Posted: February 11, 2012
Bright Quilts, Brighter Futures
A young girl in Cambodia practices sewing skills. The first time Tillotson traveled to Cambodia, she taught girls ages 10-15 how to hand sew. The goal is for the girls to learn to sew quilts and eventually start businesses.
KEARNEY — To some, they may just look like quilts. But to the women of Cambodia who created them, they mean a brighter future.
Kristin Tillotson of Kearney is involved with K13 Creations, a small quilting business she helped establish in the village of K13 in an impoverished area of Cambodia.
It started when she traveled to the country to help teach a Bible school along with several skills projects through a non-governmental organization.
“We wanted to start to give families that are poverty-stricken jobs and help them build skills so they can have their own businesses,” Tillotson said.
While in Cambodia, she taught hand sewing to young girls in K13. Tillotson explained that the name of the village is a result of the Cambodian holocaust of the 1970s.
“A lot of these villagers were in refugee camps in Thailand during the Cambodian holocaust. They came back across the border, so there are villages all along the boarder called Kilometer 1, Kilometer 2, Kilometer 3 and so on, so this is Kilometer 13 that we’re working in.”
She said the village is extremely poor, but that doesn’t stop the people from being positive.
“I love the people; they just captured my heart. Even though they live in such poor conditions, they are happy.”
She added that they are grateful and willing to learn skills such as sewing to overcome their circumstances.
In addition to sewing, Tillotson said, the villagers can also learn things like raising livestock and growing crops to make a profit.
“They love to work with their hands. It’s helping them learn how to provide for their families, giving them opportunities to come out of that level of poverty.”
In the past few years, many of the K13 women have become very skilled seamstresses, Tillotson said. The quilts are sold at stores in Thailand, and they are working to find more opportunities to sell them in America.
Tillotson brought several smaller quilts back and now sells them out of her studio where she teaches music inside the TCS.net building at 2311 Central Ave. She said she can also take custom orders for quilts and ship them here.
“The quilting business has really helped these families. The sale of one quilt, maybe $100, can support and feed their family for an entire month.”
Tillotson said she is looking forward to K13 Creations growing along with the other small businesses started in the village.
After traveling to Cambodia for a second time last summer, she was invited to return long-term and is now in the application process.
“I might go there again short-term this summer. This fall would be the earliest I would go long-term,” she said.
No matter when she returns to Cambodia, Tillotson said she is excited to continue helping the villagers of K13 improve their futures one quilt at a time.
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