Stitches That Stand the Test of Time

All the joys and sorrows and hopes and fearsstitched into the layers of that quilt. It scares me what this quilt knows about me. --A quilter For some, there is the desire to create a legacy. Many say that the minute and intricate stitching has a therapeutic quality. Most--whether they are homemakers or climbing the career ladder--have found it a way to unwind and make friends.

Connie Houk of Rancho Penasquitos, in the midst of stitching a queen-size quilt stretched in a cherry wood frame, says she sees quilting as meshing with all her other day-to-day tasks. “You listen to the radio, talk to your children and drive down the road while making out your grocery list. I can’t sit in front of the television without having something to do,” says Houk. “Quilting has become background music to me. I find that it does more than relax me. It’s very satisfying. You can see progress. There’s a product at the end.”

There are many reasons why women quilt in these high-tech, high-pressure, time-short days. Although quilting has never really gone out of fashion since its utilitarian beginnings, the craft has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts in North County. There are active quilting guilds and specialized shops and classes that offer kinship and education to novice and veteran quilters alike.

The old-fashioned quilting bee, where a group of women sat around a big table in someone’s home stitching on a communal project, has become rare, though.

Today, most quilters work on their own projects--which can be bed covers or smaller works such as wall hangings, baby quilts or clothes. Still, none is an island unto herself. Many belong to quilting guilds or meet in quilting classes.

The women (few men venture into this traditionally female domain) involved in quilting come from all walks and generations of life. Young mothers, lawyers, accountants, artists, teen-agers and retired people fill the centers and shops where the guilds meet every month and classes are held.

“It is certainly more widespread than one would think,” said Dianne Ferguson, who teaches quilting, owns a quilt shop in Poway and is a certified quilt appraiser. “Quilting isn’t just isolated little pockets. Everyone can relate to a quilt.”

“There are a lot of different things done in this country craftwise that I’m not sure the American public as a whole knows about, but I don’t think you could find one person who doesn’t know what a quilt is or can’t relate to it in some way,” Ferguson said.

Peggy Martin, who also teaches quilting in North County, said she often encounters women outside the quilting realm who say they wish they could quilt, too.

“It’s an interesting thing to me, that in such a high-tech world, in such a disposable culture, there is such interest,” Martin said. “Quilting is a lasting sort of thing. People feel it is something they are making that is hopefully going to survive them. It’s a creative thing that is an expression of yourself.”

North County is an easy place to learn about quilting. There’s the big stuff--such as precision cutting; and the little stuff--such as the wonders of Bag Balm, a salve that comes in little green cans and is sold in most quilt shops. Normally, the salve is used to soothe the irritated teats and udders of dairy cows, but it works equally well on the rough, needle-pricked fingertips of hard-core quilters.

The novice will soon realize that most quilters have several projects going at once in different stages around the house. And it is not an insult to be called a “fabriholic.”

Friendship Quilters in Poway, El Camino Quilters in Oceanside and the North County Quilters in San Marcos are among active quilting guilds in North County. Friendship, with its 200 members, is the largest of the 13 guilds in San Diego County.

At guild meetings, there are newcomers to quilting and people with a heritage of quilting, such as North County resident Sandi McCullough, who comes from a family of missionaries who have quilted for three generations.

“I had been a part of the missionary circle at the church where I grew up in Pasadena and the women would take donated clothing and they would sort through it and they would figure out what pieces they could use to put on the quilt top,” McCullough recalls. “As a small child, I was allowed to help sort and cut pieces that were good enough to go into a quilt and they’d all quilt in a group circle at church.”

McCullough says she was brought up to realize the value of every little piece of cloth and much of her quilting is worked together with tiny pieces from a variety of sources, but rarely from the new cottons available on the market. Knowing McCullough’s penchant for this, her friends often give her leftover scraps of material from their own projects.

McCullough began her own quilting when she received a child’s quilt top--the part of the quilt where the fabric blocks have been pieced together--handed down from her great-grandmother, her “kindred spirit,” she says.

Her initial interest was to preserve something of her family’s history rather than stuff it away in a box, but it became an odyssey to learn how to complete the quilt exactly as her great-grandmother would have.

There are quilt purists who stitch by hand morning, noon and night, but most have a more relaxed attitude. One of the great things about quilting, say the people involved, is there are no rules.

“My feeling is, you do these things because you love doing them. You don’t do them for some kind of perfectionist trip,” Martin said. “Some people are happy with a top that has big puckers and creases and everything else. That’s more than I can tolerate, but if my points aren’t absolutely perfect, I don’t lose any sleep over it.”

Martin recalls one student who used a jeweler’s lens to examine her points to make sure they were precise. She could tell if her stitches were two threads off. Martin had to take her in hand:

“I said, ‘Take off your glasses, stand back two feet. If you can’t tell from there, forget it.’ ”

Poway quilter Ferguson says people sometimes say they don’t have the patience for quilting. “I say it doesn’t take patience; it takes passion.”

Ferguson added, “I tell my students, ‘If you can’t see a mistake while riding on a galloping horse, then it’s OK.’ ”

No matter what level of experience a quilter may have, and no matter what pleasure a quilter may derive from working alone, most agree that belonging to a guild is more than half the reason for quilting in the first place.

The main purpose of any guild is to provide education, inspiration, camaraderie and validation. Most guilds are chapters of the National Quilt Assn.

Some quilters belong to several guilds, locally and across the nation, partly because it’s easier to enter quilt shows when you are a guild member and partly because it provides a wider access to lecturers.

Joining a guild can also help defray the cost of what can become an expensive hobby. Most guilds have built up libraries of quilting books, magazines and patterns and loan these materials to their members.

Little if any actual quilting or sewing is done during guild meetings. The churches or halls where the guilds meet have insufficient space for the large groups of people and all the paraphernalia involved.

After the business portion of the meeting, demonstrations are conducted, either by guild members or luminaries from the quilting world. There is also always time for members to share works in progress or completed creations.

Each guild in North County is unique, catering to different people’s needs. The 70-member El Camino Quilters Guild in Oceanside, for example, is composed mostly of retired women, and they meet during the day three times a month. The other guilds meet once a month at night to accommodate members with day jobs.

“As far as learning, I think you have much more fun and you learn more if you belong to a group than if you are trying to do this yourself,” said Jeanette Giaquinto, president of the El Camino Quilters Guild.

“Ours is a low-key guild, nothing formal. We throw on the coffee pot. On workshop days, everyone brings their sewing machine, depending on the project. We’re a real friendly group and everyone is welcome. We have members who don’t do much quilting, but they love quilts so much that they come anyway. They are perfectly acceptable as far as we are concerned. It’s up to you to put out what you want to put out.”

One of Friendship Quilters’ strengths is sponsoring lecturers/teachers from all over the country. Guilders don’t like to think of themselves as groupies, but they insist there are quilting celebrities, some who command as much as $1,500 a day for conducting a workshop.

Glenda Simmons, president of the North County Quilters based in San Marcos, says her guild is very much like a family network. The high sociability of the group is especially beneficial to shy people and novice quilters.

“There is always a lot of sharing in groups like this,” Simmons said. “It’s very good for shy people to share what they’re doing so they know they have an appreciative audience. Even beginners’ work is oohed and aahed over. For some reason, they are all wonderful.”

Guilds also work together, Simmons said. During the year, the 13 guilds in San Diego County hold cooperative meetings, and once a year there is a multiguild program with a keynote speaker.

Classes that teach people the basics they need for traditional quilting are offered in several locations in North County. Most quilting instructors say that a basic knowledge of sewing and the workings of a sewing machine are helpful, but not necessary, to take up quilting.

Peggy Martin, who teaches night classes out of satellite campuses for Palomar College, says she has had students who literally didn’t know their bobbin from their bias.

“I had one man who didn’t know how to start a new spool of thread and he ended up making several quilts,” Martin said. “It’s easier, certainly, if you know how to sew, but it’s not necessary. Most people decide to do at least part of the work on the sewing machine because it is less time-consuming and the stitches don’t show.”

Martin’s classes, like others in the area, are largely made up of young women who work during the day or raise small children at home. Her students have ranged in age from teen-agers to octogenarians; interests have ranged from quilting tote bags to toilet seat covers.

While these students want to reap the benefits of a relaxing craft and create a quality product, time is something they don’t have to waste, Martin said.

“Most people are interested in getting the nicest quilt they can, but also have short cuts,” Martin said. “I like to present traditional things done in a traditional way, but I also want to show faster, more modern ways, and I also urge students to do contemporary designs because a lot of people are interested in exploring their own ideas.”

About 30 students attend Martin’s Tuesday and Thursday night classes, which meet for 10 weeks at the Poway Senior Center and Mount Carmel High School.

The classes are essentially free--except for a $2 health fee required by Palomar College--and students provide their own supplies, needles and fabric. Martin gives her students handouts and patterns each semester.

A demonstration makes up the first half of Martin’s three-hour classes, and handwork is done during the second half.

“You can start very simply. The nice thing about quilting is you can do it at so many different levels,” Martin said. “You can start with small pieces of fabric and make a small wall quilt or pillow top with a minimum investment of time and fabric. I try to encourage people to do their own thing, although a lot of people are comfortable with traditional patterns.”

Besides the various quilting classes offered through the community colleges, North County quilt shops keep quilters abreast of local classes and workshops.

The Quilt Shop in Poway publishes a newsletter six times a year that lists numerous classes from four-week beginner quilting classes to learning how to applique a classic North Carolina Lily quilt. Classes range in cost from $15 on up and meet days and evenings.

Calico Station in Escondido is another source for quilting classes, offering as many as 30 evening classes in a four-month semester. The classes are primarily made up of women in their early 20s, said owner Cheri Saffiote.

“A lot of people nowadays are remembering what their mom or grandma did. They say, ‘I have these quilts from my grandmother and I’d like to start my own.’ They want to start an heirloom,” Saffiote said.

Most classes meet twice for a total of six hours of instruction on a specific pattern, such as the double wedding ring or log cabin. Cost is about $24 and students bring their own sewing machines, material and thread.

But again, socializing is the common thread that ties these women together. People bring pies and cookies to class, the phone rings off the hook, and with several sewing machines humming along, the scene is one of comfortable chaos.

“The classes are a good social time,” Saffiote said.

There aren’t many old-fashioned quilting bees these days, she says, and for many women, this is today’s equivalent.