Quilters come to the rescue

WITTENBERG — Quilters seem to be on the forefront of keeping the spread of COVID-19 at bay.

What they have in common is a seemingly unlimited supply of quality fabric remnants from past projects. Quilting is definitely a labor of love, so it makes sense that there are so many reports of quilters who are busy making masks.

Three of them in this area are Dar Borchardt and Linda Philipp, of Wittenberg, and Katie Kaufman, of Eland.

“I have three daughters in the health care industry and when they asked for masks, I was happy to help,” said Kaufman.

A science teacher at Wittenberg Elementary-Middle School for the past 40 years, Kaufman has a little more time on her hands now that school has been shut down.

Her daughter, Lacey McRoy, of Howard, had posted it on Facebook and soon requests came in from all over the country. To date, she’s made over 800 masks that have been sent to three hospitals in Milwaukee, to Missouri where daughter Brittany Pratt works and all the way to Texas.

A friend of Kaufman is a poll worker in Neenah and requested 50 for the workers who manned the polls on Tuesday. She also filled requests from poll workers in the town of Wittenberg and the village of Eland.

Borchardt has been sewing since she was a teen when she helped create costumes for the She 5 band, a group of teenage girls who toured in Vietnam during the war.

“I set up an assembly line in my sewing room, cutting the fabric, placing it in piles next to the ties so that when I start sewing, there’s no stopping me,” said Borchardt.

She says the most time consuming part is cutting the fabric and ironing in the fusible interface fabric for the inside, but notes it creates another barrier to help stop the spread of the virus.

Borchardt called Brad Davis, director of nursing at Homme Home for the Aging to see if the staff wanted some masks and she delivered 10 that were made of fun, bright fabrics. The residents enjoyed seeing the masks so he ordered 10 more and noted another person had donated 10 to the staff.

Philipp is motivated to help keep her community safe. She started making some to pass out to family and friends and uses three different patterns.

“I’m doing my best to help our community stay safe, by trying to pass them out to people in town. I feel safe and want to have everybody safe, too,” said Philipp.

Making fabric masks has become so popular that elastic is now hard to come by. Philipp noted she’s down to a supply of one inch wide elastic and cuts it into four pieces, a quarter inch wide which is the recommended size.

“I’ve gotten really creative with elastic,” said Kaufman, “I discovered I could cut up yoga pants and it works perfectly.”

With the suggestion from the CDC last Friday that people should wear fabric masks when going out in public there will be greater demand for them. All three quilters suggested a simple search on the internet will show how to make and where to donate them.