Quilting typically is a solo pursuit, but members of the Heritage Quilters Guild of South Suburbia find plenty to talk about and share when they gather for monthly meetings.
In fact, that camaraderie is something mentioned again and again as their favorite part of belonging to the guild by members such as Chris Deck, of Monee, the guild’s sole male representative.
“I’ve been asked several times by friends and family because I’ve been part of a lot of different things. Very few times in my life have I found a place where you can go in feeling bad and then two hours later, you’ve had a warm hug. They are positive, uplifting,” he shared.
“They just make you feel good. In the world we live in now, I can’t think of any place you can get that. I have an awesome family, but this is one of those places where it feels like a good place to be, and that’s why I keep going.”
The 47-year-old joined about two and-a-half years ago after he decided to make something special for his granddaughter – a pink baby quilt – because his dad and his son-in-law do woodworking as a hobby and he didn’t want to compete with them.
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Years earlier, he’d bought a cheap sewing machine to hem his bib overalls. The machine had been sitting in a closet for 30 years because none of his three daughters wanted to use it. Although he barely knew what he was doing, he came up with a pattern and made a quilt that the little girl still loves. That was all it took for him to catch a sewing bug “that has exploded into quite a bit,” he joked.
He and his wife started attending quilt shows and began talking to someone who was in Quiltmakers Guild of Kankakee. He decided to join both that one and Heritage Quilters because they’re about the same distance away from his home in Monee.
Being the only man in the guild is “super interesting, honestly,” Deck said. “Not to sound sexist, but working in construction and being surrounded by guys all the time, the way guys approach problem solving and going to meetings and the way these women approach problem solving, I just shut my mouth and watch. … Being in a room full of women, it’s just awesome to sit there quietly watching.”
Program chairman Julie Olczak, of Crete, who has been in the guild for more than 20 years, enjoys the camaraderie and members’ gentle ways.
“They’re just kind and accepting,” she explained. “You make a mistake and they’re not critical. I made a whole quilt and misplaced a block. I said to Lenore (Guajardo), I made a mistake. She said ‘No kidding. It’s right in the middle!’ Everyone laughed, but my quilt is still beautiful because we’re not perfect.”
Olczak, who’s been sewing since she was a young woman, picked up the hobby again when she was a bit older, making her first quilt when her grandson – now 22 – was about a year old. “I made him this cartoon quilt that he still has to this day. He’s 6’7”, and it comes up to about his knee!”
She joined the guild when her friend and neighbor, Debbie Brandenburg, who is a quilter, came over and helped her. “I couldn’t get rid of her. We were working until 10 at night. She taught me the basics of quilting,” Olczak shared. “Once I got started, it became an addiction because of the beautiful fabric and how you can put together the blocks and the quilts.”
That addiction has led to her making plenty of quilts, mainly for her nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her craft room is “a bedroom that I turned into a quilting room, and it’s overflowed into another room that I call the craft room because I also paint,” she said.
When asked, Olczak can’t pick a favorite quilt pattern. “It’s like your kids. They say you love them differently. I say the same thing about quilts. … I like a bunch of stuff.”
Her favorite part of meetings is when speakers come to teach things, such as someone demonstrating sewing machine applique. She also enjoys quilting bees. “You can be in a room full of quilters, and if you need help, you can just raise your hand and ask. I forgot a needle and broke a needle on my sewing machine, and five women offered a needle to me,” Olczak said. “It’s solitary but it’s not – you have the backup of the quilting community always.”
She thinks of the guild’s mission as ‘bringing people together to make the world a more beautiful place. Quilts are beautiful and they’re comforting. People call them blankets, but they’re not blankets. They are so much more. If someone makes you a quilt, they love you because it’s a lot of time and work and money.”
The guild formed in 1982 after South Suburban College professor Mary Jane Carlson organized a group of more than 80 women, and it’s gone on to preserve and advance the art of quilt making, according to the guild’s website, www.heritagequilts.org.
Although it had about 120 members in the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s since dwindled down to 42 members, said Reba Spilis, of Cedar Lake, a former Lansing resident who has been in the guild about 15 years. New members of any age are welcome, although current membership tends toward older quilters.
Meetings take place at 6:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month (except December) at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 651 E. 166th St. in South Holland. Membership costs just $30 per year.
Typical meetings start with a business meeting for about 20 or 30 minutes, followed by show and tell and then sometimes a speaker. “I think show and tell is the best part because we can see what others do,” Spilis said. “We feed off each other and get inspired by each other.”
She also likes the creativity. “You can ask anybody how to do something, and they help out. We support each other.”
The guild also helps beyond its members, turning fabric scraps into dog beds delivered to the Calumet Area Humane Society in Munster and the South Suburban Humane Society in Matteson, as well as making duffel bags for foster children, Project Linus blankets for seriously ill children and creating lap quilts for the veterans’ home in Manteno, as well as quilts for mothers.
Margaret Tzitz, of Griffith, always was interested in fabrics and textiles. “My mother was a quilter. I watched her. She did hand quilting,” she said. “I like to hand applique and I like bright colors.”
New member Pat Moorehead, of South Holland, is an avid quilter and loves all fiber arts. “I like to see different concepts. I thought I would go up here and see what’s shaking,” she said of joining the guild. “I picked up quilting when my husband became disabled. It was something I could do at home.” She actually teaches quilting at her church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and through the Chicago Park District.
Alsip resident Judy Schanck, a member for more than 30 years, made many of the items that will be sold at the Paarlberg Farm Heritage Festival, set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 7, at 172nd Place and Paxton Avenue in South Holland. She enjoys the guild’s camaraderie and how “everybody feeds off everybody else’s ideas.”
During the festival, the guild will have eight tables set up in the barn to sell placemats, wall hangings, maybe some bags, small quilts and zipper pouches, as well as chances for quilts. “We make a small quilt for the South Holland Historical Society, and they will auction that off that day. The guild also created a blue and white quilt that will be raffled off in October.
The guild’s next meeting with a speaker is Oct. 20 at the church. “We’re having a trunk show of the speaker’s Halloween quilts,” Spilis said.
Olczak urged anyone with basic sewing skills to give the guild a try. “We can take them in and show them how to do quilting. We used to have over 100 members. The craft is shrinking, and it really worries me,” she said.
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“The truth is we’re aging out. We have members who are 95 and who still do quilting,” Olczak added. “We will let anyone come in, and it’s really interesting if you stay for show and tell because people are showing what they’re working on or maybe something from 20 years ago that they just completed,” she said. “Go on the website and contact us. You can visit a meeting for free to see what it’s all about.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.