Quilt adds warm touch to church's entry area
BY PATRICIA YOCZIS Correspondent

A quilt that hangs in the gathering space of St. Mary's Church, Colts Neck, adds a touch of warmth and welcomes guests to the house of worship.

COLTS NECK - Nothing says "welcome" like a cozy, colorful quilt. So a group of women from St. Mary's Parish designed a welcome quilt to greet all who enter the church.

The women, dubbed the "Saintly Stitchers," hung the approximately 5.5-by- 6.5-foot multihued quilt on a wall in the church's gathering space.

"We wanted to create a sense of home when someone enters the church," said Suzanne Thomas, Tinton Falls, the organizer of the welcome quilt. "The colorful quilt softens the stone and wood and welcomes a person to enter."

Thomas, who has been quilting for more than 15 years, said the idea for the quilt came from her travels to northern England.

"I saw beautiful wall hangings in the cathedrals there," she said. "It gave the cathedrals a warmth. I wanted to bring that to St. Mary's."

Thomas said that when St. Mary's Church, at the corner of Route 34 and Phalanx Road, was undergo ing its expansion project, she re quested that a wall be saved for the welcome quilt to be used as liturgical art.

"This is a community quilt," she said. "Every decision was made by consensus, even to the background color of purple. Anyone who wanted to participate in making the quilt a reality was welcome to add their ideas and talent."

Thomas, who yearly attends the Empty Spools Seminar in California to study quilting, said the women brought different levels of quilting experience to the 18-month project. She machine-em - broidered a verse from the Marty Haugen hymn, appropriately titled "All Are Welcome," and pieced the quilt together. Then, she said, the quilt went to Kathy Sandbach in Oregon for free motion quilting for the final pattern.

Many of the women, Thomas said, worked on several different quilting techniques, while beading was the sole interest for Doris Hudak, Red Bank, and Jane Davis, Colts Neck.

Jean Kelly, Red Bank, and Kathy Mogensen, Freehold Township, worked on the grapes that surrounded the quilt's center verse.

"Embroidery is really my thing," said Mogensen, who has been a sur face embroiderer for more than 25 years. "But I liked working on the grape appliqués that gave the quilt a threedimensional aspect. Also, I liked the sense of community work ing together to make the quilt."

Anne Barth and Lola Gauthier, both of Colts Neck, surrounded the quilt's grapes and vines with 18 traditional quilted blocks, such as Jacob's ladder and cross and crown, named from Scripture by early Amish quilters.

"I'm still a want-to-be quilter," said Gauthier, who has been quilting for about 10 years. "I'm always interested in trying some thing new and learning. The wel come quilt was worth the work. I'm proud to be part of the effort that created such a beautiful thing."

Ellen Rugarber, Freehold Township, created some of the flowers that made the quilt's out side border a profusion of color. The flowers were names that Mary, the patroness of the parish, were called, such as Rose of Sharon, Mystic Rose and Lily of the Valley, she said. Fusion, not sewing, was one method.

"With special material and an iron, we fused cut-out layers of the flower together and then fused the completed flower to the block," said Rugarber, a quilter for seven years. "The flowers were done sep arately at home, and then we met as a group four or five times to check progress."

Rugarber and the church's core group of five or six quilters learned quilting from Sister Pat Reynolds, a former St. Mary's staff member. The group still meets about twice a month to make quilted items such as baby quilts, pillows and turbans for patients at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, she said.

"The pastor, Father Thomas Triggs, blessed the welcome quilt and liked it," said Rugarber. "We might be adding vestments and al tar clothes to our list, too."

Other "Saintly Stitchers" who worked on the welcome quilt are Anne Marie Binder, Joan Bowers, Miriam Bozak, Emily Criscione, Marian Higgins, Theresia Kopp, Heide Lohn, Barbara Schaflin, Deborah Stanley and Diane Sutkowski.

Thomas said quilting projects will begin in September, and all are welcome to participate. For more information call (732) 842-7699 or e-mail her at suzan - tom@comcast.net.