As part of the 8th Annual UNL Employee and Retiree Quilt Show, two staff members from the Division of Student Affairs have their works on display. Kathlene Bateman, clerical assistant in University Housing, submitted three quilts, and Debbie Hendricks, executive secretary in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, submitted two quilts.

Bateman's first quilt is “Sunshine,” a quilt she made while taking a class at the Calico House in Lincoln. She noted that during the class she fell in love with quilting.

Like Bateman, Hendricks' first submission is a labor of love. It is a large lap quilt that she selected because she liked the pattern. Her second quilt is a 52-inch by 21-inch tapestry that she says looks like waves. 

This is Hendricks third time participating in the quilt show. Her greatest enjoyment in quilting comes from playing with the fabrics and colors. She likes the challenge of finding complimentary pieces to build the tapestry. 

"I lose myself in it," said Hendricks. "I have a good time quilting and have done it for years. I've always liked to sew and do crafty things." 

She added that while she loves piecing, she does not always enjoy the sewing required and chooses to contract out some of her quilting.

"A few years back I found colors that reminded me of my granddaughter and couldn't resist making her a quilt," said Hendricks when discussing her love of quilting. "After I'd pieced it, I took it to the quilter. She said she was busy and wouldn't be able to get to it for a while, but I wasn't concerned. I told her to take her time. This will be a wedding quilt—and my granddaughter was only five at the time."

Quilting is an emotional journey for Bateman, too.

Her second quilt in the show is “Grandma Crystal’s Dresden Plates.” While moving her in-laws from their home of 45 years into a retirement home in May 2015, Bateman and her husband discovered circles of fabric in her mother-in-law’s trunk. She learned that they were called Dresden Plates and her mother-in-law’s grandmother had pieced them. Bateman’s mother-in-law gave her the plates, and Bateman decided that she would make her mother-in-law a quilt out of the plates for Christmas that year.

When Bateman’s mother-in-law became ill and was put on hospice, Bateman took a few days off to make the quilt. Three weeks later, Bateman completed the quilt and gave it to her mother as an early birthday present.

“[My mother-in-law] just cried and said ‘no one’s ever done something like this for me before,’” said  Bateman. “My-father-in law gave me the quilt I had made for my mother-in-law when she died [two months later]. It’s something that I’ll treasure forever and pass on to one of my sons.”