Long-time quilter Helen Halstead spends many of her days at her Pfaff sewing machine piecing together works of art for children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. (Janell Bradley photo)
A piece of her heart in every quilt
Janell Bradley
Contributing Writer
Saturday, March 21, may be National Quilt Day, but almost any day could bring a day of quilting at the home of Helen Halstead of rural West Union.
The widowed mother of nine children grew up helping her mother put together quilts, but she never really made her own until her children started growing up and leaving the nest.
"When I was in high school, my mother (Verena Buchheit) had more time and she quilted while I did the rest of the work."
While Helen was cooking, cleaning house and helping her father outdoors, she did also find time to help Verena with some hand-quilting. Today she proudly holds onto a "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt her mother machine-pieced and hand-quilted in 1952. The beautiful heirloom was made entirely from feed sacks collected by her mother from the local feed stores in the Ossian and Festina area, where Helen grew up.
After Helen married George Halstead and the couple began raising a family, sewing took a back burner until the older children were able to help out with farm chores and around the house.
It was when daughters Lois and Kathy were in college that Helen was inspired to create quilts for them that would hold memories of growing up on the family farm.
"We had so much double-knit fabric left over around here because we did so much sewing," Helen said, referring to her daughters' involvement in 4-H.
Not wanting that fabric to go to waste, Helen pieced together quilts that were given to her girls upon their graduation from Iowa State University.
"Ollie Fay said a barbed wire fence won't tear that stuff," Helen laughed about the stretchy fabric in bright colors that didn't fade. "We bought all that double-knit fabric from Ollie Fay." Later, daughter Mary also got a double-knit quilt before Helen began using other fabrics for the successive quilts she made.
Six of the Halstead children graduated from ISU, and now there are 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren in the family. Although Helen has continued to make college graduation gifts of quilted material, baby quilts have also become necessary. She also enjoys doing "Block of the Month" quilts through local quilt shop, One Block Over, in West Union.
A batik-fabric subject in fall-themed hues, entitled "Wing and a Prayer," was a must-do for Helen.
"I really stuck with it until I had it all done," she said, even though she laughingly added that the Flying Geese feature nearly had her thinking she'd need a wing and a prayer to finish the project!
Sewing on a Pfaff sewing machine that she received as a Christmas gift 20 years ago, Helen often uses scraps from other projects when piecing the college quilts. Her scrap bin grew full during the years she was crafting with other women who made up the group Fayette County Quilters & Piecemakers.
