Piecemakers Stitch up Friendship, One Quilt at a Time

CRESCO — On any given second Monday afternoon at the Cresco Community Chapel, the room fills with conversation, laughter, and the excited buzz of quilters gathering to learn and share. Tables are covered with colorful quilts, notebooks, and works-in-progress as members settle in to hear guest speakers, swap stories, and celebrate one another’s creativity. The hum of sewing machines and the snip of scissors come later in the month — on Sit n’ Sew day — but on meeting day, it’s ideas, inspiration, and friendship that take center stage.

   This is the Piecemakers Guild - a joyful, welcoming circle of quilters who believe that community is best built one stitch at a time. Founded in the 1980s by Helen Perkins, former Howard County Extension Home Economist, along with three other enthusiastic quilters, the guild has grown from those early roots into a warm and friendly place where members learn together, share projects, and laugh a lot along the way.

   Each month, the guild invites outside speakers to expand their skills and spark new ideas. At the next meeting, members will welcome Mike Ellingson of Decorah, past Minnesota Quilter of the Year for both 2020 and 2021, who “will be sharing the process of paper piecing technique using freezer paper.” But while the techniques may be technical, the atmosphere is anything but stiff. Asked to describe the group, Ellen Bell put it simply: “Friendly, welcoming, informative and fun.” Treasurer Pat Zajicek agreed, saying, “It’s a group that gets together to share their talents with thread and fabric, and ideas using different patterns with each other, we’re very creative people.”

   At the heart of this year’s excitement is the President’s Challenge for 2025–26, “History in Stitches,” which encourages members to connect quilting with

personal and public stories. President Gladie Church explained, “I really like History so I gave the group the challenge to pick a time in history to use as a jump-off point 

for a quilt idea.” Members have embraced the theme in wildly different ways - chosing their time period and trying to match the quilt to that time period, while others are trying to tell a story with their quilt - and when the finished works appear at The Mighty Howard County Fair in June, visitors will have the chance to see creations from The Boston Tea Party to the Underground Railroad to the history of dolls- the creativity presented is astounding.