HEBRON — For the last 27 years Sarah Otterson, first as a schoolteacher and now a volunteer, has led annual personal enrichment units on quilting for second grade students in Hebron. The students’ and adult helpers’ faces have changed but the tradition continues.

Hebron Station School students in the fourth and fifth grades missed the popular rite when the pandemic restricted how many could gather in one space and how close they could get.

This year they got their chance to take part, though. With teachers Wendi Benedict’s and Ian Lejonhud’s endorsements, Otterson and classroom volunteers Judy Smith and Jane McDermott tripled up on their commitment and every Friday for the last six weeks the students learned the basics of sewing as they designed their own 12- x 12-inch quilt pieces.

Hebron Station School fourth graders Aiden Dyer, left, and Oriza Brennan pick out needle and thread during their quilting class. The sewing project has been an annual tradition at the school for the last 27 years. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat

Otterson began the quilting class with Barbara Swan Frost, a retired teacher, after the two crossed paths in 1996 at a quilting show.

“When I met Barbara I asked if she might be interested in doing a quilting lesson with 8-year-olds, and she said she’d think about it,” Otterson recalled. “Before I left the show, she told me she was definitely interested. I consider this chance meeting to be the best of serendipity!”

With her family’s roots in Oxford Hills dating back to the 18th century, Frost was well acquainted with the history quilting has been part of the community’s fabric. She led the class between 1997 and 2008, stepping down at the age of 93 a year before she passed away.

Finley Arp, left, and Sven Swenson, fifth graders at Hebron Station School, work on the final steps of their quilting unit: writing labels and sewing them on the backs of their quilts. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat

“It’s pretty amazing to think that after all these years, we still pretty much do the quilting program in the same way that Barbara taught us. I hope she’d be proud of this legacy!”

Last Friday was the final quilting class for Benedict’s fourth grade and Lejonhud’s fifth grade classes, their task to carefully handwrite out labels and sew them to the back of the quilts.

Otterson started the class with a few minutes of what she called “brain gym” for students to focus breathing and reflection. During the class folk music played in the background to help students maintain their focus on their sewing.

Each student chose their own square center and designed their fabrics according to personal likes.

Fourth grader Carolina Hart talked as she pinned her label to her quilt. She had chosen a scene of wolves romping in the snow. “I just like this design,” she said. “And winter is my favorite season.”

Classmate Thomas Yancey, whose quilt featured a Pomeranian dog, said that he loved the breed and wants to have his own someday.

Sawyer Cavers proudly shows a baseball inspired quilt he made for his father, who is a coach at St Joseph’s College.

In Lejonhud’s fifth grade class, Ava Peck went with her favorite animal, bunnies, and chose to frame it in her favorite color blue, with a rose print back.

Some of the kids designed quilts as personalized gifts. Sawyer Cavers chose baseball themed fabric to make a gift for his dad, who coaches a college baseball team. He said he was proud of what he had sewn: “I think I did a good job and I tried my best.”

Ava McCafferty’s quilt center was of fish, with its flannel backing reflecting the Maine woods. “My family is very outdoorsy,” she explained. “My dad is a logger and we fish on our boat a lot. My brother has a woodsy room, so I’m going to give this to him. I felt like this would match that best.

“I feel like this is an accomplishment and I’m so grateful we didn’t get passed over because of COVID. We were able to still do it and get back what we missed.”

Even the teachers got into it and made their own quilts. It is the second time Lejonhud has participated in quilting at Hebron; the first time was when he was in second grade and one of Otterson’s students.

During the class the phrase “three strong stitches” was uttered several times, one of Frost’s favorite sayings to remind the kids to reinforce their work at the end of every seam.

“If you make three stitches, one on top of the other, they won’t unravel,” Otterson said. “Barbara would say that ‘three strong stitches is a metaphor for life.’

The quilting program requires that its volunteer instructors spend considerable time away from the classroom working on it. Fabric needs to be matched, squares cut, needles threaded, binding the quilts.

Sarah Otterson watches as Hebron Station School fourth grade student Aaron Nizamoff sets his label in place on the back of the quilt he made. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat

Over the years Otterson has solicited help from parents, grandparents and friends to provide support for students in the classroom. “There are always children who seem like they were born to sew, and others who need a lot of help.”

Smith, also a retired teacher, joined Otterson when Frost stepped down as a volunteer. Smith tapped a group through Cooperative Extension to put the class sewing kits together.

“It takes many, many hours [on the back end],” Otterson said. ”About an hour to bind each quilt. Barbara sewed everything by hand. Now, Judy and Jane use a sewing machine to sew bindings on the quilt fronts, but the binding is turned and hand-hemmed on the back side.”

Otterson said that during early years Frost aquired mini-grants from Pine Tree Quilting Guild to pay for materials and supplies. Back in 1999, Otterson said, $43.26 of that year’s $75 mini-grant was used to accommodate eight Hebron second graders.

“Now we have things like pins, needles, thread on hand. People have been very generous in donations of fabric. This project is well known in Hebron, and it’s sort of like the folktale Stone Soup!”

Hebron Station School fifth grade students Levi Berry, left, and Fiorella Racioppi work together to finish their 12″x12″ quilts last Friday.

Among the lessons kids benefit from during their quilting classes? Geometry – working with shapes and patterns to fit; engineering – building discrete pieces into a larger piece; communication – the students engaged with each other on spontaneous and interesting topics such as, how much time is 8 million seconds?

And social/emotional learning is a natural result of the kids working individually on team (class) projects. Students are quick to help one another, ask each other for help, or ask adults to come help the person next to them.

“In the past, sewing was a time when families and friends could get together, for enjoying each other’s company while getting essential work done,” Otterson said. “I love when the children talk together as they sew. As Leo [Leo Annis, fifth grade] said today, ‘it’s like Dory in Finding Nemo. Instead of keep swimming, keep swimming, I’m saying keep sewing, keep sewing.’”

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