Luana Rubin interviews the legendary Jinny Beyer at Not Fade Away, 2013. Watch the full interview here.
Get Involved
The Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories (QSOS) project is a grassroots effort. Almost 300 volunteers have served as QSOS interviewers since 1999, and more than 150 volunteers have served as transcribers. This team of volunteer oral historians have produced more than 1,200 interviews with today’s quiltmakers, now permanently archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
As we continue to grow QSOS, with a new focus on 21st-century technologies and long-term sustainability, we need your help more than ever.
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Join Our QSOS Indexing Team
Our goal is to make our entire QSOS archive accessible and interactive through Oral History Metadata Synchronizer, a new digital tool to synchronize oral history audio, transcripts, keywords, and images. With over 1200 interviews in our archive, we need your help to achieve this dream. Are you committed to preserving the stories of quiltmakers, organized, interested in learning new skills, and have access to a computer with an internet connection? Then this is the volunteer position for you! Contact our QSOS Project Manager to learn more and join the team!
Become s a QSOS Interviewer
This YouTube video was prepared as a training resource for “Team QSOS” — a group of volunteers who conducted QSOS interviews at the 2011 International Quilt Festival. While some information here is specifically included for those volunteers, it is a great introduction to Q.S.O.S. interview basics.
Download the QSOS Guidebook, then contact QSOS staff to receive an ID number and final instructions on processing your interviews. To conduct an interview you’ll need to have:
- a digital voice recorder that saves audio as a WAV file,
- a camera for taking photos of the interviewee with their touchstone object, usually a quilt that is significant to them
- tapes and CD’s for archiving the recording, transcript and photos,
- a means to transcribe the interview (or a project partner to do it for you),
- a box of tissues (it’s not uncommon for either or both of you to cry a little or a lot)
Share information about QSOS with your guild, church, or community group
Quilt Alliance staff can send you QSOS brochures, a PowerPoint presentation, or, depending on travel required, may be able to schedule a live demonstration and/or workshop for your group. Contact QSOS staff.
Host a QSOS Event
If you are a quilt shop owner or guild member, consider hosting a live interview with a visiting teacher or staff member and invite your customers or guild members to watch. Contact QSOS staff.
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