CSB First-Year Student Quilt Project

Quilt squares will be mailed out the week of June 9th, 2008.

Each spring all new students' families are sent a plain, muslin quilt block to design for their daughter. Quilt squares will be mailed out the week of June 9th, 2008. The instructions for this project are below.

This is not a mandatory project, but we ask that you please make a solid attempt to decorate the square and return it to us.  This unique quilt project is an important part of how we welcome new students each school year.  Once decorated, the squares are assembled into large panels and displayed throughout the school year in the Haehn Campus Center.  This is a tradition the entire campus eagerly anticipates, and nearly all of our new student families participate, which means approximately 500 squares. 

Why create these quilt panels? The Annual Quilt Project is symbolic of our new students, a community of young women who come to Saint Ben’s from many different areas, many different backgrounds, with many different talents and interests.  All the quilt squares will be different, just like these students.  And like the pieces of a quilt, beauty and functionality are based on our connections with each other -- it is through our connections with each other that we learn, explore, and grow.

The quilt square that you decorate is a way for your family to recognize how important your daughter is to you.  It is also a way for her to know that although she’s away from home, she is still very much connected to you, her family, as well as to the new world she explores at Saint Ben’s.

Instructions

1. Please decorate your square in any way you would like without altering the size of the square you have received. In other words, please do not cut the muslin square to make it smaller. Embroidery, quilting, painting, drawing, stenciling, and many other media have been used in the past to decorate the squares. Please, be careful not to make the square too heavy, however, so that it will hang well.
2. Please make sure that you leave approximately 1 inch of clean space around the edges of the square.
3. Send your completed quilt square by July 31 to:
   CSB Student Development
   Mary Commons 226
   College of Saint Benedict
   37 South College Avenue
   St. Joseph, MN 56374
4. Try to include as many family members in the design and creation of the square as you can.
5. Attempt to make your square a surprise (as much as possible).
6. For identification please write your daughter’s full name and address on the back of the square.  (You daughter's name may appear on the front of the square, if you wish.  That is your choice, based upon how her name fits into your design and how she might recognize the square.)
7. The squares will be placed in frames in the Haehn Campus Center hallway.  They will be available for display on move-in day. Each year the entire college community eagerly anticipates the hanging of the "new" first-year students’ quilt, and new students enjoy being part of the result all year long.
8. If you have any questions about the creation of your quilt square, please call Jody Terhaar, Student Development, 320-363-5601.

Thank you for your help and have fun!

Sample Quilt Squares from previous years

   

  

---

Mary Geller
Vice President for Student Development
College of Saint Benedict
St. Joseph, MN 56374
(320) 363-5601