Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.   Walking into the library entrance on a summer day when the window is open, on the first Tuesday of the month, one hears this twitter of conversation and occasional outbursts of laughter. It is a friendly, fun sound, inviting one to peek into the meeting room to find out what’s going on.

A bunch of women sit at the table, with bags of cloth squares scattered on the top. They discuss technique and design, the price of yarn, the grandchildren and recipes. The Quirky Quilters get together under the disguise of creating quilts, but they actually just love each other’s company and sharing stories. The scene is reminiscent of days gone by when quilting parties were formed to help others and for the entertainment they provided each other.

On Tuesdays, the first of each month, the Quirky Quilters get together for a couple of hours to see how everyone is doing and how their creations are coming along. The membership list is 15, sometimes one of them is a male.

The summer people come and go, leaving a core group of about 10 members who show up year round.

“We are a show and tell group,” says Becky Joyce, “But we also make quilts to help others in times of emergency. We have made quilts for the fire department and the police department and for people who lost their homes during the Cold Springs Fire.”

Local artist Elizabeth Azcarate says she joined the group for the inspiration and the sense of camaraderie she enjoys. “It is the socializing, helping each other solve some problems, and then we get so many answers we don’t know what to do with them all.”

Material for their projects is never a problem. Many people donate quilt blocks from unfinished projects. When the Quirky women get them, they have no idea of the intention of the blocks, so they get to put the puzzle together.

One woman brought in a quilt that was started many years ago with some exquisite fabric, but not enough to finish the project. They guess it must have originated in the 1930s and finding fabric to match was impossible, but they could complete the quilt cover with newer fabric, using their creativity.

Bette Ventrella had been a member of a quilters group in Virginia 30 years ago and when she moved to the Nederland/Gilpin area, she brought her experience with her.

“We try to get everyone to tell their story and they all have one,” she says. “One man came twice, but he was actually a knitter and we haven’t seen him for awhile.”

Becky brought in a piece she was doing on commission, a mermaid with precise, fine stitches that has taken months to complete. The quilters sighed in appreciation for the long hours involved.

Dana Jones is not only a quilter but an author who wrote: Pagtinabangay: The Quilts and Quiltmakers of Caohagan Island in the Philippines. The introduction of quilt making as a way to improve the islands standard of living offered many levels of involvement to at least a third of the island’s population. The title of the book describes the sense of community on the island and how people work together and help one another.

Another project involves 16 quilters in America exchanging 16 quilt blocks with 16 quilters in Germany, each one completing a block a month for 16 months. Each block had to stick to the theme of houses and no one was allowed to put the quilt together until each quilter had all 16 pieces

“It is a challenge how to make the pieces all fit,” say the women. The quilts will be donated to senior assisted living facilities.

How do these women connect with each other? “Quilts are magnets that attract us to each other. The possibilities in a quilt are endless.”

(Originally published in the June 14, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)