Faculty sponsor loves idea of quilts
Beneath her fingertips, Greenbrier High School junior Julianne Joyce delicately guides two flannel squares through a sewing machine.
Greenbrier High School Quilt Club member Julianne Joyce, 16, sews squares for a rag quilt that will be sent to troops stationed in the Middle East. Julianne started the club in October.
Photo by Donnie Fetter
She and other members of the school's quilt club will stitch the squares together and then send the finished products to American troops stationed in the Middle East.
"They're in the desert, which can get really cold at night," the 16-year-old said. "We want to give them something they can use that will also remind them of home."
Julianne formed the quilt club in October with the intention of making quilts for overseas troops. Currently, the membership is small - about five regulars. But she hopes the ranks will swell as word spreads of her club's mission.
"I think as more people hear about it and what we're doing, more people will want to help," she said.
Not only does the club need more members but it also is looking for more quilting materials, such as flannel pieces and T-shirts with logos on them to make a T-shirt quilt.
Each quilt takes about three weeks to complete. So far, the club has completed three quilts and its members hope to complete one more before sending them to Iraq.
Although she knew little about quilting, Greenbrier High art teacher Carrie Brady readily agreed to act as faculty sponsor for the club.
"Pretty much, quilting is a big mystery to me, but I couldn't say no because my heart was so into it, the whole cause," she said.
Brady's husband is an Army sergeant stationed with the 67th Signal Battalion in Kuwait on the Iraqi border.
"The whole idea of a quilt is a comfort thing, a home thing," she said. "I think a lot of soldiers feel like their life here is on hold. Getting something handmade that people put time into means people appreciate them."