Sewists Take Part in MCC Comforter Bash
Published: Friday, November 13, 2026
A very well-organized community event was the 12th annual Northern Indiana MCC Comforter Bash last Friday and Saturday at Pleasant View Church in Goshen. The event is a true celebration of over 358 people having compassion for those around the world who need to be warmed with a comforter.
There were people of all ages, women and men, of many faiths, from all over who came together to knot comforters. These volunteers came to share their time, skills, and develop fellowships with one another. The main purpose was to knot comforters to warm people in the United States and all over the world. This year, they knotted 470 comforters. This is an international knotting effort of the U.S. and Canada. In 2025, over 40,000 comforters were knotted.
The message that was shared by many participants is that a handmade comforter provides not only warmth but also a real message to people that their needs are not forgotten.
The comforter knotting process was organized in at least five groups: pinners, knotters, trimmers, sewists and bundlers. The committee came in two days before to organize all of the supplies and the processes. One of the jobs that takes place before the bash is that the comforter tops are paired with comforter backs so that the colors blend and work together. There are also stacks of precut polyester battings ready for the layering process. Some of the comforter backs are pinned to the frames ahead so that when the doors open those who chose to be knotters can go right to knotting.
The comforter tops were pieced from sewists from all over the Midwest. The comforter tops are all quality pieced. There were many colorful tops that showed much thought in the piecing design and quality sewing, and many of the pieced tops could have easily been quilted verses tied.
The pinners pin the back side up to the four sides of the wood strips that have fabric attached to each side, so the backing fabric can be pinned to all sides.
There are a variety of pin cushions that are worn by the pinners and various techniques used in pinning. The wooden frames are directly pinned across from each other and then the opposite two sides are pinned.
The wooden framed sticks are each placed in wooden stands that hold them and then secured with clamps to hold the back in a taught position. Next, the polyester backing is centered over the back and smoothed out and the top right side up is centered over the polyester batting and also smoothed out and pinned.
Next is knotting, which is an art, skill and science of its own. There are those who sit and those who stand for knotting. Most of the knotters complete a long running stitch, take a bit of the fabric through the top, batting, and back fabric and then another long running stitch. They stitch as long as the crochet cotton will stitch.
When the comforter is stitched all the way the across, then the crochet cotton is cut and a double knot it made. Sometimes there is a pattern to the knotting depending on the design of the top. The knotting is possibly the hardest task, as some of the fabrics for the top and back are polyester. The batting is polyester, so it is hard to push the needle through and then pull the crochet thread. The needles are sharp, and many of the knotters also use thimbles.
The job of the trimmers is to first trim the batting ¼ inch wider than the top with scissors. Then with rulers that are marked at 1½ inch wide guides, the backing is trimmed with rotary cutters. Then the comforters are folded and placed in large boxes ready for the sewist.
The sewist match the thread color to the binding for the sewing. The binding is folded in half toward the comforter top and then in half again and machine stitched. The stitched comforters are placed on a shelf and when there are five they are bundled and tied together and moved to another area to be boxed for transporting.
Throughout the day, children visit the two rooms and ring a bell and share the number of finished comforters at that time. To begin the 2027 project, there were comforter fabric tops kits that the sewist could take home and sew for next year.
The 2027 event will be around the first of November. Contact the Mennonite Central Committee for the dates and locations.
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