QUILTERS ENJOY STITCHING GOOD TIME; A TIME TO SEW: CHURCHES BENEFIT FROM QUILTING CIRCLES

Stitch by stitch they create a patchwork of beauty, develop friendships and even help missionaries overseas.

Many area churches benefit from the financial support of quilting bees.

The groups spend about six to eight weeks quilting and then donate the money earned from quilt sales back to the church.

Quilters at First Assembly of God Church in Scott City have even adopted a missionary with their proceeds. About nine women regularly meet to quilt.

"We support a missionary in another country and donate to things that come up at the church," said Jewell Killian. "It all goes back to the church."

In the past, the group bought carpet for a classroom and donated to the building fund.

The New McKendree Quilters have raised more than $11,000 from quilt sales during its nine-year existence.

The money has helped buy materials for the Kids Day Out program at the church and tables for the fellowship hall, said Anna Louise Adams, a founding member of the quilting group. The church is located in Jackson.

The group began in 1989 with a single project -- creating a quilt for a retiring pastor. It evolved into something larger. Now there are 17 women who meet each Thursday to quilt.

Although quilting is the main focus "the fellowship is great," said Maxine Smith.

Ladies who quilt for St. Mary's Cathedral Catholic Church agree. If quilting wasn't fun, they wouldn't be doing it, they said. Attendance ranges from 10 to 15 parish members. Most of them are retired.

For others, the church quilting bees have been a healing therapy. Many of the women are widows and enjoy the company of friends each week.

"That's why I'd say it's my therapy," said Mary Ziegler. She has been quilting with the St. Mary's ladies for nearly 20 years.

Irma Lappe learned how to quilt only after her husband died. It helped her through the grieving process.

Ziegler began quilting as a child after being taught by her mother, who was a member of St. Mary's Quilting Ladies before her death.

Ziegler frequently sews quilts for her grandchildren, one of whom is a monk.

"He said it gets cold in his cell and he needed something to wrap up in while he studied," she said.

But the majority of the quilters' work is not for family members or even church members. They sew for anyone who asks.

At both New McKendree and Grace United Methodist churches, there is a 12 month wait for new quilt projects.

"We quilt because we love to quilt," said Betty Statler, a member at Grace United Methodist Church. "It's not a money maker. We just enjoy it."

The group used its profits to remodel restrooms and buy kitchen equipment for the church.

On average, the groups charge $100 to make a queen size quilt. Marking a pattern and binding the quilt costs extra.

But a large part of the work is already finished when the quilts come in. Piecing a quilt and developing a pattern takes plenty of time.

All the quilt tops are pieced together before the ladies begin sewing.

"I pieced together my first quilt when I was 10 years old but I never finished it," said Lillian Jones, while working on a quilt at Grace United Methodist Church.

Jones remembers quilting groups meeting at the church when she was a child.

"There used to be two rooms going and 12 people around the quilts," she said. But now it's harder to find ladies willing to quilt.

The group has dwindled to about six regulars each Thursday.

Finding and recruiting new members is often the most difficult task for the quilting circles.

Because women today work full-time and have families, they seldom have extra time to devote to quilting, explained Toni Schnurbusch, a member of St. Mary's quilting group.

"It will be a lost art," she said.