Stitches of Love and Hope

Quilting Class at the Hobby & Bartlett Units

The sound of machines coming from a small room send a whirring echo throughout the empty gym at the Hobby Unit in Marlin, Texas, but it’s not the expected floor waxer, or drill.

Terry Speer and inmate Marisela Villa talk about design options.

It is the hum of sewing machines that inmates are using to make quilts. There are nine total inmates who all work for Laundry Manager II Terri Speer. Speer is the one who initiated the program with the help of Hobby Unit Warden Audrey England. Together, Speer, England and the inmates came up with the name for the program, “Stitches of Love and Hope.”

“When Warden England got to Hobby, she wanted to start programs for female inmates. I’m a quilter in the world, so it was an easy transition,” Speer said.

She and the inmates talked to the warden about starting a quilting class, and she was all for it.

“We got everything you would need to make a quilt donated, including machines and fabric, and started the class,” Speer said.

At the beginning of the program in February 2025, each inmate had to have basic sewing knowledge as Speer chose who would become the first group of quilters. She said they’ve come a long way since then.

“I like seeing their knowledge change from the very first project they did to now. They’re only three projects removed from that, and they’re very meticulous about getting it right,” Speer said.

One inmate who thoroughly enjoys their purpose, is Marisela Villa. She enjoys making the quilts for the local nursing homes in the area. Additionally, if they have extra fabric, they also donate smaller quilts to the police department for use in incidents where infants or toddlers are involved.

“It’s very fulfilling. It makes us happy and excited to know that somebody else is going to receive them and enjoy what we’ve created,” Villa said.

The inmates put a lot of thought into the fabric that they use and the feelings that their choices invoke. A simple color choice can make a quilt happy or make patterns stand out more.

“I like putting the patterns and colors together. It’s fun being able to mix different colors,” Villa said. “I like dark colors, and I’ve noticed that if you mix brighter colors with it, the whole thing just pops.”

As Speer witnesses the inmates learn and improve their quilting skills, she is hopeful that the stigma of quilting being for old generations will change.

“People think it’s an old lady project, but really, it’s not. I like seeing the younger generation here starting to quilt,” Speer said. “It is a skill that they can take home and use to create quilts for their family, children or grandchildren for years to come.”

As it turns out, Speer’s feelings that quilting isn’t only for old generations is proving true because about an hour from Hobby Unit, five men are organizing tables and carrying out sewing machines to start work on their quilting projects at the Bartlett Innovation Unit.

Warden Lori Larson started the quilting program at the Bartlett Innovation Unit this year after seeing a YouTube video of a similar program at Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as, Angola. She makes quilts for her grandchildren in her spare time and she thought it would be interesting for the men to design something meaningful.

“We’re doing this for a purpose, and it’s to donate these quilts and give something back. The guys decided to vote and chose St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. They chose St. Jude’s because they felt more of a connection to that,” Larson said.

Inmate Jeremy Nesbitt shows off a sample of the quilting work being done at the Bartlett Innovation Unit.

That choice was the right one to inmate Jeremy Nesbett, who is in this first group.

“I like the fact that I’m giving back. I’ve wasted so much of my life and being able to help somebody and make them smile is something that I’m willing to do,” Nesbett said. “These kids have cancer, so they’re innocent, and it’s a sense of peace knowing that I can give back when I’ve taken so much from people.”

At the start of this program, the men set a goal of finishing one quilt per week, per man, with their first 50 quilts going to St. Jude’s. After that they’ll take another vote for where the next 50 are donated. In Nesbett’s view, it’s about trying to change the stereotype of those in white and giving them an opportunity to be a part of something purposeful.

“You look at guys like me, and you think a certain way, ‘Oh, they’re not going to be doing sewing’, but when you step out of your comfort zone and it’s about something that’s greater than you, especially these little kids, you know…it’s bigger than me,” Nesbett said.

It is a great feeling for Warden Larson as she witnesses the change in the men as they learned to sew and decided where they wanted to donate the quilts.

“Knowing these guys are in here for a crime and watching them learn how to piece these little pieces of cotton together to create something beautiful is interesting,” Larson said. “They find themselves very challenged learning something so simple like how to sew in a straight line but it’s something that they’ve picked up very quickly and they have become different people.”

The class expects to add another five members once the initial group is at a level where they can pass on their knowledge. Inmates like Nesbett know that this class shows how TDCJ is changing the culture.

“TDCJ has come a long way. When I first came in we didn’t have classes like this,” Nesbett said. “Now, to have it offered and know that they are trying to find different ways for us to change by introducing new material and new classes like this makes our horizon look totally different for the outcome of life. It makes you want to change ... it really does.”

The TDCJ Communications team did a story for social media on Speer and her quilters back in May 2025 that went viral with over 420,000 views. This was helped by a Netflix documentary that had premiered just prior called, “The Quilters,” about men in a Missouri maximum-security prison who sew quilts for foster children. All this attention has led to an influx of donations to the Hobby program along with other wardens inquiring about starting their own quilting program, proving that just because you look a certain way and are wearing white, doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference in the outside world.

If you’d like to donate materials or anything else to the quilting programs, please contact the units:

Hobby Unit: (254) 883-5561

Bartlett Innovation Unit: (254) 527-4218