Published: April 17, 2008 01:09 pm            

Handing Down a Craft

For those wishing to learn to quilt in St. Elmo, there are options available to them.

Threads of Friendship Quilting Club, formed in May 1997, has 29 members, eight of whom are children. Currently, the members range in age from 8 to 78.

There are several benefits to the quilting club.

The first benefit is members get to pass on the legacy of quilting, said Georgia Pearcy, president of the club.

“It’s not something very many people do much any more,” she said.

Other benefits include making friends and working with people from a variety of ages to put something together, Pearcy said.

“It’s relaxing for a lot of people,” Debi Westjohn, secretary of the club, said.

The members also have a learning experience while in the club.

During its monthly meetings, held during the second Tuesday of every month at First United Methodist Church the club has demonstrations on how to do a certain thing or a show-and-tell session. Also, once a month the club has a sewing meeting where members spend time sewing. They learn things, such as cutting with a rotary cutter and cutting and sewing seams.

However, learning to sew is not all the club does.

The club donates lap robes to area nursing homes, which Westjohn said they need about every other year and blankets to children’s homes, which always needs blankets. The club calls the nursing home every year to ask how many lap robes they need. Threads of Friendship then donates the robes directly to the nursing home. However, the club doesn’t donate blankets directly to children’s homes. They give the blankets to the church, where the club meets for free, so the church can donate the blankets themselves because the church represents the children’s home.

In order to fund buying materials for the lap robes, blankets and other things members may be working on, the club does two different things.

While children are exempt from paying membership fees, every year all of the adults of the club pay a $15 membership fee, Westjohn said. Also, the club has an auction of quilts with baked goods in November. All of the proceeds from the auction go into the club’s treasury.

Jackie Gorski can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 136 or at jackie.gorski@effinghamdailynews.com.