Fabric of Community

For the past 20 years on Tuesday evenings at a north Omaha library, a quilting group has gathered with a shared passion to provide a different kind of wraparound support to Omaha-area nonprofits.

“Wrapping yourself in a quilt is like wrapping yourself in a big hug,” said Pat Morris, a longtime member of Quilters We Are, which began meeting at the Omaha Public Library’s Charles B. Washington branch two decades ago.

Since 2023, the group has donated more than 200 handmade quilts to participants in Metropolitan Community College’s 180 Re-Entry Assistance program (180 RAP).

For people transitioning from incarceration — where personal items are restricted, bedding is standard issue and nothing is designed with the comfort of the end user in mind — a gift so personal at a time so critical has a way of uplifting individuals, said Diane Good-Collins, director of MCC 180 RAP.

“When Quilters We Are donates to the MCC 180 Re-Entry Assistance Program, they are not just meeting basic needs, they are connecting people to comfort and increasing emotional wellness,” Good-Collins said. “I’ve seen faces soften when gifted one of the quilts made by the group. It’s an incredible thing to witness.”

The group thrives by sharing a collective love of quilting and community with one another. It is through the group’s consistency, relationships among members and open-door policy that Quilters We Are has endured.

On a typical Tuesday evening, around a dozen women of varying experience levels begin to arrive at the library around 4:30 p.m., picking up where they left off on their quilting projects from last week. If they forget to shut the door to the meeting room they will occupy for the next three hours, a gentle reminder from a librarian to lower the volume is sometimes warranted, said group organizer Dalma Seitelbach.

Quilters We Are relies on donated materials and equipment, as well as the library’s community space where materials and projects are stored, to carry out their work. The closets in the community room are filled with finished quilts, and when they reach capacity, Seitelbach makes deliveries to organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Youth Emergency Services, Ronald McDonald House and many more.

The group also takes on special causes, like in 2022 when they sent 51 quilts to eastern Kentucky residents impacted by historic flash flooding.

“Our mission is to do something positive in the community and [MCC 180 RAP] is part of the community. It makes us proud to support the program,” said Seitelbach, who delivered 20 quilts to 180 RAP in May.

At the close of each session, completed quilts are displayed and photographed at the front of the class, then posted to the group’s Facebook page.

Patterns that didn’t look like they belonged together at the beginning of class are artfully unified. Attendees celebrate one another’s work, sharing secrets of the craft and challenges they worked through to finish their textiles.

Daria Archie, who is retired, has been attending for close to 10 years. She said she appreciates her skill development, the group’s camaraderie and the unintentional gains she’s made by continuing to show up.

“I didn’t know anyone when I started coming, but you learn little things and then you get to know one another. When one of us is missing, we notice. It’s like a little family,” Archie said. “The other thing I like about it is that it gets me out of the house. I’m coming to see what’s going on, for the joking and having fun. It’s therapy for me, both physical and mental.

“[Quilting] works your hand-eye coordination and your motor skills. It's a constant, go, go, go, and you don’t realize how much you're doing. The mental part of making a quilt is that your material is like a puzzle, except you’re cutting out the pieces, then putting them together.”

Quilters We Are includes individuals who are seasoned in the craft, like Laura Donnelly, the daughter of a seamstress who learned how to sew from her grandmother at age five. She taught needlepoint classes to other women in the 1980s and started coming to Quilters We Are in 2022. She estimates she can turn around an entire quilt in 48 hours.

Her tablemate, Norma Craig, started coming with Donnelly in 2023, about eight months after her husband passed away. She had never quilted before joining the group but had always wanted to try it, she said.

“[Laura got me started] — I sewed buttons that whole summer. She taught me everything that I know,” said Craig, who has become an accomplished quilter over the past two years with the group. “It’s wonderful. I love it every day.”

For Cathy Forte and Jackie Whitaker, who each have attended for the past 15 years, it’s all about giving back.

“It doesn’t matter to me who gets the quilt. As long as they need it, I’m good with it,” Forte said.

Whitaker, who started coming after a friend from church invited her, said in addition to having fun, her participation is pretty straightforward.

“I’d rather do something instead of nothing. It’s a small way I can help someone without looking for anything in return, and that makes me feel good,” Whitaker said.

When asked about how she hopes the donated quilts are received by 180 RAP program participants, Archie emphasized the sense of agency that comes with owning something.

“It would be nice to have something that I could claim as my own. If you’re coming out of situations like [incarceration], you're probably not going to be getting a whole lot,” Archie said. “With these quilts, the fact is, we’re giving them something where they can say, ‘This is mine, and I know it's mine because nobody else has one like it.’”