“That really was a good method for beginners”

Abstract

Using conversational data from an ethnographic study of a quilting guild, this article examines the way narratives are used to situate quilted objects and techniques by indexing particular alignment frames for the viewer recipient. As a community of practice, the quilting guild provides an excellent interactional context to explore how narratives are used to construct and reinforce community practices. Working within the framework of conversation analysis, the study found that quilters utilized narratives argumentatively to support specific characterizations of quilted objects and quilting techniques. In the data, situating narratives initiate an interactional sequence consisting of two parts: the narrative and an expansion and integration sequence. Quilters make use of different syntactic and story elements in order to signal the appropriate alignment frames. Further, the expansion and integration segments provide space for the women to negotiate and integrate individual and group meanings for the quilting practices presented in the narrative.