Helping Hands Quilt Shop helps others
By Patricia Faulhaber
Visitors to the Helping Hands Quilt Shop at 4818 Main Street in Berlin will find two separate buildings stocked with lots and lots of quality 100 percent cotton quilt fabric, hundreds of quilting supplies, a museum and a consignment shop. What makes Helping Hands stand out is that guests receive expert assistance finding the merchandise they need for their own home projects, can ask questions, view demonstrations, take a class, and even have the shop create a custom-made quilt just for them.
"Shoppers really do walk straight into a classroom when they enter the store," said store manager Linda Myers. "For example, the table topper in the window display today was made of 400 yo-yos. We know that because Lydia at the front counter made it here in the store. People would stop and watch and ask questions on how to do the yo-yo maker. She demonstrated the process while visitors watched." The store encourages beginners and advanced quilters to participate in keeping the art of traditional hand quilting alive. A year-round Christmas room covers the lower level of the quilt shop, providing cozy flannels and holiday patterns and many finished Christmas items including the popular Ohio star folded tree ornaments. Helping Hands also provides stamped embroidery work, kits, patterns, books, notions, quilt frames, stencils, and marking pencils, as well as all of the latest tools and gadgets to make the quilt making process more precise, easy, and efficient. A catalog, listing stamped embroidery and quilt stencils, will hopefully be available winter 2011. Throughout the store and museum alike, patchwork quilts, both new and antique, are displayed and available for sale. These quilts, some of which are more than 50 years old, have been handsewn. Three different groups of Amish and Mennonite women participate in the monthly quilting bee on the sales floor on the first Tuesday and the last Tuesday and Wednesday of each month. They come in to quilt from early morning through the afternoon. And these women are happy to work on custom-made quilts as well. Whether an existing quilt is partially finished or a family heirloom, the women at the shop work diligently to finish what someone’s grandmother may have started years ago. It is also possible to begin from scratch, selecting fabric to match home décor. Appointments are encouraged for custom design work. Myers explained that Helping Hands is very determined to keep the traditional hand quilting craft alive and also work closely with every generation, especially the younger generation of quilters, teaching them and encouraging them to let out their creative side. "We work with 300 to 400 consignment families. We do critique each quilt for quality before placing it on the sales floor. Each quilt has to meet a standard of quality," Myers said. The shop itself began more than 35 years ago, established in 1974, in the former Holmes Limestone office. Alma Mullet had a passion for quilting and today, at age 95, still does embroidery work for the quilts by hand and comes into the shop when she can. She and her husband, Emanuel, had nine children. Her family has since taken over, keeping within the true spirit of making Helping Hands a family affair. Originally Alma Mullet wanted a place to sell quilts. Then local families started to come in to help her complete some of her quilts. The families asked if they could sell some of their quilts at the shop. Now families from all over Ohio come in to sell consignment quilts. Mullet also created the Helping Hands Quilting Craft Foundation to assist the local community and those abroad. One of the most inspiring donations to date occurred when the foundation raised enough money to provide X-ray machines for a hospital in Haiti. The history and the beginnings of the shop can be viewed on a video in the museum. Helping Hands frequently donates quilts to local schools and quilting guilds for raffles and auctions. Many orders for wall quilts, bed quilts and other home décor items have been completed for area businesses that are taking on the quilt theme because Berlin is one of the largest Amish quilting communities in the country. "If life gives you scraps, make a scrappy quilt," commented Myers. "Scrappy quilts are my favorite and Alma’s too. They are truly one of a kind quilts. "If you think about our name, Helping Hands is literally what we do today," Myers explained. "Helping as well as teaching others to keep the art of hand quilting alive and well. Helping to preserve the Amish and Mennonite craft of quilt making in the home as well as teaching the skills needed to create a quality finished product that’s destined to become the next family heirloom."
