The Quilting Friends of Hatley was formed in 2008 by a few ladies in the Hatley area. Members of this group come from Hatley, Bevent, Elderon, Wittenberg, Birnamwood and Antigo areas. When the Hatley American Legion Auxiliary disbanded a couple of years ago, they found a few worthy causes that would benefit from a donation from their treasury and we were one of them.
Our group has sewn many comfort quilts which have gone to deserving community members, and for the past seven years, we have made it our goal to create a quilt for servicemen/women who signed up for the Honor Flight from the Bevent, Elderon, Eland, Hatley and Wittenberg communities. When the roster for the flights is published, a couple of our members take a quilt to the servicemen and women who are going on those flights.
So far, we have presented 96 honor and comfort quilts. This has been a very rewarding and humbling experience for us as we come away after the visits having listened to many stories.
Now what do quilters do when they have money in their pockets? They buy fabric. We had been given a quantity of fabric from a quilt shop that closed in Wausau. Most of the fabric was Civil War reproductions, and they worked out well for these Honor quilts.
That is when it was decided to give back to this community as the auxiliary had given to us. We put together some patterns, purchased some batting and backing and made more Honor quilts. Now we are ready to pay it forward to this local American Legion Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 441. Some of these quilts have been worked on by as many as eight to 10 ladies as there are usually at least six stages to making a quilt and each quilt is unique. Selecting fabric, cutting it out, sewing pieces together, sandwiching, quilting and binding it, and they are usually used as lap quilts.
We asked to attend their post meeting. Some members had already received a quilt when they went on the Honor Flight, including Carl Beletsky, Henry Blarek Jr., Gilbert Budnick, Valerian Fermanek, Gary Milanowski, Bernard Omernick, John Popp and Gerald Schroeder.
Those receiving quilts recently are Brett Babi, John Christensen, Edward Hable, William Omernick, Randolph Ostrowski, Roy Spranger, Richard Thayer and Alan Woznicki. Members to receive theirs after the meeting were Rob Anderson, Victor Borgemoen Jr., Robert Erdmann, Myron Janikowski, Arlyn Maier, Raymond Meister, Clyde Patterson, Richard Popp, Adam Wanta and Daniel Wanta.
CLUB NOTES: Quilting Friends of Hatley
