‘Big Bluestem’ quilt, Second report from Pauline Burbidge

‘Big Bluestem’ quilt, progress from Pauline Burbidge, July 2025.

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

What an amazing journey this has been, to learn more about the history behind the Tall-grass Prairies of Nebraska, and to see the Tall-grasses first hand. Nebraska has had such a rich, varied and interesting past.

The first stage of the making was fairly quick (in terms of quiltmaking time!), collaging my Tall-grass Cyanotype prints onto the top-cloth, to make the front image of the quilt (as detailed in my first report, of December 2024). It has taken me a lot longer to digest something of the history of the Tall-grass Prairies, and try to work out ways of portraying it. I wanted to attempt to convey previous eras; layers of time from the past.

I made many line drawings in sketch books and on paper – to prepare myself for the machine quilting. At this stage I decided that the quilt would be double-sided. For the front I wanted the Tall-grasses to dominate, and the back to be connected with visions of the Prairies history, shown through these line-drawings. I want the quilt when displayed to be seen on both sides. The back of the quilt maybe a bit of a surprise to the viewer, as it will appear so different from the front.

The Nebraskan landscape is, of course a continually changing landscape. I would like to think that we could all learn from a visual study, like mine, the value of the natural world around us. I applaud the conservation work that goes on at Spring Creek Prairie, Audubon Center and Nine Mile Prairie.

Selecting from the drawings, I made a rough plan for my machine quilting, and started. I draw with my stitching line, using my long-arm ‘Handi Quilter’ machine. I worked mainly with white thread, which often disappeared into various patches of white cloth, on the front, and stitched through all the quilt layers (top, wadding and backing cloth). I knew that my imagery would be more dominant on the reverse side, the white stitching contrasting with the black fabric.

Meanwhile,  we organised our Open Studio event in May 2025 (an annual event I share with my husband – the sculptor Charles Poulsen), where I showed the progress of my ‘Big Bluestem’ quilt, which had been occupying all of my studio time, over the previous eight months. I am now at the final stage of hand-stitching the whole quilt, it is stretched on a frame for this, as shown in photo 6.

Throughout all this making, I have managed to make time for filming. Inviting Dominic Clemence to my studio, to film at various times, it will be an important record. I look forward to seeing the finished result.

I was badly delayed, in the early part of this year, with a shoulder injury, but despite this, I am still hoping to complete the quilt in August. I aim to have the finished work on display here at Allanbank Mill Steading between 6^th and 14^th of September – before organizing the shipping in the last half of September 2025.

This will give an opportunity for my followers here in the UK to view my work. It is a very important piece for me – I am so lucky to have had this opportunity – thank you so much.

Report written by Pauline Burbidge.