Joyce Roberts lays out fabric to try out the AccuQuilt cutting machine at the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild meeting in August 2022.
Mary Boneno, charter member of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild, removes a stitched block from her Singer Featherweight machine at the August 2022 meeting.
Pins hold fabric pieces in place while an awl helps maneuver a block accurately through a sewing machine at the Feliciana Stitchers meeting in August 2022.
Instructions and samples of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild Christmas raffle quilt wait for members to pick them up at the August 2022 meeting.
Retta Soileaux looks at Linda Homes' finished Christmas block at the Feliciana Stitchers' August 2022 meeting .
Pat Veatch uses a rotary cutter to cut pieces for a Christmas quilt block for the Feliciana Stitchers.
Rag dolls are one of several small projects the Feliciana Stitchers have made through the years as fundraisers. There have been stashed during the pandemic but are being finished for upcoming event.
A quilter takes time to line up seams on her block for the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild Christmas quilt.
Linda Holmes arranges pieces for her block for the Feliciana Stitchers Christmas quilt in August 2022.
Retta Soileaux joined the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild about three years ago, after the 2016 flood wiped out her home and sewing business in Central.
Hilda Crangle, left, runs fabric through a cutting machine as Reynelle Ewing, center, and Linda Homes set up fabric in an assembly line. Crangle cut fabric with her machine for a large portion of the Christmas quilt the Feliciana Stitchers are creating.
Mary Boneno and Nancy Spillman watch Hilda Crangle demonstrate the AccuQuilt fabric cutter.
A quilter used a rotary cutter and self-healing mat with quilter's rulers to cut her Christmas blocks at the August 2022 meeting of the Feliciana Stitchers.
Pat Veatch, an 18-year member of the Feliciana Stitchers, sews a Christmas block at the August 2022 meeting.
Joyce Roberts, an original member of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild, shows off a rag doll with small quilts she adds. The dolls are part of the group's fundraising efforts.
Joyce Roberts lays out fabric to try out the AccuQuilt cutting machine at the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild meeting in August 2022.
Mary Boneno, charter member of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild, removes a stitched block from her Singer Featherweight machine at the August 2022 meeting.
Pins hold fabric pieces in place while an awl helps maneuver a block accurately through a sewing machine at the Feliciana Stitchers meeting in August 2022.
Instructions and samples of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild Christmas raffle quilt wait for members to pick them up at the August 2022 meeting.
Retta Soileaux looks at Linda Homes' finished Christmas block at the Feliciana Stitchers' August 2022 meeting .
Pat Veatch uses a rotary cutter to cut pieces for a Christmas quilt block for the Feliciana Stitchers.
Rag dolls are one of several small projects the Feliciana Stitchers have made through the years as fundraisers. There have been stashed during the pandemic but are being finished for upcoming event.
A quilter takes time to line up seams on her block for the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild Christmas quilt.
Linda Holmes arranges pieces for her block for the Feliciana Stitchers Christmas quilt in August 2022.
Retta Soileaux joined the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild about three years ago, after the 2016 flood wiped out her home and sewing business in Central.
Hilda Crangle, left, runs fabric through a cutting machine as Reynelle Ewing, center, and Linda Homes set up fabric in an assembly line. Crangle cut fabric with her machine for a large portion of the Christmas quilt the Feliciana Stitchers are creating.
Mary Boneno and Nancy Spillman watch Hilda Crangle demonstrate the AccuQuilt fabric cutter.
A quilter used a rotary cutter and self-healing mat with quilter's rulers to cut her Christmas blocks at the August 2022 meeting of the Feliciana Stitchers.
Pat Veatch, an 18-year member of the Feliciana Stitchers, sews a Christmas block at the August 2022 meeting.
Joyce Roberts, an original member of the Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild, shows off a rag doll with small quilts she adds. The dolls are part of the group's fundraising efforts.
The last weekend of August, the hall at St. Francisville United Methodist was full of activity.
It was a meeting of the 20-year-old Feliciana Stitchers Quilt Guild.
Throughout the morning, about 20 people were a part of the bustle, some were there all morning, some came early and left, and others came later.
Some stopped in and grabbed the instructions for a group Christmas quilt and left, including one woman with a headache who came back later with finished blocks. She told the others she just didn’t feel up to working under the lights in the church hall but wanted to get the blocks done.
The group celebrated 20 years with a party at West Feliciana Library on Sept. 20. More activities are coming later in the year.
The group met originally at Grace Episcopal Church. Now it splits its time between several places, including the Methodist church and the West Feliciana Parish Library.
A quilt show is planned during Christmas in the Country, which is the first weekend in December, and a lot of the activity is on Ferdinand Street.
The group had hoped to use a large room at the city building, but when that fell through, Laurie Walsh, the city’s Main Street program manager, suggested Market Hall on Royal Street as a quilt show location.
Mary Boneno, one of the group’s original members, said that suggestion just made the show more special: “That’s where we had our very first show.”
Linda Holmes, who joined early but wasn’t always active until recently, said the group has many activities throughout the year.
In November, “we display work at the library,” she said as she sorted through men’s ties, part of the theme of the work to be shown.
The Feliciana Stitchers hold meetings on the third Tuesday of each month. The also hold regular sit and sew sessions, such as the August event.
COVID-19 curtailed many projects, such as classes, that members hope to restart.
In the past, the quilters held shows and worked in costume on quilts at the Rural Homestead during the Pilgrimage.
Donated projects include quilted potholders in Christmas baskets for the food bank. “We get really good comments back about that it’s kind of a nice surprise,” Holmes said.
Quilt covers for neonatal intensive care unit and quilts for residents at veterans homes are past projects.
During the August sit and sew, the room was filled with many machines: shiny new Bernina sewing machines and old black and silver Singer Featherweight sewing machines, irons, rotary cutters and mats with quilting rulers, as well as a fabric cutting machine.
And at one table, the AccuQuilt machine — designed to easily cut quilt blocks — was popular.
The AccuQuilt cutter uses dies and pressure to cut fabric shapes. Many members were excited to see the cutter, brought by Hilda Crangle. It was used to cut much of the fabric for the Christmas raffle quilt being sewn that morning.
The room was filled with conversations, which included advice on quilting techniques.
At one table, someone mentioned a member who won’t be at the 20th anniversary party because she’ll be in France, which triggered talk of trips future and past.
Later talk of old TV and movies drifted across the room, one quilter saying she got her husband to go to see “Gone With the Wind” and he thought the men in the movie were the silliest.
Another woman spoke about keeping her 18-month-old granddaughter.
A recent retreat was a popular topic.
Holmes said, “We have a quilting retreat at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Covington. … Always a fun thing.” The most recent one was postponed and held in July. The next one is in February, trying to get back on schedule.
Members present were a mixed bag of experience.
Boneno is a charter member and estimates about five original members are still active. She belonged to River City Quilt guild before the West Feliciana group began. “I started sewing when I was in grade school. But I didn’t start quilting until the late '80s.”
She saw quilts a friend had made and thought she could do that. Then the two families planned to move to West Feliciana Parish.
They learned about a group of stitchers at Grace Episcopal Church. That group held a quilt show, and the friends visited and were invited to join the group.
Eventually the two families started a Thursday routine. The two couples would come to St. Francisville, have dinner at “The Mag,” and the women would go to the needlework group and the husbands would work on the house.
Once the families were in West Feliciana, they learned there wasn’t a quilter’s group, so they started one.
Even before she moved to St. Francisville, Boneno and her friend helped make the Pilgrimage quilt that was raffled to support the Rural Homestead on U.S. 61.
Of the current edition of the Feliciana Stitchers, she said, “A lot of these people were not quilters when they joined. The work they produce is amazing.”
Holmes said she moved to St. Francisville in late '90s and was an early member but was in and out.
“I’m really not a quilter. I just like to be around these ladies,” she said.
One of the newer members is Retta Soileaux, who has been in St. Francisville for about four years. Soileaux had a shop in Central, where she did heirloom sewing for babies. The flood of 2016 took out her business and home. “I said, let’s go back to quilting.”
“We had planned on downsizing. The man upstairs said, ‘Now.’ So that’s what we did,” Soileaux said.
Reynelle Ewing has been in the group about four years. “When I semiretired, I joined the group.”
Michelle Jeansonne has been in the group for a year but has been quilting since 2005. Her name came up often as members commented that she takes all their tiny scraps and uses them to stuff dog beds she makes.
Pat Veatch, an 18-year member, said, “I always wanted to learn to quilt so Margaret (Calhoun) and Mary (Boneno) talked me into to coming. I got started and never stopped.”
Joyce Roberts is an original member and showed rag dolls she is working to finish for an upcoming sale. These rag dolls will each have a small quilt when done.
Crangle is an original group member. She has been quilting about 35 years.
“It’s just a great community of friends. We are happy to include new people; we want more people to love what we love. … We don’t want this to become a lost art.”
Crangle spoke of the “addictive” nature of the craft and the group. She also talked about the personal nature: She, Veatch and another longtime member, Jane Dietrich, had recently traveled to a quilt shop in Brookhaven, Mississippi, for a day out.
She said, “It’s that kind of friendship.”
Email Leila Pitchford at lpitchford@theadvocate.com.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission
News Tips: newstips@theadvocate.com
Other questions: subscriberservices@theadvocate.com