‘Each Quilt Tells a Story’ – Chelsea Retirement Community (CRC) Residents Share a Wealth of Memories

When Sally Lamkin and Sherri Rizzo, both residents of CRC’s new Prairie Cottages, joined the Program Committee, they wanted to plan something that lots of residents could enjoy and take part in.  They decided a quilt show would be a good way for their CRC neighbors to share something of themselves.

Today, 77 quilts of every shape and color were beautifully displayed in the CRC Chapel to the delight of residents and visitors.  “Each quilt tells a story,” says Sherri.  Some quilts were given as gifts from church members, including a quilt belonging to Helen Jeanne Doane.  Her late husband, Ted, served as the District Superintendent for the Marquette District of the United Methodist Church for many years in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Each of the quilt’s squares depicts one of the 60 churches in that district.

Another quilt belongs to Sally who served as a preschool teacher at her church.  It was given to her as a gift and features the names of her students done in cross stitch.

Other quilts were lovingly made by residents for family members – one includes pieces of her husband’s favorite t-shirts; another contains her husband’s boy scout badges.  Still another was designed as a Scrabble board with the names of a grandmother’s twelve siblings woven in.  The oldest quilt on display dates back to the 1890s.

Resident Mary Austin’s three quilts on display depict her love of birds, including one made with 18 photographs she has taken of birds printed onto fabric that she then stitched into a quilt.  Mary shares that she and her two sisters learned to quilt from their mother and grandmother, who was a seamstress for Irish royalty.  Mary taught this time-honored tradition to her three daughters as well.  Mary is currently working on a Noah’s Ark quilt for her great-grandson.

“So many varieties and colors,” says Sherri of these quilts.  “So many remarkable memories and stories.”

To learn more about Chelsea Retirement Community, visit https://umrc.com/communities/chelsea-retirement-community/