A stitch in time
Weekly quilters sew up decades of tradition and camaraderie
Staff reporter
Every Tuesday morning, for at least half a century, a small group of women has gathered around quilting frames in a sunny room at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church, their needles moving nimbly as the conversations flows.
They’re “hand quilting.” It’s a slow, painstaking process that involves stitching together a quilt top with a layer of batting and a backing.
Employing the most basic of technology — thimbles, needles and thread — the women baste tiny rows of even stitches through all three layers.
“It’s a dying art,” said Charlene Driggers, 75, the group’s youngest member. “Eventually this will all be done by machine.”
Five women, ages 75 to 95, focus solely on hand quilting: Driggers, Sharon Bartel, Carol Dick, Jeanie Klaassen, and Marion Graumann, at almost 95, the group’s oldest and longest-attending member. (A sixth member is spending the summer out of state.)
Another half dozen women usually show up to help in other ways, stretching quilts on frames or hand-tying comforters, a somewhat less challenging skill.
All say they come for fellowship and the joy of creating something beautiful.
“It’s very relaxing, just to sit with friends and stitch, in and out, in and out,” Klaassen said.
The technique is simple but not easy. Wearing a thimble, the quilter draws the needle through all three layers, creating four or five stitches at a time before pulling it through.
“It’s just practice, practice, practice,” Driggers said. “I was frustrated when I first learned in 1995. Now it’s something I do for enjoyment.”
And yes, finger sticks happen. The women debate the best ways to remove drops of blood: peroxide, cold water, possibly a few drops of saliva.
Each quilt takes three to four months to complete. Last week, the group embarked on its third project of the year: a vintage, unfinished quilt started by a church member’s grandmother, who died in 1964.
The grandmother created the blocks, which were recently pieced by machine into a quilt top. Her grandson, now in his 80s, commissioned the group for the final step: hand quilting the quilt top with batting and a backing.
The women think many of the pieces are feed sacks — fabric saved from colorful, printed cotton bags that held flour, sugar, or other commodities. In the early 20th century, homemakers repurposed the fabric to make clothing, quilts, or linens.
As with the latest project, some of the group’s projects are commissioned, usually by church members, who pay $350 or more to the group to hand quilt a full-size or larger quilt. Any money raised is donated; one recent commission paid for a cutting table, scissors, and other supplies for a women’s sewing group in Thailand.
In other cases, the group creates quilts from scratch. Typically, a group member pieces a quilt top at home, then brings it to the church for hand quilting.
Finished quilts are donated to Mennonite Central Committee for its annual Kansas Relief Sale auction every spring in Hutchinson. Last year, quilt sales alone raised $104,000, with most of the quilts donated by Amish and Mennonite women’s groups.
Some quilt buyers prefer hand-quilted quilts and pay extra for them because they like their softer feel and better drape.
Most of the women learned hand quilting from a mother, grandmother, or older friend. They’re not seeing their daughters or other young people pick up the skill.
Although quilting has enjoyed a resurgence in the U.S. in recent decades, most quilters sew with machines. However, interest in more traditional quilting methods also is growing — a trend fueled by crafting influencers on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
“But we don’t know any of those people,” Driggers said.
Each of the women shared memories of quilts.
Klaassen has made more T-shirt quilts than she can remember. Bartel has made quilts for each of her eight grandchildren. Driggers’ mother, Alice Jost, crafted a grand-prize-winning quilt at the Kansas State Fair in 2015: a vintage pattern featuring embroidered flower baskets on an ivory background. Jost completed the embroidery. Driggers helped with the hand-quilting.
But it’s the friendships and the fellowships that bring the women back, week after week.
“I would get tired working by myself, but with other people, it’s fun,” Dick said. “I have to remind myself to have patience and enjoy the process as much as the finished product.”