Practicing My Hand Quilting

The first Thursday of every month is our Mennonite Women sewing day and meeting at church. Our ladies hand quilt on commission to raise funds that are donated or used for special projects. Not everyone enjoys quilting, so we also try to have a comforter ready to tie. Those usually get donated to Mennonite Central Committee.

Yesterday, we worked on two projects. Mennonite Central Committee is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020. As part of the celebration, they would like to collect at least 6500 tied comforters. They have asked churches to consider hosting a comforter-tying party. We ordered bolts of plaid flannel for the front and a poly/cotton broadcloth for the backing, and yesterday morning, Elaine and I cut enough fronts and backings for seven comforters. I’ll put them together with batting some time between now and the middle of January, and on Saturday, January 18, we hope to have a comforter-tying party and potluck dinner at church.

[January in Montana requires that we come up with creative forms of entertainment.]

Pat and Holly also put in a new quilt on Tuesday. Holly bought the top at an auction a few months ago, but it was a bit wonky. She had to take it apart and sew it back together to straighten it out. We’ll quilt it and probably donate it back to a relief sale like the one in Ritzville. It’s a very pretty quilt:

Most of the fancy quilting is being done in the sashing strips between the blocks and in the corners of the blocks. (It looks fancy when it’s done, but it’s a lot of straight lines, so it’s actually quite easy to do.) After Elaine and I were done cutting fabric, I gave in to peer pressure and sat down and helped quilt. My hand quilting is getting better. I am nowhere near as good as Margaret, but I no longer quilt like a beginner, either. Shirley lent me a needle that had belonged to her mother. Her reason for using it is not just sentimental—when compared with more modern needles, that vintage needle is a bit thicker and less prone to bending. I found it much easier to quilt with her vintage needle than a modern one, so I am going to go through my collection of old needles and see if I can find a similar one. We do tend to get very attached to particular tools. I have one thimble that fits me perfectly and if I ever lose it, I’ll be so sad.

Quilting is also a great time for visiting and telling stories. Karen, who is Shirley’s daughter and about my age, asked me if I had ever made lefse. Lefse, if you’re unfamiliar, is a traditional Norwegian food made from riced potatoes that are made into a dough, rolled out, and cooked on a grill. We have a lot of people of Norwegian heritage here in the Flathead Valley—the Lutheran church I play for during Advent and Lent is called Eisdvold Lutheran—and lefse is a popular offering. I told Karen that yes, I had made lefse once or twice. Back when the husband first joined the fire department, I joined the corresponding Ladies’ Auxiliary. At that time, the Ladies’ Auxiliary was made up of wives of firefighters and other community women. (It has since morphed into a different kind of support group for the fire department.) Most of the women were many years older than me. They quilted, cooked, and helped with the annual fundraising auction. Lefse was one of the foods sold at the auction, so we had to get together several weeks ahead of time and make it. Pat, who is one of the quilting ladies at church (she quilted the quilt I made for the Ritzville sale in October), was also in the Ladies’ Auxiliary because her husband was a firefighter. The first time I went to lefse making, Pat was walking around behind all of us brandishing a rolling pin and yelling, “Roll it thinner!” because thick lefse is not appetizing. I remember thinking to myself, “Who is this woman?” and I went home and told the husband I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back.

Pat laughed when I told that story (she remembered that day). She and I have similar working styles so we get along just fine. She’s one of the few people I can stand to share a kitchen with.

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It’s back to the sewing machine for me today. I want to get the Christmas sewing done and out of the way so I can go into 2020 with a clear idea of what I want to do. Or perhaps that should say, “Go into 2020 with a clear idea of what I want to do so the universe knows exactly where to screw up my plans,'“ because clearly I wasn’t expecting to go back to work as a transcriptionist, even part time. Stay tuned.