Veterans being honored with handmade quilts in Pahrump

Roughly six months after its last ceremony in May of this year, the Nye County Valor Quilters is again recognizing area veterans for their respective military service.

On Saturday, the organization will bestow 30 custom handmade quilts to local veterans. The ceremony will take place at the Bob Ruud Community Center, 150 N. Highway 160, at 1 p.m.

Denise Kearl, group leader for the guild said any area veteran can also receive a quilt, by way of a simple request.

“Anyone who has served in the military can request a quilt through the Quilts of Valor Foundation,” she said.

“Once we get the request, we then put them on our roster for our ladies to make them. Since we are getting more and more requests, we will probably have more than two ceremonies each year. We have 30 quilts we will be giving away on Saturday, and 30 is probably the most we can do during one ceremony. Every veteran is eligible. All they have to do is request the quilt.”

Kearl also noted all of the handmade quilts are truly one-of-a-kind.

“Each quilt is made by a different person who creates their own patterns and designs with the fabrics, and they then put them together,” she said. “If we know the history about the veteran, then we can make it more specific to him or her. Most of them are patriotic-themed quilts.”

Additionally, Kearl said the process of assembling the quilts is very time-consuming for the 35-plus members who belong to the guild, as work on 30 quilts that will be handed out on Saturday, began back in May of this year.

“It takes quite a while to complete just one quilt, so it involves a lot of hours,” Kearl said. “It can be anywhere from two to three ladies working on a single quilt because we have a lady who makes the top part of the quilt and pieces all of the fabrics together. We also have one that actually quilts the quilt, and one who does the binding around the outside of the quilt. I make the labels, which are personalized also. All in all, it takes about 20 hours to complete a quilt from start to finish, so it is a true team effort.”

In order to continue that effort, the quilters host regular fundraisers to purchase fabric, Kearl said.

“We will be having a raffle on Veterans Day at the GI USA business in the Albertsons Plaza at 3 p.m.,” she noted. “We will raffle off two hot rides at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch with a professional driver. That prize is worth $500. We also have two rounds of golf and two dinners at the Mountain Falls Golf Course and Grill Room. We also have a $100 gift card from Walmart, Albertsons and Smith’s. We are reaching out to the community for help.”

Kearl also spoke about the need for additional quilters for the group.

“We’re always looking for new members and they can just contact me,” she said. “All of our quilts are staying right here at home in Nye County, but other quilting groups across the country will send them to the foundation because they don’t live in an area like we do to be able to present those quilts. We have already awarded more than 120 quilts. During our first year, we created 99 quilts.”

To learn more about the group, or to place a request for a quilt, contact Denise Kearl at 775-253-4127.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. Follow @sharrispvt on Twitter.