Wathena quilt shop owner stitches together award-winning America 250 quilt  

WATHENA, Kan. (KQTV) -- When Stephanie Harbeston, owner of Sew Believable in Wathena, spotted a flyer for the America 250 quilt contest tucked into a stack of materials from her fabric representative, she almost overlooked it. 

Now, she's celebrating an achievement  

“The flier for the quilt program was left by my fabric rep, she didn’t say anything about it. She just left it, and when I got home digging through everything, I saw the quilt contest flier,” she said.  

After learning more about the contest from her fabric representative, Harbeston decided she wanted to take part and ordered the entire fabric collection for the project. 

She then invited her customers to join the effort by creating and submitting quilt blocks for the community quilt contest.  

“40% of the quilt could be done by me, but that’s it. The rest of it had to be done by customers and community,” Harbeston said.  

Harbeston turned to Facebook to ask for volunteers, and community members quickly responded.

People stopped by her shop to pick up fabric, then returned with completed quilt blocks, which she assembled into the final product.

The project took an unexpected turn when Harbeston was involved in an accident and had to step away from work for about six weeks, making an already ambitious project even more stressful to complete.  

“When I realized it was mid-June and I wasn’t getting any more of the quilt blocks, I had to think on my feet and had to get it put together,” Harbeston added.  

Harbeston purchased her long-arm quilting machine in 2020 and opened Sew Believable to the public in 2021. 

She credits several friends and loyal customers for helping make the award-winning quilt possible, including Janis Easter, Linda Benitz and Pat Schuman of Wathena, Jeanette Neibling of Highland and Sheri Conrad of Hallsville, Missouri. 

Neibling said she has been a loyal customer since Harbeston opened her quilt shop in Wathena, and the two have formed a close friendship through their shared love of quilting.  

“She does wonderful machine quilting, and she has helped me finish several of my projects, and through that experience we have become pretty good friends,” Neibling said.  

She said she is very patriotic and America 250 was a great experience.  

Harbeston said the most challenging part of the project was selecting patterns that worked with the fabric collection, which featured large scenic prints depicting American history and the nation's Founding Fathers.  

“Once I chose the patterns, it wasn’t hard to make the block,” she said.  

Both Harbeston and Neibling said the award-winning quilt would not have been possible without the support of the community.  

Neibling hopes the project serves as a reminder that when people work together, even the most challenging goals can become achievable.