Q. Quilts of Valor

When Rebecca, one of my best friends, confidant and mother to our God Daughter, mentioned she was going through the alphabet in her blog once again, I thought this would be a great time to give an update about Quilts of Valor! She was thrilled with the idea, so here I am two years later trying to do justice for our little group that makes a big impact for Military Heros.

Why Quilts of Valor?

As mentioned two years ago, ”It is a wonderful form of National Service and anyone can do it!”

The Mission of Quilts of Valor?

The mission of the national QOV Foundation  is to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.

Anyone can join Quilts of Valor

Yes, I like to sew, but I also like to touch and cut fabric, iron, separate bits of cut fabric and make them into a kit, separate fabric into color groups, square up completed quilt blocks (not really), lay out the blocks to see how the quilt will look, pin the rows together, put borders on, cut backing to fit, write up the quilt top information for the quilt label, ready the quilt top for the machine quilters, sew binding on, tread needles, coax a sewing machines into working, help organize the donations storage closet and clean up. That’s not to mention laughing, sewing and craft talk, chatting about grandchildren and my favorite, stories and stories of quilt presentations that touch your heart.

That’s what our little local group is made of – Caring people who want to make even a small difference in the life of a service member.

The initial planning of the Charlton local chapter of QOV started in May 2013 after the Leominster Chapter had a quilt show at the Charlton Sewing Center. In September 2013, we started to meet at the Charlton Sewing Center, Charlton, Massachusetts. The owner, Kathy, has continued to be a great supporter of the group and generous to lend the space without fee. We meet once a month for about three (3) hours, have twenty (20) dues-paying members and another fifty (50) volunteers. Of course, not everyone comes to the meetings but may stop in during the month to pick up a kit or two, drop off a quilted top, pick one up for binding etc.

What we’ve done so far

The chapter has completed 176 tops and presented about 150 quilts to Veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.

If you’re interested in participating. see the QOV website and click on the Contact information. Donations are graciously accepted thru the website as well.

Blogging my way from A to Z as part of the 2016 April A to Z Challenge.  Come blog through the alphabet with me.