And making a quilt for someone is an act of love.
Jennie Burden shared her own quilting stories during a Experiences winter break program organized by Jennie’s daughter Kathryn Burden, associate director for international training and programs.
After wrapping up a presentation on the history of quilting that she and Kathryn spent weeks preparing, Jennie started her trunk show.
With the help of two volunteers, she showed the class quilts that she made alone, with friends, or with Kathryn,and quilts that others made.
One of those quilts was small and blue.
It was a baby quilt full of a wonderful of patterns and colors. There were purple and pink flowers, multi-colored choo-choo trains, yellow bunnies, blue kittens, some lace, some chicks, and four cradles.
But what stood out the most from the curated and mis-matched, gleeful patterns on this little baby quilt were six bright red hearts.
It was Kathryn’s baby quilt and although Jennie said it wasn’t her best work, the quilt was beautiful.
Each quilt Jennie made came with a story that started with its inspiration, highlighted who the quilt was designed for and how long it took to sew, and ended with what it felt like to be able to create something so beautiful for someone who was loved dearly.
It wasn’t just the baby quilts either. There were other quilts Jennie made that represented all the things and people she loved and depicted her many passions like gardening and traveling.
“Quilting connects people over generations, combining history, tradition, and art. This,” she said pointing to a quilt on the PowerPoint slide, “is a double wedding ring quilt which is a traditional quilt to give to someone on their wedding day. That’s me, that’s Dr. Burden, and this is her husband. I made this quilt for them as a surprise. I told her it was too complicated and I couldn’t make that quilt, but I did anyway.”
Jennie's words on quilting and how it connects people over generations proved true during the Jan. 7 workshop.
Participants held onto every word Jennie and Kathryn shared and happily participated in the group project after the presentation and trunk show.
Creating and Sharing Family Traditions
During an interview at The Literary in Champaign on Jan. 8, Jennie shared that she had been sewing since she was 12, but it wasn’t until she was 30 when she started quilting.
“I figured if I wanted a quilt, I should make it myself,” Jennie said.
didn’t have a family history of quilting, what was passed down to her was creativity, something she credits to her grandmother who was a professional artist.
When Jennie started quilting, in a way she started her own family tradition while also carrying on the tradition to be creative.
And she has been able to share these old and new traditions with Kathryn.
“I do quilt, but I don’t do it as religiously as she does. To be honest, I don’t know if I actually made a quilt entirely by myself because it’s something that we share together,” Kathryn said. “So, most of what we worked on has been special projects. When I used to live at home (quilting together) went a little bit more quickly.Now, since we live in different states, we work on a project when we have opportunities to spend a little more extended time together like over the holidays.”
Kathryn said she’s made several quilts with her mom over the years, some of which were featured in the trunk show portion of the class, and each project has its own special story that goes beyond just a baby quilt or a wedding quilt.
It’s those tales filled with perseverance, trial and error, and love that they shared with the class on Jan. 7.
International Education on the Mind
The idea for the workshop came to ryn months earlier when she was trying to decide on what kind of activity or class to host during winter break.
“We always offer some kind of programming over the school breaks for international students and scholars who are going to be here on campus just so they have something to do,” Kathryn said. “I was already thinking about what we should do for winter break and I knew she was coming so I just thought to ask her.”
However, Kathryn didn’t ask her mom just because she knew how to quilt and teaching a workshop together would be a good idea.
She asked her mom because of her experience volunteering with international students.
“For the last 20 years or so (my family has) worked with international students in more of a volunteer capacity,” Kathryn explained. “When I was in high school, we hosted an exchange student to live with our family for a year, a girl from Germany, through an organization called American Field Service. My family continued to be involved in that organization until they moved from Kansas.”
In total, Kathryn's family hosted four exchange students and during that time they were incredibly involved. She said they went to monthly meetings that were organized by the community chapter of the organization and at those meetings they helped organize cultural events led by the exchange students.
One of those events was a quilting workshop that her mom hosted.
“Yeah, the little Christmas cat quilt that I accidentally sent back home,” Jennie said, laughing. “Some of the (exchange students) were interested and some of the host moms were as all so we met over several weeks (and made a quilt together).”
Kathryn added that the first year they hosted an exchange student from Germany was the year she decided to study abroad and kickstart her own international education journey.
Through the same organization, she studied in Germany the year before starting college and she went back again when she was a junior in college.
“When she was 15, she told me she wanted to study abroad and I was like, ‘No, that’s not going to happen! I’mnot letting my little girl do that,’” Jennie chuckled. “After we hosted Micah (their first exchange student) and we loved her so much, I thought, ‘OK I’m going to trust that someone will love my little girl as much as I loved Micah. Someone will take care of her.’”
Kathryn nodded and said, “Yeah so ever since then it’s just been a life-long passion for me and eventually that’s how I decided on what to major in college and what to pursue...after I graduated college I did the Peace Corps and sort of meandered my way into doing a master's program in higher education and a Ph.D. in international education.”
Kathryn explained that during the weeks leading up to the workshop, she and her mom worked together over Z to create the basic outline of a presentation.
They also talked about logistics like what should be included in the presentation, how to present the information, and what kind of activity could be done that would be fun yet feasible.
“We knew we wouldn’t have a whole lot of time to do an actual quilting project. It takes a lot of materials andsewing machines. We knew it would be too difficult for an actual quilting workshop,” Kathryn said. “We debated different ideas though and if we could do some small hand sewing project...but we finally came across the idea to do a fabric project that had no sewing involved, didn’t require experience, and was easybecause it could be entirely folded.”
In the end, participants made fabric star ornaments during the workshop using strips of fabric that Kathryn and Jennie provided.
And the shape of the ornament looked like a traditional quilting square.
Kathryn emphasized that the point of the workshop was to spark interest in the people who attended by offering an opportunity to learn about a little-less-known craft.
“So, if they are curious about quilting, maybe now they have a little bit more to go on,” Kathryn said. “Maybe now they can see what sort of projects they might be able to work on.”
A mother and daughter co-hosting and teaching a quilting workshop together is unique, but for Jennie and Kathryn the opportunity was also another sentimental and proud moment they could add to their story.
“It was really special (co-hosting the event). It was something fun for us to work on,” Kathryn said. “I have grown up my entire life surrounded by quilts and kind of picked up on things over the years. I knew she had so much knowledge and so much experience, and I wanted our international students and scholars, and domestic students to benefit from that.”
“I’m proud of you, actually.”
And when asked what it was like watching Kathryn in her element, Jennie shared a feeling that resonates with mothers all over— pride.
It’s just so cool seeing Kathryn in her professional role. It was wonderful to see how she took charge of things, and to see her speaking in public. She was a very soft-spoken girl, believe it or not,” Jennie laughed, leaning toward Kathryn. “But to see her grow into her role and making all the arrangements and setting things up (for the workshop) and getting people to attend...it was a proud mom moment.”
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling and social media specialist for Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.