Sewing stitches community together

September is recognized as national sewing month and the Patches and Pieces quilt guild is set take part in honoring another September tradition.

“During Balloon Days, Creston Arts is going to have a bunch of activities around town,” said guild member Barbara Hudson. “There’s going to be musicians, vendors, whatever and they have asked the quilt guild to display quilts in Brick and Bell...so we’re going to be displaying quilts up above the group to show our fiber arts.”

Hudson also said giving back to the community is woven into the fabric of their organization.

“Our guild tries to be very proactive in things going on in the community,” she said. “Every year we do a raffle quilt and we pick different organizations to give our money to. The past couple years it’s been the food pantry, the food shelters and gas cards for Greater Regional hospital cancer patients. So we’ve already had a sewing day and made this year’s quilt together and there were eight of us sewing that day.”

Patches and Pieces began about 1979—80 as Liz Porter was teaching sewing classes at Karen Argotsinger’s fabric store on Adams Street. As classes grew in popularity, Porter steadily organized a group of quilters through annual reunions and by 1984, officers were elected which formally built the guild.

“We meet once a month, we’ve met at various places, we used to have a fabric store in town, we met there, but we don’t anymore, so we just meet wherever we can at some of the activity centers,” Hudson said. “We have show-and-tell, we have classes, we just try to support each other’s love for sewing and quilting.”

However, a lack of willing officers led to the guild’s dissolution in 1987. When Patches and Pieces reorganized in 1994, Hudson served as the voluntary leader of the group and Kathy Fiala served as treasurer until 2009. Hudson said despite the formality and titles, the guild essentially has a horizontal structure.

“When we reorganized in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s we didn’t really have a president, that was kind of why the guild disbanded, because nobody really wanted to take an officer position and I worked at the fabric store so we just kind of got the group going again and I was never titled the ‘president’ but I just kind of kept it going,” Hudson said. “We tried to delegate the different activities (and we didn’t really call them officers) somebody would say, ‘Okay we’ll do this sewing day and I’ll be in charge.’”

Patches and Pieces has 50 total members with 30 of those being active. A few of their members have gone to win prizes and distinctions.

“Lisa Shawler, who is our president, she just took things to the Iowa State Fair and she got a third place and an honorable mention,” Hudson said. “In the past I’ve had a second place quilt and third and a couple of honorable mentions...but we try to encourage each other to do those kind of things. We have Wendy Sticken, she has had a quilt published in a book because she entered a contest, so that’s pretty exciting. She has also kept our retreats going.”

Wendy Sticken, of Shear Magic Styling Salon, said her quilt’s appearance in the book is the only one to come from Iowa.

“I had entered the Moda challenge, Moda is a brand of fabric, I had entered that in 2005 and my quilt got chosen as one of them and then I had to mail it to them and it was one of the honorable mentions, there’s a first, second and third and 20 honorable mentions, but all 23 were published in a book they did at that time,” Sticken said. “Out of all 23 of them, mine is the only one from Iowa.”

Sticken also said it was her responsibility to continue the Sew Sweet Quilt retreats, as they are called, since so many members felt they were necessary.

“After Joyce Franklin had the store and the retreats here, after she told the store and the building that had the retreats, I just took it upon myself to find a place to have them because a lot of us still wanted to have them,” she said.

Hudson said Sew Sweet Quilt retreats are usually done at the education building of the United Methodist church

“A sewing retreat is just that, we gather for three days, through the day and late evening and sew together, usually not the same pattern, usually just whatever we’re working on,” Hudson said. “There will be usually five to 15 ladies sewing together.”

Given how costly it is to sew a quilt, the guild’s labor is typically not for sale. However, Hudson said giving is the real reward.

“It’s a hobby but you have something to show for it when you’re done and quilters really like to give,” Hudson said. “A lot of people say, ‘are you going to sell that quilt?’ Well, it’s very expensive to make quilts, especially by the time it’s all put together, quilted and finished. I mean, you might have a thousand dollars worth of quilt, and nobody would ever pay that, but the gift of giving it to someone, whether it’s for a graduation or a wedding, it’s such a great fulfillment.”

The guild also helped Greater Regional Health with supply shortages during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic, we took up our stand and we made the masks and the PPE they were needing at the hospital, like the gowns and the caps, and that was very fulfilling too, to know that we could take our love of sewing and share it,” Hudson said.

Patches and Pieces also gives to veterans.

“There’s gobs of our ladies that makes veterans quilts and again, we don’t usually get anybody to buy our quilts, but giving a patriotic quilt to a veteran is such an awesome thing and everyone of us has given at least one patriotic quilt to someone,” Hudson said.

Quilting-curious people can find classes and workshops nearby where they can learn beginner patterns, techniques and tools.

“When we first start out quilting, many of us use beginner patterns, and taking classes,” Hudson said. “I taught classes with Quilters International when they were in town. Peace Works, in Winterset, I’ve taught classes there, and so that’s a good way to get beginners going with a simple pattern and it takes several yards a fabric and a few tools like rotary cutters and cutting mat and that will get you going to cut out your squares and rectangles and triangles and we put them all back together and it makes a beautiful quilt top.”

Hudson said there is a meditative quality to sewing that is personally rewarding along with the donations of the quilts themselves to the community and the practice of quilting passed down to new generations.

“For me, it’s my relaxation,” she said. “If I am sewing, its just, I can let everything go and I am happy when I can sew. I will even trick myself by saying, ‘If I get this, this and this done you can sew,’ And I like the sharing of it, I encourage young people to sew, My nieces are starting to sew, it’s exciting to get people involved in something.”