Sniper Quilt

 When my friend Blogless Kathy J's son decided to take some time away from college to figure some things out, she knew it was the right decision. When he joined the Army, she was still on board. Then he was accepted into a prestigious unit based in Kansas, a unit where he would be trained as a sniper. This wasn't quite as wonderful to her, and when his unit was sent to spend a year in Afghanistan, Kathy -- a person with a positive spirit and amazingly high energy -- knew she had two possible choices: to spend that year slowly losing her mind from worry or to harness that energy into something constructive.

She began to make a red and white quilt to give her son when he would return home.

Then it dawned on her that all of the guys in his unit were some mothers' sons, and with this realization, she bought a couple of bolts of red and white fabric and commenced a plan of making a quilt for each of the men in the unit, plus their driver. I don't know how many she ultimately produced, nine or ten comes to mind. As the year approached a close (and Sam earned a Purple Heart), Kathy reached out to the Usual Suspects for help and a group spent a Saturday piecing and pressing. Two long-armer friends quilted them, gratis, and a bunch of us volunteered to bind.

I finished binding the one I was assigned on Sunday.

And Sam will be home on Friday.

Thanks be to God.