Places: Quilts in the Ryon Room of the Abington Community Library

The handmade quilts currently on display in the Ryon Room evoke many memories for me! Perhaps not so obvious to most people are the friendships and relationships formed by the group the Library group that created them: Always in Stitches. This group, under the direction of RSVP volunteer Peg Winter, has been meeting for over five years at the Library. What originally started as a ‘learn to quilt’ group has turned into a group
that continues to meet regularly, supports one another,  is involved in many charitable endeavors, and has a lot of fun sharing projects every Tuesday morning here at the Library. Quilting in a group does that: it ties people together!

However, quilting also reminds me of the first, and only, quilt I ever made. It was made out of necessity for my first born child, Dania, born in 1983. When her sister Julia came along, it came time to move Dania  into a ‘big bed.’ The room we chose to move her into was painted a lovely shade of yellow. This yellow, however, wasn’t the bland non-sexist yellow for babies, or the vibrant crayon box primary color yellow for toddlers. This yellow was more of a Williamsburg golden yellow. As I searched for linens for a queen bed and two standard windows, it became apparent there was absolutely nothing on the market, or at least in Scranton, PA, that was juvenile enough for a 3-year-old that would match that room.

So…. rather than repaint the room, which would be an easy fix, I decided I would find fabric and make her a quilt! My next door neighbor and mentor, “Grandma Alice” Bremer, offered to help. She gave me the name of a
woman in West Scranton who would, for a small price, ‘mark’ fabric with a pattern that I could easily quilt.

I found fabric at Scranton Fabric – yards of white cotton with a small Williamsburg golden yellow bunny on it. I purchased enough fabric, batting, and a solid coordinating fabric in Williamsburg golden yellow for the back to make a queen size quilt, 2 pillow shams and panel curtain for the two windows. Grandma Alice must have made the shams and curtains – I don’t recall. In any event she also loaned me the wooden saw horses used to hold the quilt up while working on it.

We worked hours on that queen size quilt, conveniently set up in my basement, which doubled as Dania’s play room. Countless hours later, with bleeding fingers that became calloused, large stitches that eventually got smaller and tighter, the quilt was done!

Dania moved into her *new* bedroom and was very happy with her snuggle-bunny quilt. It served her well right up through high school, when she made the move to the basement bedroom for a couple of years before leaving for
college. She did not take the quilt.

I’ve kept the ensemble for my grandchildren, should I ever be blessed to have some.  All I’ll have to do is convince their parents to paint a room Williamsburg golden yellow and we’ll be all set!