When Therese Stempin recalls how she first began sewing, she pauses and then from another room produces a small hard-sided case with a handle.

Lifting the latches, she opens it to reveal a bright green sewing machine set on a lightly colored wooden base. The portable Necchi sewing machine for children, which still has a spool of thread on it, was given to her in 1952 as a Christmas gift.

Stempin began sewing doll clothes on the machine, which has since been carried with her throughout life and moves to different states. It was an interest in sewing that led her mother to put the sewing machine on a payment plan so it would be delivered by Santa.

"My mother purchased it at the Bremerton, Washington, farmers market for $1 down and $1 per week,” Stempin recalled. “It was lucky she went down there to pick it up the night before because then [the] market burned down.” 

“It all started with this little Necchi,” the 80-year-old Columbia Falls resident said.

Stempin taught herself to sew and began sewing her own clothes in junior high. In piecing together her first dress Stempin was allowed to use her mother’s Singer Featherweight machine for one hour per day, but when her parents would go out in the evening, she’d sneak more time at the machine.

“When I get on a project, I want to get it finished,” she said.

She went on to graduate from Olympic Junior College and Central Washington State earning a degree in home economics. In 1978, she and her husband Gary moved to the Flathead Valley.

A neighbor talked her into taking a quilting class at Flathead Valley Community College and later she joined the Teakettle Quilt Guild, which is honoring her this year as the Quilter of the Year during its 25th anniversary Quilt Show on April 12.

“I'm awed and dumbstruck, I still can’t believe it,” she said. “There’s so many quilters out there and I’m a bare-bones type of quilter.”

TWO STACKS of quilts set out in Stempin’s living room showcase her work. Her favorite quilts use 1930s- and 1940s-style fabrics with simple prints and more muted colors. Her second favorite are a juxtaposition as they feature Halloween themes with bold patterns and bright colors.

“I like that old-fashioned farmhouse feel,” she says of her first pick. “I like that aesthetic without having to actually live on a ranch.”

Stempin teases her husband that if he were a rancher she wouldn’t have married him, and if she did, they’d have all elderly cattle because though she eats meat, she couldn’t bear to butcher any animals.

The couple met in a lounge in Bremerton, Washington, and were engaged in two months, and then married four months when he shipped out for the Vietnam War. Today, they’ve been married for 56 years.

Spending time in Montana and Washington, Stempin worked in education and retired as the librarian at Ruder Elementary in Columbia Falls. Both spent summers working in Glacier National Park.

Now Gary fishes in the fall, and she quilts. When they travel, he makes sure she stops at every quilt shop they see along the way.

“I always go to quilt shops because each is unique and they always have different things,” she said.

Quilting, she says, is relaxing. Participating in the quilt guild, the quilt group at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and quilting retreats adds to the experience.

“I like taking the little pieces and cutting them up and then putting them back together,” she said. “It’s fun to belong to the group and to make good friends who help each other out.”

Even after decades of sewing and quilting (she knits afghans too), Stempin says she’s still learning.

Stempin has a list of quilt projects on her to-do list. Next up she’s making a baby quilt and then she has a pattern for a wall hanging quilt featuring a barn scene, and then there’s a scrap quilt planned. 

“I will not outlive all my projects,” she says with a laugh. “I like to sew, but I like to do other things too.”

The Teakettle Quilt Guild holds its 25th anniversary Quilt Show at Glacier Gateway Elementary in Columbia Falls on April 12 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

The event includes vendors, a boutique, antique quilts and sewing machines, along with a wide variety of handmade quilts on display. Admission is free.

Deputy Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or [email protected].