Quilting Beckons at Yankee Cloth

“My shop is strictly for making quilts to put on beds. That’s my niche,” said Nancy Trunko, who owns Yankee Cloth on Center Street.

A Wallingford resident for 24 years, Trunko said she has been quilting for 32 years “It’s just something I enjoy doing,” she said. “A friend and I got together to try something new, and I got hooked.”

Three years ago, with her children grown and out of the house, she decided that, “It was the right time in my life to open up a quilt shop.”

The result is the shop inside the butternut building on Center Street with the generous porch. Inside, one will find a kitchen where customers can sit and page through magazines and books or look through the close to 3,000 bolts of fabrics she carries — everything from a solid look to contemporary floral prints.

“We have quite a variety,” she said.

Her specialty is reproduction fabrics from different periods, such as the Civil War.  In addition, she carries shops kits. The piecing in some kits will produce quilts for young people festive with small bears and carousels, while her inventory also includes a shop kit that will produce the quilt “Windsong Rose” by the well-known fabric and quilt designer Marianne Elizabeth. 

Reached at her studio in New Hampshire, Elizabeth, who studies vintage French fabrics from the 19th century, said that the design for the “Windsong Rose” pattern “was inspired by French gardens... the way they laid out the pathways.” She said she tries to design quilts that work with the colors and furnishings people use in their homes.

Typically, Trunko sells fabrics for quilts that will consist of three layers, with the material used as the interior fabric termed “batting." Although a wool batting will provide good insulation, she said quilts for summer use may have no batting at all. 

In addition to classes, clients gather in her shop the first Thursday of each month to work or just have a cup of tea.

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, Yankee Cloth, along with other Connecticut quilt shops, served as a drop-off point for what is termed the “comfort pillow” program.  

“All quilt shop owners know each other and we talk,” said Trunko, when asked how she became involved. “When this happened, people wanted to reach out.”

“It went viral,” said Becky Frazier, who owns Quilter’s Corner close to Sandy Hook in New Milford, Conn., and who, the day after the event, came up with the idea for the “comfort pillow” program. She said she posted the idea on her Facebook page and, she said, “It just took off.”

By last Saturday, Frazier, speaking from her shop in New Milford, said that she had received more than 6,000 pillowcases from as far as Ireland and Sweden. She said she had received 744 pillowcases on Friday alone, and she learned last week that she can expect to receive 900 pillowcases from a quilter’s shop in Utah. 

Because Sandy Hook is now no longer accepting donations, Frazier said that she is looking into donating the pillowcases to school districts in low-income areas in other parts of Connecticut, to foster children and to shelters. She also said some might go to persons whose lives were wracked by Hurricane Sandy.

“We have more than enough,” Frazier said late in the day, adding that she thought the quilters had found making the pillowcases a form of healing. 

Many who quilt also find it soothing. Trunko said the clients at Yankee Cloth range in age from 10 or 11 to their 90’s, and that she finds that more and more young people are quilting.

“We’ve been doing very well,” Trunko said.