Stitched With Love

If the Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I know exactly where I'll be every Monday at 3 P.M.

- By JANICE POLMATIER, Fort Valley, Georgia

That's when you can find me with my best friends. We call ourselves the Sewing Group. With that name, you'd think that we get together to make crafts—and we do. But we've become so much more to each other.

It all started in December 44 years ago. I was working as a fifth-grade teacher here in Peach County, Georgia. One afternoon, I was having lunch with my colleague Judy.

"I'm thinking about making a quilt," I said. "Know any good patterns?"

"Sure do," she said. "Why don't we get together with the other ladies and share some ideas? We can meet at my house one day after school."

What a wonderful idea! In the three years I'd taught at Peach County Schools, Judy and I, along with five other coworkers, had grown close. Although we didn't get together outside school, we chatted often and learned we had so much in common. We were moms in our thirties and forties then. We started off as a sewing group, but the most wonderful thing we ever crafted was our bond (I was 38 and had two young boys with my husband, Dick.) We all had a strong faith and a passion for crafting. I'd fallen in love with sewing and crocheting as a teenager, when my mother taught me the basics. I figured this meeting at Judy's would be a fun way to level up my skills and try some new projects.

The following Tuesday after school let out, I rounded up Connie, Barbara, Mary B., Lucille and Mary W., and we headed over to Judy's. She had a pile of crafting supplies and DIY magazines set up on her living room table, along with refreshments—iced tea, peach pie and more. The instant we took our seats, we were talkin' a blue streak.

“I'm happy to help y'all learn how to cross-stitch,” Mary B. offered.