Avid quilter sews way through retirement

When Jane Packer was working she’d fill her evenings with sewing quilts, and now that she’s retired from a career with the U.S. Forest Service she spends many a day working in her expansive sewing room.

“If I had a stressful day at work I’d come home and I’d press my foot to the metal and go really fast,” she said. “It was stress relief.”

Packer is the featured quilter for this year’s Teakettle Quilt Guild annual show on Saturday, April 15 in Columbia Falls. She’s been quilting for four decades and sewing for even longer. Her parents gave her a sewing machine for her high school graduation and she sewed her wedding dress and bridesmaids' dresses.

Inside Packer’s sewing room on a recent day she had stacks of quilts in various sizes, designs and colors — many in her favorite shades of purple — waiting to be transported to the show. She was working to select pieces that showcase versatility in technique.

“It’s exciting to be featured,” she said. “It is fun to figure out what to take that showcases all the work I’ve done.”

Her favorite patterns to sew are those with points. Mastering the technique of keeping points sharp can be a challenge for quilters, but it’s one that Packer takes on noting that many of her quilts include the design element — whether it be triangles or stars.

Embracing a technique of paper piecing her quilts, Packer says it’s not always a favorite for quilters but is the key to obtaining sharp points.

“I love making patterns with pointy things,” she said. “I love cutting all the fabrics into little pieces and then sewing them back together to create different designs and colors.”

What she doesn’t enjoy is selecting the fabrics for her quilts. Preferring instead to purchase kits that include the pattern, but also fabrics for the project, she has plastic containers lined up with projects waiting to be put together.

“Some people are more artistic than me and they can pick out the fabrics,” she said. “I just don’t have the knack for that. They chose really pretty fabrics that look good when you put them together, so I let them choose.”

PACKER GREW up in Hungry Horse and worked various positions with the Flathead National Forest including on fire detail. She transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she finished her career.

In New Mexico, Packer began teaching quilting classes after the owner of the quilt shop where the class was held noticed her assisting another one of the students.

“Before that, I spent a lot of time by myself quilting,” she said. “I never thought about teaching, but I got the chance to sew even more. I met a lot of people doing that who are still friends.”

In 2018, Packer and her husband, Bill, who worked seasonally for the Forest Service and now as a liftie at Whitefish Mountain Resort returned to the Flathead Valley, purchasing a home in Kalispell. The basement of the home, unfinished at the time, made for the perfect quilting workshop, including space to accommodate a longarm quilting machine, which is used to sew together the quilt top, quilt batting and backing.

Upon returning to Montana, she got involved with the Teakettle Quilt Guild, serving on the group’s board and helping with volunteer sewing projects like making quilts for residents at the Montana Veterans Home. She joins in on the Friday quilting gathering members hold.

And when Packer is at home she spends hours listening to the radio while sewing until midnight in her studio. Completed quilts hang on the wall of the room, and a purple and white quilt sits on the longarm sewing machine waiting to be quilted, while plastic containers of fabric wait to be cut and pieced together.

“When I was moving people asked me if I was having a yard sale, and I said, ‘No, this is my retirement plan,” she said.

The Teakettle Quilt Guild show is Saturday, April 15 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at Glacier Gateway Elementary School, 440 Fourth Ave. W., Columbia Falls. The event includes vendors, a boutique and a large selection of quilts on display. Raffle tickets will be available.

Admission is free, but donations are being taken for the Columbia Falls Food Bank.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.