GARNER, Iowa (AP) - After stitching together thousands of quilts over the past 22 years, a Clear Lake woman who celebrated her 85th birthday last week is still going strong.
While quilters can finish their pieces on their own sewing machines, many seek out Ina Lofty’s expert touch at Country Threads in rural Garner.
The Globe Gazette reports (https://bit.ly/1eWFJWQ ) her workshop is quiet, located off the main building. Piles of quilts waiting to be finished are neatly stacked near rows of thread in every color.
Earlier this week Lofty’s pile got a little bigger, as she accepted a baby quilt top and bottom from a Mankato woman who praised her beautiful sewing skills on a previous quilt.
After taking a half-hour to add batting and stretch the layers tightly, she pulled out a piece of scrap fabric for a trial run.
“Anytime I’m working on a quilt for a valued customer I have to put my ducks in a row,” she said while doing a couple of practice stitches with a long-arm quilting machine she controlled with handles and buttons.
Lofty readjusting threading on the machine before sewing a swirling Swish pattern on the quilt, stopping every now and then to feel the back, ensuring stitching was going on all the way through.
“With the Swish stitch, you do whatever turns you on,” she explained, as she expertly whirled the machine over the quilt. She works standing, with her arms held almost at shoulder-height to run the machine.
She estimated it would take about an hour to complete sewing it together, later finished by trimming the edges and returning it to the quilter for binding, the final step in the quilt-making process.
Lofty, who has sewn everything from prom dresses to suits for her daughter and granddaughters, began quilting after taking piecing lessons in the 1970s, a time she says quilting was becoming popular again.
“Quilting has been strong ever since, and hasn’t let up,” she said.
She began working at Country Threads in 1992, after the company newsletter advertised a newly-acquired $10,000 quilting machine.
“She was on our newsletter list and insisted the machine had to be run at all hours because of its cost,” explained Mary Etherington, who co-owns Country Threads with Connie Tesene.
When she started, Lofty worked at a full-time job during the day and visited her husband at the care center in the afternoon before coming to the quilt shop. She taught herself to use the machine and would often sew until 9:30 p.m., Etherington recalled.
Today, Lofty works three times a week during warmer weather and twice a week during the winter, sharing duties with another sewer.
On average, she finishes about two quilts a day but it depends on their size and if her machine is running properly.
“It takes a lot of practice,” she said. “It requires feeling in touch with the machine and knowing how it runs.”
She said she considers herself real fortunate to still be working.
“I take it day-by-day,” she said. “I hope to do this as long as I can, and as long as they still want me.”
Country Threads will likely be wanting her services for a long time.
“Ina’s as dependable as can be,” Etherington said. “I’ve never heard a complaint from her, and her work ethic is second-to-none.”
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Information from: Globe Gazette, https://www.globegazette.com/
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