Oral History Interview with Nancy Miles

Mandy Higgins 0:01 All right, it is Friday, June 24th. Mandy Higgins, conducting an oral history interview for the COVID quilt project in Raywick. Kentucky with Nancy Miles. Can you just state your name for us?

Nancy Miles 0:14 My name is Nancy Miles.

Mandy Higgins 0:16 Thank you. When did you start to craft or sew?

Nancy Miles 0:22 Probably really getting into it, oh, probably around 1980, when my daughter was born, and I made a quilt and then it's-- all my life though my parents, my mother, sewed, you know so it just kind of went on down the line. And--but I really got into it when I quit my public job the first time and stayed home when my son was born. And then it just bloomed from there.

Mandy Higgins 0:45 Did you learn to sew from your mother? Or how did you pick it up?

Nancy Miles 0:48 Yeah, I'd say I did. I've learned to watch her because she--with all the siblings, she had to make her clothes. And she didn't use patterns so, we just learned to improvise and use your imagination, whatever you come up with.

Mandy Higgins 1:01 What sorts of things did you make before you started making masks?

Nancy Miles 1:06 Mostly quilts, a few clothes, not a whole lot, but mostly quilts, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 1:11 Can you tell me a little bit about your quilts?

Nancy Miles 1:13 I like to do my own design, because I don't follow patterns very well. And so I like to do my own designs. And I have oh gosh, I don't know how many quilts I've made., I really don't. But, I've made everything from the Titanic to your traditional double wedding ring to the barn quilts to simple quilts.

Mandy Higgins 1:33 And do you do the whole process?

Nancy Miles 1:36 Nowadays, I have somebody that does the quilting for me. Because, working [a] full time job, I don't have time and I like to piece better. But before I started public work the second time around, I did my own piece and quilting and the whole---from start to finish, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 1:56 And were you involved in sewing groups or craft circles?

Nancy Miles 1:59 Yes, I was, I joined a sewing group in Bardstown called Crazy Quilters. And that's really where I probably learned my best techniques and learned a lot from them ladies. And then I started a quilt group at our church at St. Francis Xavier in Raywick, and is called the Socialize Group. So we do a lot of socializing and some sewing. And--so I belong to that one too.

Mandy Higgins 2:24 Can you tell me a little bit more about that group.

Nancy Miles 2:26 That's mostly--mostly the toward church-oriented, but anybody is welcome to come. And this is the 20th year for it. It's been going for twenty years, a lot of the ladies have passed away, you know, and the younger generation is just not into sewing It's not something they have time to do, whether they like it or not. And we've done lots of prayer quilts for people, you know, quilted barn sales, just a lot of talking, a lot of socializing, a lot of eating. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 2:55 how did you meet during the pandemic?

Nancy Miles 2:58 How did I meet the--

Mandy Higgins 3:00 --the--did the group meet during the pandemic?

Nancy Miles 3:02 No, they didn't, no because most of them were older and they were afraid to meet. Yeah, so they still kept into contact on the phone and Facebook and things like that, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 3:14 No zoom--

Nancy Miles 3:15 No--no.

Mandy Higgins 3:15 --meetings. [laughter] Zoom crafted. That's actually how I got into crafting.

Nancy Miles 3:19 Oh, is that rig--Oh, well that's good.

Mandy Higgins 3:23 Can you tell me to--since we've introduced the pandemic, how did you learn about COVID-19?

Nancy Miles 3:29 You mean?

Mandy Higgins 3:30 Like, how did you first hear about it?

Nancy Miles 3:32 I guess on the news, you know, you heard it all over the news. And it just, it was pretty scary. You know, that's why I took a month off at the very beginning because I do not want this, you know,

Mandy Higgins 3:43 Yeah, can you tell me a little bit about what you were doing in March of 2020?

Nancy Miles 3:48 Well, when I took off work, I was mostly making masks, you know. And my daughter and granddaughter helped make maths. My husband helped cut the strings. And so that month I was off, we were making masks and sewing and enjoyed being home.

Mandy Higgins 4:02 Yeah. So you worked for Heaven Hill?

Nancy Miles 4:03 I do. I do.

Mandy Higgins 4:05 And that you were considered an essential worker?

Nancy Miles 4:08 Yes, we are considered essential workers. Therefore, we got hazardous pay. For so many weeks, I forget exactly how many. So that we kept right on working, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 4:18 You were not sent home when the rest of the--

Nancy Miles 4:21 No.

Mandy Higgins 4:21 Yeah

Nancy Miles 4:21 No, we never--nobody at Heaven Hill missed a days work. Because they had to shut down because of the pandemic. You know, some of them took off, like me I took off, couple of people just because we're worried about it, you know, and they let us do it, you know, and then the ones that got COVID, of course they took off, you know, and would come back that we'd never--nobody missed. We worked some overtime, did the botteling of the hand sanitizers that ain't all they, did, they did bourbon and hand sanitizer at the same time. But, yeah, we kept on going, yes.

Mandy Higgins 4:56 Can you talk to me a little bit about how you were feeling in that early moment?

Nancy Miles 5:01 Scared, I mean, really, really scared because you think, what's--what's gonna happen? You know, was--we're all gonna get it? Or we all gonna die? One guy I worked with, he got it, within a week he was dead. Literally, he was at work on a Wednesday, within a week he was dead. So that was scary, you know? And it did--it--it made you afraid--what was gonna go on. It made you want to help other people that needed it? Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 5:30 Yeah. When did you start making masks? Was it almost immediately?

Nancy Miles 5:35 Yes. Yes.

Mandy Higgins 5:36 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 5:36 Almost immediately.

Mandy Higgins 5:37 And how did you--You don't like patterns, you said? So, how do you figure--

Nancy Miles 5:41 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 5:41 --out how to do this?

Nancy Miles 5:42 You know, you just kind of measure, measure your mouth, measure up and down, oh that one works. Try another one, that one didn't work. First, it was stringsd and that worked okay. And then it was cut up the T-shirts and make little ear loops and that worked really well--that worked really well, yeah. And then I made--put masks for you know, all my family members and families in Texas and Arkansas and Louisville and Donnie's family and people at work and people that didn't know, you know, just you just make them?

Mandy Higgins 5:42 Yeah. And did you--was--how'd you [get] information about like cutting up the T-shirts or doing those sorts of things?

Nancy Miles 6:19 I think just out of my head, you know, just out of--cuz you're so--I've sewed so long. It's just a natural thing to--to what to do there. Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 6:29 Where did you source your material?

Nancy Miles 6:31 Well, I had a whole stash from fabric of quilts. So, then a lady I didn't even know, I did not know this lady, but I do work with her neice. And I made you know, like I said, masks for people at work. So, I don't know if that's why she did it. But she--her aunt was a quilter, and she couldn't see anymore. And she asked me, and I had made some masks for them, if I would like some fabric I said, "sure," you know? Well, she gave me a very large--significant amount of fabric, very large, yeah. So then, you know I had all the fabric in the world cut up that--I'd buy special fabric for kids. And you know, little Scooby Doos and things like that, yeah, so.

Mandy Higgins 7:17 Did you have trouble sourcing any materials?

Nancy Miles 7:20 No, I didn't because I had so much already. You know, but I don't think anybody really did. But, I'm not really sure, yeah, sure.

Mandy Higgins 7:33 And did you make any changes as you went through, or did you settle on a pretty--

Nancy Miles 7:42 No, I made changes? Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 7:43 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 7:44 I did. And probably still making changes, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 7:46 Are you still making masks?

Nancy Miles 7:47 Well, no, I haven't made any for quite some time.

Mandy Higgins 7:49 Okay.

Nancy Miles 7:50 Because you know, we're not having to wear them again.

Mandy Higgins 7:52 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 7:52 But, it's coming back. We have people [at] work with it now. And I think I'm gonna start to wear mine again. And I've kept them all, you know. I've got a stack in there this big that's mine personally. Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 8:05 Yeah. How did you learn about the quilts?

Nancy Miles 8:10 A fr--the quilt block?

Mandy Higgins 8:11 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 8:11 --for the--a friend of mine told me, she seen it on Facebook, and she told me about it. And I thought, well you know, that might be something I'd like to do, too. So, I did, I took fabrics that I have made our mask out of like my kids and grandkids and put theirs in there, yeah. So that's what mine would have been made out of.

Mandy Higgins 8:30 Yeah, can you describe your square for me?

Nancy Miles 8:33 Actually, I made four different ones, I think. And the best I can remember, it's kind of in the center and mine is actually not just simple patches like that. I made a design called the monkey wrench, which was always my mother's favorite quilt pattern. So that's what mine is. It's a design of the monkey wrench.

Mandy Higgins 8:54 Can you describe what that means for somebody who would be listening to this interview?

Nancy Miles 8:59 You mean the monkey wrench--

Mandy Higgins 9:01 --Yeah.

Nancy Miles 9:00 --pattern? The monkey wrench pattern is called really monkey wrench and door latch and holding a barn door you know, it's just her mother made it--red quilt and I have it--of that pattern, then my mother quilted it, now I own it. So it's kind of a special pattern the monkey wrench, it's just kind of a pattern of love passed down, yeah.

And I--do you remember the fabric that you used in the--

You know, I told you I didn't have a picture of it, I do have a picture of the block.

Mandy Higgins 9:29 Okay.

Nancy Miles 9:30 Of the block

Mandy Higgins 9:32 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 9:34 I know had yellow and--I can show you.

Mandy Higgins 9:38 Yeah! [laughter]

Nancy Miles 9:42 I'll look for it and--let's see, there's one of them.

Mandy Higgins 9:53 Yeah--

Nancy Miles 9:54 Yeah, and I signed mine, in the center.

Mandy Higgins 9:57 So, could you for us just describe what you're seeing here?

Nancy Miles 10:01 Okay, it's made out of multi colors, it looks like maybe [counts] twelve different pieces of fabric there, different ones. And, okay, this is the other one, this one is the simple patch. And this one is like for my grandchildren, it's got, Winnie the Pooh on it. And this one was my husband's, it's got the tools on it. And this one's me for sewing, 'cause it's got the buttons. Let's see, what's up in there? That's two more little kids playing, that's my other set of grandkids. This one here is for the sports, which I've got Sportsnut in there. And the horses 'cause it's Kentucky. And just flowers 'cause I like it. And oh, the balloons, I'm not quite sure. [laughter] But, this one is the simple nine patch. And this one is [the] monkey wrench one.

Mandy Higgins 10:53 Yeah. And then monkey wrench one has more pieces of--

Nancy Miles 10:57 Yes.

Mandy Higgins 10:58 --it into--still into the nine.

Nancy Miles 10:59 Right. It does.

Mandy Higgins 10:59 Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 11:00 It does. And I think I signed the middle of all mine.

Mandy Higgins 11:03 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 11:04 --Something like that.

Mandy Higgins 11:06 Yeah. So, your friend tagged you in it. You thought you--i'd be something you'd wanna do? And then you just sent it in or what?

Nancy Miles 11:14 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 11:14 Or what was your? Yeah,

Nancy Miles 11:15 I just asked my--and other sister made a lot of masks too. And I made a block for her and I think I sent one in for her. And I was like, well, she sent it, I'd like to be part of, you know, because poor old Andy Beshear was hit with the hardest thing you can imagine in a governor's lifetime. You know, it's just, I can't imagine it. You know, I can't imagine it. And I think he's faired well for it [laughing], you know.

What did it feel like, contributing something that the governor--that was presented to the governor?

I don't know. I don't know, I really think it was because it was the governor. It was just for somebody else. It was really, the pressure was put on, you know, whether it be you, you me, the pressure was put on them and they needed something from everybody coming together to show him some love that we're here, you know, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 12:13 Yeah. Did you include a note or anything with your--

Nancy Miles 12:18 I don't think I did. I don't know if I did or not, yeah [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 12:30 Sorry, can you tell me a little bit about what it was like when you saw that it had been delivered? How did you learn about that?

Nancy Miles 12:40 Gina text[ed] me.

Mandy Higgins 12:41 Okay.

Nancy Miles 12:41 Gina Hudson text[ed] me told me and I'm like, oh, my gosh, there's my block right there, you know. That was pretty--that was very exciting.

Mandy Higgins 12:48 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 12:48 And to see him with the expression on his face, you could tell [what] it really meant to him, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 12:54 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 12:54 It really did.

Mandy Higgins 12:55 And how did that make you feel that it moved him in that--

Nancy Miles 12:57 It made me feel good, you know--

Mandy Higgins 12:58 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 12:58 --knowing that you had a part of something for somebody else--for somebody else.

Mandy Higgins 13:04 Okay. And you became--ao did you become kind of close with Gina? Or did you know her before this?

Nancy Miles 13:08 No, I actually did not know her before this. But I found out during this, us you know, sending it in and stuff and I think she may have--seen my name and Raywick, and she goes, "my mother's from Raywick!" And I said, "no way! Who is your mother?" And lo and behold, she's from Raywick [laughing]. I went to school with our sister, her mother's sister.

Mandy Higgins 13:33 Oh, wow.

Nancy Miles 13:33 Yeah--and my--

Mandy Higgins 13:34 And so you became sort of--

Nancy Miles 13:35 Yeah, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 13:36 --close and--

Nancy Miles 13:36 --text back and forth and stuff.

Mandy Higgins 13:37 Yeah. And were you on the phone with her when--before she presented the quilt?

Nancy Miles 13:44 I think I was.

Mandy Higgins 13:45 Okay.

Nancy Miles 13:46 I was, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 13:46 Do you remember that conversation at all?

Nancy Miles 13:48 Not really, you know? I don't know, I can't say I do, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 13:58 Did you make anything else that was sent to any of the officials or did you--

Nancy Miles 14:01 No, no.

Mandy Higgins 14:02 No.

Nancy Miles 14:03 That's a--that's the only one I made for that, you know.

Mandy Higgins 14:05 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 14:05 Other than just local people, you know, masks for local people.

Mandy Higgins 14:10 Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that, who you were making masks for?

Nancy Miles 14:13 Ah, well, I made masks like I said for family and friends. Me and my daughter and granddaughter made a bunch for school. She took them to school, Tina took them to church. I made them for work, just pretty much he says, "can you make me a mask?" Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 14:31 Did you keep count?

Nancy Miles 14:33 I don't know exactly. But I know it was over 700.

Mandy Higgins 14:37 Wow!

Nancy Miles 14:38 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 14:39 And you said you hadn't been making them for a while. Do you remember when you stopped making masks?

Nancy Miles 14:44 Hmm. Probably when people started coming out of them. I probably made them up until that time, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 14:53 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 14:54 And every now and then, I might still make an occasional one like you're going somewhere special, you want something put on. Yeah, but.

Mandy Higgins 15:02 Yeah, how have you seen the sort of crafting community continue to support each other, even though you're not looking for masks at the moment?

Nancy Miles 15:13 I think that they've all come together. The seamstress and people have learnt--went back to sewing because of mask making. People that never sewed in their life, got a machine from somewhere and made masks. And they liked it, like my sister, and now she's sewing. She sa--[said] "I don't know if this is for me." I said, "be patient, it will be." Yeah. And I think there's--it's getting back into the craft of sewing because of the mask making.

Mandy Higgins 15:42 So, you took them on, sorry, I'm all over the place--

Nancy Miles 15:44 No, that's okay.

Mandy Higgins 15:44 --with this interview [laughing] But you [laughing]--you took a month off, you made masks the whole time, then you went back to work. And you kept you come home and do this, how was your--what was your process like?

Nancy Miles 15:56 Yeah, I had to work you know, go to work and then in the mornings, I'd get up, make some more mask or, not every day, but occasionally somebody'd say "I need masks." So, I'd make ten more, you know.

Mandy Higgins 16:07 Was it--were they quick, or was it a longer process?

Nancy Miles 16:10 No. It's quick [laughter] 'Cause you've made so many, you know. And once you've got the pattern in your head, you could probably make one in six minutes. You know--

Mandy Higgins 16:23 Wow.

Nancy Miles 16:23 --something like that, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 16:24 Yeah. Did you have a like today, I'm only cutting squares. Tomorrow, I'm gonna sew or was it somebody asked for it, I'm gonna do the whole thing.

Nancy Miles 16:34 Yeah, I'd just do the whole thing at one time.

Mandy Higgins 16:36 Okay.

Nancy Miles 16:36 Yeah. Well, let me rephrase that Donnie made, he cuts strings for me. And I would come out here in the morning after--he works, day shift, and I work night shift. And there'd be all these little strings hanging out on the thing for me. So I guess it was like a two part deal. Yeah. And then I quit doing the strings and start doing the ear loops and one T-shirt will make a lot of ear loops. [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 16:59 I believe that. Did you--would you hand them out, or would people come get them, how did you disperse your masks?

Nancy Miles 17:07 Mostly just hand them out, you know, take them to work and here they are, like that, yeah. And they--like I say, I've mailed some to family members and--yeah. That's about it.

Mandy Higgins 17:20 Yeah, can you tell me--can you define the idea of Team Kentucky, in your own words?

Nancy Miles 17:29 Team Kentucky. It's kind of like a new term, but it's an old thinking. It's a [an] old way because, I think Kentuckians have always come together to help people in need. And it's the whole team working together. Whether you're making masks, whether you're bottling hand sanitizer, whether you're taking a [an] elderly person food, because they're not getting out. It's all one team working together.

Mandy Higgins 17:58 Yeah. Could you talk a little bit about the hand sanitizer, and your role in that for Heaven Hill?

Nancy Miles 18:03 Well, actually, I was off while they were making it, you know, my line runs it. And if I'd been there, I would have been running it. But they've run, they made--Heaven Hill made 300,000 litres of hand sanitizer and handed [it] out to like first responders, fire departments, police departments, employees, people in need. And then they also donated $400,000, to different places for the pandemic, for things that the pandemic caused, yeah. And, you know, I mean, they worked hard at getting that out. Because, once there was a shortage of it, they jumped right in and started producing it, anyway.

And you were making masks at home, right?

Yeah I made the mask at home, and somebody's running my line making the hand sanitizer.

Yeah, that's incredible. So, last little question here. And it's a big one, actually. [laughter] How are you feeling on June 24th, 2022?

We'll, truthfully, I'm getting nervous about the COVID again, because at work last week, we had seven people with it, you know, you thought it was dying down, and it's springing back up. I feel like that I'm not going--maybe not die from it now. Because I've had my shots, I've been boostered and I feel like that might survive it now [laughing]. But I think it's still a nervous feeling. You know, it is--it's still nervous, because we've never had nothing like this in our lifetime. You know, nobody that's living today, except maybe the World War Two veterans, has been through this vast majority of something. We pray we don't do it again.

Mandy Higgins 20:06 Yeah, thank you. Do you--you said were a little nervous. Are you gonna--do you think you'll pick up some habits that you had maybe in 2020 and reintroduce them or?

Nancy Miles 20:19 Well, very possibly like going back into my mask because people at work having it. You know, we're--we've been going out without a mask and going places and stuff, but it does make you a little more you know, you're more cautious of-- wash them hands, get them hands washed. [If] somebody coughing, back up. Yeah, I think it's getting--wound up again.

Mandy Higgins 20:45 Yeah, it's interesting, we've heard--we've been doing these over the last six weeks and we've heard everything from I feel great to--

Nancy Miles 20:53 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 20:53 Yep, still really nervous.

Nancy Miles 20:54 Yeah I, am. I'm still nervous about it. You know.

Mandy Higgins 20:56 Yeah.

Nancy Miles 20:56 Because of my age. You know, that's--that's a big factor. Got a little heart condition, that's another factor, you know. Yeah--I'm not ready to go yet [laughing]. Still got a lot of sewing to do!

Mandy Higgins 21:10 Right. [laughing]

Nancy Miles 21:11 I have to sew up all that fabric. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 21:14 Absolutely. Well, thank you for letting us spend a little time with you.

Nancy Miles 21:17 Well, thank you!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai