In March of 2025, our guild president, Dr. Tony Jean Dickerson, was interviewed by Amy Milne, the Executive Director of the Quilt Alliance.
Information on its website reads: “Quilters Save Our Stories (QSOS) is the largest oral history collection about quiltmakers in the world. These grassroots interviews invite quilters to interview other quilters about their lives, their ideas, and their quilts. Each interview is around 25-45 minutes long, and can be explored online. Our archival partners are the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky.
The project was co-founded in 1999 by a dedicated group of Quilt Alliance board members and volunteers who identified an extraordinary gap in the quilt world: no one had ever created an oral-history project to capture the history, craft tradition, and personal experiences of America’s quiltmakers. They envisioned QSOS as a grassroots effort and designed the interview process in ways that would make it accessible to interviewers and quiltmakers at all skill levels and backgrounds, allowing them to explore the central question: “if this quilt could talk,” what would it say? Now, twenty-five years later the collection includes over 1,200 recorded interviews with quiltmakers from novices to professionals.”
On Wednesday, February 4, 2026, Dr. Dickerson shared a Textile Talk with fellow quilter Sheryl Sims of Alexandria, VA. A snippet of our interviews were shared and they were able to interact with participants in a Q&A.
“It was great to see one of my VA Quilters Unlimited members Sheryl Sims show her personal quilts. She really has a passion. Also, Dr. Dickerson has an interesting story about how she came into quilting and about the meaning of the quilt she showed today. This was one of your best Textile Talks. Each artist was so passionate about their art”
“Good historical explanations of origin of quilts.”
“Both of these trailblazers “think outside of the box” and invented their own styles…..most impressive!!”
“Enjoyed listening to both quilters finding their joy in using their family history as inspiration!”
“Always good to hear how other people have come to quilting and how they come up with their designs. Thank you.”
“Learned so much.”
“I always enjoy hearing the stories of the quilters who participate in SOS. I keep thinking I should interview the members of my quilt guild before they die. We just lost a founding member of our guild within the past two weeks, and I regret not recording an interview with her.”