Recent Mitchell display highlights four generations of Star and family quilting

Mar. 8—MITCHELL — As Lisa Marie Star unfolds a quilt in the classroom space at the Pin Cushion shop on Lawler Street, a series of fabric strips is revealed against a white background. The colorful bars vary in length and extend the length of the material, creating a wave-like pattern.

It's a striking look, and it was not a random design choice by Star, who made the quilt for her daughter Andie for her wedding.

"It's the frequency if you spoke the word 'love,'" Star said. "It might not be everybody's thing, but it has meaning to them, because they were both music majors at SDSU."

Star is surrounded by many quilts at the Mitchell business, where the creations crafted by her and members of her family were recently on display. They vary in style, size and materials, but all have some connection to Star and her mother, her daughter and even her grandmother and aunt.

The family tradition extends back to her grandmother Gladys Marie Zard, who was born and raised in Reliance and also lived in southern California and Mitchell. She is the starting point of the quilting and crafting tradition that would pass down from her to Star's mother, Rene' Marie Pruitt.

The hobby shared by her mother and grandmother soon had Star, who herself was born and raised in California before the family eventually returned to Mitchell, picking up a needle and thread.

"My first quilts, in fact, were summers coming back here and visiting grandma. They were already here when I was in middle school in the 1970s. So we'd come back for the summer," Star said. "Her and mom started together, and I grew up with both of them crafting and sewing and continued on."

Lessons from the time spent with grandma learning the craft of quilting in Mitchell followed her back to California after her summer trips were over. She and her mother continued to embrace the hobby that had smitten all three of them.

"That was kind of the Better Homes and Gardens era. It didn't matter if it was macramé or painting or needlepointing, it was just the thing," Star said. "I don't remember them not crafting. It was just something they did. So I continued on and when my daughter grew up she had all three of us crafting, so she learned to sew really young, much younger than any of us. It was just something like a family tradition."

The family's work was one of the latest local area quilter displays featured at the Pin Cushion, where there were about 30 quilts created by Star and family up for viewing, including pieces by her grandmother, mother, aunt and daughter, along with some by Star herself. Star estimates that she herself has done about 100 quilts over the years.

Included in the display was the first quilt done by her grandmother along with one from her aunt. Both have now passed away, but the evidence of their skills continue to live on in their handiwork. Quilts by the rest of the family were also on hand, complete with note cards describing when, where and how they were made and the materials used.

Pruitt, 75, is a longtime educator who worked in higher education for decades, including teaching at Dakota Wesleyan University. She remembers her life in crafts beginning early.

"I began sewing around the age of 12 with my sister Janine who was 10. We embroidered with yarn on window screens. We cross stitched samplers. I still have mine — needs finishing," Pruitt joked in the notes included with the family display. "Our aunt taught us to knit slippers. I still have the pattern, but no slippers. I've crocheted snowflakes, attempted to knit a sweater, have counted cross stitches, but am challenged with the concentration it takes to count."

She noted that her specific love of quilting stemmed from a beginner class she and her mother took around 1975. It fostered a love of the craft and a connection between her, her mother and her sister Janine, with whom she collaborated on a quilt pattern titled Stars in the Garden, which took 16 years to complete.

"The templates, fabric selection and cutting was all done in California when visiting my sister for a few weeks. Then a few years later I visited her again and took some blocks with me to hand needle turn applique," Pruitt said. "I have spent the last couple of years hand quilting every inch. I will treasure the memory of my sister's help with this project."

Andie Marie Star-Werpy, 28, was born in Wyoming but has also lived in Letcher and Mitchell. She now resides in Brookings where she works in the music department at South Dakota State University. She had her first sewing machine in elementary school.

She recalled the process of hunting for just the right patterns for one of her quilts at the display, which shows images of junk food on one side and nutritious food on the other. It is colorful and highly detailed, including a border featuring trails of ants looking to spoil the picnic.

"When I was little, I would come into the Pin Cushion with my mom or grandma and search the store for 'food' fabrics. I collected these for a long time and soon sorted them into yummy prints and nutritious prints. My first large quilt had the junk food on one side and fruits and veggies on the other side," Star-Werpy said. "I think that also started my obsession with collecting fun fabrics."

The family has roots and a history that spans several states, but the family eventually centralized in Mitchell, where Star-Werpy was close to her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother growing up. She said she cherished that time with her family of crafting mentors.

She said she gravitates toward fun, colorful creations that lean away from the traditional patterns.

"I grew up next door to my great-grandma and near my grandma, so crafting was a big part of my life. My aunt Janine taught me to crochet, which I love to do when I am not quilting," Star-Werpy said. "I love quilting anything bright and fun but if it has monsters, dinosaurs or other animals, all the better!"

Some quilts are for fun, and some have more meaning. There's the wedding quilt Star made for her daughter (which Star-Werpy quilted herself), and there have been others crafted as gifts for friends or to be auctioned off for charity. One quilt created by Star-Werpy was raffled to benefit the local Caring Closet program. Star and her mother made one for her brother's wife, who is battling cancer.

Star, 57, who is also retired from a career in higher education, having taught at Dakota Wesleyan before moving into administration at SDSU, said the hobby has strengthened a bond that already existed among the family. Even if there were times they weren't near each other, they still shared that connection.

"I really think it stems from that mid-century family togetherness. Our family is very close. It was just a hobby, and it could have been other things, but for some reason sewing just seemed to be the niche that stuck when there were so many other hobbies going on," Star said. "My grandma macraméd, my aunt and daughter crocheted. We all had other hobbies, but that was the common hobby between all of us. We weren't necessarily doing it together, but it gave us a common language."

It's a language they share with many others in the Mitchell area. Star said the quilting hobby scene in the community is strong, with experienced quilters and rookies alike showing up to places like the Pin Cushion or Your Shop for lessons or activities. Some quilters share their hobby at their churches or simply work on their own at home.

There are fewer places to find materials and patterns these days, and the hobby isn't as affordable as it once was, Star said, but Mitchell has more resources than some other communities of its size in South Dakota. And the hobby seems to be more at home in South Dakota than where she grew up in California.

She's grateful for that, and for places like the Pin Cushion, which offers a selection of materials as well as a home base at which to gather with fellow enthusiasts.

"People might be surprised how many actual quilters there are in Mitchell. I don't ever remember feeling that when I was in California. It was more of a family thing. It's the hobby we grew up with, so it expanded when we came to South Dakota. It's nice to have the shops," Star said.

Obligations prevented Pruitt, Star and Star-Werpy from all getting together for the recent display, but Star said the three will likely keep up with their hobby as long as they can. The love of the work is in each of them and all of them, Star said, and it will continue to be that common language in which they are all fluent.

"It is (something we've loved)," Star said. "I'll keep doing it as long as my hands keep doing it."