Franklin United Methodist Church
Quilters - Praying Piecers
Praying Piecers meet twice monthly - the second and fourth Mondays from 9 until noon in the Activities Building. We welcome all quilters from the community! We work on all sorts of projects...
our own and others. Peggy is our leader; E-mail her with any questions.
12/5/11 - The Praying Piecers recently presented 18 quilts and blankets to Robertson County's CPS. Trudy Hancock, Chairman of RC-CPS, along with Board Members Stephanie Sanders and Lorene Valdez, accepted the donation. Two photos below:
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10/1 - We are happy to include here a photo and an article written by Edwin Cooper for The Franklin Advocate about the Pillowcase Challenge in which the Praying Piecers have participated:
Local Quilters Join Million Pillowcase Challenge
By Edwin Cooper
Quilters all over America have received a million pillowcase challenge from American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.
Here was the challenge: “American Patchwork and Quilting is challenging YOU to join our efforts to MAKE A PILLOWCASE, MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Every pillowcase can make a difference in your community. A pillowcase can provide comfort for a cancer patient, hope for a foster child, encouragement for a battered woman or beauty for a nursing home. The idea is simple. Make and donate pillowcases to charities in your community.”
Our local Praying Piecers Quilting Bee has accepted the challenge to participate. On September 1st, the Franklin Nursing Home happily accepted 63 colorful pillowcases put together by the Praying Piecers group.
The Praying Piecers Quilting Bee meets at the Franklin Methodist Church and has been making service projects for about 5 years. This group is made up of many different aged women who love quilting and donate their services. In the past they have made quilts for Habitat for Humanity in Franklin, Franklin High School Senior Class, Wounded Warriors hospitalized in San Antonio, St Joseph Cancer Center in Bryan and many more.
The group is made up of ladies from many denominations and is affiliated with the Brazos Bluebonnet Quilt Guild in Bryan. They invite anyone who has an interest in sewing to join them. They will teach you all the tricks they have learned from classes and workshops that help when piecing a quilt top. Members of this group are Pat Cate, Linda Steele, Flo Friend, Rhonda Miller, Barbara Eller, Donna Otto, Anne Perry, Terrie Foltermann, Dorothea Allen, Cornelia Starkey and Peggy Cooper. Some pillowcases also were made by Linda Winder of College Station.
The group meets on the second and fourth Monday at 9 a.m. in the activities center of the Franklin United Methodist Church. Sometimes they have sack lunches and continue into the afternoon but usually they break up about noon.
Remarks below are made by members who made quilts:
Pat Cate relates, “This work is lots of fun.” Pat is a retired schoolteacher, counselor and diagnostician who lives at Camp Creek. It is reported that she always provides extra fabric and other supplies because of her generous nature.
Donna Otto, of Franklin had this to say, “It was very rewarding to feel that I was contributing to a project that would benefit the nursing home patients here in Franklin”. It is reported that Donna is a very willing student with lots of ideas and much gusto.
Barbara Eller of Wheelock said, “This has been a great project and I was happy to be involved with it.”
Cornelia Starkey, Franklin, whose hobby includes scrap booking in addition to quilting. She is the retired District Clerk for this area. Cornelia is an advanced quilter and one of our very best teachers; reports one member.
Terrie Foltermann is a lady of many talents and hobbies including sewing, painting, gardening and her love of dogs and horses. She has been a preschool and art teacher and her art work brings form and balance to the quilts and she always sees our mistakes first,” reports Peggy Cooper.
Dorothea Allen of Dick Elliott Road near Franklin has a hobby of gardening in addition to quilting and her skill to keep us organized. She and her husband Thad delivered our gift of quilts to the Wounded Warriors in the San Antonio VA Hospital last spring. Obviously this was a precious moment for them as well as for the Wounded Warriors.
Linda Steele of Franklin has many hobbies including crafts, fishing, hunting, camping and loving her grandchildren. It was noted that she makes up her own patterns when quilting, thinks outside the box and is unafraid of new things.
Anne Perry is a dedicated worker for the Quilt Guild and heads up the committee making Soldier’s Squares for our servicemen overseas. She is fearless when presented with a new challenge.
The Praying Piercers Quilting Bee deserves our hearty applause for their good work on behalf of those benefiting from their efforts.
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7/14 - We are sad to report that quilter Joanie Baldwin, Terrie Foltermann's mother, has passed away after a heart attack. Her talents and design expertise were very important to our Praying Piecers...we will miss her!
From January through May, 2010, this group of quilters worked to finish a total of five quilts for injured soldiers in San Antonio as part of the Quilters Across Texas led by Amelia Perry, Governor Perry's mother. This is the second year of the program, and our quilts represented 20% of the 25 quilts presented to the wounded warriors on May 12, 2010. Dorothea and Thad made the trip to participate in the presentation. Following is the article written by Thad and Dorothea in June's FUMC Newsletter:
"In January the quilt group received information inviting us to be a part of Quilters Across Texas
making quilts for Wounded Warriors on May 12th. Thad and Dorothea Allen took the quilts earlier
that day to San Antonio to Mrs. Amelia Perry, organizer of Quilters Across Texas. She praised our
group for completing five of the twenty-five quilts to be presented that evening. All of the quilters
were invited to attend the event.
"What an honor to be there among a large crowd of people and honoring approximately 400
Wounded Warriors. Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Michael Thornton was guest speaker.
He praised these military men and women for serving our country to keep it free.
"The last item on the program for the evening was recognizing a group of women who have made
quilts for some of the Wounded Warriors. Amelia Perry presented the first quilt to one of the
Warriors. Following the program the other quilters presented a quilt to each of the selected men
and women to receive a quilt.
"It was so moving to have the opportunity, one on one, to present a young man a quilt and thank
him for his service to our country. This is a tremendous program called “Wounded Warriors
Organization” with offices in Austin and headed by Lt. General Leroy Sisco (Ret). The Praying
Piecers are already planning to start making more quilts for next year and hopefully more of our
quilters will be able to attend."
Below are photos taken of the quilters' work from the beginning of the work in January.
Above, left, Dorothea and Peggy decided upon the possible designs, and then we all
brought fabrics from our "stashes" to provide the selection.
Below, Barbara irons fabric from the selections.
Joanie and Terrie (mother and daughter), both artists with considerable talent, helped Peggy
select fabric colors which coordinated within the designs.
In February, work began in earnest:
Above, Pat cut shapes according to request. Dorothea made samples at home and
brought them for us to see. Below, left - Flo, Terrie, Peggy, and Cornelia
Below, right - Pat, Dorothea, and Barbara "audition" various fabrics.
Above, left, Terrie shows color patterns to Cornelia. Above, right, Flo assembles pieces.
A great deal of work was completed at home during these months. Finally, the quilts were
bound (above, right) and ready to be delivered. Before they left, though, most were displayed
and blessed during the church service on May 2.
At the celebration in San Antonio on May 12, quilts were displayed and presented to the soldiers by
the quilters. We were thankful to have Dorothea and Thad present at the Night to Honor Our Heroes ceremony. Photos below were taken in difficult lighting by Thad.
