JULIAN — At a time when many teenagers are glued to their phones, several students have broken their screen-time habits to learn the time-honored craft of quilting from a local legend in the art.
For the past school year, a group of students from Julian Union High School met with Eleanor Burns, a master quilter, in a studio at her home in Julian, where she frequently leads quilting lessons. The students were allowed to leave school for a few hours twice a month to learn from Burns, provided they maintained their grades.
This is the second year Burns has led a group of Julian students through a quilting class. She was originally asked to take on the task when a teacher at a Julian Women’s Club meeting expressed frustration about students constantly using their phones and instead wanted them to learn a craft like quilting.
Now 80 years old, Burns has been teaching quilting for 50 years. She previously hosted “Quilt in a Day,” a television series that aired on PBS for six seasons. The show was based on her book, “Make a Quilt in a Day,” one of more than 140 books she has authored over the years. She also hosted “Women Who Taught Us to Sew” on PBS, which highlighted influential women quilters.
Burns owns Quilt in a Day, a fabric store for quilters, in San Marcos.
Her young students gathered one last time this school year at Burns’ home on May 5. It was a chilly, rainy morning in the Cuyamaca Mountains, setting the tone for a cozy morning spent indoors among the patterns lining the studio.
During their time with Burns, the students learned to love the craft and take pride in their work, creating everything from quilts to soup-bowl cozies and “mug rugs” for coffee cups, which they then gifted to family members.
“It’s really been fun to teach them how to sew and praise them and work with them,” Burns said.
Burns enjoyed seeing the pride the students took in their completed projects and watching their love for the art grow.
“At least three of them have bought their own sewing machine,” she said.
Julian High School sophomore Lily Betts returned to Burns’ class for a second consecutive year because of how much she enjoyed it.
“I’ve always kind of liked quilting,” she said, noting her grandmothers had been quilting long before her.
Betts also grew up learning from Burns by watching her PBS shows as a little girl.
Betts considers quilting an art form.
“It’s a way to learn how to sew and express creativity if you want to try a new medium,” she said, adding that quilting can be therapeutic as well. “You’re doing a repetitive action over and over again. It just clears your mind.”
Betts has been proud of the work she has created in Burns’ workshop, gifting most of her creations to her grandmother and father.
While the students worked on their own individual projects, they also contributed pieces to a single quilt that will be gifted to another teenager in need through Project Linus, an organization that provides handmade blankets to children up to 18 years old in the United States who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need.
According to Burns, the students were happy to create something that could comfort someone in need.
Teaching quilting to younger generations may help keep the ancient tradition — which can be traced back thousands of years across the world — alive for generations to come.
For Burns, quilting has been a lifelong passion she is thrilled to share with others.
“For us women who quilt, this is our hobby, this is our love, this gives us peace,” she said. “We share with everybody.”
