Horelica, 94, finds enjoyment in retirement through quilting
By BURLON PARSONS bparsons@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons Quilter Lillie Horelica, 94, looks at the various stitches she used to create the Tree of Life quilt which she recently finished and hopes to sell.

Lillie Horelica quips that at 94 she "has more time than money on my hands, so I make quilts." Each stitch on her quilts is put in by hand. There's no machine stitches in her work. "People prefer the handstitched quilts," Horelica said.

The talented quilter gives her creations to family members, donates them to community fundraisers and sells some of them. "After all, how many can you keep after you make them," she says.

One of the donations she makes every year is for the New Year's baby born at Gulf Coast Medical Center. She's been doing that as a Beta Sigma Phi donation for more than a decade.

Horelica says she's fairly new to quilting and only been doing it for about 25 years.

She moved to Wharton as a child in 1918. The family had four girls and one boy. Her dad making a living as a farmer, all the children worked in the fields. They only went to school when they were caught up in the fields.

It was her mom who converted flour sacks into clothing for her family. Horelica never learned to sew from her because of all the farm work to be done.

She married at 24 and realized she had few clothes to wear and not a lot of money to buy any.

"Mom had some feed sacks, I bought a 15-cent pattern and taught myself to sew on a treadle machine," she said. "I later got an electric sewing machine and made my son's clothes."

Horelica spent 25 years doing alterations at a local shop. She retired at 65 but her alteration business did not end there.

"There were people who knew I could do alterations and they would bring their clothes to me to be altered," Horelica said. "There was even a business here that continued to drop off alterations to me."

Horelica got into quilting about 25 years ago. It was something that she wanted to do.

"I just decided to try it," she said. "I built my own quilting frame and taught myself to quilt."

She said it was a great decision. Horelica found she loves to quilt. That's what consumes her retirement now.

Her studies included learn-

Her studies included learning to do button hole stitches, criss-cross, crewel and Brazilian stitches. She's always trying new stitches for special dimensions for her quilts.

"I just think that stitching gives the quilt some much more detail," she said.

As an artist she knows she will never get what a handstitched quilt would really be worth with all the hours put into them. But she just charges for them by what size they are.

Still active and ready to go play cards, dominoes or travel at the drop of a hat, Horelica spends her spare time doing what she loves - quilting.