Amy Vach and Carol Mullen
Catalog Number: 2017.068.05
This decorative folk-art pillow was created by Anita Goebel, a longtime La Crosse resident. From an early age, sewing became her life’s passion.
She used several materials to depict the farm scene on this 14 by 7-inch pillow.
The top of the throw pillow is cut from printed fabric, with two barns and horses grazing in a pasture. Beneath that is a scene sewn on felt and embroidered, with a house, a white horse, and a purple path leading to the other horses. The pillow was stuffed with polyester fiberfill and closed with zig-zag machine stitching.
Anita Goebel was born in Waukon, Iowa, in 1923. Due to a difficult birth, she was left with a lifelong disability. When she was a child, her parents moved to La Crosse.
As a child, Anita learned skills such as embroidery and sewing from her mother and grandmother. The children in her neighborhood were not kind to her when she was young. “Mom wouldn’t let me outside because kids would knock me down,” she remembered.
So, Anita spent a great deal of her time inside with family. At first her mother had to help her to thread her needle, but later on she figured out how to do it on her own.
In her early 20s, Anita Goebel began working at the Tosa Club. She would remain in that job for 37 years.
In 1975, her mother passed away. Anita continued to sew in her mother’s absence. She retained a lifelong love for arts and crafts. Later in life, she branched out into poetry and other arts.
Anita was interviewed for an article in the La Crosse Tribune in March 2012. As a lively 88-year-old resident of Bethany St. Joseph Care Center, she was putting on a show of her many needlecraft creations, ranging from bedspreads to framed pictures.
Asked about her work, Anita responded simply. “It feels good to create things,” she said.
This pillow was made for Goebel’s cousin Marilyn Adam. Anita knew that her cousin loved horses. In 2017, Adam donated some of Anita’s work to the La Crosse County Historical Society in remembrance of her cousin.
Anita Goebel passed away in 2016, but she is still remembered as having a good sense of humor, a positive attitude, and a love for creating.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on July 18, 2020.
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