ID Number: TQ.2015.031
Name of Interviewee: Christine Burgess
Name of interviewer: Jan Clifton
Name of transcriber: Christine Burgess
Location: Christine’s home
Address: Dartford, Kent
Date: 3 July 2015
Length of interview: 0:36:44
Summary
Chris tells us about her ‘Thirty Blocks for Thirty years’ quilt, made for her husband to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary. She refers back to the quilt throughout the interview discussing its making and meaning and, near the end, reads out a letter she gave to her husband explaining the personal significance of each of the blocks. During the interview Chris also talks about some of her other quilt projects including her quilt group’s ‘shoebox shuffle’.
Interview
Jan Clifton [JC]: I am Jan Clifton, I am interviewing Chris Burgess in Kent, [address] and the interview number is TQ.2015.031. Good morning Chris, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Chris Burgess [CB]: Morning
JC: Why did you make this quilt?
CB: It was a class that was at, being held at Puddleduck’s [quilt shop in Sevenoaks] and my thirtieth wedding anniversary was coming up and I decided that the quilt I was going to make during this class was going to be given to my husband for our… to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary.
JC: So it was made for a special occasion. When did you make it?
CB: 2003
JC: And was it a surprise for him?
CB: It was a surprise although he did see me making it because it was too big to hide [laughter] but he didn’t know it was for him.
JC: Okay, so you managed to keep the surprise going.
CB: Yeah!
JC: So what was his reaction when you gave it to him?
CB: He was very emotional, [laughs]… I gave him a letter that came with the quilt and all of the blocks represent something throughout our marriage and so I’d numbered each of the blocks and told him what each one meant and, just as an example, the one up there [she points] is Snail Trail and when our daughter was about six she collected all these snails in the garden put them in a bucket and was going to keep them as pets and then the following morning there were all these snail trails where the snails had come out the bucket gone all over the garden, up the garden path [laughs].
JC: Okay – It has obviously got a lot of meaning I want to come back to that in a minute if you don’t mind.
CB: Yep!
JC: Did he realise that each, well he obviously did from the letter but did he realise the meanings of the blocks?
CB: No, no and he didn’t know that quilt blocks have specific names from long ago, the people that designed them originally had given them specific names, some of them have got more than one name because multiple people have thought they’ve made the very first block of that design and then discovered that others have made it before them.
JC: So you have talked about the design, but what influenced the actual design the putting it together especially the colours because I notice that it’s, it’s predominantly blue.
CB: Yeah, well at the time our bedroom was blue, and I have always loved blues and creams so the first fabrics I chose were the muted sort of blues… and the creams, and then after I had done a few blocks I thought this is just a bit… blue and cream, so I introduced the yellow which helped to give it a little bit more of a boost because it was all looking a bit samey.
JC: Did you design it all before you started or was it as you went along you sort of thought up and added things.
CB: What happened was the, the class that I joined the lady was teaching us how to draft the blocks and she gave us twenty designed blocks to actually work with, so each week we went, we were given another design, taught how to draft it, taught how to put it together and then, we went home and pieced the block. So although I’ve put meanings to the blocks for our marriage they weren’t ones that I had chosen but ten of them were, I specifically did ten that did have real meaning for us.
JC: So you decided before you started what you were going to do really.
CB: Yes, I knew that I was going to be making it for our anniversary and I knew that it was going to be a quilt-as-you-go, so each one would be made and quilted before it was joined to the… its’ the partner the next one along the row, but I didn’t know the overall design before, beforehand.
JC: So it was very much you were thinking and planning as you went really.
CB: Yes.
JC: And getting ideas.
CB: Yes.
JC: Did anyone help you with the ideas and planning of it?
CB: Well Nicki Tinkler who was the actual teacher of the class, taught us how to do the quilt-as- you-go part of it. She taught us how to draft the blocks as I have already said, but, I did have help with making sure that the colours went and how to… make sure that the overall design of… or the, the, overall look of the quilt was pleasing to the eye and when I started putting… when I’d made all the blocks and I was putting them… laying them out on the floor, I was taking photographs of the placement of each block and then I was… reshuffling them to see if I could get a better, overall picture and they got moved several times before I actually put them… started sewing them together in rows.
JC: How long did it take you to make?
CB: Two years… in total.
JC: Were you making anything else in that time? [Talking together] [CB: Oh yes] any other projects on the go?
CB: [laughter] I am somebody that gets bored very quickly, so I have to do lots of things, I have always got multiple projects on the go whereas as my friend, Joan, does one project and finishes that before she starts anything and cannot understand why I am making more than one thing at a time, but I can’t understand how she can just do one, so [laughter].
JC: So you don’t really know how many hours you put into it.
CB: No, but it was hours… [both talking together]
JC: Never tried to work it out [both talking together]
CB: No, no
JC: Was it mainly hand sewn or machine sewn or a mixture of the two?
CB: It was a mixture of the two, the majority of the piecing was done, well I think all of the piecing was actually done by machine, all of the applique was done by hand and then the quilting was done by hand.
JC: Where did you get the material from?
CB: A variety of places, I started with this little one [she points] with the sprigs of flowers on and this one that’s got the little red hearts on and I bought both of those at Puddleducks, the shop where I did the class but I did buy a number of them at different places when I was out and about, and seeing ones and thinking ‘oh! I think that one will go’.
JC: So would you say you started with that flowery material with the little flowers, and then brought materials to blend with that. [CB: Yes really.] Was it the focal point?
CB: Yeah really.
JC: Can you describe it to me? I mean what’s its size first of all?
CB: It’s something like 100 inches by 90 inches, roughly, [paper rustling] because it was made for our double bed. It’s done in rows, and so we’ve got thirty blocks and I think it is probably five by [pauses and microphone noise] however many [laughter]… I was trying to work out how many blocks… there’s thirty blocks anyway and it’s 99 inches by 89½ inches… so each block was joined to the block next to it. Once a row was done I then joined the next row together and once that row was completed I joined it to the first row and continued down the quilt it that manner.
JC: Can you…? You said about the snail one, can you tell us a little bit more about some of the others that have a particular meaning they have to your marriage and your anniversary?
CB: There’s one called Polaris and my husband was in the Navy and, during his training they had to go on submarines, so although it wasn’t the Polaris submarine he went on, that is the meaning behind it, then there’s another one called Castle Keep and when we went on our honeymoon we visited Dover Castle. There’s another one called English Wedding Ring which is self-explanatory, I can’t remember what all of them are.
JC: Do any of them relate to your children?
CB: Well the Snail Trail one does and there’s certainly one that does [pauses] oh! Sky Rocket I think is one which reminded me of our son when he was little… was interested in rockets and what have you, so yeah! [Pause]
JC: When you gave it to… when you gave it to your husband you said he was really delighted with it. When did you give it to him on the anniversary, was it at a party, were you alone?
CB: No we were alone, and just at home, on our anniversary, I put it on the bed and asked him to come up and have a look at it and of course he knew that I had been making it so it wasn’t a surprise to see it on the bed but then when I said it was for him and then gave him his letter, which he’s still got, he, he really was… pleased because he knew how long it had taken and how much work had gone into it and it turns out he is very proud of what I do [laughs] [JC: that’s lovely] which I didn’t sort of realise until he was telling somebody else about that.
JC: So you use it? It’s a using quilt
CB: Yes, yes
JC: It’s on your bed, all the time is it?
CB: Not at the moment because it is rather hot [laughter] [the temperature has been 37.5c in the South East this week]
JC: But normally it’s a practical quilt not just for decoration [talking over each other] [CB: Yes, yes, yeah!] Have you exhibited it at all?
CB: Yes, it has hung at Hever [a castle in Kent] and I organised a quilt show with Dartford Quilters and I had it hanging there and it had lots of comments and what have you, so yeah other people have seen it.
JC: And did you explain to the people that you had the meaning behind it?
CB: No I don’t think I did because in a way it was personal in another way I am now pleased to be sort of explaining what it, what it means but at that time, no I didn’t [telephone rings] [pause].
JC: So did you sew it predominantly at this workshop or did you actually do some at home [both talking together]
CB: No I did all the sewing at home we just did the… the drafting of the block and templates it was mainly done using templates as opposed to rotary cutting.
JC: Had you made something as intricate as this before with templates because you’ve got each block is different you’ve got different designs.
CB: I’d made one other quilt using templates, the other two or three that I made prior to this I had used rotary cutting technique; but I had just read it from a book, I looked at the designs and planned it without… templates or anything, I just cut the sizes that it said in the book.
JC: What about the quilting, was that done by hand or machine?
CB: No it’s all done by hand, I used plastic templates that have got the pattern cut out of them and I drew it on using a water soluble pencil and… drew them on and then just hand quilted them.
JC: Do you prefer to hand quilt or do you prefer to machine quilt?
CB: Well I like both actually, I really like hand quilting and because this, I was already seeing in my mind as an heirloom quilt I decided that it needed to be, hand quilted but I have done a lot of machine quilting on other quilts.
JC: So is there anything else you want to tell me about this quilt I haven’t raised?
CB: I learnt something making this one which was that a border pattern should be half the size of the block that is within the quilt and I used one that was much smaller so I ended up having to put another piece of just plain border between the blocks and the actual, what I consider the border to be, because it just wasn’t big enough to the eye and after I had read certain things later on I discovered that there was a reason why it didn’t look quite right.
JC: Do you think you should follow those rules?
CB: Well, only because aesthetically to the eye it just didn’t look quite right and I think there’s probably a reason why these books state specific things and I’m, [laughs] I love to break rules anyway, I don’t always stick to the rules but in this case it didn’t look quite right without a wider border than the one I was going to put on it.
JC: If you were doing it again, would you do anything differently?
CB: I would probably use less cream [laughs] it’s, it’s quite restful but over the years it’s just looked a bit bland and I… I like quite colourful quilts normally so the cream, just… seems a bit bland, but I’ve… I enjoyed the actual learning of how to do a quilt-as-you-go because you’re using portable pieces smaller pieces that you can actually handle easily, quilt easily and then once you’ve joined them together it’s a lot easier, the whole process I found.
JC: Had you done anything as big as this before?
CB: Well no, [laughs] I started off with a cot quilt then I made a single sized quilt for my grandson and then I made a smaller quilt… and I think I made another one using my nans fabric before I made this one which was again a single quilt, so.
JC: So this was a challenge
CB: This was, it certainly was, yes.
JC: Since, have you made such a big quilt?
CB: No, I have made other double bed quilts, but I’ve not made anything quite as big, I’ve certainly made other double bed quilts [both talking together]
JC: And has that been for yourself or other people?
CB: One of them was a quilt that the Dartford Quilt Group that I belong to, we were doing a… a friendship quilt and… we had to make the centre block and then we had to pass it on to somebody else who then did the next, pattern which was… it was a round robin quilt, so they did a border all the way round the centre block. That was then passed on to somebody else who also did another complete round of the block on the four sides which was then passed on to somebody else who did another one. When I got that part back I put it on point and… made up the whole quilt into a double bed size quilt, so the friendship…
JC: What happened to that quilt?
CB: I’ve still got it
JC: Oh it’s yours, your quilt
CB: My quilt, yes, I couldn’t get rid of that because I couldn’t give that one away because my friends had worked on it for me.
JC: So that had a special meaning for you.
CB: Yes! Yeah!
JC: Has it got their names on it?
CB: I don’t think that one has but I have got another one where we did blocks, ‘a shoebox shuffle’ we called that, and all…
JC: That sounds interesting
CB: And all the blocks… you had to put the material into the block [questions herself] into the block? [corrects herself] into the box that you wanted them to use, and you had to stipulate what colours you didn’t want in the quilt and each month it went to a different person in the group and they made a block for you and then, at Christmas time we all had our boxes back and opened them and then we had to put them together [laughs]
JC: Did you all get a quilt each out of that?
CB: We did, yes
JC: It must have been quite a lot of work
CB: It was yeah, it was quite a challenge for the group because we had a variety of people who were new to the group, a lot of them were very new to quilting so it really was a challenge but everybody worked on them and put in their best work which was really lovely to see.
JC: Were you pleased with the result? The colours did it work out well?
CB: Yeah, I was, I thought I had the best box back, and okay I had chosen most of the colours in it but there were a lot of people that were pleased with their blocks, but I, when they were laid out, I kept thinking, mines the best [laughter]
JC: So you were pleased with that,
CB: [talking together] I was
JC: [talking together] So you use that quilt? Coming back to your husbands quilt, the one you’ve got before you. Can you tell me something about this block here? Because looking at it that seems to be the only one that has got like curves in it, everything else is geometrical but that has got flowers and leaves.
CB: Well we were given various different patterns to choose from and it had to be a circle with leaves and flowers and I chose tulips… for whatever reason, I chose tulips. But the symbol of the circle for me is again for me the never ending circle, the circle of a marriage.
JC: Are you hoping to hand this on to your children this quilt?
CB: Well I think my daughter has her eye on it [laughs].
JC: How many children do you have?
CB: Two, my son Stephen was our first child, and our daughter Amanda.
JC: Okay so you can’t split between the two obviously… is there anything else you want to tell me about your quilt that I haven’t covered?
CB: [Pauses] No, I think the actual quilt is…
JC: What about the backing? What materials have you put on the back?
CB: Well I started off by buying a certain amount which I have no idea why I hadn’t worked it out beforehand but I bought a certain amount of fabric that suddenly I hadn’t got enough so I bought more, but couldn’t get what I had already got so on the back its quite a patchwork anyway. One of the fabrics, they’re basically cream but one of the fabrics is a plain cream and one of them has got raindrops on it and it was a Debbie Munn fabric and it was to do with Noah’s Arc and I found that one quite challenging because it is a directional fabric and when it’s on the front, the fabric and trying to get all the raindrops going the same way, was, was quite difficult. On the back, I thought well the backs the back, I am not going to worry too much about it, I did try to get them all going the same way but…
JC: The raindrop, the one you call the raindrop material is in the middle of the backing and you have got a plainer one on the outside.
CB: That’s right
JC: The raindrop pattern ties up with the material on the front in some of your designs.
CB: Yes that’s right, yes I decided to
JC: Was that deliberate?
CB: Well yes when I bought the fabric in the first place, I was going for creams and blues so I used it in the first few blocks and then realised I wasn’t going to have enough for the backing so that was when I decided to start using the cream… but I, I just liked this design on the front anyway. It’s also why I looked for another material to go in the top and why I chose the yellow. It just gave it a sunnier feel I think the…
JC: Are they your husband’s favourite colours?
CB: I know he likes blue, at that time I didn’t really consider the cream whether he liked it or not, I thought blues and creams would go well together [laughter]
JC: How did you feel when you finished it because it was obviously a lot of work… was it…?
CB: I was quite relieved actually, because, like I say I am not… I jump… I am Gemini born and twins tend to be saying ‘Well I want to do this’, and ‘ I want to do that’ [laughs] and one of the twins in me is saying, ‘I want to be doing another quilt’ and the other one was a more stable twin who was saying ‘You need to finish this one’ [laughs].
0:26:38 JC: Were you worried about meeting the deadline, or did you start in good time?
0:26:45 CB: At one point I thought there’s no way is this going to be finished for our anniversary but I did manage to complete it in time. I had to tell myself this needs to be done, work on that one forget about the other one, but even when I was sitting quilting this one, I was, in my head, thinking about the other ones that I was also working on and planning the next move, the next colour the next thing I was going to be doing with those.
JC: So while you were working on it were you not thinking so much about the feelings and the meanings about giving it to your husband. You were just concerned with getting the work done?
CB: No, before the… before the main deadline I had been really considering all of the aspects of the meaning of the quilt but towards the end I was thinking about other things but I’d certainly thought long and hard about some of the patterns within it. The quilting patterns I’ve got hearts and there’s a sort of a rope pattern and which is to do with his naval life… so no I certainly was thinking about him for a lot of the design.
JC: Have you got a name for your quilt?
CB: Thirty blocks for thirty years
JC: Okay so how did you think up that name? Did it come quite easy?
CB: [laughter] It was really yeah, self-explanatory I think [more laughter].
JC: So are you going to make another quilt for the next milestone in your marriage?
CB: Well we’ve already had the next milestone, we’ve, we’re twelve years on, thirteen years on this year. Possibly for the fiftieth year, if we are still around [laughter] but we are still using this one so.
JC: Will that one still be a surprise?
CB: Yeah probably, yeah…
JC: Is there anything else that you want to add that I haven’t covered?
CB: Not about this quilt, I have made quilts for each of my grandsons and my son and my daughter and I have enjoyed all of the quilts that I’ve made I’ve enjoyed making them, made them with love.
JC: How long have you been quilting?
CB: I’ve been trying to work that out, it has certainly twenty years but I think it is probably more than that, and I know I started a quilt when we were living in our previous house which I have no idea what happened to it and that was thirty odd years ago but I made cushion covers and various different things… as well but the very first quilt I made for somebody in particular was my first grandson and he’s eighteen this year so… I’d been making things quilted wise before that but I don’t really know how long but it’s certainly twenty years plus.
JC: Okay, well thank you very much for letting me interview you Christine, it is a beautiful quilt, [talking over one another] and I hope you make very many more.
CB: Thank you [talking over one another] very much. [Microphone noise]. Jan Clifton interviewing Chris Burgess continuation on July the 3rd at [address] interview number TQ.2015.031. Christine, you very kindly got the letter which you wrote to your husband which explains all the quilt blocks, would you like to go through it and explain the blocks that you haven’t explained and the particular meaning they have for your marriage and your husband?
CB: Yeah! Looking at the quilt from the top left hand side as we would be reading a letter is Californian Sunset, we’ve seen many sunsets all over and have wondered at their brilliance and we’ve shared a great many of them together. The second one is called Basket of Scraps well we’ve made the most of the scraps we’ve been given and I have enjoyed all the scraps we have done together. Then Blazing Star, you have shown me the constellations and now I can pick some of them out and they all sparkle beautifully. January Sunshine and that’s my husband, he is my ray of sunshine, born in January. The next one I have already mentioned Polaris, then there’s a 20 point Dresden Plate, our lives have been like this, there have been many points of our lives that have gone and are still to come. Double T is the next one, the fun we used to have playing darts with fellow enthusiasts so it stands for ‘double top’. Then Snail Trail, which I’ve mentioned, Martha Washington’s Wreath, well that, that particular one… was to remind us of all the sad times of all the family that we’ve lost, sadly there have been too many. Quilters Dream, to have the perfect partner who will be patient and to encourage them with their art, and I have that perfect partner. Around the World, that is us and our travels and I look forward to many more I wrote, Castle Wall, our honeymoon visiting Dover Castle. Heart shaped Celtic Knot, our hearts are linked together, Friendship Knot, we are lucky to have such great friends and for many years, plus our own friendship. Interlocking Squares that seems to be the two of us, we fit together as a unit. Rocky Road to Kansas all the rocky pathways we have walked together. Lady of the Lake, the steamer on the Ullswater lake in the Lake District, Mariners Compass, my naval hero who uses his compass now to lead the way on walks without losing his bearings. Laced Star, our wonderful family, past and present we have been so lucky to have crossing our paths and staying in touch and always linked. Castle Keep, this represents all the places we have visited with the National Trust. St Benedicts Star represents all the churches and their stain glassed windows we have visited. Storm at Sea, we haven’t had too many of them but I have put fishes into my sea that remind me of the warm waters abroad where we have snorkelled together. Pin Wheel Square, the pins you pick up after me, my hobby of patchwork quilting, [laughter] if anybody is going to find one it’s always him… Cross and Crown reminds me of the happy times spent having a leisurely meal and drink in many public houses, Eccentric Star, that’s my mum, she has been both through our marriage, eccentric, very eccentric, but she’s also been a star. Medallion Log Cabin, this makes me think of a log cabin built, workman’s hut in the woods, do you remember? Bears Paw, remember having your photo taken with his paw on your shoulder, in Yugoslavia I think? He was stuffed. Indian Wedding Ring represents the diamond ring you gave me on our twenty fifth wedding anniversary, a trilogy ring, meaning, past, present and future. English Wedding Ring the second best day of my life, the first one when I met you [interview is emotional] Sky Rocket, sorry [microphone noise]. I knew Sky Rocket was to do with Stephen, but I couldn’t remember why, and the very last one Sky Rocket, cockney for pocket, our son Stephen always had a bunch of keys in his pocket when he was a toddler, he was always trying to fit them into any hole he could find [laughs at the memory] and that’s it.
JC: Right thank you so much Christine for sharing that with… with us today. And that’s the end of the interview.