Saturday, June 21, 1997

Abilene woman teaches quilt making in Mexico

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

Susan Tedford got involved with a quilt-making project in a desolate Mexican village by accident. Or so she thought.

With four years to think about it, she's changed her mind.

"I guess it was an accident for me, but not for God," she said.

Tedford is a member of Southwest Park Baptist Church and manages Cloth World at South 7th and Leggett. Those two positions got her involved with the project.

Four years ago, the Acteens program at Southwest Park, an organization for teen-age girls, needed a mission trip to fulfill study requirements. Tedford got on the phone with Bill Gartner, pastor of Big Bend Baptist Church, and he mentioned the Mexican village of La Caldera in the Chihuahuan Desert just across the border from his church.

For several years the Baptist River Ministry had been helping to build houses and make life more bearable in the isolated community, he said. During the conversation, he happened to mention that a "quilting house" was under construction to serve as a place where the women could make and store quilts to be sold.

Tedford, who teaches quilting, knew she had found her Acteen project. The next day she called Mickey Burleson, head of the Baptist River Ministry, and told her she wanted to organize a mission trip to La Caldera and that she would teach the women how to quilt.

In the 10 years before that, the women had quilted "just totally by God's grace," Tedford said. They had no one to teach them.

Burleson had waited 10 years to hear the words Tedford was speaking.

"She started crying," Tedford said.

On Saturday, June 28, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. many of the quilts will be on display and for sale in the exhibits hall at Southwest Park Baptist Church, 2901 South 20th. All of the income goes to the Mexican village.

The difference that the sale of the quilts makes in the lives of the villagers of La Caldera would astonish most Americans.

"It means they have food on the table all year long," instead of just the growing seasons, Tedford said.

The "La Caldera Quilts" have attracted a following since the first ones were created in 1983.

"The first products were primitive, but colorful and interesting and showed a lot of potential on the part of the makers," said Sandy Wheeler, a member of the Abilene team.

Now, 14 years later, 50 women in La Caldera are involved in the quilting and their progress, thanks largely to Susan Tedford's teaching, is remarkable.

"The more experienced have developed commendable proficiency and creativity," Wheeler said.

The quilts have been shown in many parts of the state but are coming to Abilene for the first time. The public is invited to the show and sale. No admission will be charged.