Article submitted by Christina Heath 

At Monday night’s meeting of the Cherokee County Association of Volunteer Fire Departments, Gail Webb and Christine Heath of the Broomtown Rinehart VFD presented each of the 13 Fire Department Chiefs of Cherokee County a unique homemade quilt.  The quilts will be raffled by each Fire Department to raise funds for their equipment needs.

The project, which began in May of this year, was started by Ms. Heath and Ms. Webb, who have been quilting together for a couple of years.  With fabric donated by Carol Risher and Jean Crouchet of Montgomery, they designed and cut out the pieces for each quilt.  Then the members of the Sew Joyful Quilters of Centre sewed all those pieces into quilt tops and returned them to the duo who provided the backing and batting, quilted them on Ms. Heath’s long arm quilting machine, and attached the binding to the edges. Because of the cooperation and energy of the Sew Joyful team, the project was completed in record time.

Special thanks go out to Grace Hayes, Kalina Yarborough, Gwen Pinson, Karen West, Kathy Pratt, Laurie Chambless, and Dot Tramble of the quilting club and Charlotte King of the Menlo quilting club for all of their hard work and great sewing skill.  Dana Carroll, the Centre librarian, not only sewed for the project, but provides the Cherokee County Library’s meeting room for the club’s regular Thursday morning get-togethers.

Each Fire Department Chief will now decide how and when to raffle these beautiful quilts.  For more information about the raffles, contact your local Fire Department Chief.  If you are interested in the Sew Joyful Quilters club, Ms. Carroll at the Cherokee County Library can provide information on dates and times of their meetings.

Photos by Danny Pratt