Humbling Beginnings

Most non-quilters are clueless about quilt-making.  They have preconceived ideas of what quilting is. It’s old-fashioned! It’s what my great-grandmother did! It’s country and dated along with doilies and knitting! Quilt-making has been called the greatest mass movement that no one has ever heard of. 

I was one of those people until the day Mrs. Dwiggins offered to teach me how to quilt.  What she didn’t know was that I had just spent a month navigating the senior health care system, coping with a family tragedy.  My Dad’s health had declined rapidly in a short period of time.  My quilt teacher could have offered to teach me how to paint landscapes on grains of sand and I would have accepted.  That’s how desperate I was to find a healthy escape from the trying times.

My next lesson was free-motion quilting. I ventured into thread painting, hand-embroidery and embellishment.  Several months later, I learned patch-work quilting. Mrs. Dwiggins introduced me to Ms. Donna who was somewhat of a McGyver in quilting. I relished in the collaboration of sharing ideas, teaching techniques, debating color combos and rescuing discarded scraps.  My mind and heart were at peace as I cut and pasted and stitched and reflected. I found something special! The possibilities were mind-blowing! 

If “non-quilters” knew how simple, creative, and gratifying the quilt-making process could be, would they be inclined to try it?  If offered a FREE, no-pressure, creative atmosphere with all tools and materials provided, would a non-quilter humor us in a lesson? Would they find it to be a healing medium? We thought we’d give it a try, thus, Quilting for Community was born.

WE are Q4C!

Lizz Leral,

Executive Director & Newbie Quilter 

With my heartache lurking over me, I accepted Mrs. Dwiggins’ lesson.  She lent me an art-quilting book and a lightbox.  She showed me how to translate my sketch of a walrus into a mini art quilt and I ran with it!  In quilting language, I caught the bug!  I was mesmerized and HAD to learn more! 

Quilting for Community was just an idea then.  Quilting to collaborate, to teach, to share, to give, to cope! We had show and tell.  We fondled fabric. We collaborated on color and fussy cut tiny shapes. We learned from each other.  We enjoyed being creative together, however…only quilters knew about quilting! 

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?

Our Board of Directors