7-26-2025 4:51am

Quilting Binds Ladies of the Boyertown Mennonite Church & 2/42 Community Church

Lesley Misko Editor

2/42 Community Church member Jamie Cascino and June Bieber create knotted quilts during a bi-weekly gathering of quilters.

by Jane Stahl

My dear friend Jamie Cascino-- knowing that I’d be inspired--invited me to meet some of the ladies of her church whose ministry is quilting blankets. While Jamie has become one of those ladies, she was more eager for me to meet those who have been creating quilts at least two six-hour days a week for years and whose work is donated to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)for Worldwide Distribution, to local families of newborns, to Genesis nursing home, and to the homeless. My “guides” for the visit (and guests on my “B Inspired” podcast) were Edith Freed and Gerry Grabias. I learned so much from our conversation. (The "B Inspired" episode dropped July 25, 2025, on your favorite podcast platform.)

Left to right: Edith Freed, Gerry Grabias served as my "docents" during my visit and as the guests on the "B Inspired" podcast episode we recorded. Find "B Inspired" on your favorite podcast platform.

I learned that the quilting ladies are unbelievably prolific! Between January and July 2025, 61 finished quilts have been created and donated to MCC/MRC; nine quilts were made for the homeless; eight went to Genesis (four baby quilts and four adult quilts); and five quilts were created for newborns in the congregation. Plus, the ladies are working hard to have plenty of quilts to sell at their upcoming fall festival. As of July, they have completed 22 quilts.

On the day of my visit, 15 women and a handful of teenagers were busily working at three stations on several quilts. “We can probably finish five knotted quilts on a normal day because of the help we’re getting,” explains Gerry. “The last two years, our group has grown. They’re not quitters, these ladies!”

Above: Jean Glick works on a patriotic-themed quilt. Bottom, left to right: Thelma Bowman and Ruth Stoltzfus work side-by-side knotting a challenging quilt of tiny squares.

Gerry notes one woman at the sewing machine. “Bev [Nuzzo] is a perfect example of the dedication and work ethic of our group. Bev comes regularly and spends each six-hour day hemming edges or fastening a binding at the sewing machine. She’s over 90 years old and this is not even her home church.”

Bev Nuzzo spends all day hemming and binding.

History
Quilting at the Boyertown Mennonite Church began as a fundraiser, an auction, in the early 1970’s at the church’s Fall Festival to build a gymnasium for the church and to benefit the Mennonite Central Committee. The gymnasium was built; quilting continued as part of the church’s ministry.

The gymnasium addition to the Mill Street church decades ago was funded in part by quilts sold during the church's Fall Festival; the quilting group continues today.

In chatting with Edith and Gerry, I learned about the history of the two congregations that gather at 275 Mill Street, Boyertown, PA, for services and activities. The church, known as Boyertown Mennonite Church since 1969, welcomed the congregation of 2/42 Community Church, led by Pastor Bryan Raught, in 2024.

“Our congregation was dwindling—getting older. We needed younger people,” explained Edith. “And just at the right moment, our interim pastor—one that we shared with another congregation--stopped by the Grill Shop for lunch and learned about 2/42 Community Church that had been meeting in the space behind the Grill Shop—with its children's class at Studio B Art Gallery. They were looking for a new, larger home,” she continued. “And God created the moment for us all to join together.”

The Boyertown Mennonite congregation has a long history. Beginning in 1780 as a “church plant” from the Bally, PA, the first building was located in the center of Boyertown; worshippers belonging to the two congregations shared a pastor until the late 1940’s when the Boyertown Mennonite Church became its own entity with its own pastor and leadership.

Page taken from A Pictorial Tour Through the History of Boyertown.

The Boyertown Mennonite Church mission reads: “We strive to be a Christian community of healing and growth,” a place of love and acceptance, ministering to a wide variety of needs within the Boyertown area as peacemakers who renounce violence.

Memberships include Mosaic Mennonite Conference, and part of the Mennonite World Conference with beliefs in the core values of historic Anabaptists of the 16th century and Mennonites with a Christ-centered faith that is Bible-based.

2/42 Community Church has no formal denominational affiliation but holds to the beliefs of most Christian churches: the deity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, his bodily resurrection, ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return for His church.

The “2/42” name was derived from Acts 2:42 that encourages intimate fellowship of love with one another--self-giving, sacrificial, binding love in which believers become a true family. The Jerusalem Church mentioned in Acts, Chapter 2 is considered the “mother” of all Christian churches and said to be the very first church planted by God alone by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Quilting
I also learned about the several styles of quilting from Edith and Gerry: hand quilting and knotted quilts. Hand quilting is the more tedious of the styles. Tiny stitches are placed along the seams or across designs or even underneath following a stencil. The stitches are made up and down, all the way across on the design through all three layers—the backing, the inside, and the top.

“I like the tiny stitches quilting style,” added Edith. “We no longer quilt in this style at the church. It’s too time-consuming, and the older women who did that kind of work are no longer quilting. Here, we create knotted quilts, but I’m quilting—in the traditional style--baby quilts, wall hangings, or lap robes in this way while I’m watching TV or just visiting. It’s relaxing. I’ve probably done projects 50” or 60”. I can’t do a larger quilt at home. At the church, I quilt in a hoop—18-24 inches—starting from the center.

“But I never thought I’d enjoy quilting. I came from a grandmother who quilted, a mother-in-law who was an excellent quilter. And she was very active, did a lot of quilting at home. I remember helping to put quilts together as a young girl. But when my fist son was born, she was making a quilt for him—the first grandson of mine. So, I helped her. And I said, ‘Never again; this is just too time consuming, too slow, too tedious. No, this is not for me!’

“In the following years, I helped a little bit when she was around or when she was doing a project, but I had no great interest until I moved here and got involved win the quilting here and, actually, I started learning to quilt here and am actually enjoying it.”

Knotted quilts are another type. First, the quilt is put together—three layers of backing, the inside and then the top, whether it is a printed piece or a piece made of patches, with a design or with no design—just using up scraps.

Knots are placed within four inches apart all the way. The quilt is put into a frame—first the back, then the inside, then the top. Once in the frame, the knots are tied. The frame is flexible with clamps so that it can be rolled to reach into the middle; knots are tied with crochet thread usually from the top, through the three layers and back up. The knot is tied three times and the thread is cut and you move on to the next knot.

“What’s so beautiful about coming in and knotting is that many of the ladies are single or widowed,” explains Gerry. “They come in, don’t know anyone, but their head is down and they’re knotting, figuring they won’t talk or have to talk. Yet pretty soon you hear the talking and the laughing and hear about all the day-to-day things that they can’t talk to anyone else about because they live alone, most of them. And so, it’s that which brings them here—the camaraderie, the feeling that what I say here is going to stay here. It’s not going to be broadcast; I can just say whatever I want. We’ve considered putting ‘Therapy Room’ on the title of our sewing room.

“The ladies build bonds with each other.. And they all have the work ethic. They all love the Lord and want to do things for other people. One gentleman who comes to our church is involved with the homeless camp in Pottstown. We asked how we could help and learned that the homeless need quilts. Last year we did 49 quilts for them, quilts made of heavier material—denim and upholstery material because those quilts lay on the ground for those people.

“We do quilts for Genesis that now has a home for the pregnancy center. They need bedspreads, so we make bedspread quilts for them and baby quilts.

“The quilts we create and drop off to the Mennonite Central Committee are shipped throughout the world in disaster areas, war areas, famine areas, depressed areas,” she added.

Gerry is a relative new member to the church. The story of their meeting, they suspect, was more than coincidence; they felt the hand of the Almighty. Gerry met Edith at a thrift store where she was looking to refurnish her new, smaller home after she had given everything away and needed to replace items.

Gerry smiles and says, “Edith looked at the material in my cart, material that I was to use with the Kutztown Quilting Guild and said, ‘You must be a quilter. We could use your help.’ She then gave me the address of the Boyertown Mennonite Church; and while I had no idea where it was, I came to know it was four miles from my house. And I started to come to quilt. And then, during the pandemic, Edith was kind enough to say, ‘Look, you’ve been sewing with us. You know everybody, why don’t you just come to church…in the grove.’ They took me in and pretty soon I could see a ministry, and I've been here every since!

“But unlike Edith, I wanted to quilt all my life. My grandmother had made a quilt for my mother out of the scraps from the clothes a friend made for my mother. My grandmother took those scraps and made a quilt with my mother’s dress material. It became very special to me; since then, I always wanted to quilt. When my children were grown, I started quilting at another church. About 15 years ago, I joined. Last year I gave the quilt my grandmother made for me to my daughter who prizes the memories it holds.”

Half a dozen blue ribbons from quilts entered in the Kutztown Fair's annual competition and sale in the earlier quilting days are hung in the quilting room, a room especially created for the group. The ribbons testify to the skills of the group. But today Edith claims, “We aren’t entering any competitions; we don’t have to be competitive. What we do here is production. We’re here to serve.”

There is no plan for the tops of the quilts. The quilters take whatever comes in. Everyone donates. Sometimes embroidered pieces are donated from family members whose grandmother has passed. There is great variety in the stores of fabrics, but no plan. The work is putting it together, they claim; it’s not fancy art--it’s utility, economy.

Yet, there is pride, intention, and planning for some of the quilts. And some are works of art.

Tables hold dozens of quilts ready to be donated. Some are designated for the unhoused. Others to the Mennonite Central Committee to be shipped to places around the work in disaster areas--war, famine, or depressed areas. The quilts sold provide donations to local organizations.

I left the church inspired, as Jamie predicted, by the creativity and graciousness of the women I watched use their skills in service to their community and to those in need. Boyertown is tagged "A Special Kind of Place," filled with all sorts of individuals and groups offering time and talents to better our world. Brava, Ladies! And thank you for your service.

Additional quilters: Lucy Romig, Debbie Romig, Heather Long, Debbie Brown, Esther Evans, Mary Ann King, Esther Rittenhouse. Former quilters: Alice Kolb, June Shenk, Rachel Schumker, Diane Landes, Rhoda Gehman, Catherine Bechel.