Thursday, June 17, 1999

Sending warmth to Kosovo

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Quilts stitched for refugees

BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Linda Kuenzil stitches a quilt for Kosovo at Trinity Lutheran Church. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        MOUNT HEALTHY — The church hall is abuzz. The soft hum of sewing machines, fabric stretched across tables, an iron being run across the seams of a quilt, colored swatches of cloth being cut.

        They have finished working on quilt No. 67, and three more quilts are in various stages of completion. A new volunteer enters the church hall, sewing machine tucked under arm.

        “We do the best we can,” said Gretta Hahn, who lives in Finneytown and is a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Mount Healthy.

        Members from five area churches have been making quilts to be sent to the people of Kosovo. Organized by Trinity Lutheran, the volunteers spent the week of May 17 at each of the churches, turning fabric into handsome quilts, handmade, each quilt with its own distinctive personality.

        Some of them gathered Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran to finish up the project, which will send the quilts to Kosovo through Lutheran World Relief.

        “This'll keep 'em warm,” said Charlotte Kunkel as she matches cloth and layers the fabric together. She is a member of St. Paul Church in North College Hill.

        “We're doing something personal,” said Ms. Hahn, who helped organize the project. “A quilt shows somebody cares.”

        The fabric was donated; some of the flannel used as backing was purchased. Other churches participating include Heritage Methodist Church in Mount Healthy, College Hill Presbyterian Church, Faith Lutheran Church in Finneytown and First Baptist in Mount Healthy. The quilts are sent to a warehouse in Maryland run by Lutheran World Relief, which then ships them out.

        Ms. Hahn said all that was required to help out was the ability to cut or sew a straight line, match colors, tie a knot, use a pin.

        The quilts each measure 60 by 80 inches, stitched together of 20-by-20-inch swatches that have been matched and cut. They have three layers, backed by flannel, arranged by color and pattern. Tables are arranged around the hall where patterns and colors are matched.

        “If you were a refugee in the cold, wouldn't you like something like this?” said one woman, holding aloft a quilt in bright green, pink, yellow, blue.

        Margaret Obercorn, approaching her 93rd birthday in July, sat at a sewing machine, running the fabric through.

        “I think it's a good cause,” Ms. Obercorn said. “And this is good therapy, too. I like to get out and be with other people.”

        Linda Kuenzli, wife of the church's pastor, Tim Kuenzli, sat at a sewing machine as well.

        “I think it's very exciting to see people from all over coming together,” Ms. Kuenzli said. “It's such a feeling of community, doing something for someone else.”

        Marsha Freed came to help out from her home in Forest Park when a neighbor mentioned the project.

        “I'm amazed at how many quilts you can turn out when you get 20 to 30 people working together,” Ms. Freed said. “You see the people on TV, and they look like they have nothing.”

       

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