Dora Potter devotes retirement to quilting ministry in Shallowater

SHALLOWATER, Texas (KCBD) - Some people are afraid of growing old, but then there are people like Dora Potter who look forward to every day no matter what happened in the last one.

“I’m 82. I’ll be 83 in September,” Dora said.

Dora came to Shallowater in the early 1960s as a youth director. After her husband died and her children grew up, she needed something to occupy her time.

“And that’s how I got started with the quilting ministry,” she said.

Actually, Dora started the quilting ministry for First Baptist Church Shallowater.

“And we made quilts for our Salvation Army for our shut-ins, anyone that needed encouragement, and someone simply to reach out to them. I think we’ve made over 400 quilts and distributed in the years that we’ve been together,” she said.

There are 12 or 13 women who are in the ministry. Every Thursday the ladies meet to quilt for Christ, in a show of faith, no matter what their faith, as one of these quilters learned early on.

“She said, ‘Well, I’m Church of Christ, you know.’ And I said that didn’t make a bit of difference. And she’s one of our sweetest quilters been with us almost from the very beginning,” said Dora.

And before each quilt is given away, the story behind it is saved in a scrapbook - one of many.

“So I’ve got a picture history of what we’ve done,” she said.

And for Shallowater, what they’ve done is powerful.

“The ladies worked and worked and worked. And I think we got a quilt to every veteran in this community.”

Comfort for those who need it. Maybe even more so for those who made it.

“Our world is in such turmoil… and I wake up each day, thanking the Lord for another day of life, and just enjoying what he’s placed here for me. Pretty simple. Life is simple amongst country people, and I don’t want to be anything else.”

The quilters take a month off in August every year. Not because they want to, but there’s no place to quilt during Vacation Bible School.

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