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HASTINGS-Jessie Garska has made more than 200 quilts for Epworth Village, Inc. in York and Grand Island. Epworth serves boys and their families dealing with severe, emotional and behavioral disorders. Garska is part of the “Quiltologists” a non-denominational quilting group that meets Monday afternoons from 1:30 to 4 p.m. and all day on Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at “The Annex” across from the First United Methodist Church in Hastings. Everyone is invited to come and help out. If interested, call the church at (402) 463-6733.
The Science of “Quiltology”
Hastings woman creates more than 200 quilts for Epworth boys
HASTINGS-There’s a science to it, that’s why they call themselves “Quiltologists.” Or at least that’s what the sign says as one enters their creative quarters.
You’ll find the group inside “The Annex,” old doctors’ offices converted by the First United Methodist Church in Hastings into a place where the non-denominational quilting group can stitch their version of love and care into warm, beautiful blankets that are sent off to embrace all sorts of little and big people who need an extra cover of kindness.
The group meets Monday afternoons from 1:30 to 4 p.m. and all day on Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Everyone is invited to come who is interested in helping out. On a recent particular quilting day, Jeannette Stahl, Aldean Moore, Nita Bramble, Genevieve Laux, Marybelle Bird and Jessie Garska came together to share some coffee and conversation, (oh and of course quilting).
As the other five women went about their work, Garska was seated at a table by herself. In front of her was a small notebook with grids upon grids of patterns inside. “A lot of these come from crossword puzzles,” Garska noted as she motioned towards the quilting patterns.
Garska said she began sewing in factories in 1960. She has worked a variety of places, including the old “Mode-O-Day” women’s sportswear company that used to be on South Street in town. Then she worked at the Hastings Casket Co. “I sewed interiors of caskets until they closed.” Then it was on to EPCO industries where Garska made boat interiors and finally to Phillips Industries where she sewed sun tops and aftermarket seats for all-terrain vehicles.
Her recent venture isn’t a paid job; it’s a labor of love. Since she joined her fellow “quiltologists” Garska has made 215 quilts for boys at Epworth Village, a family-centered treatment facility in York and Grand Island for boys and their families dealing with severe, emotional and behavioral disorders. As the other women make their quilts for local children in need and baptisms, Garska lays claim to making quilts for Epworth on her own.
She uses the stacks, upon stacks of material, some of it back from her “Mode-O-Day” years. The one she is currently working on has bold squares of sunshine yellow and earth brown, a combination she said she really likes. “This fabric from the 1970s you just can’t find anymore and it washes up so nice.”
“It’s like an addiction, this quilting is,” Garska added. “I do one quilt a week and I think I’ve only made two quilts that were ugly, at least that’s what I think.”
The boys at Epworth Village each receive a quilt when they enter residential treatment at the facility. Last year more than 100 boys received a quilt, most of them from United Methodist Women from across the state of Nebraska. The quilts are twin-size and must be machine washable. The only other stipulations are to steer away from pinks and lavenders because the facility treats only boys ages 7 to 18. Also, the most stringent requirement, make sure to quilt plenty of compassion into each one and that’s something Garska and hundreds of others have done consistently throughout the years.
“I like helping out where I can and it keeps me busy. I enjoy taking what starts as scraps and making designs,” Garska said.
Quilting for boys dealing with their own struggles keeps Garska’s mind off her own challenges, such as the 15 surgeries she has been through in ten years. Currently, wet macular degeneration, is among the medical issues she deals with. “Most likely I’ll go blind eventually. I get a shot once a month in one of my eyes and they say that should stop it from getting worse, but we’ll see.”
Though medical science has yet to come up with a way to cure her growing blindness, this doesn’t stop Garska from utilizing the proven science of “Quiltology ” as she stitches tons of love into each colorful block until she can’t stitch anymore.