English Conversation Practice: Dirty to Clean

In this English conversation practice video you’ll meet my friend Janneken, she’s an internationally renowned quilt expert. We’ll practice English conversation together and you’ll learn all about how to clean a 100-year-old quilt.

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Video Transcript:

Today we’re learning some really excellent vocabulary words from my friend Janneken. She is a professor of history at a university here in Pennsylvania and one of the country’s leading experts on the history of quilts in America. We’ll study our real English conversation while she helps me clean an old quilt. And we’re also going to study an interesting part of American history.

This is 100 Years of sweat.

Exactly. You can see the dirt already.

Of my ancestor’s sweat.

You heard that right. 100 Years of my ancestors sweat.

I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent here on YouTube for over 15 years. Check out rachelsenglish.com/free for my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.

First I’m going to assess the situation because I can’t remember if it’s one quilt.

Yeah, I couldn’t remember either.

Assess the situation. Assess is a verb that means to determine the value of something: They are assessing the value of my grandmother’s ring so I know how much insurance to buy for it. Or, if you assess a situation, it’s looking at the whole situation to see what needs to be done.

I’m assessing all three quilts at once. Which ones need to be washed?

First I’m going to assess the situation because I can’t remember if it’s one quilt.

So, this one is a definite yes. Is there any other equipment I need like a scrub brush or anything?

Equipment like a scrub brush. Equipment. What tools or objects do I need to help clean? A scrub brush? Let’s look for a second at the word ‘equipment’. Look how I pronounce it.

Equipment

The p is a stop consonant and the t is too. Equipment. Neither of these are released. It’s not equip-ment. Equipment. Try that. Equipment

Is there any other equipment I need like a scrub brush or anything?

No. Um, right. We don’t want to do any scrubbing, it’s really soaking and this powder, um the Oxiclean that we got.

I can’t help it, I just have to point it out, scrub brush.

Scrub brush

One B sound to link the two words. Scrub brush.

Scrub brush

This one looks good.

Yeah, oh this is such a beautiful quilt.

Isn’t that pretty?

When do you think this was built, was made? Because this was a gift.

It’s hard because it’s um solid colors, but I would guess probably early 20th century, based on the how thin like it’s before the more um, thicker batting was produced since it’s got really dense quilting.

Batting would be the fibers. Cotton, wool or synthetic that’s used in quilts and comforters.

She also used the word dense. The quilting is dense. This means the lines of the quilting are closer together than in your average quilt.

Since it’s got really dense quilting. I would say like 10s or 20s 30s probably.

Is a solid fabric pretty rare for the time?

No, not at all but it just makes it more difficult.

Yeah.

I love this one. And I love.

And two colored quilts were very that is the right era for two color quilts so that’s um, the other kind of clue.

The right era. An era is a period of time marked by a distinctive character. So, two colored quilts were common in the early 20th century, that defines that period of time as an era. The era of two-colored quilts.

For me, I would say my life is made up of several eras. Childhood. Being single. Being married with kids. Family life is definitely a different era than what I’d known before. Era.

I love this one. And I love-

And two colored quilts were very, that is the right era for two color quilts so that’s um, the other kind of clue.

Wow, so basically hundred years ago.

I would guess, yeah.

Ish.

Do you know what I meant by ‘ish’? It’s a suffix that here, means approximate. Around a hundred years old. 100ish years old.

Wow, so basically a 100 years ago.

I would guess, yeah.

Ish.

This one, I don’t feel like it really needs it but I’ve also never washed it like should I just also wash these two?

I mean I wouldn’t do that one because it’s in such good shape and like washing a quilt does have the potential to damage.

Okay.

This one, I would say perhaps, I mean because it does have some soiling, it’s really–

I mean I used to sleep with it, on my bed before I realize that I probably shouldn’t.

Yeah, maybe this one I could see the benefit of washing just because it does kind of it is a little, although yeah there is some soiling um, it’s also not in, I mean the risk for this one is, that there are places where it’s already weak and so that will only be exacerbated.

Um, exacerbated. Great word! I’ll define that later.

Places that are weak which will be exacerbated by washing. Exacerbated. That is not a word you’ll hear every day. It’s a pretty sophisticated word. It means to make something that’s already bad even worse. So, the fabric is weak in some places. That’s bad but washing it could make it even worse.

That there are places where it’s already weak

Yeah.

So that will only be exacerbated.

Um, exacerbated. Great word! I’ll define that later.

You like my big words Rachel?

I love your big words!

But so maybe not. This one or think about this one, like let’s do this one because it definitely needs it.

That’ll also help us you know, master the process.

Yeah, okay. Alright, well let’s do grandma Amanda Candles.

Oh, it’s such a sweet quilt.

Applique quilt.

Warm?

Yeah warm, warm to yeah, yeah warm.

So we put the soap in the tub and filled it with warm water.

This video brought to you by Oxiclean!

They should sponsor.

They should sponsor it.

I’ll reach out.

Reach out is a phrasal verb that means to contact. Call them, text them, email them. I’ll reach out.

I’ll reach out.

We want to make sure we can submerge, submerge it, you know.

We want to make sure we can submerge it. Submerge means to put underwater. We didn’t want it just on the surface of the water half in and half out, we wanted to submerge it.

Um, let’s submerge it.

Okay.

Alright, no bleeding so far.

We hear bleeding. We think blood. Oh my gosh, your arms bleeding. But it can also be used for colors. Especially with fabrics or laundry when the color of one piece bleeds into and messes up the color of another piece of fabric.

Alright, no bleeding so far.

Okay, good.

It kind of smells.

Yeah I wonder if I bet it’s like the old things in the in the quilt like kind of releasing. You know when like it rains you always smell like things more.

Yeah, this is hundred years of sweat.

Exactly. Oh, you can see the dirt already.

Of my ancestors sweat.

Yeah. Their little pieces of skin.

Oh my God, that’s actually, that’s kind of tripping me out to think about like my great grandmother’s—

Tripping me out. Trip out is a phrasal verb that can mean to hallucinate. To think you see things that aren’t really there, to be on drugs but the way I used it here it means to be thinking about something you’ve never thought about before in a way that surprises you. It’s similar to the phrase my mind is blown. It was just tripping me out to think about the dirt coming off of this quilt being the skin cells of my ancestors. What a crazy link to the past, thinking about that, seeing it, tripped me out.

Oh my God, that’s actually, that’s kind of tripping me out to think about like my great grandmother’s, like I’m sure they used this. They didn’t make it for show like this was on their bed.

Right. And it has that soft worn feel that that it has had used. This is definitely not the first time it’s been washed. You’d be able to tell.

Okay. Because it would be even dirtier, the water?

Uh, well the fabric would be crisper.

Oh yeah.

Alright.

Oh wow, look at all that dirt.

Yeah. It makes me want to do the other one.

You might want to.

So now we really need to let it sit.

Okay.

Let it go.

You’re, just let it go.

How long should we let it go?

Um, I think a couple hours.

Okay.

Janneken said we need to let it sit. When we hear sit, we think of a person sitting in a chair. But we also use it like here to mean to leave it alone. Not to do anything with it.

You can also use it with emotions. If your coworker did something that really made you mad, you might not want to act on that right away. It might be best just to let it sit and come back to the situation when you’re more calm.

So now we really need to let it sit.

Okay. How should I rinse it?

The least invasive would be just to drain this and then rinse it in cold water.

Okay.

Invasive has a couple different meanings. Here, she’s using it to mean the least likely to cause harm or damage to the quilt.

How should I rinse it?

The least invasive would be just to drain this and then rinse it in cold water.

Okay.

Here in this tub until you know the suds come out. Some recommendations say that you can put it actually in the washing machine on spin, I feel a little bit apprehensive about doing that. I just don’t want to do that to an old quilt.

I don’t want to do that either.

So we let it sit how did it all turn out? We’ll see that in a minute but first, let’s learn a bit of history from Janneken, after all she does have her PhD.

Her second book is about quilts and the New Deal.

The New Deal refers to a series of economic programs in the United States led by President Franklin D Roosevelt between 1933 and 1938 in response to the Great Depression.

The Great Depression saw high unemployment rates in the US, the failure of many businesses, and a stock market crash.

I started working with the photography from the New Deal because I saw lots of images of women posed on a quilting frame or with a finished quilt and also quilts in homes and they were all over these governmental produced photographs and I’m like they’re charming but why is the government picturing quilts that’s part of it essentially a propaganda campaign. It was, these are photos that were used in the press to like um, create empathy towards um, suffering, a migrant farmer or sharecroppers and also show the effectiveness of New Deal programs.

Propaganda. This is related to the word propagation. Propagation means to multiply or increase, spreading to a larger area. For example, you can propagate plants. Propaganda is what’s spread to support a particular doctrine or point of view. Wartime propaganda is a pretty common phrase spread by governments to create a positive point of view about the war among those who are suffering from it. These photos were part of propaganda to cause Americans to have positive feelings about the New Deal and the help it was offering some Americans. They’re charming but why is the government picturing quilts as part of, it’s essentially a propaganda campaign. It was, these are photos that were used in the press to like um, create empathy towards um, suffering, a migrant Farmers or sharecroppers and also show the effectiveness of New Deal programs. So it started there and then I soon discovered that there were works progress administration that’s the WPA, sewing rooms that paid women to make quilts, there were projects as part of the federal arts project that documented historic quilts like uh, from the colonial era 19th century. They would paint pictures of quilts and these are now all on the National Gallery of Art.

Just to save the pattern or what?

Um, they wanted to create a design portfolio for future designers and artists to use that relied on American precedents rather than European ones so it was it’s called the index of American design.

Precedence. Something that serves as an example or model.

The government wanted to create an American precedent for American designers to work from separate from the European precedents in quilt design. They wanted to create a collection of American examples.

They wanted to create a design portfolio for future designers and artists to use that relied on American precedents rather than European ones so it’s called the index of American design, and so it documented tons of different folk art and decorative Arts but there are around 700 paintings of quilts that are in this collection.

I’m going to get your book so we can look at some of the pictures.

Yeah.

Wait, where’d it go? there it is.

Is it hard to pick a favorite quilt?

No.

No? You have a favorite?

Yeah. Let’s let me see. I love that right away you knew.

I mean it’s probably a tie between two. I love of them all but this quilt, um, that feature in the introduction. it’s by a woman named Fannie Shaw in Texas, a small town in Texas, and the quilt is called Prosperity is Just Around the Corner, and it looks like a  comic book or graphic novel, um and the phrase Prosperity is Just Around the Corner was used in the early depression a lot supposedly Herbert Hoover the president said it um, but he may not have but there was a pop song uh that had that as the title and so in Fannie Shaw’s quilt, she’s pictured um all the people in her town and everyone’s looking around the corner in search of prosperity. So this is early in the depression even before the New Deal has started before Franklin Delanor Roosevelt was elected, um but all of this it’s like she’s painting or stitching I should say, her sort of hopes and dreams and even kind of critiquing this false optimism that that soon we’d be out of the depression. And then the very low lowest corner, it’s a block that has Uncle Sam bringing in the gold standard and legal beer and fade and so this is like the hope that eventually the government will come through.

Wow. That is cool. Okay, what’s it tied with?

Uh, there’s a book end uh, for this quilt um, actually this one is called Road to Recovery and this is made in 1939 towards the end of the depression by a woman named Mary Gasperik and she was a Hungarian immigrant, um there’s also this great detail shot here of uh you can see how she stitched the years of the depression all the way up this path um, this is a little portrait of her sitting on a bench. This little boy, he’s, she knit the sweater and then like attached the sweater to the applique. She made this for a contest the 1939 World’s Fair which was in New York City. I don’t know how she didn’t win. Um, it’s amazing but it was her like vision of like how she was emerging out of the Great Depression. So I love these two quilts that kind of show the beginning and the end.

Yeah, very cool. Um, Janneken Smucker. Look her up on Amazon. Are the both books listed there?

Yeah.

But this is a great coffee table book and if you’re not sure what coffee table means, I will explain that in just one second. But look at all of these beautiful colorful quilts.

A coffee table book is one that you would leave out on your coffee table for visitors to your house to look through. It’s oversized usually with the hard cover and it’s very image focused rather than text focused. They can reflect your own interests in tastes and they’re used in part for decoration.

Huge thanks to Janneken for helping me with this quilt and for being in this video. Her book just won a major award and you can get it from Amazon following the link in the video description.

The next day I inspected the quilt after it dried and it came out really well. Look at all those tiny stitches. Those were all done not with a machine but by hand with a needle and thread by my great grandmother about a hundred years ago.

I’m so glad I was able to get my great grandmother’s quilt so clean! Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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