Doing the “Heart” Work

Piece by Piece

Sisters lead quilting group, community service efforts

Story by Susan Collins-Smith • Photos by Kevin Hudson

Iris McGee always wanted to have a quilting group in Greenville like the one her twin sister, Janis Moore, belonged to in Los Angeles.

“I’d go out and visit her and go to the meetings with her,” Iris shares about the African American Quilters of L.A. group. “It felt warm and loving, and I wished we could have something like that here. And now, we do.” After Janis retired and moved back home about 10 years ago, the sisters started a quilting group through the Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers (MHV), which is a program of the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Leading the group has been a natural fit for the third-generation educators, who are lifelong sewers and have a heart for community service.

“We grew up in that environment of giving back to the community,” Janis explains. “Our father was very involved in civil rights work. We are always looking for ways to make a difference.”

Through the group, the two have taught others to quilt and sew.

“We meet people where they are,” says Janis, who enjoys art quilting. “We had a non-sewer join us, and she was so anxious—but she made a quilt.”

Iris, who likes patchwork quilting and teaching others how to do it, kept the quilting group active during the pandemic by teaching different quilting square patterns over Zoom.

“We would work on one square each week, and, later, we used those squares to make what we call our pandemic quilt,” Iris says.

Once a week, the group gathers at the Extension office to quilt. Right now, they are working on a block of the month, which they will put together at the end of the year. They also bring individual projects they are working on.

The group works with the Delta Cotton Belles to help provide comfort pillows, mastectomy bags, seatbelt covers, and fleece caps for breast cancer patients undergoing surgery and treatment. The comfort pillows fit under the arms of patients to make sitting more comfortable after surgery.

“We’re the only group that makes the double comfort pillows,” Janis says. “When they need some, they call us.”

The sisters also teach a youth sewing class in the summer and are active Master Gardeners and MHV members. Iris serves as past president of the Master Gardeners and is MHV president.

“Iris and Janis are great leaders and teachers,” says Jennifer Russell, Extension agent in Washington County. “They are so creative and have such great ideas. Volunteers like them are what make Extension vibrant, and they give our organization the ability to do so much.”