Irene Ponts

Irene Ponts, 88, of Fort Bragg, California, passed away peacefully on October 13, 2025.
Born November 4, 1936, in Longview, Washington, Irene made her way to the Mendocino Coast
in 1958 and never left. Fort Bragg became her lifelong home - the place where she built a life
full of craft, care, and quiet capability.
Irene worked for decades at Sew N Sew Fabrics, where her eye for color, texture, and quality
shaped the projects of countless local makers. As a fabric buyer and store staple from the
1970s through early 2000s, she had a knack for finding beauty in the smallest details - the
perfect shade, the right weave, the just-so trim.
She learned to sew and quilt from her mother, and together they tackled projects most people
wouldn't have dared to try - intricate, challenging patterns that demanded both precision and
patience. Her quilts often appeared in local quilt shows, though she never entered them
competitively; for Irene, the joy was in the making, not the recognition.
Her creativity spilled into every corner of her life. Quilting, knitting, basket weaving,
woodworking, painting garden decorations - she always had a project in motion. When new
babies arrived in the extended Ponts family, she was the first to get to work, crafting something
perfectly made and lovingly detailed: a soft sweater, a sturdy baby carrier, a quilt that could
withstand generations of use. Sometimes, she'd simply step outside, gather pine needles from
her yard, and weave a basket - because she could.
Irene and her husband, Joaquin Ponts, shared more than 50 years of marriage filled with
camping, hunting, and fishing in the remote beauty of Northern California. Together they made
their home on Pearl Drive, where Irene lived for over 60 years - a quiet, steady presence in the
neighborhood and in the lives of everyone who loved her.
Irene was, simply, Irene: unique, independent, and steady as bedrock. She never sought
attention, but her presence was constant - you always knew she'd be there when you needed
her. She was calm, patient, unflappable, especially in caring for her son, Randy, whose needs
she met with endless love and devotion. Nothing seemed to rattle her; she just got on with it,
with grace and grit in equal measure.
She was kind, talented, loyal, and generous - the sort of person who would do anything for
anyone who needed it. And she loved a good laugh, even if the joke was on her. That kind of
humility and self-assured humor made her easy to be around and impossible to forget.
She is survived by her brother, nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and generations
of family who will long treasure both the things she made and the example she set. She was
preceded in death by her husband, Joaquin Ponts, and their son, Randy Ponts.
In her quiet way, Irene left behind a world stitched together by her hands and held steady by her
example.