CICERO — In 1982, a group of seven local ladies gathered to share their love of quilting. They called themselves “the Crazy Quilters.” By the next year, they had rebranded as the “Plank Road Quilter’s Guild” as a nod to North Syracuse’s plank road — the first in the nation — built in 1846.
Now 60 members strong, the Plank Road Quilt Guild (the group shortened the name in 2001) faithfully meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the Cicero United Methodist Church.
Most of the members are retirees, which outgoing President Linda LoBello said is likely because Plank Road is one of the few area quilting groups that meets during the day instead of in the evening. Members are largely residents of the northern suburbs — Liverpool, Baldwinsville, Brewerton — but the group is open to all quilters of varying experience levels.
Program Chair Carol Gerow took up quilting in 1988. She made her first template out of a cereal box and traced the template to cut her fabric.
“I made my first quilt when my daughter was graduating high school and going to college and wanted a black-and-white quilt,” recalled Gerow.
Gerow graduated from her homemade cardboard template to taking classes and joining the Plank Road Quilt Guild.
“It’s a wonderful way to be creative and express yourself,” she said. “Even if two people make the same pattern, it doesn’t turn out the same.”
The group divides its meetings into two agendas: the first meeting is a business meeting, usually featuring a guest speaker, and the second is a friendship gathering where members can brainstorm projects, browse the guild’s extensive library or just sit around and chat.
The social component of the group was a lifeline for many during the first year of the pandemic. Nancy Wilson joined the guild just before COVID hit.
“Staying at home, [the guild] was a nice outlet. They taught me how to use Zoom,” Wilson said.
While the full guild has 60 active members, the quilters often gather in smaller neighborhood groups of nine to 12 people.
“I’m in one that’s called ‘the Betweens,’” LoBello said. “During the pandemic, we sometimes met in Onondaga Lake Park — not with big sewing projects. Sometimes it was just a social thing.”
The guild has a heavy focus community service as well. Members have sewn quilts for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which builds beds for children in need. They also recently donated 55 pet beds and 36 pee pads to HumaneCNY in Liverpool. The group’s current charitable project is creating quilts for Honor Flight veterans. At a June meeting, quilters cut fabric for Honor Flight quilt kits, and they will spend the Aug. 24 meeting cutting the batting and backing fabric for the kits. Once completed, these quilts will be given to veterans returning from Honor Flight trips to Washington, D.C., to see their respective war memorials.
Guest speakers offer the guild a chance to learn new techniques or get inspiration for future projects. The Aug. 10 meeting featured Rosemarie Ameen, a quilter who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ameen is originally from Canada and moved to the United States as a teenager when her father was appointed pastor of a group of rural churches in Upstate New York.
Ameen, aka “the Selvage Diva,” presented on the use of selvages, the finished edge of fabrics that keep threads from fraying. Selvages often list the fabric’s manufacturer, the name of the design and dots showing which colors the fabric uses. Instead of throwing these out, Ameen collects them and repurposes them into tote bags, tablet covers, mug rugs, pincushions and even Christmas cards.
“Selvages are just too precious to throw away,” Ameen said.
Among the selvage projects Ameen displayed were a quilt inspired by Japan and a rainbow sudoku quilt, a sort of color-by-number design Ameen created by assigning a color to each answer in a sudoku puzzle.
“Sometimes when I want to do something completely mindless, I just go to my selvage bin … and sew together a bunch of these blocks,” she said.
After Ameen’s presentation came the show-and-tell portion of the meeting. Wilson showed a quilt she had made for her great-nephew that featured UV-reactive thread that will glow under the black lights in the boy’s room.
While Wilson needed a helping hand to unfold the bed-sized quilt, Corresponding Secretary Donna Huberty shared a bite-size project: tiny quilted hearts that she plans to hide in area parks, as people have been doing for several years with painted rocks. Each heart has a tag that says “I need a home” and contains a URL with more information about the project: ifoundaquiltedheart.com.
“I just thought it was an adorable thing to brighten someone’s day,” Huberty said.
The Plank Road Quilt Guild meets at 9:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at Cicero UMC (8416 Brewerton Road). The next meeting is Aug. 24. For more information, visit plankroadquiltguild.org.
