Quilts Touching China!

I’m driving to Fredericksburg, VA this morning! And I wanted to leave something special with you that I just KNOW you will enjoy, and feel that familiar tug to the heartstrings!

I received this inspirational email from Elizabeth, who is living with her hubby in the town of Shijiazhuang and raising their 4 children there!

Read on! You will be touched!

Dear Bonnie,
My name is Elizabeth. I read your blog regularly, when I can. It's not always easy to accomplish such simple tasks as that over here in China, but I'm not complaining. I love it here!

My Husband's work took him to the then little-known city of Shijiazhuang (thanks to the melamine milk, however, everyone has the WRONG idea about this place). Foreigners are WAY in the minority here and, when I was not working at the foreign language school, I went years without spotting another non-Chinese person.

I am now up to my ears with children. Each kindergarten class has roughly 40 students in it and at one point I had 33 classes a week. Not to mention that I am the mother of 4 little ones of my own (girl, boy, boy, girl, 8,6,4,2).

Since there is a lot of back-story which doesn't pertain to this story, I'll stick to the facts:

One of the vocabulary words listed for the 3 to 4 year old group of kids (no day-care or preschool in China. They just start at the age of 3...) was the word "Quilt".

Whereas quilted garments and the like have been in existence and worn for thousands of years in China, there are no quilts, to speak of. The verb "to quilt" has a translation (绗缝 hang feng), but the noun "quilt" doesn't have a direct translation. If you look it up in the dictionary, it will give you a word which is the closest approximation, but the whole concept doesn't translate.

Unfortunately, the illustration in the book looked more like a used wad of tissue than a blanket of any form and was certainly NOT a quilt, so, I made a quilt.

This managed to really irritate the other teachers, who not having quilts as a part of their culture, just didn't understand that you can't simply swap out the word blanket or comforter with a word so intrinsically linked to our culture.

The kids, however, immediately saw the difference and asked if we could make a quilt as a present for the much beloved vice principal who was in charge of their tiny 3-class branch kindergarten located about 8 bus-stops from the main campus. She was expecting a baby in the late summer and the kids wanted to do something for her that she would remember for the rest of her life. Until I brought the quilt in, they had been at a loss for ideas, but something just clicked in their young minds and, together, we hatched a plan.

Each child brought in an 8 inch square of fabric with their name and class level sewn on it. Each piece of fabric came from something they had used when they were infants. We had everything from T-shirts to towels thrown in the mix! Slowly, I sewed the sturdiest patches together in my spare time (which took about 4 months because, yeah, spare time? What's that again?) The quilt was completed one week before my last day of class. We had the kids take a picture with it and brainstormed how to involve all of them in the giving of their gift.

Conveniently enough, there is a long hallway which runs along the front of the Kindergarten. We simply lined the kids up in the hallway on either side of the entry way. When the principal poked her head out to see what all the commotion was about, we presented her with the quilt. Can you imagine over a hundred kids all between the ages 3 and 6 calling out "To our "Mama" Principal; we hope that you have a happy and healthy baby! WE LOVE YOU!!!" ? (It sounds better in Chinese. Some things just don't quite translate...)

All of the adults were teary-eyed and the poor principal was all but sobbing.

Quilts are special. They are a gift of love made with love by people who love what they're doing. You can't look that up in a dictionary and I'm glad for the chance to share what quilts are all about. I love being a quilter (and a mother and a teacher etc.)
I'm sorry that the pictures are blurry, but you get the general idea.
With Love,
Elizabeth Gentry
张丽莎

Doesn’t that just give you goosebumps?! I know it did me. Thanks Elizabeth, for sharing your love of quilting with us, and with the children!

I’m on the road again, the new minivan is loaded and ready to ROADTRIP!! Have a great weekend everyone!