MONTICELLO, Ky. (LEX 18) — On an afternoon at Monticello’s Quilt Shoppe, the chatter of friends harmonizes with an antique sewing machine.
“Can we eat now?” one member asks as the group responds with laughter.
“It’s just a group of kind women,” said Pat Dill, president of the Contented Hearts Quilt Guild. “We have a great time together.
The group boasts 45 members. If you stop into the shop on Main Street right now, you’ll find them working away on their piece for the Labor Day quilt show.
The two-and-a-half-inch squares the ladies are sewing together will eventually become a cozy keepsake for someone.
“We do a quilt show Labor Day weekend, and the ladies, that's what they're making now,” said Dill. “We raffle it off at a dollar a ticket and it's our big money maker each year.”
Their tedious stitching keeps the nonprofit’s lights on as they create quilts for fundraisers. The income is always balanced by goodwill. The guild often donates time to 4Hers and beginners and gifts quilts to veterans, among other projects throughout the year.
While the individual squares of fabric don’t make much on their own, together, they form a work of art.
In the same way, the women of the guild are better together.
“You take a beautiful piece of fabric, chop it up, mix it up, and come up with what you're seeing here. It's a creative outlet for anybody. But the camaraderie, the camaraderie here, the friendship, these women are fabulous friends,” said Dill.
Dill spent most of her life living in Connecticut, but a retirement dream led her and her husband to Monticello.
“We came down and fell in love with the whole area, and I wanted to learn to quilt, he wanted to boat, it was a home run,” said Dill.
She quickly learned that Monticello is the kind of town where everybody knows your name.
“When we came here, the first thing they said was, ‘Don't talk to anybody about anybody because they're either related or they're best friends.’”
The guild would become her Kentucky family – all of the women eager to swap scrap fabric or make a meal when you’re sick.
Their quilting is important, but the friendships are everything.
“This is home now,” said Dill.
