Oral History Interview with Regina Hudson

Mandy Higgins 0:00 Okay, so we are in Frankfort at the Kentucky Historical Society on May 24th. I am Mandy Higgins interviewing Gina Hudson, for the Mask Makers Quilt Oral History Project. And we just like to start with you spelling your name so that all of our stuff is correct.

Gina Hudson 0:20 Okay, so it's G-i-n-a H-u-d-s-o-n

Mandy Higgins 0:24 Wonderful. Welcome, thank you for sitting with us. We're gonna start before COVID. Just a little bit, if you can remember all the way back there.

Gina Hudson 0:34 There was a time?

Mandy Higgins 0:35 --There-- was a time. When did you begin to sew?

Gina Hudson 0:39 I started--I did my first quilt when I was eight. I was staying with my grandmother over the summer and my great-aunt thought I was too pansy and busy. And she was like, "you need to get that child something to do." So, she gave me some dresses to cut up, and I'd made a little quilt. And then I kept on sewing until, oh, goodness, about twenty years ago. Then I stopped and then COVID happened, so picked it right back up again. So, that's a sort of off again, on again romance with sewing all my life.

Mandy Higgins 1:12 Do you do other crafting?

Gina Hudson 1:14 I do. I sew full time now, as the whole mask masking kind of startup business and with the Berea Farmers Market, and I just sew whatever I want. Just nice, fun and get to be creative.

Mandy Higgins 1:28 Yeah, Did you--were you self-taught in sewing, or were you taught by your great-aunt?

Gina Hudson 1:35 My aunt was a professional sewist, so she taught me how to use a machine. And for the most part, though, it's been--I taught myself more of the technique along the way. But, there's been helping, you know, there was always sewing in the house, my mom sewed some and it wasn't a foreign concept.

Mandy Higgins 1:54 And what--so you said you took this sort of twenty-year break before 2020. What were you making when you were sewing?

Gina Hudson 2:04 Like cosplay things? Halloween costumes, I think we ended up on the front page of the paper or four or five times for the costumes I'd made over the years. And they're just household things, and, you know, just anything that would just be fun. Never thought it would be a business, but never thought it'd be a quilt.

Mandy Higgins 2:27 Were you involved in groups or communities before the pandemic for crafting, sewing, cosplay?

Gina Hudson 2:32 Not really, I was more of a loner. I mean, there were some, like smaller crafting groups that I'd pop in and out of, nothing stable.

Mandy Higgins 2:42 Were those groups in-person?

Gina Hudson 2:44 Yes.

Mandy Higgins 2:45 Okay.

Gina Hudson 2:45 Yeah. Like library groups and, you know, that sort of thing.

Mandy Higgins 2:52 But you have, would you consider yourself pretty involved in those groups, or was it--?

Gina Hudson 2:56 No, I've always been more of just kind of a loner as far as--the pandemic didn't bother me that much. Let's put it that way, I was happy to sit at home. But no, I was never.

Mandy Higgins 3:09 Yeah. So switching gears a little bit then, the pandemic didn't bother you too much. But how did you learn about COVID?

Gina Hudson 3:19 You know, I actually caught on way earlier because of. Trevor Noah.

Mandy Higgins 3:23 Okay.

Gina Hudson 3:24 He was on it long before, you know, anybody else had heard of it. And so, I started watching like the national news and international news and I was like, something wicked this way come. So--

Mandy Higgins 3:37 Yeah.

--He's like "it's not gonna be long. We better start battening down the hatches over here."

Do you remember about what time of year that Trevor Noah--Trevor Noah started--?

Gina Hudson 3:47 Want to think it was maybe February, late January. I was just like, okay, that's something--there's something wrong here.

Mandy Higgins 3:55 Do you remember how that sort of--you said something's wrong? Did it start to scare you? Was it a just like, "oh, I'm gonna start paying attention."

Gina Hudson 4:07 when I started watching like the international news, and then they're like, "the stuff is going down in Iran and they're like making mass graves and like stuff hit the fan in Italy." Like, this is a very small world. So, you know, if it's--things are happening in Iran and Italy, it's not gonna be very long until so. Yeah, it did. It scared me a lot.

Mandy Higgins 4:31 When Kentucky's first cases were announced, how were you feeling?

Gina Hudson 4:38 That's a--it's a double-edged sword there because you know, you're terrified. You're like, okay, well, that's not going to happen to me because I live in little nowhere land in Berea, but then you know, it's gonna affect you. And the governor was such a wonderful place to land because, I think he handled everything really well. I mean, he made people feel calm, and you know, like, okay, what--I'm gonna give you the facts, you make of it what you will, and there was a lot of trying to stay calm, but knowing that something was just wrong with the world and you do what you can to help, but sometimes it's not much other than sewing masks.

Mandy Higgins 5:21 Yeah--I'm--in that March or April of 2020 period, is there anything that stand[s] out as like big memories--that like a signpost?

Gina Hudson 5:35 Oh, goodness. Well, our neighbor got it early, and he had a very long journey. He's still dealing with it, but I went to school with his wife, so I've known her for ages, and it terrified me, you know, this was going on. And then, we had friends in Peru and Peru was getting really bad. And I remember one night, I went up to the front porch, and I just bawled and cried. Because, you know, our friends in Peru, they already have issues, insanely there. And then, you know, it was getting to be their bad time of the year for food. And I just bawled because like, now they got to deal with this other stuff. And they can't even have access to groceries. And as bad as it was, think about what's going on here. I felt really bad that I didn't have it as bad as my neighbor, who was really sick or friends in Peru, who we're dealing with a lot more. So, kind of pre-survivor's guilt was going on, and it makes you feel bad that you don't feel worse.

Mandy Higgins 6:41 Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned that you didn't know what to do. But, you could make masks.

Gina Hudson 6:47 I could do that.

Mandy Higgins 6:48 So, when did you start making masks?

Gina Hudson 6:51 About--the second, I figured I could help? I mean, there were, you know, there, they said, "it's commutable through your mouth. So you know, cover it." Okay, we cam do this, and so, I watched a couple of videos. And you know, there were people that had different patterns, and they're like, this one is good for this--this is--. So, I just started doing them for people locally. Because, you know, they could just come by my house and take them off my mailbox and made like, put nails in my mailbox. People just come by and take one if they needed it, and my neighbor runs the food bank. So I've made hundreds for him that they could give out for people. Because, if you can't afford your groceries, how are you going to afford to go buy masks? So, that just became what I did all day long every day. And I don't regret it, I went up to about five thousand of them.

Mandy Higgins 7:47 Wow. How did you--so you said people had patterns? Was this, through Facebook? How did you learn about the patterns?

Gina Hudson 7:56 There are a lot of different, really great sources out there for printable patterns. And I finally found one that I really, really liked. I think it was just a Google search maybe or maybe it was a YouTube tutorial. I don't recall exactly where I got it, but--

Mandy Higgins 8:12 what did you like about that pattern?

Gina Hudson 8:14 The fit. What--it was, like the piano accordion style ones didn't feel like they fit right. And the ones I made were like more contoured and more snug. So, kind of felt like that would be more--better coverage. The closer the fit, I mean, you can't make a N95, but you can get real darn close.

Mandy Higgins 8:35 How did you test them?

Gina Hudson 8:36 I saw a video that was like, you know, if you can blow a candle through it, it's not effective at all. So. I started making them and testIing them and like trying to blow a candle out. And when it wouldn't flicker, I was like this is--this is the one, there's nothing getting through this sucker, so.

Mandy Higgins 8:53 So, you mentioned earlier also, before we started recording, that it was difficult to find supplies. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Gina Hudson 9:01 There was a bit of a shortage. I mean, first of all, so many of the hobby stores, you know, Joann's and our local craft store was shut down. You just couldn't get it if you didn't have material. There was a couple of weeks right at the very beginning that you weren't getting any if you didn't have it. And then, there was a cotton shortage several years back so any backlogs on that was the cotton has gone up ridiculously in price over the last couple of years. But you know, after you get over that hump, I had several people who were also sewists or retired sewists who are like, "hey, I've got a couple bolts you know, you want to take this? "Yes, I will. I will." So, I have a lot of donations from people because I hadn't sewn in ages, so I didn't have a stockpile of anything just on hand. A lot of the other people that were in the group did you know, because that's what they did beforehand, so.

Mandy Higgins 9:52 Was it mostly the cotton fabric or were there also supply issues with other pieces like the--?

Gina Hudson 9:58 Good luck finding that elastic. That was good--that was difficult to find the elastic. But, Amazon came through, as much as I don't like to use Amazon, they came through and I found an elastic that was perfect for it. So, what made it perfect, it was really thin round, where a lot of people were using the, the quarter inch, like flat type, and that doesn't feel very good against the back of your ears. So, I found the kind that was a bit softer and less aggressive to the back of your ears because, people had to wear them like, all day at work, I mean, comfort becomes a thing. And I have issues with the irritation behind my ears, so.

Did you have to do any special sewing to make that different type of elastic fit?

No, well, the channel on the side, I did change up the pattern a little bit to make that channel go through. So, it would be more adjustable. Not everybody has the same size face, so if it could be--the elastic could be adjusted to fit you better.

Mandy Higgins 11:03 Were there other adjustments you made to the pattern as you continue to make this 5,000 masks?

Gina Hudson 11:10 --There's always gonna be adjustments [laughter], I mean, I was doing from size, like two years old, up to my husband's size, and he's got a big ol mess of melon, but he got a kick out of that one. He's got a big 'ol head. So you know, I mean, as a person that needs something really specialized, I mean, I couldn't make it for him. But, there were--some people just wanted the plane flat type, I'd make that one.

Mandy Higgins 11:39 Did you do a lot of masks on requests or were you doing more of the bulk like--to--for the food bank?

Gina Hudson 11:46 I did some on request. Mostly it was just like, you know, whatever I'm feeling today. That's what I would make, put them in baggies, put the size tags on them. And there you go, you know, but I mean, I had like the public library, I made specific fabric for them that had their logo and the food bank, I made some pets and material for them, had it custom made. And I did some for the farmers market that had the farmers market logo. So, if somebody wanted something super custom, I couldn't do that for them, but.

Mandy Higgins 12:16 Can you talk to me a little bit about that custom process? How did you get those made?

Gina Hudson 12:21 There's a wonderful company out there, that I don't like to plug, but it's called Spoonflower. And any artist can take their artwork and upload it and have their art printed on their fabric. So, it was a little expensive, but you know, if you want something one-of- a-kind, that is how you get it.

Mandy Higgins 12:38 That's amazing, was there any special masks? So, you talked about your neighbor in the food bank, you talked--you just mentioned a couple other--are there others that stick out as--.

Gina Hudson 12:52 Oh, I did so many donations, it was stupid. So, I sent several to the local nursing homes. They needed them obviously, it was a protected society there, as far as their residence. At the food bank, I sent several to the library, I mean, anybody that wanted one, that was like here, here you go. It only took me a couple minutes to make. One thing, I've clocked myself at four minutes and thirty-two seconds, I was spitting out a lot a day.

Mandy Higgins 13:24 Were they--?

Gina Hudson 13:25 I also sent like several hundred to it was a [an] equality rally in Richmond, so.

Mandy Higgins 13:34 Can you tell me a little bit more about the--

Gina Hudson 13:37 --They asked me if you know, it was the summer before last, I think, maybe I can't remember. But they're like, "you know, we're gonna have several people, up here hundreds of people up here. Can you make us some?" Okay, you know, protect the--because I support people, I mean, there does need to be changes in certain parts of society, but, at the time, things were really kind of nutty with COVID. So, if I could help protect the society a little bit and still be part of--i wasn't gonna get in the crowd, but be part of supporting the crowd, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 14:12 Yeah. Um, did they--did most of your masks stay in Kentucky?

Gina Hudson 14:18 Most of them, I think probably I sent [to] several people you know, I met in other groups, previously would you--message me and like "hey, can you send me some to Pittsburgh?" "Sure" "And send me some to Florida." I had a couple people in Florida that were like--"Their kids [need] masks, can you send some kids ones?" Yeah, so I don't think any really left the country, but.

Mandy Higgins 14:42 Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about the Facebook group, the quilt project itself?

Gina Hudson 14:49 Oh, yeah. The group. I I never thought that it would even get off the ground. The day--I haven't thought of the project, heard a lady who had gotten some masks from me. She messaged me, and she's like, "can I get some for my friend, she's a nurse at a behavioral health facility, and they gave her one paper mask, and she has nothing else," you know, "and she's got residents she's gonna take care of." So, I was like, "yeah, come on over," you know, "you stay here, six feet over there. "And, and then my neighbor who runs the food bank came over, as I had some for him, too. And we started talking, we were talking about the governor. And I was like, "you know, I feel empathy for him, because you know, that that's got to be a tough job. Like, I can't even imagine having to do what he's doing every day. Like, I should do something nice for him." And we're kind of spitballing I was like, I do a quilt. So, I had the idea, and then, I started like, asking other mask making groups, "hey, would you like to take part in this," and you know, other, like, buy and sell groups. "Hey, you know, anybody over here, I want to help out." I didn't think that would be hundreds of people who wanted to do it. So, I just kind of started inviting people, and it got two hundred deep. And next thing, you know, people are just mailing packages. I'm sure the postal workers did not like me for a few weeks. But, there are a lot of amazing people that came out of the woodwork from across the state and in different backgrounds. And, you know, a lot of them wrote letters to include in the scrapbook. And it made me kind of feel humbled, and I was prepared full on to sew this quilt myself, even though that's not my forte, but I was going to do it. Thank goodness we got a volunteer.

Mandy Higgins 16:40 Yeah, so tell me about the process of collecting these squares, from the beginning. What was--

Gina Hudson 16:47 The process was that--that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was explaining, okay, this, you need to start out with like, nine pieces that are three inch-by-three inch and just put those together. Doesn't sound difficult, but some of the people who are were mask making at the time, didn't have much of a background in sewing. So they didn't understand, you know, like, gotta use it, this seam allowance and there's a lot more walking. My husband was really great, and he was--he made the suggestion, you should keep these envelopes. You should make sure you keep these because one day you're gonna go, wow I did that. And so you know, like every day, more, more pieces would come in the mail and come in the mail. Several people who are from Richmond or Berea or locally would just come drop them by on the front porch. And this one lady bless her heart. She was so sweet, she came by, she left her square on my front porch with a dozen eggs and I think you know, she has chickens. That was like, that was just so sweet. So, it was just, every day we'd have more and more packages come in and opening and at the time people were like, "does it travel by hand, does it travel," So, should we quarantine these, like do we need leave it out for, do we need to Lysol this, I mean?

Mandy Higgins 18:07 Did you do any treatment?

Gina Hudson 18:09 I did. I Lysoled everything. At that tim, if you had Lysol, that was your best friend becaus, nobody knew what was going on there, so.

Mandy Higgins 18:20 So there are nine--there are nine-by-nine squares.

Gina Hudson 18:25 Well, three-by-three.

Mandy Higgins 18:25 --Three buy--right three--.

Gina Hudson 18:28 --Three cross, three down.

Mandy Higgins 18:30 Okay.

Gina Hudson 18:31 And started out at three inches per little squares.

Mandy Higgins 18:34 Okay? How many came correct?

Gina Hudson 18:40 This is what I found out after the fact, from the lady who quilted it she's like, "here's the problem with quilting. When you start a quilt, you never change your machine. You never switch machines, you never do because, you need to have that same exact measurement to keep it flat and straight." I wasn't a big quilter, I'm more of a hobby, so it's like, I make what I feel like, so I didn't realize how much difficulty that would be for her because, some of them weren't exactly straight. But, a lot of them were, I mean, look at the quilt and like the ones with the black things around them, she added that in the end because they were just not square. But, I would say probably eighty percent were like as they should be or close enough that they didn't require, and Terry might tell you something. She might be like "no, none of them were," but, just visually by looking at them about eighty percent, were right. Not that I would knock anybody, but Right.

Mandy Higgins 19:37 Can you tell me about your square?

Gina Hudson 19:38 My square? I love my my square, the material was donated by a friend of mine who donated a lot of material. She's an older quilter and she's like, "I just can't do it anymore. My hands won't let me," but, she quilted quilts for [the] Humane Society and would put those up for auction for [the] Humane Society. And the black and white material from it was--is designed by a local artist. And it represents Berea, like I think the square has like--the pinnacles are on it--and--the--the silhouette of Daniel Boone and just different little things that are definitely Berea.. The spire from Phelps Stokes, I believe is on it, and in the middle, there's a piece that represents Richmond. I'm a brave girl, but Richmond's in Madison County, too, and I was trying to represent my county. And it's got the EKU logo on it. So, I kind of went with mine, I want to--I want to represent my county. So, a lot of the other ones did too. Like they put something--I saw a Pulaski and a Bowling Green and a couple of different--that represented their county as well, so.

Mandy Higgins 20:42 Did you give any of those sorts of directions when you asked people to submit squares?

Gina Hudson 20:46 I said, "if you could, yes, if not, if the only thing you have is this scrap." But, several people did have things that were local. So good on them, I must have made, at least ten masks out of that black and white material, so.

Mandy Higgins 21:06 And obviously, you didn't have to share your square with yourself. But, did you also do the same sort of quarantining, and like selling of your square?

Gina Hudson 21:14 Not from myself. But, when the material came in, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 21:22 So the other part of this piece, is the scrapbook? Was that your idea?

Gina Hudson 21:28 Well, we had the extra pieces. And I was like, you know, Terry said, "you don't want people to keep that. " So, you know, "what are you gonna do with it?" And I was, like, you know, "everybody sent these little letters and messages. And so we'll just make a little book." And my grandmother used to make fabric covered skrit--like photobooks. So I was like, I could do that. I mean, that makes sense. You know, so that was a project that I'd done before. Let's do that, and just kind of make it a companion to the quilt itself.

Mandy Higgins 22:05 So the cover, those were extra squares that you couldn't have, you couldn't make fit.

Gina Hudson 22:12 First of all, it's already pretty massive. Yeah, so adding an extra row would have been difficult for Terry in the first place. And some of them just were wonky. Or, for one reason or another, couldn't be used.

Mandy Higgins 22:25 So, turned them into the cover?

Gina Hudson 22:27 So, we made them into something like, we had one lady who was adamant that her piece be sent back to her so fine, you know, whatever. Because, I had missed her, I let it--not the right size and won't be able to go into it. She was upset, but, sorry, you should have followed directions.

Mandy Higgins 22:49 Tell me a little bit more about the putting the scrapbook together.

Gina Hudson 22:53 I've got a bit of a background and like using Microsoft Publisher and a couple different things. So, it wasn't difficult for me to actually make the body of itself. And I had done a couple of the covered books before, so that that'd been done. There were so many, like notes that people had written because, you know, we were all watching the governor every day. And all a lot of us were feeling that same thing. It was amazing to me how many of these women may not agree with his political views, but at the same time went, you know, at this point, we are--we're working together on this. So, it was, besides whatever you feel politically, you kind of had to go. Yeah, I bet this guy's got a rough. I mean, but everybody just kind of came together, and there were so many notes that said, you know, "I may not agree with this, but I got your back, man," you know. I cried. Every day, I would just read them and cry, so.

Mandy Higgins 23:55 Yeah. Did you leave a note in the--

Gina Hudson 23:58 I did?

Mandy Higgins 23:59 Can you tell us like 5000 feet view of what you wrote to the governor?

Gina Hudson 24:03 I did, like a cover letter for it. And--I started my business, Threads of Hope. Because I felt like it kind of worked with the whole quilt thing. I didn't want to really want to be a business, but I was like, we are--at that moment in time--we were definitely linked together. Everyone in that group, everybody. It seems like worldwide, was linked together, by just one thread of hope. Like, we're going to get through this, and that was about all we had, you know, we didn't know how bad it would be, how bad it wouldn't be. But, you had to have hope, and I had taken a pallet and made a yard sign out of lights that said hope on the front. Coincidentally, a local poet saw it in the middle of night and wrote a poem about it. So, I was like "that was really weird." I was like, "okay, that hope is what we have." And that was like the theme--was the thread that we all kind of were woven together with.

Mandy Higgins 25:08 Can you describe the feelings of being involved in this group?

Gina Hudson 25:13 Overwhelmed, it was overwhelming. It really, I didn't think that anybody would really want to participate. And then people were like, "hey, start a group," you know. And we've kind of kept together a little bit, not as active, but enough to you know, some of them are local to me, and I'll see them like, Shana, she came by at a farmers market booth for voting. And it's just, I don't know, I'm trying to put words together here to make it--it was just overwhelming. The support that came out from all over, it was touching.

Mandy Higgins 25:58 Yeah.The support that came from all over. Can you talk a little bit more about how you all communicated the sort of community within the group?

Gina Hudson 26:13 I'd put out on top that we're not talking politics not gonna happen--with it--that's just not going to happen. You know, believe what you want to believe, that is not what we're here for. You know, but we communicated within the group. there'll be messages, people would message me and ask me questions. And it stayed really active for a while, even like after Christmas, we did an after-Christmas gift swap, where we all made something. And that was kind of fun. I made an apron. It was cute. Oh, my gosh, trying to think like what other. I mean, it wasn't like close-knit. But, there were so many people that were active at the time, like several were in a group in Lexington that were making scrub caps and masks and stuff for like the hospital donations. So, it was hard at the time to balance, you know, doing my donation work and organizing with this other thing. And that was kind of overwhelming, too. So I'm sure everybody else was having that same sort of, and then everybody was like excited, so.

Mandy Higgins 27:27 You said you made an apron. What did you receive?

Gina Hudson 27:31 Heidi got my name. We did like a Secret Santa elf thing. And she made like a mug mat and some coasters. And I actually use the coasters on my Christmas tree. My Christmas trees' theme this year was Made in Kentucky. So, it was all handmade ornaments from different artisans around the state.

Mandy Higgins 27:51 That's incredible. So, you get all of these pieces--and then what do you do with them?

Gina Hudson 28:01 I was so happy the day I gave them to Terry, I had to iron them just to make sure they were nice and straight. But that's where Terry took the reins. Like, me and her communicated a lot about,. you know, how this is gonna look out--it's gonna fit. Bless her heart, at one point, she had it all together. And, uh, when Lou opened her door and all those squares just went flying in the brewery, so she had to lay it out and I would not have wanted to be near anyone with that kind of. [laughter] So, that's kind of where my journey ended on that other than, you know, talking with them about, you know how this is gonna be laid out. And you know, what colors we're gonna use on this and measurements. And that in itself was difficult. I'm not math-minded, so doing a quilt terrifies me, but I was willing to do it. Darn it, I was willing. I was glad I didn't have to. She's a pro--she's professional, she's got a studio.

Mandy Higgins 29:10 How did you get in contact with the gov--were you the person who got in contact with the governor's office?

Gina Hudson 29:17 Yes. I don't remember who exactly it was I contacted. I was like, "hey, we're doing this thing. We'd like to present it at the time." I was like, "I don't even know if they allow anybody in here." So you know, it may just be, leave it on the front door, ding dong. You know. [laughter] So, I contact us like, you know, "hey, we have this quilt that we've made and you know, we'd like to present it" and next thing you know, like, "hey, come on." It was the day after my birthday, I was like, "this is the best birthday present ever!" [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 29:54 Yeah. Tell me more about that. Tell me about presenting the quilt to Governor Beshear.

Gina Hudson 29:59 Okay, I don't have a problem with talking to people. I get a little nervous off the top. But, I froze, I did. I just froze up. And, I had gotten there on time, I didn't realize that Terry, she had the quilt, she showed up early. I'm freaking out because I think I'm late. She's already in the building, she's not answering my messages. I was just like--aaah. And then again, and I just froze up.

Mandy Higgins 30:27 What made you freeze?

Gina Hudson 30:33 It--I mean, we're seeing him every day. So he was kind of like this, like, oh, kind of presence--

Yeah, I did that. That was like, you know, he's this this big, huge. I think he touched everybody in different ways. It was. I was, I was emotional. Just couldn't talk. I did the same thing, when I met my man crush at Comicon one year. I just couldn't talk. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 31:10 Yeah, you said it was emotional. Can you tell me a little bit about those emotions? What were you feeling?

Gina Hudson 31:15 Well, I hadn't actually seen the quilt in its entirety, other than a couple pictures that were sent. So it was like, between the thought it was like, you know, all the mess, and then, here's Andy, and you know, seeing the quilt for the first time and all these like--and apparently he was like, impressed, too. So then it was like, I don't know whether I should feel humbled or gracious or proud or what, there were just so many emotions. I didn't even know how to deal with my own--what's going on in here, but he was so nice. And like,he was like, "it's okay. It's--I'm just a person." "No you're not!, you're not!" [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 31:57 Do you remember anything that he said to y'all, or his response to the quote?

Gina Hudson 32:03 He was just like, oh, "this is so special." He kept on saying--"this is so special.". And it was like, "yeah, it kind of is." It--the whole, this is something, like so many people were taking part in and it was representative of so many people that didn't take part in the actual product itself, but represented ever--everybody who was out there on a sewing machine and trying to help their fellow human being and that--it was just a lot to take in at that moment. And eventually, I did like, open up a little bit, you know?

Mandy Higgins 32:40 And it was you and Terry Smith, the quilter. And did anyone else attend too?

Gina Hudson 32:45 No, it was--just us two. They said we could have two, so.

Mandy Higgins 32:49 And because you two did the bulk of the work. How--how was that decision made?

Gina Hudson 32:54 Well, Terry had the quilt. [laughter] She--

Mandy Higgins 32:58 De facto!

Gina Hudson 32:59 She had to be there.

Mandy Higgins 33:00 Yeah.

Gina Hudson 33:00 And I guess, I was the one who reached out. But, Lisa did some beautiful embroidery work. That was--I've only recently started doing the embroidery work. So--I respect what she did so much, now to be able to come up with the sizing and make everything work. There's a lot more to it than it looks like so.

Mandy Higgins 33:24 Yeah, can you describe the embroidery on the quilt?

Gina Hudson 33:26 Oh, well, we we went back and forth as to what colors to use on it. We definitely wanted to use green for sure. Because, you know, we had the green lights and you know, for that to be indicative of the whole, and everything we were going through when--we finally felt, okay, let's do this cream with the green embroidery and all the counties because, we had so many different people from so many different counties that took part in it and whether or not their piece does represent their county or their area. It's going to say it and you know, people from all over and every every state, every county, every city, we're at home sewing, so we're trying to be representative of everybody who helped in those efforts.

Mandy Higgins 34:12 Can you tell me a little bit about the time after the quilt was delivered? So let's say October to December 2020, how were you feeling?

Gina Hudson 34:21 Oh, I was kind of glad it was over. [laughing] actually, good, it was a lot. We were prepping for Halloween, Halloween is big in my neighborhood like bigm big and it was interesting. Trying to think of how do we socially distance Halloween? How do you do this? How do you like--the kids were all so depressed because there was no school and that's like, that's like the one holiday kids were like, yes. So, we go all out for Halloween. Like we're twenty-six inflatables and lights and everything, so we ended up doing like a candy slide, [sighs] and I was just kind of happy the project was over and still reeling from everything that had happened with the presentation. And that--when he talked about it on his presser like, I was so glad I was recording that day. I like, "he said, It looks like love. [laughter] It's what he said." We actually had shirts made for the group and masks made for the group with [a] custom printed photo of the quilt and put it on the mask. So, we had shirts that had like pieces of the quilt and said, "It looks like love." And we made our own little swag.

And sent it out to folks who wanted it.

Anybody in the group who asked for, you know, we got them, I think, was it? Lisa, I think, did the screen printing for the shirt. And I did the design for the mask material, so.

Mandy Higgins 35:51 Do you know how many sent out, do you?

Gina Hudson 35:53 I don't recall. Like Lisa would know the numbers on the shirts. I think I did about thirty of the masks. Coincidentally, like people in our group who went to go get their vaccines, would wear their shirt and wear their masks to go with their vaccine. So like, it'd pop up, "hey, you know, I was represented today. I got my vaccine.

Mandy Higgins 36:14 How'd that make you feel?

Gina Hudson 36:15 Super happy! [laughter] I was so happy to hear there was a vaccine up.

Mandy Higgins 36:20 Yeah. Tell me a little bit about that December announcement of the vaccine and your feelings around that.

Gina Hudson 36:26 Well, I think I was like everybody else was just sit there going. Okay, we're still sitting in our house until it's my turn. So like, I take it on--with the farmers market, they've been--they're healthy at work person has, you know, everybody had to have one. So, I took that on, made sense, I was the one making the medicine, may as well do that. That was so much elation, just to believe there is a light at the end of this tunne, and we are going to get out of this eventually. So baby steps, we all just kind of waited till we got our turn.

Mandy Higgins 37:05 While you're waiting, did you make anything else that was shared with officials? Was the quilt the end?

Gina Hudson 37:11 No. [laughter] But, we still had a couple extra pieces of quilt material that was left. So, I did a series of bears for, people have seen memory bears like, those stuffed animals. I did a series of bears for people who had shown up on the pressors and you know, been notified like Michael Brown who--good on his move, I'm so happy for him. We did Dr. Stack, we did Virginia and everybody got a bear. We made one for the First Lady, they were just adorable. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 37:49 And how did you get those--.

Gina Hudson 37:50 and they all had little--little stories. They had backstories like American Girl dolls. Like I [laughing] made them backstories.

Mandy Higgins 37:54 Tell me more about the stories. [laughter]

Gina Hudson 37:58 For all--the one for Dr. Stick, the lady who had sent that square in, she had made some masks for a friend in Maryland who was in a facility that needed [masks]. And so she's like, "I'm so glad I did about [one] on Dr. Stack's," and his backstory was he was Doc, you know, Doc, and Doc loves to take care of people and you know, they each had their little, like the governor's wife. But, hers was Mama Bear, of course, you know. And there was like kids, and she was doing the coverings for kids things. So it had like children's sorts of materials on it. So I mean, everything was really kind of--it was weird how everything just kind of worked out exactly right for the right persons and--.

Mandy Higgins 38:44 And did you mail those or hand deliver, how did how--were those delivered?

Gina Hudson 38:49 Did I deliver those? I think I mailed those? Yeah, they were mailed in a very large box.

Mandy Higgins 38:56 Did you receive any reply, or has anybody--?

Gina Hudson 39:00 --But the bear ended up on one of the pressors. [laughing] Dr. Stack was showing off his little things that people had sent him to support him and I would not want his job either. So--and I think the governor said, "when you think you've seen it all, it's Dr. Stack and a blue teddy bear." [laughter] So, I was like, "yep."

Mandy Higgins 39:19 That's great. How did it--when you would see these things on that presser, how did that feel?

Gina Hudson 39:24 Oh, well, estatic. That's the word, estatic. It's like you know, it was so great when you're watching these things to see like the kids doing their chalk art and you know, people go on a step above and beyond just like, it makes you feel like I'm part of this great Kentucky that people are--there are seriously people out there who want to help other people and want to make other people's lives better, so.

Mandy Higgins 39:52 How did the group react when they would see these things?

Gina Hudson 39:56 --That--I did miss a couple. I did miss a couple pressors that people were like, "hey, did you see it? Did you see it?" No, I didn't." But everyone was super supportive. And yeah, what the one that--were they actually did the presentation of the quilt on the presser, like, everybody in the group was like, "oh, I see mine, I see mine." I can't wait to actually kind of like, go somewhere as a group and you know, get like a group photo, and that'll be super fun. I don't think we could have everybody at the same time. That's a big photo, but--.

Mandy Higgins 40:31 Is there a desire to do that?

Gina Hudson 40:33 Yes, they have definitely said, you know, "I want to see it and would love to be able to get together." So, yeah, we thought about it. But you know, I think at that point, that we were just coming up with Omicron or something. One of surges were upon us, so.

Mandy Higgins 40:52 Yeah, is the commu--so you--how has the community continue to support each other?

Gina Hudson 40:57 It's kind of fizzled at this point, but here and again, you know, somebody will find something amazing, and we'll share with each other. I think there was a lot of, I've met several people that, I should know this person, we have like six people that are friends with their friends on Facebook. I don't know this person, and I'm sure other people in the group have had that same situation like, how come I don't know you? But, I've had a lot of great people just in my community that I should have known they were there. And now I do know they're there, so that's a wonderful thing.

Mandy Higgins 41:34 Yeah. Um, so the governor described all of us as Team Kentucky. Can you define Team Kentucky for me?

Gina Hudson 41:44 With everything that's happened in the last several years? Well, I think if we're going to talk about what Team Kentucky is, it's, ohm it's rolling up on somebody's front porch and them asking you to come inside. That--that's, you know, asking you---"do you wanna glass of tea or something." It's that, that feeling that you know, we're there for each other? We're supposed to be there for each other and that was, I'm gonna cry, super evident with--. Don't do that to me. [laughter] Super evident with, you know, the effects of after the tornadoes and how everybody just came together. And I mean, even though money was tight, people were willing to go hey, "you know, I can I can throw in fifty bucks for these kids to have a Christmas this year, or I can.--" That's what Team Kentucky is, I think that feeling that we're here for each other, even if we may not like each other sometimes, that's the great big, huge family.

Mandy Higgins 42:41 Yeah. How has the quilt and your work with it contributed to Team Kentucky?

Gina Hudson 42:48 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know where--I would love to know what the masks makers that were in the group, think about it when they see it. I don't really know where that dice is gonna land yet.

Mandy Higgins 43:04 What do you think about it when you see it?

Gina Hudson 43:06 Oh, it's overwhelming. I mean, you saw when I looked at, I was just like, "this is just too pretty to touch". I mean, there's so many emotions that go into everything that happened. That even though the quilt was the start of when COVID happened, it was just off the front, everything that happened after that. The--then feelings that you get when you look at that, oh you know, if somebody would have chosen to put that mask on that day, things might have been different for that family, like, phew, told ya.

Mandy Higgins 43:37 [sighs] Yeah.

Gina Hudson 43:41 So, as far as how I feel like it's part of Team Kentucky, it wasn't the quilt itself, but what it represents. So that's how it fits in.

Mandy Higgins 43:53 And what does it represent to you?

Gina Hudson 43:55 Five thousand masks. [laughter] You know, five thousand people I may have helped or--and I think we said at the time we gave it to the governor, we had a total mask count of around 80,000, and just in our group.

Mandy Higgins 44:10 Wow.

Gina Hudson 44:10 And that was from when we first knew about what it was, up until October. That was--that's a lot for a small group to--

Mandy Higgins 44:19 Yeah.

Gina Hudson 44:20 About 80,000.

Mandy Higgins 44:22 Wow, it's about--.

Gina Hudson 44:23 I was nowhere around five thousand [laughter] myself at that point, so.

Mandy Higgins 44:27 When did you--are you still making masks? When did you stop making masks?

Gina Hudson 44:32 Oh, I think I probably made, well, I do make them now still when somebody asks. I do have a couple people who are like immunocompromised and like " yeah, I'd like to have something special for a special occasion or something like that." I stopped mainstream making them about eight months ago. So--that sounds about right.

Mandy Higgins 44:54 So, like October--.

Gina Hudson 44:54 Time has kind of flown like in a way that like, was it yesterday or two years ago? I don't--

Mandy Higgins 45:00 Yeah.

Gina Hudson 45:00 --Remember

Mandy Higgins 45:01 What led you to stop making them?

Gina Hudson 45:05 Between there being so much of a vaccinated community in most places, and I know in my city, in Berea, we're glad to have a very liberal content. [laughing] So, there were a lot of people who were vaccinated, the need wasn't there anymore. There was an ability for people to go out and purchase theirs, so, I thought maybe I'll do something else with my time.

Mandy Higgins 45:32 Okay, so we're in May of 2022, how are you feeling now?

Gina Hudson 45:38 Oh, relieved [laughing] like, I am loving doing what I'm doing now. I just--I--so I wake up and go into my little room of happiness and look at my material and figure out what I'm gonna make it and I do it. And that's--it brings me joy. So, as far as the COVID stuff, I hope it's in the rearview for good. You know, you never know what may come of it, you know. It seems things are on the rise a little bit right now, I still watch that. I don't know if we'll ever stop watching that. l;aughing] But--

Mandy Higgins 46:10 You still watch the number--do you still watch the governor?

Gina Hudson 46:13 When it comes on, because I have my own room that I work in, I work from home. So, if I get--I'm on his notifications list, If get a notification, yeah I'll turn him on. Heck yeah.

Mandy Higgins 46:23 And do you have that same feeling watching him in May of '22? As you did, say, in May of '20?

Gina Hudson 46:29 The--some yes, some no. I mean, like, I don't feel that people need as much upbringing as they need as far as you know, upbringing their spirits, upbringing their hope, because he was great about that. But, I think it's trended more towards upbringing, the state as a whole, financially and economically and I'm glad we're growing like that. I mean, leaps and bounds we've done, so it's the same feeling and the feeling of, okay, we're going somewhere, something good is happening, you know, we can all be part of this process. So, yeah, I'm a fan. I'm a fan. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 47:08 It's so--you--you sew full time now, do you think you would have done that if not for--

Gina Hudson 47:11 No!

Mandy Higgins 47:13 Okay. [laughter] But it brings you joy now?

Gina Hudson 47:17 It does, like when I first started, like doing the whole mask thing, I had a little, the size of this table, like [a] four by six table, and that's what I would use. And then, my husband's company bought a building and he moved out of our home office, and he was like, "here, you take it." So, I made my own little joyful spot and it's what it's become so, and I found a place at the farmers market that I love and I love the people and never thought I'd be an extrovert in that way, but the pandemic made me an extrovert. [laughing] That's odd.

Mandy Higgins 47:53 That's incredible. Do you have any sort of final recollections, things you would wanna share about the quilt or about the project?

Gina Hudson 48:00 Oh, there was just--there was so much and I'm so glad that people wanted to help because, I didn't think anybody would be interested. I mean, I just thought, you know, people are gonna go, "this is stupid, and it's--you're not gonna do anything." I--I've never been a wavemaker at all, so, for me to do anything that was somewhat incredible. It wouldn't seem like it was far-fetched, that people wanted to help and it just made me feel like it was such a close community even though I'd only met a couple of these people ever in the history of my life. And everybody's--just wanted to help, and it was [an] amazing feeling of unity--that I'll have for everything.

Mandy Higgins 48:51 Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai