Photos by Tina Ray/Paraglide Members of the Star Spangled Quilters group work on the beginning pieces of a quilt at the Armed Services YMCA building. The group meets each first and third Wednesday of the month. They are, from left to right, Stacy Aldridge, Michelle Archer and Marie Krause.

By Tina Ray
Paraglide
Every first and third Wednesday of the month, a group of people gets together at the Armed Services YMCA building on Jackson Street to make quilts.

Known as the Star Spangled Quilters, the group works for three hours fashioning quilts to be given to charity or used at the quilter’s discretion.

Heidi Maracle has been part of the quilting group for three years, she said. Maracle has been quilting for five years and began as an Army spouse when the Family lived in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood.
Quilting has become just what she needed and as expected.

“I thought it would be fun and it was,” Maracle said.

As a busy wife and mother of two children, ages 4 and 7, the meetings give Maracle a chance to have personal time, she said.

Attending the group also allows Maracle to learn pointers from more experienced quilters, she added.

“I look forward to the relationships that I make here, the friendships that I make,” Maracle said. “I’m still a beginner-stage quilter, so I appreciate the help they give.”

Marie Krause is not a beginner-stage quilter and is one who offers help. She has been quilting six years. With grown children and a retired spouse who once served as the 82nd Airborne Division’s chaplain, there is plenty of time for quilting, Krause said.

Throughout the process, coordinating fabric is cut into pieces and then rearranged into a desired design. Cutting, sewing, pressing, and trimming the pieces or blocks are completed at this stage, said Stacy Aldridge, who helps coordinate the meetings.

The top of a quilt is patchwork, which can include sashing, or the fabric between the block, and borders, depending on the desired look. When the top is finished, the top, batting and a solid piece of fabric for the back are put together into a three layer-type sandwich to make the quilt, Aldridge added.

For an experienced quilter, a twin-larmsteadrogers@gmail.com sized quilt can average 20 hours worth of work. 

Pieces of fabric, sashing, batting, backing and more fabric are transformed into a quilt, which takes less time for the experienced quilter than the novice.

Krause, who expects to finish her quilt in about nine months, said she chose red, white and blue colors in a pinwheel design and enjoys the flexibility of rearranging blocks to change the quilt’s appearance. A special part of the quilting process is not relying on a longarm machine, which can stitch the quilt together, she said.

“It’s a part of the artistic process that I want to get good at,” said Krause.

Some of the quilts have been donated to Operation Kid Comfort and to Quilts of Valor, Aldridge said.

“It’s just one more way that we can help our community,” she said.

OKC creates quilts and pillows for children of deployed servicemembers and QoV are given to the wounded or those affected by war.

Regardless of what is done with the quilts, Aldridge said all skill levels are welcome and she wants others interested in becoming part of the group to visit ASYMCA.

The group is open to any ID card holder and its email address is ssqftbragg@gmail.com.

“We have various skill levels and specialties within our group,” Aldridge said. “We enjoy learning new techniques from one another and sharing our combined knowledge.”

Krause, who also invites others to attend, said, ““It’s more fun to come and do it as a group than to sit home by yourself all alone.”

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