Stitches of comfort from Ruth Farmer

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Ruth Farmer remembers sewing a lot of spare fabric together as a child.

“I had a choice of sewing those towels, hemming the towels, or doing the dishes,” Farmer said, smiling.

She learned to chain-stitch as she and her siblings repurposed rags into one long strip, which her mother had woven into rugs. These days, she puts her skills to work bringing comfort to kids and adults alike with donations of quilts, pillowcases and other fabric goods.

Most recently, Farmer donated 20 quilts and 12 pillowcases to the University of Iowa Stead Children’s Hospital in Iowa City.

“That was a winter project, and I’ll keep on making them,” Farmer said.

Farmer began learning about the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital once two of her granddaughters began attending the University of Iowa. They told her about the organization’s main event — a 24-hour dance marathon that over 22 years has raised more than $2.4 million.

“They’ve made enough to have a floor named after them,” Farmer said.

Farmer went to visit the children’s hospital in May and received a personal tour of the facility from Dan Mears of the hospital’s Concierge Services.

“Children have treatments and when they get back to their room they have a different pillow case” on their bed, Farmer said. “If anybody has a chance, go down and see (the hospital). That’s something.”

Farmer is now on the hospital’s mailing list and receives updates on it’s work and research through the magazine sent to donors.

“I’m so proud to have that, because it’s just wonderful to read about all these things they’re doing for the kids,” she said.

Farmer made a few personal quilts starting in her 20s, but didn’t join a quilting group until she was 60. Farmer uses fabric stored at her church basement and at the Colwell Community Center, and works on them at both of the locations.

“It’s kind of fun putting them together,” she said.

Farmer has documented most of the pieces she’s made in photos, and occasionally showed a few quilts in local shows over the years.

She has made dresses donated to Haitian girls after the earthquake, laundry bags for high school graduates, “Quilts of Valor” for U.S. military veterans, “Linus” quilts for sick children and “Generational” quilts for her large family.

Family members receive quilts from Farmer as babies, at high school graduation or at weddings. Farmer and her husband raised six children together, and now she has 13 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

A generations quilt she made for her father has the names of family members embroidered across the quilt.

“I still have more names to add to that, because I got it back after he passed away,” she said.

She has also taught seamstress classes and made custom draperies for local customers. She regularly donates patients’ quilts to the Mercy Dialysis Center in Charles City and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Her passion is leaving a living legacy for friends and family members, said daughter Judie Raymond.

“She has been sewing over 70 years and has donated years of her time, talent and heart to those who have been in need,” Raymond said. “Those who know her can share a ‘sewing story’ and more than likely have one of her sewn projects in their possession, since no one can say they have met her and not come away without seeing clearly she is making a difference, one stitch at a time.”

To Farmer, the focus is always on the person who will receive her work — whether she will meet them in person or not.

“The goal is to help others,” Farmer said.