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Cultivating a passion for quilting
Published 11/3/2008 in News
By MONICA SPRINGER
As a child, Jody Abel sat beneath her grandmother's sewing machine, piecing together quilts at her grandmother's Colorado home. She thought all little girls spent their childhood days like that.
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Monica Springer/Telegram — Jody Abel, of Scott City, stands by one of her quilts displayed at the Scott City Chamber of Commerce. Abel started a quilt project that sends quilts to area soldiers in Iraq. She also serves as a volunteer for numerous organizations in Scott City.
Jody's grandmother, who helped raise her, suffered from a case of polio and couldn't walk. That didn't stop her grandmother from doing normal, every day activities, Abel said. Her grandmother raised three kids and took in orphan kids.
"There was nothing that woman couldn't do," Abel said. "She could do everything but walk."
Abel didn't know that years later, the strength she witnessed in her grandmother would help her get through a knee surgery resulting in nerve damage that left Abel unable to work or stand for long periods of time.
Abel moved to Scott City in 1993. She has two children, Heather, 17, and Ashley, 14.
When her knee surgery left her unable to work, Abel started to volunteer in Scott City to keep busy. The change from working 40 hours a week to not being able to work was something Abel had to get used to.
To occupy her time, Abel volunteers for numerous organizations around Scott City. She is a member of the Scott City Quilt Guild, helps her daughters with fundraising at school, and also makes hats and blankets for the Scott County Hospital and for the Children's Hospital in Denver.
Abel is also a volunteer for the Park on the Plains, a community-effort to build a playground in Scott City using donated materials and labor.
"Everybody has to have a warm fuzzy feeling about themselves," Abel said. "Helping people is my warm fuzzy."
Abel started the Yellow Quilt Ribbon Project club last year in Scott City. The quilters in the club send quilts to western Kansas soldiers who are returning from or deploying to Iraq.
Abel served in the Army from 1989 to 1992 in Fort Carson, Colo., as an administrative specialist. She wants to help area soldiers as much as she can.
And other people are starting to take time and make quilts for area soldiers.
Since the time the project was started, about 30 quilts have been donated to western Kansas soldiers. Abel has made five.
Abel collects quilts, afghans, or no-sew fleece blankets to send to soldiers. She also goes to quilt clubs in other counties to encourage quilters to donate their creations to area soldiers.
Quilters in Scott City take turns hanging one of their quilts at the chamber of commerce. Right now, one of Jody's quilts, a Sunbonnet Sue quilt pattern in pink and green, is hanging on the wall.
Making quilts for people who can't is something that has helped her through difficult times in her life.
"It's probably helped me more than anything," Abel said. "Stuff happens. You get over it and keep going."
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