The old adage goes “Waste not, want not.” There are some quilters’ groups in Powell who are putting the adage into practice.

One group, the Waste Not Quilters, meets at the First United Methodist Church.

It was started about 2004, said Pastor Janita Krayniak, by Virginia Lindsay and Carol Lamb. Lamb wintered in the southern part of the U.S. and into Mexico. Each year Lamb would take quilts along to give to those living in poverty. Finally she told Lindsay it was something they needed to do as a mission. Lindsay, Lamb and Lindsay’s daughter, Christine, met and quilted every weekday, completing two quilts a week. The three members morphed into a larger group and it took off.

According to group member Diane Martin, they now meet as a group once a month, on the first Thursday, to work together on projects. Other members work independently. The independent work was more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the quilters also continued working as a group, maintaining social distancing.

Their method is simple enough: They cut out quilt tops from donated fabric and create the patterns on machines. Most are simple renditions of various nine-patch patterns, but their simplicity does not affect their warmth-giving ability.

“These are utility quilts,” Martin said. Once the tops are completed, they are sandwiched on a donated flat sheet, with a donated blanket in between. Then the whole sandwich is tied with yarn, rather than stitched in the traditional manner. This saves a lot of time. The edges are bound and the binding stitched on.

The quilts are given to various charity organizations. But recently, the quilts have been piling up rather than being donated, because donation points have been closed due to the pandemic. Soon, though, they will once again be headed out — this time to Browning, Montana, to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation and the Free Store in Billings.

In the past, the quilts have gone to Royal Kids Camp; for children in foster care; crisis intervention outlets; to Louisiana for individual distribution after disasters; and sent along with fire marshals to hand out where there is a need.

Martin said the Waste Not Quilters recently moved from their original space in the Methodist church basement to a classroom to make way for the Powell MakerSpace, which moved there in early June. As part of the move, the quilters spent several days sorting their fabric, rearranging the massive stash by color families and separating the solids from the prints. 

There were a good number of pieces that did not meet the few criteria the group holds to for inclusion in a quilt top. Anything that was not cotton, too loosely woven or too small was put in a discard pile. The group members could take any of it they could use in other projects, and the rest was donated to Mountain Spirit Habitat for Humanity’s Shop on Bent or the quilt group at Hope Lutheran Church, which uses polyester fabric for quilts donated to Lutheran World Relief.  

The group that meets at Hope Lutheran Church calls itself the “Piece Corps” — a play on words, since making a quilt top is known as “piecing” in quilter’s lingo. 

There are about six or eight members, according to group member Judy Vogt. 

“It’s a small group,” Vogt said. “And we rely on donations, thrift store [purchases] and fabric sales. We need blankets for filler, otherwise we have to order batting.” 

The Piece Corps completed about 130 quilts this year, which is about average, Vogt said. They are trucked to St. Paul, Minnesota. After that, they are distributed from a barge to those in need all over the world. 

“There is a lot of need in refugee camps and such,” Vogt said. 

This group of quilters usually meets each week, but is taking a summer hiatus this year and will start back in August.

The meetings then will be from 9 a.m. to noon each Tuesday at Hope Lutheran. While the group meets at the church, it is strictly non-denominational. 

“Anybody is welcome to come and tie,” Vogt said. “We have people from other churches come; anybody is welcome to help.” 

On its website, Lutheran World Relief says there are tens of thousands of handmade quilts and care kits handed out around the world. It adds that no one has to be a master quilter to contribute, needing only to care about loving one’s neighbor.

Nationally known quilters to present at conference

Quilt Wyoming 2020/21 is coming to Powell next week. The July 14-17 quilting conference will be held on the campus of Northwest College.

Since last year’s conference was canceled because of the pandemic, the event will feature both the Southwest Region of the Wyoming State Quilt Guild and the Northwest Region guild as well. The Southwest Region theme is “Flower Power,” while the Northwest theme is “Quilting is My Jam.”

Although the classes closed months ago, and there will be no vendors on site, there are several presentations that are open to the public for a fee. Nationally known teachers and quilters Susan Cleveland, Jane Sassaman and Linda J. Hahn will each hold a trunk show and presentation, with tickets available at the door.