Consider joining Stitches
No Bunny Knows Real Estate Like Us!
Charbonneau Villager April 2025 A15
Activities
By TOM KELLS
Consider joining Stitches
Last month I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful cohort of ladies in a group named Stitches. They tell me that anything you do that
KELLS involves stitching, such as quilting, embroidery,
knitting, needlepoint, etc., you are more that welcome to join them.
Carol is the coordinator of the group, but, as I found out, there are many very talented ladies there and there are also some that have only been in the group for a year. Now I mentioned that this group so far are ladies, but men, if you are into any type of stitching projects, you are more than welcome to join. Most of the projects I saw were ladies working on quilts, but one tried fabric strips on the perimeter of her blanket, and one was weaving new( I don’ t know if you call it thread or yarn) to repair a hole in her favorite sweater.
Something I found really heartwarming about this group is that many of the items they have made, they have donated. Betsy was working on a quilt named French Garden, which she was doing in a pastel pink floral. Betsy moved here to Charbonneau in 2023, and has been attending the group for about a year. Betsy has never really had any hobbies, so when she decided to join the group, her husband was so nice to buy her a sewing machine. Betsy said she has received so much help from the other ladies in the group that have many more years of experience. Betsy has made a quilt for each of her grandchildren but the current one she’ s working on is for herself.
Another lady I met was Willetta and, from what others told me, she is very talented. Willetta wasn’ t working on anything the day I visited( sometimes the ladies just come to enjoy the company) but she mentioned that before this group got started, she had donated 26 quilts to St. Jude’ s.
Next, I met Anne. Anne has been
quilting for 52 years and she mentioned that she got started when her kids were born. She also said that this hobby has brought her so much joy. Anne has made dog quilts that she donated to Wilsonville Park & Recreation; some quilts were donated to Legacy Meridian, and, if they were baby quilts, Meridian would give them to Randles. She has also made them for our veterans who were at the VA, and of course they were made out of red, white, and blue colors. This is when I thought I was in school and Anne was my history teacher; she mentioned in the early days, quilts would be hung on a frame from the ceiling until they were ready to be worked on. Something else she mentioned was that the quilts weren’ t always sewn by hand, that they would use yarn and tie the four-to-six inch squares for the quilts during the civil war. Anne said that quilting started in China and the early needles came out of Egypt. The first quilts were mattresses that the Chinese would make. When the crusaders came back from China to England and into Europe, the first to quilt were royalty, because they were the only ones who could afford the fabric and needles. Their quilts were solid colors and it wasn’ t until the trip on the Mayflower that the quilts would get torn and that’ s when they started to patch with different colors and cloths.
Then I visited with Sandra; she was working on a 5x5 quilt that was being made up with individual Asian prints that she is making for herself. Sandra too has made many quilts for her great nieces and nephews and now they’ re getting to be of marriage age so then come the babies, so she’ s been making and stockpiling them for wedding and baby gifts. Sandra had been quilting for 30 years when she retired. She mentioned that as a group, they have donated quilts to Dornbecker Children’ s Hospital and pillow cases for foster kids; they also used to teach the ladies at Coffee Creek quilters how to quilt for about 12 years prior to the pandemic. Sandra mentioned it’ s really a lesson in patience working on the quilts.
May I say, if you have an interest in or are getting into stitching or quilting, give this group a try. They meet on Thursdays, upstairs in the Activity
See ACTIVITIES / A16
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