Giving advice seems to come naturally to Pat Yearwood, whether she’s on the phone with Kaiser Permanente patients or helping customers at her Stitch ’n Quilt store in Mableton.
In either case, she knows what she’s talking about. Yearwood, who has been nursing and quilting for 35 years, says simply, “I love them both.”
When she was growing up, Yearwood liked math and mysteries, so she thought of becoming a CPA or a private eye. Her military father, however, thought nursing a better choice.
“He pushed me into it, and I have never regretted it a bit,” said Yearwood, RN, BS, who graduated from Columbus College (now Columbus State University) in 1976.
Yearwood has worked in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and intensive care. For 15 years she worked in pain management for an anesthesiology practice.
After moving from Columbus to Atlanta in 2007, Yearwood went to work as a phone advice nurse for Kaiser Permanente. At first, she wondered what she could accomplish over the phone but has found that the work suits her.
“You work under doctor’s protocols, but you use your nursing skills to listen and ask the right questions, so that you can get the right information,” she said. “Listening means a lot to patients, as does following up with them when you say you will. I love being able to help people and touch their lives a little bit.”
Yearwood started quilting about the same time she started nursing.
“It had always interested me. My grandmother quilted and my mother sewed all the clothes for us five girls. I get my craftiness from my mother,” she said. “We lived in Reading, Pa., near the Amish country, when I was little. I really admired their quilts and lifestyle.”
Yearwood bought a book and taught herself quilting techniques.
“Looking back at early quilts now, I see mistakes, but quilting is like nursing in that respect,” she said. “You don’t know everything when you start; you learn as you go along.”
Yearwood has always quilted using a sewing machine, but she likes to add hand embroidery and applique to her quilts.
“Quilting was a great outlet,” she said. “Some nights after a long day, you just need to go home and put your mind somewhere else. You need to unwind; that’s when you quilt.”
She’s made more than 100 quilts over the years, but only owns about six.
“I give them away. It’s feels good to give something to someone that you made while thinking about them,” she said. “But so much time and love go into making a quilt, we say that the recipient has to be ‘quilt-worthy.’ They have to be someone who will appreciate it.”
Yearwood had worked in a quilt store and run her own monogram and embroidery business part time, but it wasn’t until she moved to Atlanta that she was able to open her own quilt shop. Initially, she teamed up with her seamstress sister, Linda McGrann, to open Stitch ’n Quilt in 2009, but now she runs the shop herself.
“I financed it with my savings and just flew by the seat of my pants,” Yearwood said. “When other quilters ask me for advice about opening a shop, I tell them to make a plan and a budget and stick to it.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t. I have always loved fabric and when [sales] representatives would come in, I wanted it all. I’ve learned to be a lot more restrained in what I buy.”
In the morning, Yearwood works in the shop. She puts on her nursing hat in the afternoon and evening. Just walking in the door of the shop makes her happy.
“You can spend hours helping someone coordinate colors and cutting fabric for a quilt, but that’s the fun part of the business,” she said.
Yearwood’s customers range from teenage girls just learning to sew to expert quilters, some of whom come from out of state. Her staff teaches classes, finishes quilts for customers and performs service projects for charity. Last year, the shop donated the fabric and customers helped make more than a thousand colorful pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, a nonprofit that gives pillowcases to hospitalized children.
“Pat is always generous with her customers and people come back because of that,” said Brenda Pender, a Stitch ’n Quilt employee.
“I always tell customers to bring in their finished products for ‘show and tell,’ ” Yearwood said. “Seeing a finished quilt just lights up my day.”
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