The valor quilt
Rosa Kirkham sent this patriotically-themed quilt to Afghanistan to be given to a wounded soldier.
As a relatively new resident of Sonoma County, I was very happy to find a spiritual home and family at Kenwood Community Church in 2008. One member, known to numberless past kindergarten students as Mrs. Threewit, invited me to attend a quilting group. At the first class we paid $25 for a lesson and a pattern, and I sewed my first quilt square. What a wonderful and talented group of women we are! As a beginner, I am constantly amazed and inspired by so much information and sewing expertise. We meet every Tuesday, plus one Saturday per month, and sew from 11-4, or 10-4 on Saturday.
When I had made one quilt for a two-year old neighbor (I found flower fairies fabric!) and was about halfway through my “pineapple” pattern squares, a new (to me) person came in and showed us her “Valor Quilt.” It was made for an armed services person who had been wounded. Upon completion, you send it to an address given by the website www.QOVF.org, which stands for Quilts of Valor Foundation.
This grabbed at my heart in a big way, and I began to plan for my third quilt with their criteria in mind. Patriotic theme, red, white and blue suggested, no flowers(!) and various size specifications. As a beginner, I chose a pattern that was actually a bit beyond my sewing skills, and I struggled with the stars, and the trapezoid, all 25 of them. My overall color and design worked out very well, with red-centered and blue-centered stars in a diagonal pattern. A border stripe reflected the colors of the respective star centers, thus two sides blue and two sides red.
As a disabled person with chronic pain and a recovering PTSD survivor, I often feel I am not making enough of a contribution to our troubled world. The day I mailed the quilt, its presentation case, and a journal to a USN Captain at a field hospital in Afghanistan for distribution to a wounded soldier was such a great day! I put so much love and healing prayers into this four-month project. The quilt was also blessed by my AA sponsor, a group of Kenwood Community Church women, several deacons and our minister Andrew Metcalfe. Many heart-felt good thoughts from our quilting group accompanied it on its journey halfway around the world.
Helping people who put themselves in harm’s way for us is a tangible, physical thing for me today. The woman at the Post Office who helped me with the customs form asked me if this was the first thing I had mailed to the front in Afghanistan, and I said yes. I hope it isn’t the last.
Rosa Kirkham is a Sebastopol resident and member of Kenwood Community Church.
