This article, published in the Jackson Sun on Friday, Aug. 12, 1983, includes my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams.
By BETTYE ANDERSON
Jackson Sun reporter
Jane Carr, Doris Naomi “Nonie” Warren, and Elizabeth Williams, far right, work on a cross-stitch quilt to raise money for Providence United Methodist Church. The women, including the pastor’s wife, Faye Howard, third from left, are members of a sewing circle whose contributions to the church have included carpeting, a stained glass window and even lettering for the church bus. Watching the women work is Mrs. Howard’s granddaughter, Melissa Howard.
A group of women gathers each week in a small, 3-room house in the Providence community of west Madison County where they are actually using their talents to support their church.
Their nimble fingers make delicate stitches as they glide over a cross-stitch quilt, one of 16 the group plans to quilt by Christmas with profits going to Providence United Methodist Church.
“We don’t have time to make them, we just quilt them,” explains Doris Naomi “Nomie” Warren, a spokesman for the Providence Sewing Circle.
She said the women have worked together six or seven years, with various women of the community volunteering their time to turn colorful patterns into quilted comfort for someone’s bed.
Mrs. Warren said a quilt takes four to five weeks to complete. The women charge $40 for a regular quilt, $50 for queen size, and $60 for king size, with the money being used in some specific way at the 114-year-old church on Providence Road.
During the past year, Mrs. Warren, Jane Carr, Elizabeth Williams, Mildred Thomas, and Faye Howard, wife of the pastor, the Rev. W.C. Howard, have quilted numerous quilts for people in West Tennessee and other areas. One or more of their quilts has gone as far as Barbados in the West Indies.
Mrs. Carr is a Baptist — a member of Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County — but she said she likes sewing so well, and meeting with the other women, she’s willing to do the work even though the money benefits another denominational church.
Providence United Methodist Church on Providence Road is 114 years old.
The money the women earn quilting has gone into making Providence Church a beautiful rural edifice. The structure already belies its rural setting in the community that has a few homes, only Providence Church and the Friendly Store. Mrs. Warren and her husband, T.L., a cattle farmer, operated the store 32 years until selling it three years ago to Mr. and Mrs. H.S. Wahab. Wahab is from Turkey.
Recent contributions from the sewing circle have been used to buy an upper stained-glass window to be installed along with others this fall. The upper window will be dedicated to the memory of Beverly and Joe Williamson, who donated the land the church is built on and where the church cemetery is situated.
In addition, the sewing circle’s contributions in the last year have gone to:
• Purchase permanent flowers for the church.
• Purchase Christian and American flags, plus the flagstands.
• Buy carpeting for three Sunday School classrooms.
• Repair window blinds in the church.
• Purchase cassette tapes for special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter.
• Buy a table and mirror for the church parsonage.
• Pay for lettering on the church bus.
• Buy a church register board.
• Pay Memphis Annual Conference askings for insurance and other benefits for the pastor.
“We contribute where we see the greatest need,” said Mrs. Warren. “We are generous because we love to give to the church, and it makes our worship more pleasant.”
Mrs. Warren said she believes the women “do well for a small group. Every day that we work we’re surprising ourselves at how much we get done.”
She said they also make children’s quilts to sell and do other sewing for the church women’s bazaar held annually near Thanksgiving.
“You name it, we’ve done it,” said Mrs. Williams, who along with Mrs. Carr, said the group has worked on such patterns as cross-stitch, double wedding ring, Dresden plates, butterfly, baby doll, storybook characters, block and old-fashioned string quilts.
“You name it, we’ve done it,” said Mrs. Williams, who along with Mrs. Carr, said the group has worked on such patterns as cross-stitch, double wedding ring, Dresden plates, butterfly, baby doll, storybook characters, block and old-fashioned string quilts. A pattern they expect to work on soon is called the “turkey track.”
Mrs. Warren said the women gather every Tuesday at the little house cooled by an electric fan, sip cold drinks and talk and sew, which makes it a social visit as well.
Revival services are scheduled to start Sunday at the white, frame church that’s trimmed with black shutters. The Rev. Clarence Hare, a former pastor there and in Jackson, will be preaching at 7 p.m. Sunday and 7:45 weeknights through Friday. Hare is superintendent of the Brownsville District of the United Methodist Church in the Memphis Conference, which includes Providence Church.
The church is on Providence Road, about four miles northwest of Interstate 40. People traveling from Jackson to attend the revival services should take the Providence Road exit past Stuckey’s Restaurant.
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