Sew and tell: Wheeler featured quilter at Teakettle show
Sherry Wheeler says her sewing buddies have become more than just her friends, they are more like family.
After 10 years in the Teakettle Quit Guild, Sherry Wheeler says her sewing buddies have become more than just her friends, they are more like family.
As the featured quilter for the group’s annual quilt show, Wheeler will get the chance to spend time with her sewing family while showing off some of her favorite quilts Saturday at Glacier Gateway Elementary in Columbia Falls.
Wheeler says she took up quilting 15 years ago to help fill a hole at a low point in her life after losing both of her parents and moving back home to the Flathead Valley after a divorce.
“I started with two small bins of leftover material from back when I would make my daughter clothes when she was a child,” she said. “I never really did use much of that material, because when I walked into a quilt shop for the first time, I just went nuts.”
Wheeler said she found a class at Glacier Quilts in Kalispell and talked her aunt into coming along with her. Soon, the pair was making the rounds across the state for shop-hops, events hosted by quilting stores all over Montana where quilters can find new patterns and materials.
“They can keep the eastern part of Montana, it is flat and boring. But the trips were worth it for the quilting and getting to spend time with my aunt,” she said with a laugh.
Wheeler, who loved to collect and work with wildlife patterns (especially her mother’s favorite, hummingbirds), said she knew the Teakettle Guild was for her after attending her first meeting with the group.
“I walked into that first meeting and sitting there on the swap table was an unfinished quilting kit. Of course, it was covered in hummingbirds,” she said. “I knew this guild was going to be a perfect fit for me.”
Fast forward 10 years and Wheeler is now the treasurer of the group, helping keep track of their numerous charity projects, which include working with Neighbors in Need, the food bank, the Columbia Falls Fire Department, the Lions Club and more.
“I think it is important to give back. It’s what God wants us to do,” she said.
While Wheeler admits she has been hard at work getting pieces ready for the show, she says sewing is still just a fun hobby.
“There are those in the guild who will get up and sew until it’s time to go back to bed,” she said. “Me, I won’t sew unless I have my laundry done, the house clean and have decided what we are going to have for dinner.”
Wheeler used to have to do all of her work on her kitchen table, but now has plenty of space downstairs after creating a sewing room when she and her new husband moved her house from Kalispell to the countryside north of Whitefish.
“It is much easier now that I have this space. I can just come down and work on it for a little while whenever I feel like it,” she admitted.
Wheeler has used that new space to her advantage, finishing old projects to get ready for the show, including that hummingbird kit from 10 years ago. Now she is ready to put her work on display for her friends and family, as well as the public.
The 2019 Teakettle Quilt Guild show will run from 9 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. at Glacier Gateway Elementary Saturday, April 27.
The free show will feature numerous vendors, a boutique, and will have a drop-off area for donations to the Columbia Falls Food Bank.
The guild will also once again be raffling off a quilt, with the proceeds going to local charities and operating expenses.