Labor of Love
Pat Taggart, 84, of 114 E. Patterson St., didn't know when she decided to start work on a quilt early in 2011 just what a long, torturous process finishing it would be. It would stretch over five years, two deaths, two strokes and require the help of a church quilting group.
Today, the quilt has been passed on to Taggart's daughter, Joan Davenport of Butler, who said she will pass it on to her daughter along with a tale as intricate as the fine stitching on the quilt itself.
Taggart said, “I decided to make my own quilt. I had done a lot of quilting with groups, and I decided I was doing my own quilt.
“The color, pattern and size were all up to me,” she said. “I got it all together and began quilting at my leisure.”
The pattern called for really involved stitching, she recalled, but that was OK because “I would pick it up and work with it when I wanted.”
Unfortunately, in March 2011, her husband of 60 years, Gib, suffered a stroke and passed away unexpectedly. Taggart put the quilt away and didn't take it up again until a year later.
In April 2012, she said, “I had my own stroke. I was trying to watch TV, and I couldn't, and my eyes wouldn't focus.”
Her vision was compromised by her stroke, as Taggart found out nearly a year later when she took up the quilt again.
She said, “I was eager to get back to it, but, sad to say, I tried many times using different lighting and needles. I just couldn't quilt.
“That was very sad for me and a rude awakening,” said Taggart. “I can see and read short words, but I just couldn't see well enough to stitch.”
Davenport said her uncle, Joe Randig of Butler, proposed a solution. He knew a woman, Chris Wells, who did alterations.
Taggart said, “She came to my house, and we talked quilts. I showed her mine and she liked it and admired my work. She said she would take it and work on it at her leisure.”
Twice Wells brought the quilt to Taggart and showed her the progress she had made on it.
But then, Taggart said, fate intervened again in 2014 Wells was diagnosed with lung cancer and was dead two weeks later.
Then the quilt passed out of Taggart's and Davenport's knowledge as Wells' property was spread among her heirs.
“After a year,” said Taggart, “my brother contacted Chris' family who found the quilt.” The quilt came back to Taggart unfinished.
“Once again, I was worried that it would not be finished and once again my brother came to the rescue,” said Taggart. “His wife, Linda, knew that her church had a quilting group, so my brother called and asked if they could finish the quilt.”
The First United Methodist Church quilting group took on the project and on June 21, 2016, five years after Taggart first picked a pattern and began sewing, her completed quilt was returned to her. It didn't stay with her long.
She gave it to her daughter in July as a 60th birthday present.
Davenport said, “I was very honored to get this quilt, seeing what it had been through. It's a legacy of my mother. I'm going to pass it down to my daughter.”
“It's got to be kept in the family. The story is what makes the quilt special,” said Davenport.
Taggart said, “I'm glad to have it finished.”
