Retired Streator teacher shares her love for quilt making in Peoria exhibit featuring Ken Burns

Retired Streator teacher and quilter Pam Riss will be sharing her quilt story at the Peoria Riverfront Museum as part of an exhibit featuring historian and documentarian Ken Burns.

Her quilt, Vintage Rose, is one of 13 Peoria-area quilts that will be on display May 7 to 13.

Vintage Rose is a paper-pieced quilt designed by Judy Niemeyer. Riss said it took six months of work in 2017 and was long-arm quilted by Nancy Fessel, of Blackstone. She chose batiks in Easter colors with the help of color experts at Peddler’s Way Quilt Shop in Washington, Illinois.

The Peoria exhibit will feature 26 of Burns’ personal quilts of his 80 quilt collection from March 5 to June 5. Riss said the museum is one of two chosen to display Burns’ collection.

“I was able to hear Ken Burns on a webinar,” said Riss, who visited the exhibit to see his collection. “His quilts are not so much about the color or pattern. He views them with curiosity, and calls them his ‘friends.’

Riss added: “The exhibit took my breath away and inspired me to continue quilting. It was a walk through history as almost every quilt was from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Amazing.”

Riss said the Prairie Quilt Guild, for which she participates, was instrumental in organizing the event.

Riss said she learned to quilt when she retired from teaching math and science at Northlawn Junior High School in Streator. She said she loves the math component in quilting.

“My mother-in-law, a talented hand-quilter, was my inspiration to begin quilting,” Riss said in her quilting story submitted to the museum.

Her introduction to a sewing machine came in junior high home economic class. Riss loved making her own clothes. Late at night her mother would secretly correct the sewing mistakes she had made by resetting sleeves, matching plaids or aligning the zipper at the neckline.

“I did not find out she had done this until 20 years ago,” Riss said. “She wanted to keep me sewing without the embarrassment of having my mistakes visible. It worked!”

Now retired from teaching, Riss said she tries to sew every day.

“I have more projects started than you would believe,” she said. “Focusing for a long time on one task is difficult for me, so there are always way too many incomplete designs awaiting my attention.”

She said she’s lost count on how many pieces she has worked on, but estimates it is about 500 in a 10-year span. She is active with several groups in Streator. Knot a Stitch donates a raffle quilt every year to a local non-profit. At Holy Trinity Church she makes small quilts donated to local shelters. Additionally, Quilts of Valor were given to 20 Streator veterans this past November by many quilters she sews with weekly. She also teaches a small group of young sewers weekly at the YMCA.

“As quilters, we all share the love of fabric, color, and ideas,” she said. “We create gifts of love for those we love, and also for those who need love. Our quilts provide warmth and comfort; the recipients are wrapped in our love.”