“I just love to sew,” she told me over breakfast last week.
Sewing is usually thought of as just a hobby. A quiet, peaceful pastime, something small.
But, that’s not the case…
Especially with my mother.
In 1999, my mom found a group of seventeen women who shared the same call: if someone needs warmth you make it. If someone needs comfort, you stitch the pieces together.
These seventeen women make everything.
- Blankets for cancer patients
- Walker pockets for the elderly
- Receiving blankets for newborns
- Baskets full of hand sewn items for new moms
- Cancer port covers
- Quilts for their grandkids new apartment
- Quilts for their son’s friends’ new babies.
Whatever is needed. They make it.
This isn’t just a couple items a year, it’s hundreds, sometimes thousands a year.
With no spotlight, no coverage in the newspaper or the local news, just constant consistent care.
A few years ago, I came out of a dinner with my friends and witnessed a young man experiencing a mental health challenge.
He was visibly shaken and walking towards me on the sidewalk then I noticed draped around him was a small baby blanket…
Unmistakably handmade and unmistakably my mother’s work.
I have no idea what happened to that young man. I only know he was covered and sheltered by someone. My mother and her group of women.
As she put it so simply: “the sewing group.”
I’ve experienced my mother’s handmade adventures most of my life. Sometimes I loved what she made. Other times, if I’m being honest, I wished my boxers came from Macy’s.
I am embarrassed to admit it now, but I didn’t recognize how much love, time, art, and care went into those creations.
She would be bent over the sewing machine, stitching, mending, popping seams together and apart again.
Putting emotion behind every stitch, every tap of the pedal and hum of the needle gliding in and out of the fabric.
For decades, I’ve spotted the sewing group’s art all over the town I love.
I’ve seen her work driving past a VA home, each veteran adorned in patchwork quilts over their laps. I visited Denver Health for a medical appointment and there it was…
A stack of handmade quilts for kids.
Her passion and service are immeasurable.
She’s retired as president of “sewing group” and is now the sorter. Every month she continues her work of sorting through boxes and boxes of discarded material and fabrics of every kind. Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, flannel, linen, any fabric you can think of she’s seen.
Sometimes your why doesn’t have to be grand; it can be as simple as, “I just love to sew.”
March is International Women’s Month and this year’s theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”
This phrase feels easier to grasp when you watch your mother turn forgotten fabric into warmth and comfort for strangers.
Sustainability doesn’t just mean innovation labs or policy frameworks…
Sustainability can look like patchwork, recycled fabric, a quilt laying over someone’s lap, and a group of seventeen women gathered into a room solving problems one stitch at a time.
Celebrate Women’s History Month
Actions speak louder than words.
Brian Elms
P.S. If you’re interested in seeing how Change Agents Training can help solve problems at your organization, drop me a line here.
P.S.S. Interested in learning about my new company, rvrwrk (River Work)? Drop me a line here, or even better, shoot me a reply to this email.
P.S.S.S. March 2026 soundtrack: