Honoring soldiers one piece at a time

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Stitch by stitch, Sue Bennett of Wytheville is doing what she can to make life a little better for wounded soldiers.
And she hopes you’ll join her.
“It makes you feel so good that you actually help someone,” Bennett said.
Bennett is a participant in the Quilts of Valor Foundation program, a nationwide effort to provide quilts to all soldiers wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
According to a congressional certificate presented to founder Catherine Roberts of Seaford, Del., in October 2007, the organization was created in November 2003. Since that time, about 15,000 quilts have been donated.
Bennett said she first heard about Quilts of Valor last summer from her friend Sue Jonas, who has made two quilts for the program. Bennett, who has been sewing for about 30 years, meets regularly with friends, including Jonas, Patti Wiggs and Kay McAllister, to work on quilts and other sewing projects.
Although she has had people in her family serve in the military, Bennett said she doesn’t have any children at war. Nevertheless, she said she feels a strong connection to the men and women serving overseas.
“They’re all our children,” she said. “You kind of feel helpless when they’re out there.”
After getting the basic details required for the program from Quilts of Valor’s Web site, http://www.qovf.org, Bennett said she started her quilt in August 2007.
She used a pattern called “Lucky Stars,” featuring a red, white and blue fabric she had on hand to create her masterpiece. She finished her quilt in late January, following an estimated 75 hours of work.
“I know that the soldiers like to get patriotic quilts,” Bennett said.
Through the Web site, quilters get to select preferences such as the branch of service their quilt will be donated to, but they do not choose a specific soldier.
Bennett said she requested that her quilt be sent to a Marine, in honor of her brother who was a member of that service branch.
“It’s going to a Marine in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina at the end of the month,” she said.
Beyond those details, though, Bennett said she doesn’t know the identity of the recipient of her quilt. She said contact information is included with the quilt and it is the soldier’s decision whether to contact the quilter or not.
“It is their quilt,” Bennett said. “We’re just war-time quilters.”
Bennett has already started on her second quilt. But her mission now is to get others in the area quilting for wounded soldiers too.
Her e-mail address is and she said anyone is welcome to contact her with questions about how to get involved.
“I’ll be glad to help them out,” she said.
Novice quilters also can get assistance through the Quilts of Valor Web site as volunteers are available to help with the quilting process.
Bennett said she thinks local quilters could provide multiple, high-quality quilts for soldiers who have sacrificed so much for America.
“I do know that there is a lot of talent in the area,” she said.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .