Quilters Mend Misfortune With The Fabric Of Life
N ona Davis’ hobby comforts crash victims, warms lost children and supports the dying, which is more than she expected when she began quilting four years ago.
“I can’t draw. I can’t paint. So I quilt,” she says as she measures a strip of black fabric for a Halloween design. “It affords a great deal of creativity.”
And satisfaction and kinship.
Nona belongs to the Valley Piecemakers, a St. Maries, club that stitches quilt after quilt for Hospice, law enforcement agencies, Kosovo relief, the sick and the poor.
“We’re just plain folks,” says Mary Lay, another Piecemaker.
But she’s wrong. This group of 50 Benewah County women (a man occasionally visits but doesn’t quilt) sews spirit into lifeless fabric. Bolts of plain cotton blossom into elaborate geometric designs outdone only by their names - Devil’s Puzzle, Drunkard’s Path, Storm at Sea, Scrappy Rainbow.
“Before I started quilting, I’d look at the designs and think, `I can’t do that,”’ says Doris Bornitz, who started the club in 1995. But, “It’s just working with triangles and squares.”
And friends.
The women pack their sewing machines to the local grange hall once a month. They share food, fabric, expertise and compliments. They solve each other’s problems.
“Most of us would give up anything not to miss a meeting,” says Donna Cannon, whose latest quilt bears a huge pony with a bushy yarn mane.
The Piecemakers entered the comfort zone three years ago after they heard about a club in Lewiston donating its work to police departments and hospitals.
Since then, their work has raised thousands of dollars for Hospice and individual medical crises through raffles. It’s swaddled foster children and warmed Native Americans during bitterly cold winters on a South Dakota reservation.
The quilters downplay their generosity. Giving away their work gives them reason to get together and work more.
Quilting is addictive, Dolly Harold says with a giggle. “It’s a sickness.”
If only it were contagious.
Listen up
If shopping for a hearing aid intimidates you, you’re not alone. They change and improve about as quickly as computers.
That’s why it’s smart to take advantage of the free SHHH workshop, 9:30-11 a.m. Saturday in Kootenai Medical Center’s classroom 1.
SHHH is Self Help for the Hard of Hearing. It’s a nonprofit group that focuses entirely on improving life for folks with hearing problems.
The workshop will feature five local hearing professionals and SHHH members who will explain what types of aids are available, help you figure out which suits you and your budget, solve hearing aid problems, demonstrate care for the aids and more.
You can’t beat the price. For details, call 772-3033.
Pay attention
Shyness is breast cancer’s friend, so overcome it and ask questions. Kootenai Medical Center and the North Idaho Cancer Center are offering the perfect opportunity for answers 6:30-8:30 p.m., Oct. 28, at the KMC Health Resource Center.
A free public forum that night will feature cancer specialists Dr. Haluk Tezan and nurses Linda Cathey and Mary Sullivan. They’ll cover prevention, treatments, self-exams, genetics - you name it.
This forum is for everyone; men get breast cancer, too. For details, call 666-3828.
How did you cure yourself of shyness? Boldly tell Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
TO HELP Quilt auction Hospice of Benewah County is raffling a Piecemakers quilt Dec. 15. Tickets cost $1 each or $5 for six and are available at the Hospice office, 702 College, or 1st Security Bank in St. Maries. For details, call 245-5734.