Pam Bowman (left) points to the stitching on a quilt as Mary Anne Della Santa (top right) holds the other end. Bowman explains the craft of the stitch while Pat Hawkins listens.
Every Tuesday morning around 10 a.m., the thick chicka-chicka-chicka of sewing machines fills the mazelike halls of First United Methodist Church in Lenoir. A group of retired women, whose number fluctuates with the week, sit across from each other, stitching and layering and chatting about patterns and fabrics and quilts.
On Sept. 8, the Fabric Friends were prepping a handful of quilts for their monthly donation to the Lenoir Police Department: five this month, compared with three last month.
“We wanted to start doing some charity work — giving — and we kind of brainstormed as to what, where, and who,” said Pam Bowman, one of the quilters. “Mary Anne (Della Santa) had a passion for the police department because her husband was a retired policeman.”
Bowman explained that the group began about six or seven years ago, with the women getting together to quilt before eventually giving the pieces to friends and family as gifts. In the last few months, the group turned its focus toward those in more traumatic situations.
“We said that would be great because then they could give it to anybody that had a car accident, a house fire, a wreck, whatever. When somebody needs a little bit of comfort, then this would be to say, ‘Somebody cares about you.’”
Finished quilts were draped across the room, each obviously pieced together by different styles and tastes, while some of the women worked on their pieces and others detailed the nuances of the craft.
Martlinda Niño continued working through the interview as the other women showed quilts in progress and finished pieces alike.
Each woman works on her own quilts, although they often tradeoff for specific tasks that others may specialize in. For instance, Martlinda Niño has an eye for creative top patterns, while Jeanne Enloe has the equipment and technique to create intricate stitching.
“When we’re doing charity quilts, the most fun part is everybody takes a part of it,” Enloe said from across the room. “Someone will sew it together, someone will do the quilting, someone else will do the pressing. We just sort of work as a group on those, and I think that’s what makes it so fun.”
She couldn’t hear well and spoke softly, eventually moving several seats down to recount stories from church and her younger years.
Skill levels across the group range widely, with Enloe first learning to sew more than 65 years ago as a young girl with her mother before picking up quilting.
“I’ve been sewing a long time,” Enloe said as Niño worked a few seats down from her. Rolls of donated fabrics lay on a table behind her, and other materials filled a storage room down the hall. “Anything you can think of, I can sew it. … I hand-quilted for about 20, 25 years, maybe longer, and taught hand-quilting.”
Della Santa only recently picked up the pastime.
“One of the things I’ve discovered about quilting,” Della Santa said, “is that it doesn’t have to be perfect and it still comes out beautiful.”
Although the group only recently started donating quilts to the police department, it has been doing charity work for a while, dropping off two or three pieces at Habitat for Humanity for families’ new homes, leaving six to eight quilts with the church for families and the local homeless, and also making port pillows — small cushions that wrap around seatbelts and protect sensitive areas on the chest, such as chemotherapy ports and pacemakers.
(Left to right) Pat Hawkins, Martlinda Niño, Mary Anne Della Santa, Pam Bowman, and Jeanne Enloe.
“We’re very low-key,” Bowman said, explaining that quilters interested in joining can call the church office, reach out to someone in the group, or simply show up on a Tuesday morning. “Some quilt groups can get very particular about … what to do and what not to do.”
“If you don’t sew well or don’t sew at all, we will help you get started if you’re genuinely interested. … It’s nice to use your talent, my talent, her talent, our talent, to comfort somebody else.”
