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What's New
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What's New
& News in Quilting Around the World
By Lois Marilyn Verma
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Army Sergeant Gary Huwe (left) receives his Quilt of Valor from Chaplain Mark A. Fritch. The quilt back credits "Mitsy from Minnesota."
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Soldiers Remembered
by Quilters
In December 2004, we told you about a quilt project for veterans with amputations at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but other groups across the country have also become involved in expressing their support with gifts of soft comfort. Here are a few:
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Quilts of Valor project supported nationwide
Statistics vary widely on the number of physically and emotionally wounded veterans returning to the U.S. from battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Catherine Roberts of Seaford, Delaware, is determined that each one be thanked personally with his or her own quilt as a token of gratitude. In founding the project Quilts of Valor, Catherine established a website inviting quiltmakers to contribute quality lap quilts or tops and longarm machine quilters to volunteer their quilting services. Each quilt is blessed by a chaplain before presentation to a soldier. At the time of this writing, Catherine estimates that about 7,000 to 8,000 quilts have been awarded, but suggests thousands more will be needed as the conflicts continue. www.quiltsforsoldiers.com
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College student organizes effort for soldiers
Twenty-one-year-old community college student Jessica Porter of Hudson, Florida, created Operation Homefront Quilts, never realizing how big the project would become. To date, more than 1,400 quilts have been delivered to 1,080 families of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. In addition to the many one-of-a-kind quilts she has created on her own, Jessica has received donations of quilts, money, and supplies from around the country and from as far away as Guam and Korea. Each quilt has a label on the back with a photo transfer of the soldier and "In remembrance and gratitude," the individual's name, rank, and the year embroidered on it.
Porterfamilyandskip@msn.com
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Michigan quiltmakers donate Quilts of Valor
During the past five years, the Irish Hills Charitable Quilters of Brooklyn, Michigan, have made and donated more than 400 quilts. In addition to its donation of Quilts of Valor for wounded soldiers, the members have also pieced red, white, and blue quilts for distribution to other U.S. soldiers returning from war zones. Last year the group created quilts for every resident of the VFW National Home for Children, and the women have created "special" quilts for the home to use in its fundraising efforts.
chrispeay@frontiernet.net
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Memorial quilt under construction
Through the Internet, word of a project started by Rochelle Baisch, a bookkeeper in American Falls, Idaho, has spread to quilters across the country. Instead of creating quilts for individuals, Rochelle's KIA (Killed in Action) Memorial Quilts will bear the name of every serviceperson who died in Afghanistan or Iraq. Thirty-six 6" squares, each with the name, rank, hometown, state, and age, are stitched together in each quilt. As she hoped, family members have become involved in the project, often, Rochelle says, looking for a way "to keep their memories alive." So far, the quilters involved have nearly 1,300 blocks completed and are busy making the quilts needed to accommodate the 1,975 names the group has collected. "As long as we get more names," Rochelle says, "we're going to keep making the quilts." When complete, the group hopes to be able to have the quilts displayed around the country.
www.kiamemorialquilt.com
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