HELENA — A group of quilters at St. John's Lutheran Church is doing "sew" much good for others, making more than 200 quilts to be donated.
"We can hardly wait for Wednesdays," said Linda Roessner, one of the heads of the St. John's quilt project.
The group of roughly 20 people meets every Wednesday from 9:00 am to noon.
Depending on how many people show up, they typically complete five to ten quilts.
Each person has a different job. Some measure fabric or fold, and others tie knots or sew.
Roessner said, "Everybody can be useful somewhere."
Each quilt is 60 inches by 80 inches and has top and bottom layers, so the group goes through more than 13,000 square feet of donated fabric per year.
They estimate that every year, more than 5,000 hours of manpower go into quilt making.
"When I look at this, the cliche of there is love in every stitch is so true," said the pastor of St. John's, Keith Weatherford.
The group sends 200 of the quilts to Lutheran World Relief, which distributes them worldwide to people in need.
Another head of the quilt project, Mildred Twingley, said, "It gives us satisfaction to know that we are helping somebody that may not have a quilt to cover up with."
Extra quilts will be donated to local nonprofits, such as God's Love and Family Promise, or to Bible camps and reservations.
The group makes quilts from after Labor Day to the middle of May and takes a few breaks, like around Christmas and Easter.
St. John's Lutheran Church will send the quilts to a distribution facility on May 10th.