) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and raised in Lincoln and Omaha. She married Robert G. James of Ord, Nebraska, in 1949, and they raised three children: Robert Jr., Catherine, and Ralph. They made their home in Chappaqua, New York.

Ardis James, expressed her lifelong love for fabric and needlework in her own quiltmaking, ownership of a fabric store, and most significantly, in the quilt collection she and Robert built together. Their large and important collection became the founding donation that sparked the establishment of the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1997.

Ardis and Robert James were among the first to collect the work of contemporary studio artists who began, in the late 1970s, to make nontraditional quilts as works of art. Pauline Burbidge, a UK studio quilt artist, expressed the impact of their support: “This recognition meant a great deal to me and has helped give me the confidence and drive to continue with my quiltmaking career.” Linda MacDonald, another studio quilt artist, noted regarding Ardis: “Her inclusive love for diverse quilt forms was very inspiring.”

You can learn more about Ardis and her husband Robert on this Quilt Treasures mini-documentary. Quilt Treasures is a partner project of the Quilt Alliance, Michigan State University Museums, and MATRIX: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University. 

2025 Call for Proposals

The Quilt Alliance is seeking proposals for the 2025 Ardis James QSOS Scholars program, which funds educational and creative work that makes use of its archive of more than 1,200 recorded oral histories with quiltmakers. 

The program is open to researchers, artists, students, historians, folklorists, and any other quilt enthusiasts who will use the interviews in the QSOS (Quilters’ Save Our Stories) oral history project archive to inform new work. This may include essays, audio pieces, exhibitions, textile art, multimedia presentations, interactive content, creative writing, and more.

QSOS interviewees share how quilting impacts their lives, including inspiration found in unlikely places, comfort during times of grief, and joyful artistic collaboration among friends. Our interview archive is a valuable resource for anyone interested in quilts and quiltmakers, as well as craft, folk art, and the process of making things. It’s our hope that the Ardis James QSOS Scholars Program will enable scholars to dig into the archive and investigate those stories, making connections among interviews, finding common themes, placing histories in context, and spotlighting incredible moments.

The Quilt Alliance will select three scholars for the 2025 program from proposals received by September 30. Scholars will be expected to produce a piece to be presented on the Quilt Alliance website, and to share their work in an online Textile Talk presentation in December, 2025. Each scholar or collaborative group will receive a $1,500 honorarium.

About QSOS

Quilters’ Save Our Stories (QSOS) is an oral history project started in 1999 by the Quilt Alliance. It contains more than 1,200 interviews with quiltmakers, predominantly from the United States but also living around the world. Each interview is audio recorded, and includes at least two photographs of the quilter and one of their quilts. Currently, a project is underway to migrate the full collection to a new website where each interview can be heard in its entirety, along with an interview index that highlights themes and keywords. Migrated interviews can be seen at: qsos.quiltalliance.org and scholars will be provided with training on searching the full collection.

Interviews are wide-ranging and include topics such as: learning to quilt, quiltmaking techniques, social and community aspects of quiltmaking, the economics of quiltmaking, the importance of quilts to womens’ history and American life, politics and activism, grief and healing, and the creative process.

Additional project details

The form of the final research project is flexible, but will consist of two parts:

1. A piece that will be shared via the Quilt Alliance website

The final project will live on the Quilt Alliance website with past Ardis James QSOS project pieces. The form of this piece is flexible, and may include a written piece, audio works, physical artwork with photo documentation and a written reflection, or other form that can be shared online.

2. A virtual presentation about the project during the Textile Talks lecture series

Textile Talks are Wednesdays at 2 pm Eastern, but specific lecture dates will be scheduled with each scholar. Textile Talks presentations are approximately 40-45 minutes.

Projects should make use of at least three different QSOS interviews (unless a project is proposed that focuses deeply on a single interview), but can include additional sources as desired. Use of the audio recordings and other multi-media work is especially encouraged.

Application process

All applications should be submitted via this form. Applicants should include:

•  a resume/CV (2 pages maximum)
• a short proposal (350 words or less)  that outlines your proposed project, including the format of your project, themes or topics it might address, and, any existing QSOS interviews that are of particular interest to you

Applications are due by September 30 (updated deadline). Projects will be reviewed by the Quilt Alliance board of directors for the project’s scope and format, incorporation of the QSOS archive, feasibility, community interest and the diversity and inclusion of a wide range of QSOS interviews and project participants.

Questions? Contact qsos@quiltalliance.org

Meet the 2024 Ardis James QSOS Scholars

Stephanie Capps Dyke

Stephanie’s proposed project dovetails with her recent work studying Dr. William Rush Dunton Jr.’s quilt collection, and use of handcraft as occupational therapy for his mentally ill patients in the early- and mid-1900s. She will create a 3-dimensional, multimedia, quilted piece which will utilize snippets of the QSOS interviews, as well as other collected interviews. The goal of the artwork and its accompanying media will be to highlight the effectiveness of handwork in managing mental and emotional health, as well as educating and inspiring current and future needleworkers.

Stephanie’s project will use QSOS excerpts focused on how quilting helps interviewees through difficult times, such as illness or grief.

Watch a presentation from the 2024 Ardis James QSOS Scholars:

Meet the 2022 Ardis James QSOS Scholars

Jess Bailey

The art historian and quilter behind Public Library Quilts (@publiclibraryquilts), Jess Bailey (she/her) believes knowing where art comes from has the power to shift present structures of harm. Jess is the author of Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting from Common Threads Press, 2021. Currently finishing her PhD in the History of Art department at the University of California at Berkeley, she is based in London, UK as a research fellow. Jess’ academic writing addresses the relationship between state violence and interpersonal violence in European art before the 16th century.  She is the co-founder of the LION Quilt project with gardener Sui Searle, @DecoloniseTheGarden, and the primary quilter of the resulting plant dyed Land in Our Names Quilt which raised over 18k GBP (25k USD) in Spring 2021 for the land and racial justice work of @LandInOurNames.

2013 Ardis James Q.S.O.S. Scholars

Barbara Brackman, quilt historian, curator and teacher. Barbara is the author of a number of books about quiltmaking and quilt history including the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and Clues in the Calico: A Guide to Identifying and Dating Antique Quilts and was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 2001.

View Barbara’s project: Tradition and Aesthetics in QSOS Interviews

Christine Humphrey earned her doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she specialized in textile history with a quilt studies emphasis. Her scholarship has focused on the roots of American quilt documentation projects from 1980-1989.

View Christine’s project: “Passing on a Little Bit of Who I Am”: The Transmission of Quiltmaking to a New Generation

Merikay Waldvogel, author, quilt historian and lecturer. Merikay has written several books about quilts in the 20th century, including Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression and, with Bets Ramsey, Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930. She was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 2009.

View Merikay’s project: Memories of the Late 20th Century Quilt Scene: Linda Claussen’s QSOS Interview