So-Together 11-Year-Old Sews Together Quilt

By Nancy K. Crevier

“We call ourselves the ‘Sew Together Gals’ because we not only sew together, but we are so together!” exclaimed Peg Jacques, of the seven-member, local sewing group. The Sew Together Gals, Ms Jacques, Liz Arneth, Lori Jacques, Holly Walczak, Marian Wood, Frances Ashbolt, and Emily Ashbolt, have been meeting monthly to quilt since February of 2005.

“We do one quilt every year for charity,” said Ms Jacques. Last year the Family Counseling Center was the recipient of the tercentennial-themed lap quilt they made. This year, the quilting crew is donating an 86-by-86-inch, queen-sized quilt to The Friends of C.H. Booth Library to be raffled off this summer.

The hand embroidered, machine-pieced quilt is all blue and white, with a lighthouse theme, said Ms Jacques. But one of the more unique things about this quilt is that one of its creators is only 11 years old.

Emily Ashbolt has been with the group of women, including her mother, Frances, for almost a year.

“She is a beginner,” said Ms Jacques, who along with fellow quilter, Marian Wood, has more than ten years of quilting experience, “but she is very good. Emily is just incredible. She has a good eye for color and pulls her own weight in the group.”

Placing the color in a quilt is difficult, Ms Jacques said. “You want to place the color so things pop out.” Ms Jacques found that she was having trouble placing the colors when she generated the design. “Emily,” she said, “took one look and said, ‘Oh, the seashells [on the preprinted squares] should go here.’ She was dead right.”

Emily and her mother are a wonderful mother-daughter team and add a level of freshness to the sewing group, Ms Jacques said. “She is very self-confident for a 11-year-old,” Ms Jacques added, “and just a wonderful quilter.”

Before she joined her mother’s quilting group, Emily had not quilted, not did she know how to embroider. Under the tutelage of her mother and the other quilters, she learned quilting and embroidery skills. Her mother, who has always loved to sew and has been quilting for nine years, is pleased that her daughter has taken a liking to the hobby and is learning lifelong skills.

“The group is very encouraging to her,” said Mrs Ashbolt.

“I can do a backstitch, a chain stitch and the feather stitch now. The lighthouse is my first real embroidery,” said Emily, as she pointed out the different stitches she used to highlight the lighthouse in “her” square. Each of the quilters is embroidering and quilting a square printed with a lighthouse design that will be incorporated into the huge blue and white comforter. Once the lighthouse is embroidered, explained Emily, they hand stitch quilting around the design to “make it look pouffy.”

Learning to “ride” or “rock” the stitches to keep them small and even has been a little more daunting, but now that she has the hang of it, said Emily, she finds it enjoyable.

Said Emily, “[Being in the quilting group] gives me special bonding time with my mom and I like the other women. They include me and I include them. They don’t get bored when I chat. They listen and they share stories.” She giggled and admitted that, “We do more talking than quilting at some meetings.”

There is a lot of satisfaction in creating a quilt, said the sixth grader. “I want it to be finished and I’ll be glad that the money is going off to support the library, because I love to read. It’s nice to be a part of something that could be an heirloom one day.”

In a gathering made up of only middle-aged women and older, Emily blends right in. “What it is,” said Ms Jacques, “is a bunch of us old hens with this little chicken. We have a lot of fun.”

Tickets for the quilt raffle will go on sale in the late spring at the C.H. Booth Library and will be available at the July book sale, as well.