by Dennis Dalman
The bursts of the quilt’s bold stars in red-white-blue are as colorful and dazzling as a Fourth of July fireworks show.
That quilt is now on display in Heritage Hall, which is connected to the St. Joseph Catholic Church in downtown St. Joseph. Delrose Fischer, master quilter, recently invited the Newsleader for a sneak-peak of that quilt and others.
The name of the patriotic masterpiece is “Courage in the Light.” All the many intricate pieces of that quilt were cut and pieced together by St. Joseph resident Lois Warnert.
The stars quilt is one of 37 quilts that have been created by the St. Joseph Parish Quilt Group, and all of them will be up for auction 1:30 p.m. inside the church during the Fourth of July Parish Festival. They will be exhibited in the church on July 3 and starting at 9 a.m. on July 4, the day of the festival and 1:30 p.m. quilt auction.
Meantime, every Wednesday different quilts are hung up for a week-long display at Heritage Hall. There will be up for auction 21 queen-size and lap-size quilts, three king-size quilts and 13 baby quilts.
The quilts can also be viewed starting in mid-June on the church’s website at churchstjoseph.com
Delrose Fischer, who is chairperson of the Quilt Group, has been with the quilters since the group started in 1986. She and Geri Schwab are the only active original members of the group. There are currently 14 Quilt Group members. Besides Fischer and Schwab, they are Marilyn Brinkman, Cathy Buchheit, Pat Henning, Ione Jacobs, Sharon Klehr Froele, Lora Lee, Linda Loso, Suzie Mesna, Jeny Meyer, Betty Schoemer, Ilene Schmitt and DD Schulte. Schulte lives in Luxemburg, and Henning, Jacobs and Lee all live in St. Cloud.
Some of those who cut and piece together the quilt patterns are talented volunteers (like Lois Warnert who pieced together the star quilt) but are not members of the group.
Once a quilt is cut and pieced together, the Quilt Group starts to work. They meet at Heritage Hall. They put the pieced-together quilt front on a large frame, then they start the hand-quilting process, stitching it all together with a layer of batting inside and a cloth backing. They attach a binding trip around the whole quilt, then hem it and stich it – thousands and thousands of meticulous stiches by hand.
Once the quilts are completed they must be ironed, a job that is done by group member DD Schulte and volunteer Peg Faber.
They work together every Monday from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and in some cases if they don’t finish a particular quilt they’ll continue working until 7 p.m. in order to finish the job. The quilting-session Mondays start in mid-August, with the month of December off, then they start again in January and go until March.
“Oh, we have a high old time when we get together,” said Fischer. “We solve the problems of the world. We enjoy getting together so much that even when we’re not quilting, we have lunch together somewhere in town or at someone’s house.”
On average, it takes 100 hours to complete a quilt, Fischer noted, and some can take up to three days of work. Each summer, at the Fourth of July Quilt Auction, the quilts bring a total of about $10,000 at auction. The proceeds are given to the parish to use for its needs.
To buy fabrics and other materials for the quilt-making, quite a few parishioners work in the dining hall at St. John’s University and use the money for quilt supplies, although some materials are donated too.
The quilting process could not be possible without the generous help of volunteers who prepare and serve hot lunches to the quilting ladies. Fischer said those food servers truly deserve a round of applause. They are Marlin Eich, Bonnie Gohmann, Mary Kay Kern, Shirley Miller, Pat Osborne, Josh and Sara Salzer and Lynn Valek, who helps set up for the lunches.
This baby quilt, called “Noah’s Ark (That’s Our Baby)” is one of 13 baby quilts that will be auctioned off at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 4 at St. Joseph Catholic Church. This quilt was cut and pieced together by Delrose Fischer, a member of the St. Joseph Parish Quilt Group.
