SUNDERLAND — After voting in the Sept. 1 state primary, voters left the Sunderland Public Library in style, donning “I Voted” stickers featuring Sunderland native Patricia “Pat” Winans’ hand-drawn designs.
“Pat did a great job,” said Town Clerk Wendy Houle. “We appreciate her design and all those who put forward a design — it’s fun community spirit.”
In 2024, Houle organized a contest for Sunderland Elementary School students to send in designs for the election stickers. This year, she decided to invite a new group of residents to take part in the town’s budding tradition.
“I thought seniors would be a great population to get involved with the ‘I Voted’ stickers,” Houle explained. “A lot of them have contributed significantly to the community, and it highlights that group. … It’s great for our community to appreciate our seniors in another way.”
After hearing about the contest from Houle at Town Hall, Winans, 72, sat down to sketch the sticker at home. Although she had an Americana design in mind, she found inspiration in an unexpected place — in a pair of salt and pepper shakers, sitting on a shelf above the stove.
“The salt is the truck and the pepper is the trailer,” she said.
Inside the 3-inch sticker template, Winans drew a red truck not unlike her husband’s, aside from the color. The red truck pulls along a trailer, its top covered in deep blue with red and white stripes lining the bottom.
Of the 10 entries, Houle said Winans’ design stood out with its patriotic colors and “homemade” touch.
“I was very surprised,” Winans said of her contest win.
The sticker also celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States, similar to another proud piece of art in Winans’ portfolio, she said. At the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield this weekend, visitors can spot Winans’ red, white and blue quilt on display in the Roundhouse. The quilt reads “America’s birthday, let freedom ring” in Winans’ favorite medium — fabric.
“I like it because it’s so precise,” Winans said of paper piecing, her favorite quilting technique that follows a printed paper pattern. With a giggle, she said each of her children and grandchildren own one of her designs.
Although she has not always sewn, art has been a common thread in Winans’ life.
She started drawing as a teenager before picking up a sewing needle in college. Ahead of the traditional patterns and landscape designs of her quilts today, she sewed a three-piece wool suit in one of her classes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a particularly tricky assignment. In the school’s costume department, she crafted the dresses and other attire for a modernized performance of “Romeo and Juliet.”
Instead of fashion design, Winans followed a professor’s advice and became a home economics and family consumer science teacher. In Holyoke, she taught high school students to sew, along with cooking, nutrition and other life skills, before switching to health.
In her retirement after about 22 years of teaching, Winans continues to sew for a different group of clients.
“Of course, my granddaughter gets a lot of my creations,” Winans said of her collection of Halloween and dance recital costumes.
Recently though, her designs have gained a new crowd. On Oct. 6 and Nov. 3, Sunderland voters will head to the polls again and sport Winans’ hand-drawn election stickers.
