News Main Page >>Quilting groups offer women the chance to indulge creative instincts while forming bonds much as their previous generations did

Danville Times
November 24, 2006
by Deborah Burstyn, Staff Writer

Six women sit and sew in Wendy McGrath's sunny Danville living room. Needles fly through fabric and click against thimbles. Scissors dangle handily from a ribbon around Mary Scott's neck. She is working an intricate white-on-white quilt.

"Most of us have our own sewing rooms now," she says. "No kids anymore. Just a room where we can close the door and quilt."

But closing the door and quilting in solitude is not why they come here one Saturday a month. Hearkening back to its social roots in quilting bees and sewing circles, quilting in Danville and Alamo has become a group activity for many of the region's most avid quilters.

There are now 20 to 30 quilting groups, including an Alamo-based group of high school-age junior quilters, meeting throughout the area. They are like the spokes of an old-fashioned wagon wheel and the hub is the Danville-based Diablo Valley Quilters' Guild.

With over 200 members, the Guild serves as the chief connecting point for local quilters. The guild formed in 1983, following the closure of Empty Spools, an Alamo quilting shop. Since then it has met once a month in the Danville Congregational Church to socialize and learn from a guest speaker. But in recent years, the organization has seen the growth of smaller groups who gather in each other's homes to actually quilt, not just talk about it.

"We found that what people really wanted to do is connect with other people," said Diane Barnett, Danville resident and the Guild's president-elect. "And that is done better in small groups. So in addition to our monthly meetings, we get together in groups of eight to ten to work on our own projects and talk. We've just started three new groups."

Some groups, like the one in McGrath's living room, have been meeting for more than 15 years.

"We're like sisters at this point," said Susan Willson, a cardiologist who lives in Danville.

Added Elke Torgersen, "We know all about each other's kids and now the grandkids."

And the divorces. Trish Katz said the quilting group was a lifeline for her when she went through a difficult divorce. Katz used to live in Danville but now lives in Antioch. She still comes to the group and on this day had her standard poodle, Regina, with her.

Of course, advice on quilting as well as personal lives is the order of the day, with the women admiring and commenting on current projects.

Sunlight filtered through the skylights illuminates the room and the beautiful quilts made by McGrath over the years. The women, some of whom admit to owning three to five sewing machines, happily sew but also take time to gather in the dining room to eat. A sumptuous potluck lunch provides a break from sewing and a chance to swap recipes.

Then it is back to quilting.

"When you're working with your hands, you can still talk with your mouth," observes Willson.

A similar purpose to the Guild's quilting groups is served by an ongoing drop-in class that meets at Danville's local quilt shop, the Quilter's Inn (see related story). Every Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., women gather around a table in a corner of the shop and work on their projects.

Only the purpose of the Monday group is to initiate newcomers into the fold under the tutelage of a mother-daughter quilting team, Janis Stob and Margaret Linderman. Many of the quilters sewing at the table have only been quilting for a year. But the Quilter's Inn's Monday sessions also provide a gathering place for more experienced quilters just wanting to sew in a communal setting.

Portable sewing machines live up to their name as they are snapped open and set up around the table, strewn with bright patches of fabric. By the women's sides, large quilted sewing bags gape open, revealing a wealth of rotary cutters, spools of thread, mini irons and other quilt-making paraphernalia.

"I think you can still use the pieces that have no stripe in them," Mary Smalligan of Alamo says.

"No, that middle piece is too big," points out Stob.

"Visually it's big but it is so cool," adds Linderman, who explains, "Part of what we do is help each other out."

Some are helping Colleen Dowd of Alamo choose colors for a new project.

Dowd, with three children aged three to 11, is one of the younger quilters present.

"My husband asked, 'why are you doing this when you're supposed to be staying home?' I said, 'It is just four hours one day a week. I need this.'"

"Just tell him that as long as you come here you won't need to go to a therapist," laughed one woman.

Margaret Gluck of Walnut Creek admires her Christmas runner.

"I've only been working on it for four years," she said with a chuckle. Gluck also made a quilt for her grown son using souvenir rock concert T-shirts he no longer wore. Another woman at the table is making a quilt for her sister, who is undergoing chemotherapy.

Sheryl Sacerodoti of Alamo uses a windowsill as a nook for her antique black and gold Singer sewing machine. It stands out in contrast to the white new Bernina, Brother and Pfaff machines used by the others. She explains that her machine was saved by her mother-in-law when she fled war-torn Berlin in the 1940s. Today it is being used to make a quilt for a friend's new baby.

Antique sewing machines are actually popular with quilters, said instructor Margaret Linderman. "There's nothing to complicate them."

One of the women in the group on this Monday is certainly no beginner. In fact Cyndy Reymer is a well-known quilting celebrity who has published books on avant garde quilt designs. A former high-tech executive, Reymer now reserves her computer skills for translating digital images into quilts.

"These are very special women," she said. "Quilting is a communal event. I come here to hear great stories and to share."

Today, Reymer is working on a new design she calls "Crazy Eights." It depicts all styles of the numeral eight in a variety of places, including on her sleeping cat. Reymer explained that she bought up all the house number eights when the Alamo hardware store Yardbirds held going-out-of-business sales. She then photographed them in various places and printed the photos onto fabric.

She quipped, "If it doesn't move, it could wind up in a quilt." Then she drew serious. "I am extremely fortunate to have found my passion in life."

Those at the Quilter's Inn group don't only share stories and advice, they share supplies such as scissors and thread. They also share their talents.

Owner Jane Lewis said that quilters gathering at her shop have made quilts for a daycare center in Richmond, for a breast cancer fundraiser and for Hurricane Katrina victims. "In one day, we made 58 quilts to send to Baton Rouge," she said. "Quilters are the most giving people.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Diablo Valley Quilters

WHEN: 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month

WHERE: Danville Congregational Church, 989 San Ramon Valley Blvd., Danville

CONTACT: Dianne Barnett 925-837-1863

WHAT: The Quilter's Inn

WHEN: Drop-in project classes, Mon. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., $20; Tues. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m., $10.

WHERE: 125 Railroad Ave., Suite F, Danville

CONTACT: 925-837-8458

For more information about Cyndy Reymer's books, go to www.ctpub.com