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Doing something good: Schultz makes layettes, quilts for those in need

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Margaret Schultz shows off quilts she recently created at her rural McGregor home. Schultz also makes layettes containing two gowns, two receiving blankets and a jacket. Purchased diapers and onesies are added too. Some of the items are donated locally, through organizations like MFL MarMac Friends Helping Friends, Shepherd of the Hills and Couleecap. Others are distributed by Midwest Mission, an organization for which Schultz’s church, Giard Methodist, makes and collects layettes, quilts and school kits. (Photo by Audrey Posten)

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

 

In the warmer months, you’ll often find Margaret Schultz outside, working in the yard or garden at her rural McGregor home. Cold winter days indoors are a little harder to fill. After all, you can’t read all day, Schultz joked.

 

So, she turned to sewing—creating layette sets and quilts for those in need. Some of the items are donated locally, through organizations like MFL MarMac Friends Helping Friends, Shepherd of the Hills and Couleecap. Others are distributed by Midwest Mission, an organization for which Schultz’s church, Giard Methodist, makes and collects layettes, quilts and school kits.

 

“They redistribute it to hurricane and tornado victims in this country. Then, a lot of it now goes to Latin American countries and Ukraine,” Schultz said.

 

Surprisingly, Schultz didn’t sew much growing up. 

 

“My dad had health issues, so we had to help on the farm a lot. I was an outside girl,” she reflected. “But my mom did a lot of sewing because there were four girls and a boy.”

 

Schultz’s grandmothers were also avid quilters. She recalled them going to the church at least twice each month to work—and socialize—with other ladies.

 

“There was nothing that would keep them away. That was when they did all the quilting by hand,” Schultz said. “I don’t have the patience to do that.”

 

When Schultz’s son Steve enlisted in the military, her mother-in-law made him a quilt using some of his high school patches as well as military patches from Schultz’s husband, James.

 

“When he would go on deployment on the aircraft carrier, that quilt always went along,” she said. “After that, I started messing around and doing some patchwork denim quilts. I made one for each of the grandkids. Then the kids brought me T-shirts from school and I made some quilts for them.”

 

Now, it’s friends and fellow church members who give Schultz sacks of material.

 

As of late January, Schultz had created 10 layettes, each containing two gowns, two receiving blankets and a jacket. Purchased diapers and onesies are also added. 

 

The dining room table at her home held over a half dozen quilts for children—and plenty of material to make more. The fabric for one quilt read “I Love Grandma.” Another depicted blue and yellow elephants and one showed a little cowboy riding a horse and swinging his lasso. Some quilts are beautiful patchworks of leftover material.

 

“I think some of these are so cute,” Schultz said. “I like how you can put them together and coordinate the colors. Like the colors for ‘I Love Grandma,’ you have to find backing that will go with it. Sometimes I go buy something if I don’t have anything here, but lots of this was something somebody gave me.”

 

Schultz described her process: “I sew the squares together and put the binding on and figure all that out, then put batting in between.”

 

It’s all done with her trusty $100 Singer sewing machine.

 

Schultz said the time commitment for each quilt depends on the pattern. Sewing squares, for instance, takes longer than sewing a back to a front made from a larger piece of material.

 

“The 10- or 12-inch squares take less time than the four-inch ones,” she added.

 

Creating the quilts is fun for Schultz, who enjoys unleashing her creativity while staying busy.

 

“When we were farming and I had [Maggie’s Diner], I didn’t have time to do any of that stuff. Now, I can’t just sit around. I have to do something good in my life,” she said.

 

She feels even better knowing her hobby benefits others.

 

“You know that song, ‘This Little Light of Mine?’ Don’t hide it under a bushel. Let it shine and do something good for somebody else. That’s always been my feeling about a lot of things,” Schultz said. “I’ve been very blessed.”

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