Written by Christie Crawford
Clarksville, TN – Quilting = Healing! This mantra describes how consoling a quilt can be when wrapped around ourselves, at times when we’re feeling sad or ill or merely cold. That comforting feeling is what the founders of the Quilts of Valor (QOV) Foundation want to bring to service members and veterans touched by war.
In 2003, the organization began when founder Catherine Roberts, whose son was deployed in Iraq, had a dream. She envisioned herself surrounded by young men lying in a hospital, having suffered terrible horrors but also wrapped in quilts for comfort and healing.
Along with a team of volunteers, she launched a crusade to make quilts from start to finish and then award them to worthy recipients. Her first quilt was made and presented that year to a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Medical Center.
Having celebrated 20 years in 2023, the Quilts of Valor Foundation has now awarded over 350,000 quilts to individuals all over the country. Thousands of volunteers run organizations in their own towns, partnering with quilters, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H members to make these quilts. And, presentations are made continuously to those who’ve been nominated to receive them. Last year, the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, held a QOV quilt exhibit with 27 quilting experts to coincide with the newly published book All-Star Quilts of Valor.
Teri Solsbury, Group Leader for one of the QOV local chapters in Kentucky, joined six years ago and has been Group Leader for four years. Teri, a spouse of a veteran and mother of an active duty service member, says the organization is a great way to volunteer and she had not heard of the organization when she first moved to Clarksville.
Today, she represents over 22 volunteers and, on average, coordinates over 50 quilt presentations a year. One recent presentation was a quilt given to a husband and wife team where the husband was a Navy Seal and his wife a Navy nurse.
Just this month, one of her satellite team members in Madisonville, KY, presented two quilts to recipients who were 99 and 100 years old.
Most of the requests come in from the national organization where recipients who are aged and infirm go to the top of the list, many of them WWII and Vietnam veterans.
Most requests can be fulfilled within 6 months, although depending on the number, that can stretch to a year. To get more information about Teri’s chapter meetings, volunteer, or make a donation, contact Quilt and Sew at the Golden Threads store at 323 South Main Street, Trenton, KY, or phone 270.466.5000. The store is also a business member of QOV.
In Clarksville, Quilting in Clarksville QOV chapter’s Group Leader is Roberta Samuels. She became involved after becoming a recipient of a QOV quilt in 2016, following a distinguished career in the U.S. Army. A novice to quilting, Roberta remembered the warm feeling of a quilt stitched by her grandmothers.
The Clarksville chapter partners with Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) on Flag Day, June 17th, to award quilts, and for eight years, has hosted Sew 22 – which brings awareness to the VA study that reports, on average, 22 veterans attempt suicide every day.
The event is set for September 22nd, coinciding with National Suicide Prevention Month. Anyone can participate in the sewing time which goes 22 hours, 12:22am Sunday through 10:22pm.
For more information about volunteering, meetings, and donations, contact Beyond Stitches at 931.551. 2300. The shop is located at 1255-A Northfield Drive in Clarksville.
How can you help? If you’re a crafter or sewer or just want to participate, local quilt shops and quilting organizations organize sewing time to make the quilts, and you can also receive donated quilts. The first Saturday in February is QOVF National Day of Sewing, where individuals meet and sew together tops from assembled kits.
Contact either of the two quilt stores for more information. If you’re not a crafter, you can still donate directly online to the foundation or to a local chapter, and your donation will help towards the costs of making a quilt.
How do you go about nominating an individual? If you’re a quilter and want to make a quilt, you merely need to follow the established QOV guidelines, including the type of materials used and size to be finished, which is available on the website, www.QOV.org.
Registering on the site will help you get assistance from a local chapter to help with the presentation. If you want an organization to complete a quilt, you can fill out the nominating form online.
The recipient must be an active duty service member or living veteran, and information must be given on the specifics: branch of service, dates of service, rank at discharge, and location where the individual served.
Quilting has a long history of creating items of love, warmth, and beauty. The QOV Foundation has taken it one step further by creating handmade quilts as a way of expressing gratitude to courageous men and women in service.
