QUILTING TAKES EXPANDED ROLE AT SENIORS’ CTR.
The art of quilting and camaraderie are on full display at the Woolwich seniors’ centre
IT’S AN ART FORM that’s synonymous with the area, and it’s on full display at a spot where they know a thing or two about quilting’s traditions.
Drop by the seniors’ centre in Elmira any Tuesday or Friday afternoon and you will find a table with ladies sitting around the edges happily working on their square of a quilt.
This week, they happen to be working on a quilt with tractors.
“A niece of one of our former quilters did all of the work on it. We were hoping it would be for sale, but it’s not – they want to keep it. Let’s face it, there was a lot of work that went into it – I guess it took her about three years to do all of this cross stitching before it got to us,” explained Theresa Cassel, one of the quilters stitching along.
The ladies work twice a week on various quilts. People either bring them in to be finished and kept – or sold, as Cassel explains with proceeds heading back into the Woolwich Seniors’ Association.
It takes the group about a month to complete a quilt, depending on the detail – however this one is set on schedule.
“Depends on how big they are. This one here will take us a month and the last one we did it took us a month to do it, depends on the pattern,” she said.
But it shows that many hands do in fact make light work.
Some of the women taking part have been quilting for more than 60 years. Each has her own story, but most date back to their early teens – finding some lose material, learning from mom or just enjoying something they could work on together.
Although for some, like Marjorie Roth, the passion for the art form came later on.
“I didn’t start quilting until I joined the seniors’ centre,” she said.
“I knew how: my mom quilted, but I didn’t. And I just came – at that time they didn’t call it quilting, they called it, ‘Stitch and Chat’ – so I would bring something along to stitch and chat with them and
then one day they put in a new quilt and it just had, you know... ” she said, motioning to simple stitches in front of her. “So I sat up and started doing that, and have been doing it ever since.”
That was about six years ago, and although Roth also takes part in snooker, she still comes back to her quilting group – because she enjoys, “the people that I quilt with.”
Having started some decades behind others at the table, her stitching goes a little slower.
“Some of the other ladies just zoom along. I am getting a little bit better at it – a little smaller stitches then I did when I started.”
But as her company, Ruth Ann McCready , explains, “As my mother would say, practice makes acceptable, because when you first start your stitches are huge and she would go, ‘OK, smaller than that – you’ve got to keep trying.’”
The camaraderie at the table is apparent; there is no judgement of stitch size, just enjoyment of the company and the act of quilting itself.
“Togetherness. We are accomplishing something … as well as we are doing a lot of visiting,” said Cassel.
That said, seeing the final product is rewarding.
“That’s the best thing about quilting here: you’ve got something done, you have something to show for the time you’ve done,” said Roth.
The group says they are always looking for more quilters. There’s only one rule for those who want to join in:
“Just show up,” said Cassel.