Since I came to Lake of Egypt, I had wanted to create a wall quilt depicting all of the lake's natural beauty and fun. When Dorla Hyatt asked me to teach a quilting class at the EPB Association building, I thought it would be a great opportunity to do a Lake of Egypt wall hanging as a group project. The first meeting was in October of 1997 and we discussed what we wanted to depict on the quilt. We had a long list: fishing, boating, swimming, owls, squirrels, beavers, etc. When I brought up jet skis, everyone said, "NO JET SKIS".
One month later, I took all their ideas and designed a wall quilt with ten 12" blocks and one central panel 24" wide. Most of the blocks depicted the activities of the four seasons at the lake. I put the patterns into 11 large envelopes and each person picked the blocks she wanted to work on.
Besides Dorla Hyatt and myself, we now had eight others working on the quilt. Evelyn Goetsch, Betty Stegle, Bea Perlowski, P.J. Amigdalos, Julie Stewart, Floy Wheeler, Judy McIntosh, Molly Zalar, Mary Chester, Mary Norris, and Betty Engledow contributed money for materials. Everyone contributed $10 for fabric, and Betty Stegle and I chose fabrics so colors coordianted. Although everyone used patterns I designed, everyone added their own ideas to embellish the design with sequins, beads, and embroidery. By April the blocks were finished and assembled. Bea Perlowski was kind enough to lend us her quilting frame. Sitting around the quilt frame we came together as EPB neighbors and became friends.
Our second quilting project began in the Spring of 1999; a fun scrap wall quilt. Everyone was given a basic block of beach and sky. With imagination and sewing skills, each depicted someone in bathing attire. It was fun to see what everone came up with. Across the front of the wall hanging is stitched "We all have our differences". This now hangs on the wall of the Association building.
When one of our own, Dorla Hyatt, had to leave the group to pursue cancer treatments, Charlene Cool suggested we make a quilt for Dorla to take with her. Without Dorla's knowledge, we appliqued each of our hands holding a heart on the quilt and presented it to Dorla as she left our community.
In 2000, we added Marge Dick, Elfriede Wachsmuth, Maxine Hood, Joe Robinson, Joyce Dutton, and Pat Sherman to the group and made our first quilt. It was an alphabet child's quilt. Each letter represented something of the lake area...such as A for acorn, B for boat, C for canoe, etc. The quilt was completed in 2001 and donated to the Lake of Egypt Fire Dept. for a raffle which raised $1,000 for the educational fundof the Fire Dept. We represented the LEFPD Chief Stan Lewis, with the check at a tea and quilt show at the Association building. The winning ticket raffle ticket was bought by Erma Holm, who was a volunteer for the Williamson County CASA program.
In 2002 we started the CASA quilt, made up of blocks depicting 20 little houses which when completed we gave to the Williamson County CASA organization and was raffled off along with the little student built houses at Christmas. By then we had a few new members. Theresa Mayhall, Dorothy Hart and Kathy Osteen.
In 2005 on Superbowl Sunday, we made lap quilts for the Veterans in wheel chairs and took them to the Marion VA Medical Center.
We often take turns to present a workshop or demonstrate a new technique. While some of our members have moved away from our community, some, if close enough still come to quilt with our group and show what they are working on. Presently we are working on one of Kathy Osteen's scrap quilt which will be given to the EPB Association for a raffle.
In November 2007, we celebrated our 10th anniversary with an old-fashioned quilt turning and tea at the Association Building and more recently made an original sampler quilt for our EPB Ladies Group President, Jeani Tarrant, which we call A Gift of Love.
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