COLUMBIA, S.C. — A group of women are using their passion for crafting to educate others and help the community over at the South Carolina State Fair. Fairgoers can see handmade quilts, fresh-baked goods and other items in the Moore Building.
"It's really, it's really a good thing," quilter Linda Ventresco said. "Really a good thing because it's cold when they're getting chemo and they really appreciate it."
She's sewing for a good cause. Ventresco is a part of "Sewrority Sisters," a group of about 50 quilters that get together to make blankets for chemotherapy patients at Lexington Medical Center.
"It's very special. And when you go to the hospital, and you see the looks on people's faces and the gratitude, it makes doing our craft even that more important," Ventresco said. "We do it for ourselves to be creative, but now we're doing it for other people also that are going through a really hard thing."
Ventresco is sharing that with others at the State Fair and members of the Threads of Time Quilt Guild.
"You learn a lot from each other," guild president Doureen Morse said. "We take the time and learn a lot from each other."
It's why Morse and other guild members are doing live demonstrations for fairgoers, trying to recruit members to the guild and pass on the art of quilting.
"It matters to me because it's an heirloom," Morse said. "Something that my grandkids or my children can take with them. I've made all five of my grandkids quilts."
Something that fair attendee Pippa Garris and her friends Macy How and Bailey Craft resonate with.
"I personally don't know how to quilt but like my mom knows how to quilt, my grandma, my great grandma like all them do," Garris explains.
By showing off the process, Morse says she hopes younger people will get involved.
"We always have our doors open," Morse said. "It's a group of women that get together once a month and we make quilts, we make donations for different agencies: DSS, Quilts of Valor for our military who have came home and just to encourage them."
The Threads of Time Quilt Guild meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. in Lexington at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church. To get involved with the Sewrority Sisters, email sewroritysistersquilting@gmail.com or message the Facebook page.
"We're always looking to add people to our group that like to do things like this and are willing to do it for a good cause," Ventresco said.