Baer sisters find success showing quilts

Town of Hull sisters Ellis and Kinley Baer, who are open enrollment students in the Athens School District, are carrying on a family legacy of sewing quilts started by their grandmother from Stevens Point.

The Baer sisters are members of the Athens Acres 4-H Club who sew quilts that they show at the Athens Fair and Wisconsin Valley Fair in Wausau each summer.

Ellis Baer, 16, is a junior at Athens High School this year. She designed a sunflower quilt that won a first place blue ribbon in her age group and was named the only Best in Show/Judges’ Favorite at last summer’s Athens Fair. Her accomplishment earned her an invitation to show her sunflower quilt at this summer’s Wisconsin State Fair, where it won Reserve Champion.

Ellis Baer won a blue ribbon in her age group and was one of three Best in Show/Judges’ Favorites at the Athens Fair this summer. Her quilt also won a blue ribbon and was awarded honorable mention overall at the Wisconsin Valley Fair this summer.

Kinley Baer, 12, is a seventh grader at Athens Middle School this year. She designed a summer sherbet quilt that won first place blue ribbons in her age group at both the Athens Fair and Wisconsin Valley Fair this year.

The Baer sisters were inspired to sew quilts by their grandmother who worked as an educator at Bernini sewing company in Chicago, Ill. The girls’ mother, Erin Baer, said her mother sewed the clothes she wore while growing up. She admitted that she took her mother’s sewing skills for granted back then.

“I’ve gotten to a point where I appreciate it more now than when I was a kid. These girls have always appreciated it, which I love about them,” Erin Baer said. “They are lucky to have my mom as a mentor.”

There is a step-by-step process to sewing a quilt. The Baer sisters first measure the dimensions they need for their quilts so they don’t buy too much fabric at Brubaker’s Sewing Center in Withee. The Baers use a sewing machine to create their quilts. They’re fortunate to have access to their grandmother’s long arm machine to complete the top stitching on them.

“I would say that quilting is the perfect combination of art and math,” Erin Baer said.

Erin Baer now realizes how much work local 4-H club members like her daughters put into sewing quilts to show at the summer fairs.

“What I love is we have an appreciation about how much work goes into making some of these cultural arts at the fair,” Erin Baer said. “Sometimes you need to tear out the seams in the quilt and start over.”

Erin Baer works as a special education teacher in the Athens School District. Her husband, Mike Baer, worked as an Athens High School counselor last school year and is working in the Abbotsford School District this year. This will be his second season as the Athens varsity girls basketball coach.

Sisters Ellis and Kinley have a brother, Bridger Baer, who is a freshman at Athens High School this year. All of the Baer siblings are three-sport athletes in Athens.