OTHELLO — Five ladies are the featured artists this month at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello. The quintet of Dianna Booth, Julie Bridges, Janet Larsen, Linda Boothman and Pattie Yonkers has been quilting together for several years. They and some other ladies in Othello meet at the Othello Christian Church and quilt. Also, a couple of times a year, the five ladies get together for a weekend and just quilt.

COVID-19 has put a damper on the parties. However, quarantine has given the ladies an opportunity to do more quilting.

“We’ve done all those things we couldn’t get done because of interruptions,” Booth said. “We finally had time to do it.”

When quarantine first started, the ladies switched from making quilts to sewing masks.

“I think everyone of us sewed an undisclosed amount of masks when this whole thing started,” Booth said. “We were doing it for free.”

The group made masks for six weeks before running out of places to donate them. Then they went back to quilting.

Over the last few months, the ladies have made quarantine quilts, including a mystery quilt. For the mystery quilt, the quilters were given a different block each day to make for 15 days. At the end, the blocks were assembled to reveal the final quilt. The ladies made other quilts where they followed a specific pattern.

They also made quilts to give away. Some of the quilts they make are baby blankets that are given to the Othello Community Hospital.

Other quilts go to a mission in Mexico and a street mission in Coeur d’Alene. The group also makes quilts for the residents of the local nursing homes and give to them as Christmas presents.

According to Larsen, the ladies are really good friends.

“The five of us get together regularly to do quilting at Dianna’s (Booth) house or retreat,” Larsen said.

She also said that the five of them can get together so easily because they are all retired or semi-retired. Most of them are also single or widowed.

Larsen also added that during the first months of COVID-19, the group didn’t meet at all. But now, they are getting together in her backyard when there is plenty of shade and space for social distancing.

The ladies use their quilting as a way to de-stress and rejuvenate.

Bridges said that after she lost her husband in 2014, quilting was her “saving grace.”

“It is something I look forward to,” Bridges said. “I think I like the artistic part of it.”

Like many other businesses, fabric stores were closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ladies pulled out the fabric they already had to use in their quilts.

“We went into our own private store and picked out our fabric,” Bridges said.

“We went from hoarders to being well prepared in a matter of days,” Booth said.

The quilts the ladies made will be on display for the month of July at the Old Hotel Art Gallery, 33 E. Larch St., in Othello. The Old Hotel is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.