Local quilt shop participates in 31-hour charity event

PATASKALA — Coffee is likely to be the go-to beverage for visitors to the Calico Cupboard Quilt Shop for several days.

That is because the shop is hosting a marathon 31-hour pillowcase challenge.

The challenge started at 10 a.m. Friday and it is not ending until 5 p.m. Saturday.

In between, people are attempting to sew at least 200 pillowcases, which the shop intends to donate to the Columbus YWCA's family shelter.

"Now the question is, are we going to be able to stay awake all night?" joked one of the shop's owners, Sherry Monfort.

Monfort's sister and the shop's other owner, Carol Valentine-Comer, pitched the challenge.

"She just thought October would be a good time to do a charity event," Monfort said.

The shop, 74 Oak Meadow Drive, is holding its event in conjunction with the national American Patchwork & Quilting 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge, which challenges individual quilters to make one, two or more pillowcases for various charities and organizations.

Calico Cupboard Quilt Shop settled on donating its pillowcases to the Columbus YWCA's family shelter because the donation could impact many different people, all of them in need, Monfort said.

"We could make pillowcases for women, children, babies," she said. "A lot of times they don't have anything."

The shop has participated in previous charity events, but never a 31-hour straight quilting and sewing challenge.

Monfort said the shop's customers fully embraced the challenge. Even before it officially started, people had donated 35 pillowcases, which the shop lined around its walls.

"(People) have been great," Monfort said.

On Friday, with the challenge less than three hours old, 83 pillowcases filled the walls.

Participants, many of them longtime customers, marked the completion of each new pillowcase on a chalkboard hanging above a table filled with food. The shop donated some of the food, while participants donated the rest.

The same charitable spirit applied to the material and supplies needed to complete the pillowcases.

"A lot of it was donated, but a lot of it was stuff we had in the shop and donated," Monfort said.

More than a dozen women stayed busy inside the shop in the early hours of the challenge. Most brought their own sewing machines, but the shop also let participants use its machines.

Monfort expected the number of participants to grow throughout the day and potentially taper off at night. Still, she said the challenge would proceed, even when the clock struck midnight.

"I had one lady call me, and she said, 'I'll be here at 11 p.m.," Monfort said. "She planned on staying the night."

Pataskala resident Karen Adkins volunteered her time on Friday afternoon, and Adkins said she enjoyed contributing to a good cause.

"I'm doing whatever needs done," said Adkins, who at one point was cutting fabric for borders on the pillowcases. "It's great (that we're helping the YWCA), and it's also allowed me to free up some of the old fabric in my closet, which is a good thing, too."