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N-Sid-Sen hosts first Textile Retreat in March

Twenty-seven from Seattle, Tri Cities, Spokane Veradale and other communities attended N-Sid-Sen’s first Textile Retreat, a PNC-UCC retreat led by Mary Lu Vait of Westminster UCC in Spokane. It was so well received that retreat attendees scheduled another Textile Retreat in Oct. 15 to 18.

Basketweaving was among the textile arts many did, top. Mary Lu Vait organized PNC’s first Textile Retreat, bottom.

The retreat was held March 26 to 29.

In addition to engaging in quilting, knitting, rug weaving, cross stitch, crocheting and basketweaving, they learned from Marta, a Guatemalan backstrap weaver, whose participation was underwritten by Phil Eisenhauer. She came with her husband, Carlos, who engaged in some “Giving Back” projects with Mark Russell.

Phil met Marta and Carlos on several trips to Guatemala and Linda and Randy Crowe, volunteer N-Sid-Sen co-managers for the past year, had met them 13 years ago on a visit to Guatemala.

Marta brought some of her weavings to sell and worked on a 14-inch-wide piece.

One woman brought some of her grandfather’s Hawaiian shirts to make a memorial quilt.

Participants made 10 quilt tops as a gift to N-Sid-Sen,

While the group included many from UCC churches, it included others who were agnostic or atheist, said Mary Lu, but they were open to sharing in singing graces before meals because N-Sid-Sen is a church camp.

Mary Lu, who grew up in Minnesota and Southern Oregon, became a registered nurse after earning an associate’s degree at the Community College in Albany, Ore., in 1983. She also studied nursing at Washington State University, earning a bachelor’s in 1999 and a master’s in 2001. She was an RN for 20 years and a nurse practitioner for 20 years before retiring in 2020.

In 1984, Mary Lu and husband, John Hubbe, moved to Richland where he worked at Pacific Northwest National Lib, Batelle. With her from a Catholic background and him Quaker, they found Shalom UCC in Richland 38 years ago, when their daughters, Laura and Mari, were young.

In 1989, Mary Lu went for the first time with their oldest daughter to Kids Camp, offering to help.

“I loved it, starting with driving there,” said Mary Lu, who has been involved over the years in directing a kids, intermediate or high school camp, coming as camp nurse and serving several times on Outdoor Ministries Committee. She has also come with Shalom UCC-Richland retreats and helped direct Midwinter Youth Retreats a few times.

“I have come at least one week each summer, and have also attended and have led women’s retreats,” she said.

Helping at one of several Giving Back camps in the fall and spring, Mary Lu learned from Linda Crowe of the need for more quilts for beds. From that grew the idea for the Textile Retreat.

Mary Lu had some fabric and knew how to make quilt tops.

“I made a few calls, and people signed up,” she said. “We made 10 quilt tops. Most made baskets and others had other projects.”

For Mary Lu, N-Sid-Sen is “my place to connect with nature, to get away from work and stressors, like news. It’s God’s pocket for me, a place I feel protected and safe.

“I’m not a pastor or Bible scholar, but I try to live out the values of being a true Christian by sharing and singing what faith is about,” she said.

At the closing circle, Kaila Russell read Maya Angelou’s poem, “Continue,” which Mary Lu said summed up the sentiments of participants to continue the pieces they started and to come back for another Textile Retreat.

Mary Lu said she learned for the first time from Mark Russell, who helped design the electrical connections at Stillwater Lodge, that it was set up for quilting retreats with each of the outlets along the walls on its own circuit so it could handle having both an iron and sewing machine plugged in.

“I look forward to the next 20 years of supporting the camp, whoever the managing director is. I look forward to continuing to be willing to help,” she said, adding that her husband John, who has often served as camp musician, shares that commitment.

The day Mary Lu was interviewed, an article appeared in the Spokesman-Review about another textile project in which she is involved.

Since January, she and a group of about 12 women in Spokane have been knitting or sewing together fleece for red hats as a way to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement overreach. The women were inspired by women in Norway made hats to express their opposition to Nazi occupation.

“We are using the same pattern they used. Donations people give to buy the now more than 100 hats they have made have raised more than $2,500. We have used those funds to buy three billboards to call people to resist,” Mary Lu said.

One billboard speaks of people in rural Eastern Washington having to make painful choices between medicine or food. Another at Ritzville said, “When (If) the hospital closes, how far will we have to travel for medical care.” Soon after that, 300 were given pink slips at that hospital.

“We are getting out the message to resist,” Mary Lu said, noting that even little, old ladies with white hair can do it.

For information, call 509-375-3040, email marylu.vait@gmail.com or visit n-sid-sen.org.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ News © April 2026

 

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