Quilting Classes Provide Unexpected Form of Therapy

KUTZTOWN, Pa. — Jody Beck has been teaching people how to sew memories for more than 20 years.

Her quilting skills that began right where she did (Iowa) have taken her to Arizona, Rhode Island and finally southeast Pennsylvania, where she moved and began teaching in 2012.

Along the way, the regional flavors she has picked up and passed along offer their own patchwork quilt, of sorts.

“Techniques that might be relevant in one part of the country, or something that we do in one part of the country, when I move cross country, it’s totally new to that group of people,” Beck said as the the third session of her six-week beginning quilting class wrapped up at Wooden Bridge Dry Goods in Kutztown.

“I always laugh and tell people that you’ll see me when you retire or your husband dies, because that’s when people come to learn to quilt,” she said. “They have a need.”

For one, she said, they’ve got time on their hands they don’t know how to spend. And something else.

“I’ve been told that I’m a cheap counselor,” she said.

Friendship, fellowship and camaraderie with classmates offer another big draw, Beck said.

It’s not uncommon for connections stitched together at the sewing table to extend outside and beyond the classroom, she said.

“I had one group of four ladies that came in and became such good friends that they all shared their information, went to lunch, and they get together and sew,” Beck said. “I’m part of the circle.”

Four such new friends hung around after a recent three-hour beginner class, the third in the session, to share their experiences.

Patti Kasman said her friend Cindy showed her a pamphlet for the class and it piqued her interest. “My mother was a very good quilter, and I’m just very interested in learning,” she said.

“I just always love how quilts looked, and I retired and I thought, ‘It’s time to start doing it,” said Cindy Yarnes, who invited Patti.

“I retired as well and always had an interest in sewing and was over here and saw the quilts and loved them,” said Ann Marie Andracchio. “I saw the pamphlet for Jody’s class and signed up.”

Andracchio is a remedial student, of sorts. This is her second time taking the beginning series of classes, and there is a method to her multiplicity.

“I find that I have an understanding of the whole process from the beginning to the end better,” she said. “When I first came, it was brand, brand new — learning about what nine-patch quilt means, how to piece them together, measuring. So, this round, I understand that better, was able to cut the fabrics more exact, because that’s very important. How to piece them, how to sew them together, learning about the machine and what it can do and can’t do. I feel much more comfortable being here the second time It’s not like, ‘Oh my gosh, everything’s brand new.’”

All the information is sinking in a bit deeper, too, she said.

And, of course, there’s making new friends.

Joanne Lusignea retired two years ago from teaching school, a second career she transitioned into after starting out as an engineer.

“I was making quilts and thinking ‘There’s probably a better ways of doing what I’m doing,’” she said. “So, I was looking for a beginning class.”

It’s the first class she’s ever taken, Lusignea said, and she didn’t know quite what to expect.

“But it’s been wonderful,” she said, adding that she felt she’d gotten her money’s worth after just the second class. “I’ve learned so much, even with the experience that I had of doing things, and it’s friendly and warm in here. It’s a great place.

Bridge to Creativity

People new to Wooden Bridge Dry Goods have called it a “fabric library.”

The business started in 1999 on the dairy farm where owner Anna Mae Martin’s husband grew up, and where the couple raised eight children.

The spacious shop in what was once a vacant outbuilding has grown to include two classrooms, where workshops in basic quilt piecing, hand applique, machine quilting and foundation paper piecing, as well as crafting table runners and wall hangings, take place. Other classes include working with chenille, jacket making, gift projects and sit-n-sew sessions.

Quilters and other crafters travel from far and wide for Martin’s selections of fabrics from around the world, as well as for her reasonable prices and the warm atmosphere.

Class dismissed, a man in a leather jacket (man in a leather jacket?) stands near the front of the shop holding several colorful folded swaths of fabric, obviously comfortable in is surroundings.

The scene begs the question: “And what brings you here, sir?”

“Fabric,” veteran quilter Ciro DeLucia states matter-of-factly. “The best fabric around, better than Joann’s or anybody else’s.”

Owner and operator of the Crooked Quilter, an online shop filled with DeLucia’s creations, he got his start 20 years ago when he asked a friend to make him a quilt like the cathedral window she was working on, and she showed him how to do it himself.

Off and running, he’s been self-taught ever since.

Discovering Wooden Bridge was a keystroke of luck.

“I had just come back from California, and I needed somewhere to get fabric,” he said. “So, I was looking online and her shop came up.”

DeLucia counts himself fortunate to find a shop to fuel his passion and creativity after returning from an eight-year stint on the West Coast.

“California prices are $18.95 a yard,” he said. “And I came here at $8, $9; it was like ‘holy stuff!’”

Jody Beck, who teaches the beginning quilting class three times a year, counts herself lucky, too.

As a quilting pattern designer (she’s got 38 of them), Beck said her first order of business when moving to a new area is to go out and talk to shop owners.

“Anna May and I just hit it off,” she said. “I love teaching here. She is very fair with our commissions and our pricing, and I am grateful for that.

“And I’m really good at selling product, so she likes having me here, because I sell and promote a lot of stuff for her.”