People of Pickens: Joyce Ferguson

By BRIAN HAMILTON, Editor

No, this is not an April Fool’s joke and you’re not seeing double. Joyce Ferguson is indeed shown in the above picture, on both the right and left. Joyce Ferguson and Joyce Ferguson are both members of New Salem Baptist Church’s Stitching and Chatting interest group. Stitching and Chatting is a group of ladies who get together at the church’s community center on Monday mornings at 10 a.m. and quilt, while conversing with one another about life, among other things. What makes the story even more unique is that the two Joyces are actually sisters-in-law. The members of the quilting group tend to refer to the two as Joyce Ferguson 1 (pictured on right) and Joyce Ferguson 2 (on left). Pickens County Herald editor Brian Hamilton recently sat down for an interview with the two ladies.

Q: So what inspired you to start this thing up?

Joyce 1: “Pastor Mike (Hall) had asked me about it. It was something just for the ladies to get everybody started doing it. I said ‘sure’, so we started doing it every Monday and we do it pretty regularly, except the first Monday (of the month), when we go to Hannah (Methodist in Gordo) for the singing. We get here (to quilt) at 10 a.m. and we go until we’re tired and then we go to the house.”

Joyce 2: “We all wanted to get old together.”

Q: So how long have you all been getting together and stitching and chatting?

Joyce 1: “Well, it will be five years in January, and we do about as much chatting as we do quilting. I’ve got quilts all over the U.S. and even as far as Australia.”

Q: How did you do that?

Joyce 1: “I’ve got family in the state of Washington, Florida, D.C., and Mexico.”

Q: How many people do you typically quilt for?

Joyce 1: “I’ve got 27 quilts lined up right now. They just get in line and if they’re in a hurry it’s a bad thing. It is just depending on how much quilting they want done. It may take a month to three months to do one.”