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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe club had spent their previous year, combined with the Crystal River chapter of the Florida Sewing Sewciety, making 90 quilts for Flight to Honor Polk County Mission 9. The flight departs on April 30 with 87 veterans and their guardians to spend the day in Washington, D.C. to view the monuments that honor them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh my God it was so heartwarming,\u201d said Crossroads Stitchers member Lori Marker of hearing the commitment from the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marker is an Airman First Class (ret.) law enforcement veteran who served two years in Colorado Springs. Her husband, Gary, retired from the U.S. Air Force after 20 years of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Crossroads Stitchers has spread the word throughout the sewing community about their Flight of Honor Polk County quilt making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was Crossroads Stitcher member Celeste Ragno who had originally suggested making quilts for the Flight to Honor Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marker and Ragno traveled to Crystal River to meet with their sister club after the Crystal River group at Beyond the Stitches heard about the cause and was hosting a \u201cHonor Our Vets\u201d sew-in with fabric cutting, ironing fabric, sewing and assembling quilt kits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were so squeezed into their little shop,\u201d said Marker. \u201cThey ended up with 24 women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a sight to behold,\u201d continued Marker. \u201cWe had a fabric benefactor who also donated five boxes of fabric and three bolts of batting to the Crossroads Stitchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond the Stitches shop owner Dondi Squires provided the group with pizza, desserts and homemade cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all sew a little bit faster and more precisely when we have a full tummy,\u201d said Marker. \u201cWe came away with our hearts lightened and in awe of the ladies who showed up with their sewing machines and patriotic spirit and the desire to give back to a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sew-in resulted in 31 quilt tops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A second group of 13 women led by Crossroads Stitchers member Laurie Ludwig gave the group six completed quilts and 11 quilt tops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had quilts coming out all over the place,\u201d said Marker. \u201cNow we have extras for next year to start off with. This is fantastic. There\u2019s so much patriotic feeling in your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year Marker attended Mission 8 and will be distributing quilts at Mission 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThroughout the evening there will be stories. There will be laughter and tears,\u201d she said. \u201cThere will be a lump in many throats as the national anthem is played. My heart will be full knowing that we brought a smile and some comfort to a few of America\u2019s veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Crossroads Stitchers and sewers from Beyond the Stitches also crafted one special commemorative quilt which is autographed by the individual quilt makers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United States Air Force Colonel Gary Clark, chairman of Flight to Honor Polk, expressed his gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something magic about quilts,\u201d said Clark. \u201cIt\u2019s a very touching gesture. I\u2019ve got two or three quilts my mother made. They are a precious heirloom in my family. It\u2019s something that is representative of care and appreciation just by virtue of the fact that everybody knows that it takes a lot of work to make a quilt. There\u2019s a lot of detail that goes into it. Every veteran that I know whose received one is appreciative of it. I\u2019ve even seen a tear here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roughly 15 women sitting near sewing machines at the Fabric Warehouse in Lakeland loudly exclaim, \u201cYes we can.\u201d The Crossroads Stitchers sewing group had agreed at its monthly meeting on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44617,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44615\/revisions\/44617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}