BY CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
On a warm July morning, the fellowship hall at Yachats Community Presbyterian Church becomes a sewing room, a crafts clinic, a social setting and a welcome return to a special Yachats tradition — Leta’s Legacy Quilters.
It’s been 18 months since the group stopped in-person meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic, and they wasted no time Tuesday setting up their gleaming sewing machines, batches of fabric, pin cushions and patterns. Now that the weekly meetings have resumed — online Zoom sessions helped the group stay connected once COVID-19 struck — the plan is to keep going every Tuesday, sharing skills, caring and company with this community of crafters.
Anyone is welcome to sit at one of the large white tables set up in the church hall on West Sixth Street.
“You don’t need a background in sewing or quilting to come join us,” said Sue Finlayson of Yachats, the last of the original four women who began the group that evolved into Leta’s Legacy.
You don’t need to be female, either.
“Anyone in the community is welcome. If you’re interested in creating a quilt, it’s helpful to bring your own sewing machine,” Findlayson said.
But those aren’t always necessary either. “We have a couple of women who come down just to talk … we’re a social group as well as working on quilts for the community,” said Finlayson.
Many join to quilt, of course, but others are working on knitting or crochet projects, or just about any craft.
“We’re not doing something huge or earthshaking … we’re just a group that likes to sew and make things,” Finlayson said. When someone needs help with a technique, or advice on colors or fabrics, “everyone pitches in with ideas.”
Much of the group’s handwork is set aside as “community quilts” — some are kept at the church to be given to those who’ve been ill, or had a death in the family; others are batched together and given to the Oregon Coastal Quilters Guild in Newport. The guild, in turn, passes the handmade items to non-profits like My Sister’s Place, a temporary shelter for victims of violence and natural disasters. Wherever they end up, the community quilts are always donated, never sold.
Leta’s Legacy has no dues, no fees, no hierarchy of members. Members show up when they like, leave when they like, bring a brown-bag lunch or not; the first Tuesday of each month is potluck lunch day, with everyone bringing a dish.
Leta and her legacy
The “Leta” in the group’s name was Leta Clark, who hosted a small quilting group at her Waldport home. The three other original quilters included Finlayson, Gladys Schoonover, and Donna Kemmling, all of Yachats. Leta Clark died in 2012. The next year Finlayson, Schoonover and Kemmling started having their quilt meetings at the church hall. Schoonover passed in 2015.
“We decided, ‘Hey, this is a big room, let’s open up to anyone who wants to quilt, or just spend time with us’,” said Finlayson.
“When you quilt, you have a lot of material, pieces of fabric called a ‘stash’,” she explained. “We brought all of Leta’s stash to Yachats; when Gladys died, her stash came along, too, and it just grew from there.”
Today, the Leta’s Legacy stash is housed in a big shelving unit divided into some two dozen boxes of fabric. As members freely take pieces from the stash, they continually make their own contributions, too. So, like the Bible story of the poor widow whose meager supply of oil multiplied miraculously, the stash at the church “never runs out,” Finlayson said.
The heart of quilting
“It’s more about the heart of quilting, not the art of quilting,” said Nan Scott of Yachats, who with Finlayson is considered a master quilter at Leta’s Legacy. Scott was named featured quilter in 2019 for coastal quilters guild annual quilt show in Newport, an honor she calls “humbling.”
When Scott moved to Yachats in 2003 from Corvallis, she joined the coastal guild, and then Leta’s Legacy when it began in 2013. A former senior instructor in the Department of Crop and Soil Science at Oregon State University, Scott found that after working with math and statistics, “the geometry and precision of quilting appealed to me.”
Another regular, Betsy Maxfield of Waldport, started coming to the meetings 12 years ago. As she works on a baby quilt for a cousin’s grandson, she shares that what keeps bringing her back is “The people — my friends, and the pastor.”
Maxfield is a member of the Presbyterian Church, but there are no religious overtones to the meetings. In fact, Findlayson says, religion and politics are the only discussion topics not allowed.
“I really like the ladies here,” says another regular. “It’s nice to take your sewing out of the house. If I have a problem, someone here will always help.”
That spirit of helpful sharing also inspires Mary Emma Parks of Yachats, who has been quilting with the group for over nine years, first in Waldport when Gladys and Leta were alive.
“I knew how to sew,” she recalls, “but I didn’t enjoy it until I joined this group. It’s nice to have a sisterhood.”
That sense of sisterhood, of fellowship, seems almost palpable in the big Fellowship Hall when Leta’s Legacy Quilters gather. They may not be doing anything “huge or earth-shaking,” as Finlayson says, but stitch by stitch, their sharing and caring make a difference.
To be a part of Leta’s Legacy, simply go to the Fellowship Hall of Yachats Community Presbyterian Church on most Tuesdays between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. For details, contact Sue Findlayson at 541-547-4532.
- Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com
