ACL Quilters building blocks full of meaning

May 7
ACL Quilters building blocks full of meaning

Stephanie Szymanski Abington Journal Correspondent

CLARKS SUMMIT - It’s all coming together: The Abington Community Library Quilters are just stitches away from completing their Underground Railroad quilt for Black History Month 2009, a project that is attributed to fellow quilter Ruth Grossarth.

Standing from left: Marge Selige, Beverly Anderson, Peg Winter, Sue Potenzano, Sue Klucher, Barbara Kudalsky, Barbara Hull, Pat Giuliani, Christine Wydick, Molly Farinola, Ruth Grossarth. In front: Linda Newberry, Lily Potenzano, Gail Paquin. Below, Lily Potenzano, 5, is considered the youngest quilter in the Abington Community Library Quilters group and holds the quilt she helped design.

Abington Journal Photos/Stephanie Szymanski

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“For Christmas, [my son and daughter-in-law] gave me the Underground Railroad Quilt Book,” Grossarth said. “I just loved it, being a history major. When we started back in January, I mentioned it first to Leah [Ducato Rudolph, Director of the Abington Community Library] to see whether or not she was interested in making something similar, and she said yes. What turned into a gift of love has evolved here; everybody loved the idea.”

“We started out, each making a block,” quilting instructor Peg Winter said. “Then we each made another block, and now we’re ready to sew the thing together.”

Every block in this group effort is meaningful. “There’s a great story about each of the blocks that is in the quilt,” Winter said. “It allegedly tells the story of how the quilts were used to give directions to the slaves that were escaping.”

According to Winter’s background on the quilt, which took about two to three weeks to make, slaves were not allowed to read or write, so “they had to develop networks and secret methods to communicate and plan their escape. Quilts were one of the secret ways of communication.”

The quilt will be raffled off at the library. “Next February we plan to do a whole program on the Underground Railroad around this,” Leah Ducato Rudolph said. “And then we’ll raffle it off.”

“The intention [of making this quilt] was to raise money for the library,” quilter Barbara Hull added.

One doesn’t need to be an expert quilter to get involved. Quilter Ruth Grossarth insists she’d never quilted in her life until now.

Both groups meet Tuesdays, with the beginners meeting in the afternoon while the more advanced group congregating in the morning. “Twice each year, we start a second class that I fondly call the ‘newbies’,” said Winter. “When they have completed the beginning course, they are invited to join the original group.”

For more information on Project DJ, call (570) 696-3897 or (570) 836-7575. To find out more about getting involved with the Abington Community Library Quilters, contact Leah Ducato Rudolph at (570) 587-3440.