June 10, 2025

'We Work For God': Volunteer Quilters Provide Comfort for EveryStep Hospice Families

MOUNT PLEASANT, IOWA  --  One of the first things you notice when you walk into EveryStep’s office in downtown Mount Pleasant is the quilts.  Stacked and displayed on a table just inside the door are dozens of beautiful, heavy quilts. 

What stands out most, though, is the wide variety of themes.  Among the flowery patterns you’ll also find dogs, tractors, military insignia, and sports teams.   

“Too many people who are gifting to hospice they see pretty floral fabric, they see pretty this, pretty that - but are we forgetting that there are men who are hospice patients?,” says Cindy Skelley, “Maybe they would appreciate the Chicago Cubs, maybe they would like John Deere fabric, maybe they would like horses and bears and hunting and fishing.” 

Cindy is one of a small handful of volunteer quilters who give their time and talent to keep the shelf stocked for EveryStep in southeast Iowa.  The quilts are about more than just bringing physical warmth to a hospice patient.  The gifts are meant to warm the soul as well, of both the recipient and their family members.    

EveryStep Hospice Services

“Family's LOVE them!,” says EveryStep’s Mount Pleasant volunteer coordinator Gwendolyn Norton, “They are a wonderful, personalized gift to a loved one that the grieving family can hold on to or even wrap themselves in. Families and patients find them very beautiful.” 

Cindy, 74, started quilting about 25 years ago, she believes, shortly before her life changed forever.  

“When my husband developed a ten-year battle with cancer - towards the last few years - they would discuss hospice quilts,” she says.  After finishing a quilt for her husband, she decided to keep the sewing machine going.  “Instead of making a quilt for my bed, I think I'm going to talk to people and ask them what size do they want, what do they need?” 

Volunteer With EveryStep

Cindy says the work was therapeutic for her.  “I felt good helping people who were fighting the same problem that I had,” she says. 

After her husband’s passing – or, as she sweetly says it, “when he moved to heaven” – Cindy kept on quilting.  Soon she recruited a partner in patterning – her friend and neighbor, Linda Vorwerk.  “I’m just trying to work for God. That's what Linda and I both do, we work for God,” she says, “I wish the whole world would.” 

The two have become a dynamic duo and create upwards of 50 quilts per year.  Linda, 74, does the cutting and assembling of pieces.  Cindy brings them altogether.  “I’m not as fast (at sewing) as she is. It usually takes me a few hours to get done,” says Linda, “I just do it in-between acts when I don’t have my grandkids. It gives me something to do at night.”   

“It wouldn’t be near what it is if it wasn’t for the two of us working together,” says Cindy. 

Linda’s newfound love of sewing came as a surprise to family members.  “My husband goes: ‘You hated to sew, so what are sewing now for?’ I did not like to sew,” says Linda, “But (Cindy) has gotten me to be not-so-bad at it.”  Now she’s become the go-to for anything her kids or grandkids need sewn. 

“These donations mean a lot to our staff, patients and families,” says Norton, “This is not a common talent.  The time it takes to make just one quilt, and these ladies bring me 15-20 every two months! I know that each stitch was made with love and patience.” 

Give to EveryStep

All of the work that Cindy and Linda do – including buying supplies – is done anonymously and without re-payment.  Cindy says it’s another way she carries on the love for her husband. 

“My husband did not do veterinary practice to see how much green paper he could bring home. If you had an animal needing an expensive surgery, he would take it from your arms and say she’ll be ready for your tomorrow,” she says, “He wouldn’t charge a penny.” 

“God wants us to be givers, not takers,” she says.