Back to Table of Contents
Back to Archives Main Page
Section: Features
The Quilting Tradition
By Kristin E. M. Riemer
|
|
|
Quilter Violet Donlavage.
|
For more than sixty-five years women have gathered once a month at the Clarence Center-Akron Mennonite Church to sew and pass Mennonite hand quilting techniques on from generation to generation. Once called “Mennonite Women,” the group recently changed its name to “Christian Women” to reflect the diversity of the group as fewer and fewer are of Mennonite heritage. While sewing is what brings them together, the women also enjoy their time together and the usefulness of their work. All of the items the group produces are donated to charities or to a benefit auction each fall where their handiwork helps to raise thousands of dollars for mission programs.
There are eight women in the group now; most are senior citizens or nearing retirement but there are also two younger women—the promise of the next generation. This month they met at Vinecroft Retirement Community, where one member lives and another works, to save a couple of trips to the church in cold weather. Even so, only three gather at the quilting frame where a scrap block quilt awaits.
When asked why she quilts, Edna Ruth Kipfer responds without looking up from her work, “It’s relaxing—makes for sore fingers but it is relaxing.” She stops stitching for a moment to show her calloused fingertips. They have been that way since 1958 when she began quilting to help her busy mother fulfill the Mennonite tradition of making a quilt for each married child.
A relative newcomer to the sewing group, Violet Donlavage has been sewing for five years and seems concerned that her stitches are not as neat as those of Martha Shantz, who has just left the quilting frame to return to her job as assistant cook at Vinecroft. Kipfer encourages her to continue citing that the stitches need not be perfect, and Donlavage smiles, “Sure, if someone wants to look hard enough, let them find something.”
Each member of the group has her specialty. Some are better at hand quilting, others prefer to machine-sew squares together to be quilted later, while others still would rather not quilt at all. Despite Kipfer’s encouragement, Donlavage is more comfortable with her role in some of the other projects the group has completed including hundreds of fleece hats and mittens sewn for a Russian orphanage that had been the home of a locally adopted boy. She also helped to knot comforters and sew lap robes for Buffalo City Mission and the Erie County Home.
These women feel good knowing that their work benefits others and they clearly enjoy the camaraderie of working together on each project. They talk with anticipation about how often they will need to gather before this newly begun quilt is completed. Meanwhile, a steady stream of Vinecroft residents stops to admire the quilt. With each new visitor, Kipfer tries to hand off her extra needle and thread and one by one they politely decline, “Oh no, not with these old hands!” Kipfer looks down at her own and laughs.
back to top
back to table of contents
|
|
|
