SUGAR CITY — Stitching away while making baby items proves endlessly therapeutic.

So says Joy Ball, who for the past two years has owned and operated her aptly titled sewing business, Joy’s Joys. In her business, she sells baby blankets, swaddles and burp cloths and does so via Facebook and, most recently, during Sugar City’s annual Sugar Days held in July.

“Sewing is soothing. Sewing is calming,” she said.

Ball never planned on owning her own business and thought instead that she’d serve as a teacher for the rest of her life. Yet, when the Gem State implemented the controversial Common Core, Ball found that teaching wasn’t as much fun and, after nearly 40 years of having done so, quit.

Suddenly finding herself with an incredible amount of time on her hands, Ball started stitching away and giving baby blankets to loved ones.

“I thought, ‘I make them and give them away. Why not make them and sell them and have other people enjoy them?’” she asked herself.

Shortly after, Ball set up shop and sold her crafts during last year’s Sugar Days and at open houses. Later this year, at a yet to be determined place and time, Ball plans to host another open house. In the meantime, Ball advertises her sewing items on her Facebook page.

Ball notes that not many sew as much as they used to.

“It’s a lost art," she said. "People don’t make clothing so much anymore because fabric is expensive now. It used to be way cheaper to make your own."

Ball learned to sew from her mother, the late Verla Moss, and also in home economics while in school. Mrs. Moss often made Ball and her twin sister, Jill Moss, their clothes.

“We watched her sew,” Ball said.

Ball grew up in Sugar City with six brothers and sisters. Her parents both worked as educators with her dad, the late Darrell Moss, served as a junior high school principal while his wife worked as a teacher.

The Mosses had four children in five years and then seven years later had their twin girls.

“Mom didn’t know she was having twins," Ball said. "My dad wasn’t there for the delivery of the first four children. We were the first ones he was there for. He was a little bit squeamish."

Mr. Moss told the attending doctor that he needed to leave the delivery room when the doctor told him he’d better stay put.

“The doctor said, ‘There’s another one.’ Dad passed out," Ball said. "The nurse had to leave my mom to take care of my dad."

Just like their parents did, Ball and her twin sister went into teaching. Both women became first-grade teachers and did so for 34 years at Sugar’s Central Elementary School.

“I taught next door to my twin sister,” she said. “We replaced our own first-grade teachers who retired. Our mom was teaching in the same building, so that was pretty fun.”

Because the twins taught next to each other, their first-grade students often got extremely confused and especially so at the first of the year. The often went into the wrong classroom, Ball recalled.

“You could read their thoughts. They would be looking around, and I could tell they were thinking, ‘I know you’re my teacher, but where’s my desk?’ I’d send them to the next classroom down,” she said.

During Ball’s teaching career, her husband, Gerald Ball, became sick with a heart condition. The pair had married in 1981 and had two children.

At one point, it was believed that Gerald Ball’s heart condition could be cured via surgery. Local doctors sent the couple to Salt Lake City for Gerald Ball to be operated on by then-surgeon Russell M. Nelson, future president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Shortly after meeting with Nelson, the future prophet told the couple that he changed his mind about operating.

“President Nelson said he was not going to be doing the surgery and that he would be sending Gerald home," Ball said. "He told us he had gone into his office and prayed about the surgery. He told us ‘If I operate, it will kill him.'"

As a result of that inspiration, Gerald Ball lived another 22 years, she said.

“(Nelson) was very professional. He was confident," Ball said. "We only got to meet him for just a few minutes. I was just so grateful and so impressed with him. I love that there was a man so close to the Spirit that he could be guided,” she said.

Fast forward to 2005, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center treated Gerald Ball over the holidays, and shortly before he passed away. Joy Ball found that sewing gave her with great solace through her husband’s last days.

“He didn’t want me to talk to him or to read to him. It tired him," Ball said. "It was OK for me to be in the room. I made blankets and donated them to Primary Children’s Hospital."

After Gerald Ball’s death, Joy Ball continued teaching. She and Jill Moss later started a tutoring business that focused on math and reading. Ball especially enjoys the language arts and likes writing poetry.

She attaches a poem to her baby items that reads as follows:

“I’ll snuggle you softly, give you comfort and love and cherish these moments so dear. I hope you don’t stumble and fall. But if you do, just snuggle your quilt and remember you are loved by us all,” reads the poem. “Drag along your little soft quilt to keep part of me with you. Your little soft quilt came straight from the heart just as my love does for you. Yes, I want to be with you each day of my life, but sometimes I just can’t be. Don’t ever lose your little soft quilt and remember it’s part of me.”

Ball says that she finds her Joy’s Joys to be both personally and financially rewarding.

“It brings in a little bit of extra income," she said. "It makes me happy to see a little baby at church wrapped up in one of my blankets. It makes me feel good."

When Ball started her business, she was serving as a Sugar City councilwoman. While she enjoyed working with fellow councilmembers, doing so became increasingly stressful due to the controversy surrounding Old Farm Estates. Noting those stresses, Ball resigned in April of this year.

Despite resigning, Ball still attends the city council meetings as a private citizen.

“I still go to the meetings because I want to be involved in the community,” she said.

Today, Ball is happy stitching away and she enjoys being her own boss.

What’s the best thing about being her own boss?

“You can sell when you want. You can work when you want,” she said.

The only down side is keeping track of taxes, Ball said.

“Last year when I did this, I filled out a form and realized I really should be charging taxes. Since then, I have been,” she said.

In the meantime, Joy Ball enjoys putting different fabrics together while making her baby blanket items.

“There’s joy that comes from looking at fabric and thinking, ‘Those two fabric patterns look really good together. I’ve got to make that one,’” she said.

Making each of her baby items is deeply personal for Ball, she said.

“A part of me goes into each one of those blankets,” she says.

For more information on Joy’s Joys visit Ball on her Facebook page at facebook.com/joy.ball.771.