Quilting group retires after a century
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RONAN — After nearly 100 years of sewing, mending and quilting for their families and for the community, the Sew and So group is about ready to throw in their pins and needles and give themselves a much deserved break.
For as long as anyone in the club can remember, the dozen or so ladies have made a yearly quilt and raffled it off, benefiting local non-profits. Usually the $1,000 is divided between the Ronan Volunteer Fire Department and the Ronan Senior Citizens Center’s meals on wheels program.
To mark their last regular quilting year, the ladies have chosen an unusual design that represents the Ronan area well.
The quilt is made up of about 120 cattle brands from the Ronan area— some that are still used today and some that are no longer in use. Also speckling the quilt are a few pictures donated by local families, depicting life one hundred years ago.
Originally coined the Coulee Dozen in 1911 for their weekly trek across a coulee, the group has met on a regular basis without fail, save a few years during World War I, when the group was busy with “war work.”
And still to this day, the group proves to be a socially invigorating organization that gets crafty for society in more ways than one.
“It’s fun,” explained Sandy Baertsch. “We solve a lot of the world’s problems.”
The youngest of the group is 63 year-old Elaine Murphy, while the oldest active member, is 89 year-old Theresa Walter. Starting in January, the quilting crew meets three times a week in the home of Velma Madsen and they work until Easter. That’s when they have to be out for Madsen’s annual Easter family gathering.
Joining in 1946, Clara Miller is nicknamed the Queen of Quilting and is the club’s longest member. She explained the club’s quest to find the original 12 members’ given names. In those days ladies didn’t use their first names in print, instead went only by their husbands name preceded by ‘Mrs.’
She has found the names of eight of the 12 original members and is working on finding the last four in the county records. In 2011, she wants to display a quilt in the museum with the names of all the 12 ladies who founded Lake County’s oldest club.
But for now, the ladies of the Sew and So joke that their club will now just be entitled So and So because they will transform into a social organization that will meet occasionally for get-togethers.
When asked what they will do with all their spare time, Miller responded, “Go to pie more often.”
Raffle tickets will be sold at the Ronan Senior Center, local stores and the Ronan Christmas Bazaar. The drawing will be held at the bazaar on Dec. 4. Tickets are one for $1 or six for $5.
