Twisted Stitchers Quilt Guild - Ajax

by Sharon Galna, February 2016

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I first met Marcie in 1997 when she took her very first quilting class from me at the Pickering Village Creative Arts Centre. She had been sewing for years and wanted to learn a new skill. I knew from the very first class that she had “it”. I showed her how to do something only once and she absorbed it right away. As quick as most of my students are at learning the ins and outs of quilting, I can count on one hand how many students I’ve had over the last 20 years that possess that particular talent.

Marcie quickly reached my skill level in some areas and far surpassed it in others. For those of you who have seen her impeccable hand appliqué, you know exactly what I mean. Her talent in this area earned her an award at our last quilt show. Since I myself tallied up the votes I knew about an hour before the quilt show was over that she had won. Knowing that she was having both good and bad days by this time I phoned her and asked if she was having a good day. She told me she was so I told her to brush her hair, put on some lipstick and get her butt back to the quilt show because her quilt “My Mom’s Flowers” had won the CQA ribbon for Overall Viewer’s Choice. She came in a wheelchair, but proudly stood next to her quilt for photos.

I have been teaching classes at the Ultimate Sewing Centre for 11 years now and after I had been there for just over 3 years the owner, Shirley Eichler, asked if I knew anyone knowledgeable about quilting who might want a job there. I immediately thought of Marcie, and she soon became my co-worker. She proved herself invaluable to Shirley’s business by promoting new notions, tools and techniques, and teaching hand-work classes (which I avoided like the plague!).

Early in 2005, Marcie came to me with an idea to start a quilt guild in our Ajax community. At that time she was working closely at another quilt shop with Nadine Macdonald and they had already come up with the name, the Twisted Stitchers, and that it would be a charity based guild with a large teaching component. Shahena Fredricks (who now owns Cozy Quilts in Port Hope) was on board as the first treasurer, Marcie was president, Nadine was secretary, and I was “voluntold” that I would be the vice-president. We started out with only 25 members in the fall of 2005, but our numbers grew rapidly when other quilters found out about us and how much fun we had at our meetings.

She started out as my student, then became my co-worker, but she has always been my friend. Because she was my friend I saw both sides of Marcie, both positive and negative, as she did with me. We would tell each other off one day and be hugging the next. She was hard-working, obstinate, talented, impatient, resilient, irascible, caring, opinionated, thoughtful, often cantankerous, but always generous. Our local quilting community has lost a shining star.

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