Professional quilter Andra Hancock talks about sharing her talents with high school sewing students in Salina in this Feb. 23 photo.

Salina ? Linda Brown was starting her first year as the family and consumer sciences teacher at Salina Central High School back in the fall of 2008, and her initial aim was to bring some focus to the subject that in an earlier era went by the name home economics.

After church one Sunday in September, she was approached by longtime friend Andra Hancock. Hancock had just taken to heart a sermon extolling the virtues of community volunteerism and sharing one’s talents. Hers happened to be quilting.

“I asked her if she needed any help,” Hancock said. “She said, ‘When can you start?”‘

Brown was well aware of Hancock’s artistry as a quilter.

“I knew she had a good background in quilting,” Brown said. “I don’t. My expertise in sewing is mainly clothing construction.”

But making a dress or a blouse requires sewing skills above many students’ abilities, some of whom hadn’t so much as threaded a needle. Brown figured the basic straight-line stitching used in quilting would provide a sound foundation for more elaborate projects.

On her first visit to class, Hancock brought a few of her quilts. “At that point,” Brown said, “the girls in the class had picked what projects they were going to work on, and every single one switched to quilting.”

At the end of the fall semester class, the students displayed their finished quilts in the cafeteria. Enrollment in the elective course doubled.

One recent morning, 17 students huddled over wooden tables, cutting strips of fabric with rotary scissors — think pizza cutters, but dangerously sharper — or fed material into one of about a dozen sewing machines.

Meagan Bean was among students who was exposed to sewing in middle school.

“I made a pillow in eighth grade,” Bean said, adding that she never continued with sewing. She promised herself she wouldn’t stop as she did before.

Having fun seemed to be a common thread among the students.

“I was looking for a fun elective,” said Darcie LeBonte, a sophomore taking the class a second time.

Hancock at one time feared the knowledge of quilting was beginning to unravel as fewer women took needle in hand.

Fortunately, enough concerned people helped Brown and Hancock with their efforts.

Members of the Silver Needles Quilt Guild donated sewing machines, and other individuals and businesses came through with fabric and other supplies.

Hancock spends from three to five days a week, sometimes twice a day, at the school. In the afternoon, she leads a sewing club, comprising graduates of the FACS sewing class.

Hancock said she fell for fabric at an early age. “I’ve been sewing since second grade,” she said.

She now has a quilt business, Dove Works. She tells the students that sewing could be their meal ticket.

Brown feels blessed to have someone with Hancock’s dedication in the classroom.

“She’s invaluable,” Brown said. “We couldn’t do what we do without her help.”