Meet Priscilla and Richard from Long Beach, California. Road 2019 was their first time at the show because Priscilla has only been quilting for a year. Their quilting instructor, Gloria Molina, invited them and other members of their quilting group to attend.

Priscilla’s quilting group is unique:  It is made up of all disabled women.

Their disabled quilters group has been meeting for about a year at the East Los Angeles Community Center. It was the center who saw a need for a disabled quilters group and approached Gloria to see if she could lead it.

Gloria, a former Los Angeles County Supervisor, has made a name for herself in the quilting world.  As a member of TELAS (The East Los Angeles Stitchers), Gloria and her group work to promote their heritage and culture through quilting. In 2014, TELAS and a Mexican quilting group from Puebla, Mexico, teamed up to provide a Special Exhibit at Road featuring angels, a translation of both of their cities’ names.

At Road 2019, Gloria and her group sponsored the Special Exhibit, Catrina.

The disabled quilters group meets three times a month. “We all have different limitations, but we are all into quilting,” said Priscilla.  How do they make quilting inclusive? “We find a way around our disabilities and help each other to make it work for us.”

Priscilla was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at 8 years of age. She was told that she wouldn’t live past age 20 but here she is, 50 years old and has been married 28 years. “The power of doing has kept me alive.”

So far, Priscilla has made three quilts. Richard cuts out the fabric and sets up the sewing machine. “I love quilting,” said Priscilla. “It has become my hobby.”

Richard has also become a fan of sewing. He enjoys helping Priscilla and hopes to make a Washington Redskins blanket soon.

What did Priscilla and Richard think about their first time at Road? They loved looking at all the patterns, materials, and of course, the “beautiful quilts.”

Quilting is an inclusive community!! Do you know of any other disabled quilter groups?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2019 at 4:05 pm and is filed under Road to California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.