Five years ago, one Chapel Hillian found himself experiencing homelessness. Ever since then, he’s been handmaking quilts to wrap up the community in a whole lot of love.
David Lyles began his decades-long quilting career as a little boy, back before he even knew what quilting was.
“My mother was a sewer and I used to get her little pieces that dropped off from where she was sewing, and I was putting them together,” Lyles said. “I didn’t know that I was quilting then.”
As he grew older, Lyles held a variety of jobs; however, his love for quilting never ended – even when he found himself sick and experiencing homelessness.
When he first moved to Chapel Hill more than five years ago, Lyles stayed at the IFC shelter on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for a year and a half. During that time, he started a club to teach community members how to make quilts for others experiencing homelessness.
Lyles said he would gather scraps that people donated to the shelter, cut them up to make his designs, and teach others how to put it all together.
“What it was, it was the thing to get people together to start noticing each other and to help each other out,” Lyles said.
While Lyles is no longer experiencing homelessness, he has continued teaching quilting classes to, in his words, give back to the community that has blessed him so greatly. His quilting circle is called Quilting Made Easy.
“The way I live now, if I was selfish, I could go home and just sit down and do nothing,” Lyles said. “But I love people and I love to help people out. And to me, to put a beautiful quilt in a person’s hand, it’s just adding beauty and life to a lot of things that would normally be forgotten about.”
Lyles said the quilting circle makes the neighborhood stronger by creating a safe space for people to check in with each other. He said not only is quilting a great outlet to ease frustrations and calm the mind, but also a great way to give back.
These days, however, giving back is a little harder than it used to be.
Recently, Lyles’ arthritis has impaired his ability to do the work he loves. Because all his quilting and stitching is done by hand, he said the pain has put his current projects on hold.
“It used to take no time,” Lyles said, “but now, since arthritis is in the joints, I’m not able to push the needle and pull on the fabric like I used to.”
Over the course of the pandemic, Lyles said he’s started more than 200 quilts that are still waiting to be finished.
“[There are] 200 started, but it’s just the tops,” he said. “Because it’s three layers to a quilt. It’s the beautiful top that you put together and then the batting and then the lining. Then you have to sew and stitch pretty designs into all three layers to make them stay together.”
Although, with a little technological help, Lyles hopes to get these quilts to neighbors in need soon. In late October, he created a GoFundMe page to help buy a long-arm quilting machine. He said this machine sews all the three layers of the quilt together for you.
Since starting the page, Lyles said the Chapel Hill community has helped him exceed his $4,000 fundraising goal, which not only warms his heart, but will soon warm the hearts of others.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” he said, “and then when you finish with it, it gives you hope for tomorrow. It’s just a way to just live. That’s all I want to do is help people live and be happy.”
Lead photo via David Lyles.
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This story warms my heart. I too am a quilter and I have my own long arm machine in my home located south of Chapel Hill off of 15/501. I would love to help him get his quilt tops finished.
Hey Rick! I’m a friend of David’s and would love to put you all in touch! Do you mind sharing your email with me and I’ll see if I can connect y’all?
Has David already gotten a longarm? I have one for sale and would like to work with him if he is interested. Can you put hime in touch with me? I would like to invite David to one of our neighborhood quilter’s gatherings. We all have scraps we can donate!
jane
919-929-2133
Please leave a message and I will call you or David back.
Hey Tim, I’m a friend of David’s and would love to put y’all in touch. Can you share your email or contact info with me and I’ll see if I can connect y’all?