‘Big Bluestem’ quilt, First report from Pauline Burbidge

My Quilt commission for the International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

Carolyn Ducey from the International Quilt Museum (IQM) in Lincoln, Nebraska suggested that I make a quilt based on the Grasslands/ Prairies of Nebraska? I kept this in my mind, and eventually took up the challenge!

I visited Lincoln, Nebraska, twice to connect with the Grasslands and collect visual material for my project, in April 2023, and September 2024.

I went to ‘Spring Creek Prairie, Audubon Center’, and Nine Mile Prairie to find living examples of Tallgrass Prairie. These areas are about a one-hour drive from the centre of Lincoln. It is great to see very valuable conservation work being undertaken, as today there is little Tallgrass Prairie remaining, most have turned into farms or have been developed.

I spent several days at Spring Creek, drawing, photographing and printing, having been given permission to make ‘Cyanotype’ prints of the Tallgrasses. For this I was blessed with perfect weather. I made prints of ‘Big Bluestem’, ‘Indian Grass’, ‘Switch Grass’ and ‘Canada Wild Rye’ grass, to name a few. I found this very exciting, these grasses are unknown in the UK.

‘Cyanotype’ is an early photographic printing method, using the sun’s rays and daylight for exposure. Light sensitive chemicals are applied to the fabric, the grasses are laid on the fabric, they block the sun’s rays, while the background is exposed to the sunlight. This results in white silhouettes of the grass and a blue, indigo-like coloured background.

I was well pleased with my printed results. Carolyn from the IQM was helping me, and together we made 14 prints, on fine cotton ‘lawn’ (as we call it in the UK, this cloth is identified differently in the USA). The prints went back to my hotel room, where I pressed them.

Since returning to the UK, I have collaged most of these prints onto the top cloth, to create the imagery for the front of the quilt. The Tallgrasses grow to a height of 6 or 7ft, and the roots grow down into the soil for a similar measurement in depth. To represent the roots, I made ‘rubbings’ of dried plants I found in our hedgerows. I also made rubbings of Rushes in black & white to add to my collection of fabrics to collage. The rushes are found here in the UK, I feel they have a similar quality to the Tallgrasses. Rushes are used by a local team of chair makers – who are one of two remaining workshops in the UK to still be making Rush-seated chairs.

As I mused over the grasslands, and the development of Nebraska, as we see it today, I felt I had to know more about what has gone before. A rich history of America began to unfold, as I read more and saw items connected with the Great Plains and Grasslands. I visited Morrill Hall the wonderful Natural History Museum, where I found a fantastic collection of fossils from the area. I also saw artefacts, tools and objects connected with the Native Americans, and images of the ‘Homesteaders’, who had all inhabited the land, at different times.

I also visited the ‘Homestead National Monument of America’, a museum that told me more about the lives of the early Homesteaders – and found it very moving to learn about their basic and innovative way of life. I bought a couple of books ‘Light on the Prairie’ by Nancy Plain and Sod Walls by Roger Welsch. From these I have seen some wonderful photographs of the Homesteaders by Solomon Butcher, and information about ‘The Soddy’ houses the early settlers made. I quickly realised that the roots of the ‘Big Bluestem’ grasses were a very important house building material, as the roots threaded through the sod bricks, keeping the soil together which formed a building block.

As I flew back towards the UK from Lincoln to Chicago, I passed over huge areas of cultivated agricultural land, which formed patterns and stripes that reminded me of ‘Crazy’ patchwork patterns – the type that is contained within blocks, creating order and chaos within the pattern. The land below my flight path, appeared to be now developed into rich agricultural land, millions of years ago it would have been occupied by giant fish, Mammoths and Dinosaurs, and more recently by human inhabitants including the First Nation Americans, the Homesteaders; and our multicultural civilisation as we know it today, including me on my journey back to the UK in this plane. How can I get the feeling of all these layers of time into my quilt?

I am now happily making my abstract textile landscape. I sift through my familiar visual palette, using fabric, colour, form, collage, drawing, and stitch. My hope is to reflect a little of the spirit of this land.

Please keep an eye on future progress reports. All the best from Pauline Burbidge.

Report written by Pauline Burbidge.