“Quilting is about making someone happy, and making the quilt maker happy,” said Judy Schroeder, of Pulaski. “It’s all about making someone smile.”
Schroeder is part of a group of quilters who meet every Wednesday at the Pulaski Adult Activity Center, 430 S. St. Augustine St., Pulaski. She has been involved at the activity center off and on for at least 10 years. When talking about how the group evolved, Schroeder said the idea was that the quilters could help each other.
There are about four to five quilters who join the group on a regular basis. Everyone attending the group works independently, but they all rely on help, knowledge and talents of the other quilters.
The camaraderie, equipment availability and space to work draw the quilters to the activity center.
Lucy Slusarek said that the members have sewing rooms at home.
“But we like to come here for fellowship and to be able to bounce ideas off each other, get advice from each other,” Slusarek said. “We have our own projects, but we help each other.”
Schroeder added that the get-togethers help members to see what others are doing. She said that it could be as simple as the top of a quilt being complete but needing feedback on what the border should be.
“If you gave three of us a pattern, we would not come up with the same thing,” Schroeder said. “We’d all use different color combinations. We’d alter the pattern some way.”
Ravae Koch, another member, remembered a time she was with the group repairing a quilt her grandmother had made for her aunt.
“I replaced several squares,” Koch said. “Lucy had an almost-identical fabric to what I was replacing. She said that she had something at home.”
Slusarek went home and brought the fabric back to the center for Koch.
Slusarek started coming to the activity center in May. She retired and a friend encouraged her to join the group of quilters.
“It works out real nice, because there’s a lot of room here,” she said. “A lot of the tools are here that you need, so it’s really nice. You don’t have to bring a lot with you.”
Slusarek has been quilting for close to 50 years.
“When I hit about 13, I started getting interested in quilts,” Slusarek said. “My mother used to make them on a wooden frame at home. I got involved in making designs out of pieces of fabric and it grew from there and I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve probably done hundreds of quilts.”
Koch has been coming to the quilting group for about three years. She moved to Pulaski from New Jersey after she and her husband retired. She said they came to the Midwest because it’s a better life.
Koch and her husband chose Pulaski because she has one sister in Bonduel and another sister in Suamico.
“I did a little quilting in my life,” Koch said. “But when I retired, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” She said that she was really happy to find the group at the center.
Her grandmother, who died about 30 years ago, quilted and that gave Koch the idea to do the same.
“I was the beneficiary of all of her fabric and half-completed quilts,” she said. “So, it’s my mission to complete her quilts.” Recently, she has been working on a baby quilt her grandmother started.
Schroeder doesn’t limit her involvement in the group to only quilting.
“I knit and crochet based on what my arthritis in my hands are doing,” she said.
Schroeder donates a lot of her projects for children. She recently donated hats and scarves at a center that distributes them to local schools in the Howard-Suamico area.
“When I come here, I usually bring a portable project with me,” Schroeder saidd. “It’s just easier. I do prayer shawls for nursing homes.”
Schroeder said her first quilt project was when her son left for college at UW-Platteville. She designed a Platteville-themed quilt for him for Christmas.
When her daughter was accepted at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Schroeder made her a Bucky Badger quilt. That’s when she immersed herself in quilting, she said.
Some of the quilters also belong to the Town ‘N Country Quilt Guild in Pulaski. The guild meets once a month.
A number of people had taken quilting classes at Pulaski High School. Joyce Natzke from Shawano taught at the school. When the classes ended, they decided to form the Town ‘N Country Quilt Guild in Pulaski about 30 years ago.
The guild arranges for donations of quilts to charities, such as the tiny house project of the Veterans 1st of North East Wisconsin.
A recent guild project was to make lap-sized comfort quilts for nursing home residents.
The quilters have access to bus trips all over the state and Midwest to visit quilting shops through the Pulaski Guild.
“They put the word out to our members and friends,” Schroeder said. “We have full coaches.”
For example, a one-day trip is being planned with five stops throughout Wisconsin.
The quilters at the Activity Center noted that Bolt and Skein Quilt Shop, 1488 E. Green Bay St., Shawano, is a great source of fabric.
“They are great people, and they have a beautiful supply of fabrics,” Schroeder said.
