Have you ever admired a hand-sewn quilt and wished you could do that?

Or maybe you already quilt but would like to get out and enjoy the fellowship of others.Well, the quilting gals of the Ladies Aid Society of St. John's UCC, 891 Columbia Ave., Aquashicola invites anyone who would like to learn, or wants to enjoy the companionship of others, to come quilt with them on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9-11:30 a.m. You do not have to be a member of the church or the Ladies Aid Society.The current members are Lynette Rothrock, Nancy Kresge, Emma Hittner, Pat McGarry, LaRue Snyder and Lynda Aulenbach."We welcome anyone. We come together because of the love of the art, the companionship and the food," said Aulenbach, president of the Ladies Aid Society.Aulenbach has been quilting about 40 years. Her grandmother talked her into trying it."After you do it awhile, it's like eating chips you can't do just one. It's good to do while watching TV. It's relaxing. It's nice to look back and see what you've accomplished," Aulenbach said."I find it very relaxing," says McGarry, treasurer. She joined about three years ago. She use to quilt with her grandmother, Verna Beltz, at her house.Rothrock said quilting keeps her busy.Hittner said the quilting group is a fellowship.If anyone would like a quilt top to be handquilted, the ladies will do that. The customer has to supply the top, the batting, backing and sometimes the thread. They charge 40 cents a yard to quilt.They do about three a year, but when they had more members, they did about five or six a year.The goal of every quilter is to do the tiniest stitches possible."If you can do a basic running stitch, you just make them smaller," Hittner said.The goal of a good quilter is to get between eight to 10 stitches to an inch. Thimbles are used to protect fingers, which become hard and calloused after stitching so long.The Ladies Aid Society, formed Jan. 6, 1909, is now 105 years old. They charged 75 cents to a dollar for a quilt. If it was "fancy," $1.50. They charged 3 cents a yard for thread, plus batting, marking, framing and hemming. Besides quilts, the group made aprons, bonnets and dresses.They first met in a one-room schoolhouse, then in the John Boyer residence, later in a storeroom owned by Charles Helmuth. In 1916 it moved to the newly constructed St. John's Reformed Sunday School Chapel. After about 14 years, they no longer made aprons, bonnets and dresses.By 1967, they had quilted at least 1,400 quilts, averaging about 25-30 quilts a year. It was said that a quilt took about four to five spools of thread. There are 100 yards on a spool. In a report from the ladies that year, they figured they had used enough thread to go around the world 73 times.The Ladies Aid contributed much of its income to the chapel debt. Over the years, their proceeds helped renovate and furnish the kitchen, blacktop the parking lot, provide equipment for the Sunday school and many other projects.While the cost of quilting today may have increased from 105 years ago, many things remain the same: the love of the art, the fellowship and a sense of accomplishment when a quilt is completed.The ladies will be holding a quilt raffle on Dec. 15. The quilt to be raffled has a top of embroidered flowers which was donated to them and the ladies hand-quilted it. It measures 88 by 102 inches.For more information about the Ladies Aid Society, their quilting or for tickets, contact Aulenbach at 610-852-2466 or visit them any Monday or Tuesday morning. They will welcome you, and be prepared to have a needle and thimble handed to you.