Quilter defines community

WAHOO, Neb. — Sandra Wade knows herself well enough to know that she doesn't like being without something to do.

“I just can't sit,” Wade said. “I have to be doing something.”

Luckily for her, she has found a hobby that not only allows her to keep her hands busy, but also allows her to help make a difference.

Wade is a quilter. She has won numerous awards at state and county fairs and is involved with three different quilting guilds. She has also volunteered her time to help out with the Nebraska State Fair quilt show.

Between the projects she has done on her own and the work she has done as part of the Wahoo Krazy Quilters club, her snappy stitch work has helped out local organizations that include the Saunders County Lost Pets-Pet Rescue, the Wahoo Public Library, the Saunders County Historical Society and the Saunders Medical Center Auxiliary.

Quilting is a hobby Wade has enjoyed for the last 30 years.

“I probably started making quilts for our children,” said Wade.

In those days, she started working with more geometric patterns. Everything she did on those early quilts, from the piecing to the quilting, she did by hand.

“I made the quilts by hand because that's the way I thought it was supposed to be done,” she said.

Wade would often find herself sitting in front of the television with her husband, Lee, quilting as they watched their favorite programs.

Wade said that Lee used to watch her quilt, and decided that she needed a more efficient way to pursue her hobby.

“One day he bought me a sewing machine and changed my life completely,” she said.

All of a sudden, the sky was the limit when it came to the types of quilts Wade could do.

Wade loves most of the work involved in putting together a quilt. However, she said one of the most exhilarating parts of putting together a new quilt is choosing the fabrics she is going to use.

“Picking the colors, I think that's probably my favorite part,” she said. “The piecing I enjoy, too.”

However, Wade isn't quite as fond of putting the binding on her quilts. She said that, by the time she gets to the binding, she is usually so eager to move on to something else that she tends to hurry through it.

“And I've gotten called on that,” she said, noting that judges who have looked at her competitive pieces can usually tell she was in a hurry. “I need to slow down and take more time for my binding.”

Wade doesn't really have a favorite type of quilt. If she sees a pattern and likes it, then she figures out how to make it happen and does it.

“I guess I've done just about all of them,” she said.

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