The coverlets made by the Lometa Quilters are all about providing solace.

While some of the quilters in the group make show-quality quilts, the group mainly puts together more utilitarian quilts that will be given away, said Gail Eltgroth, Lometa Quilters member.

The Lometa Quilters will be doing demonstrations and talk about their charity work at the Needle Art and Quilt Show: Stitches in Time at the Keystone Square Museum and Lampasas County Courthouse 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The majority of the quilts made by the Lometa Quilters go to children in Child Protective Services in Lampasas and to Williams House in Lometa, where children stay until they are assigned to foster homes, Ms. Eltgroth said.

Williams House collects the donated quilts and gives them to the children when there are enough to give one to each child in residence.

“It’s theirs to keep … it goes with the child wherever they go,” Ms. Eltgroth said.

The decision to give away the quilts began a year ago when there were three separate residential fires in Lometa that destroyed all of the families’ belongings. The group made quilts for the families and decided afterwards to make lap quilts for children because there was a need.

The group gives away about eight or 10 dozen quilts a year.

“It goes pretty fast because we don’t quilt, we tie,” said Gus Brewton of the quilters group projects. “I call myself a quilter, but I don’t quilt.”

All of the fabric used by the Lometa Quilters is donated.

Last summer the group had so much fabric they devoted a day to cutting blocks and backs, making kits to give to Project Linus, a group of volunteers that provides blankets to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need, Ms. Eltgroth said.

It was a busy group that gathered at the First Baptist Church in Lometa last month.

Two women - Donna Guckian and Shirley Beyer - were occupied at sewing machines putting together backs, batting and quilt tops. Others, Ruth Carroll, Mickey Jones, Juanita McIlhaney, Dianna Furlan and Elaine Porter, worked alone and in groups, piecing and cutting tops, backs and batting.

The women come from all over Lampasas County.

Mrs. Carroll didn’t begin quilting until she retired in 1986. She hand pieces and hand quilts her projects.

Mrs. Carroll said she made the mistake of asking a granddaughter what kind of quilt she wanted. The granddaughter requested a Baltimore Album Quilt, one of the most challenging quilts to make, because rather than being pieced, the top is made up of appliques.

“I bought a book about it and I still couldn’t follow the instructions,” she said.

Mrs. Carroll finally found a quilt store in Austin that taught a class on the quilt.

“I attended classes for 11 months … we made a block a month,” Mrs. Carroll said. “When I finished I swore I’d never make another applique quilt.”

February was the first time Mrs. Guckian had worked with the Lometa Quilters.

“I used to quilt with a church group in Beeville and we made tons of quilts for world relief organizations and missions,” she said. “I knew I liked to do this sort of thing.”

Mrs. Guckian said she doesn’t quilt as much now because she is losing her eyesight.

“My church is small so I do make quilts for every graduating senior,” she said.

Mrs. Jones has been quilting for 40 years.

Most of her quilts go to family members, but Mrs. Jones said she has given a few to raise money for the Lometa Ministerial Alliance.

Dianna Furlan of Lometa pieces quilts by hand and machine.

Mrs. Furlan moved from Sugar Land to a ranch in Lometa and said it just seemed natural that her new lifestyle would include quilting.

The last quilt she made was a wedding gift for a niece.

Mrs. Furlan said she treated the project like a job, getting up early and spending about 2½ hours every day working on the quilt.

“I started in January and finished it in June,” Mrs. Furlan said.

When the women break for lunch they have a show-and-tell where they talk about projects they’ve been working on or bring books and magazines to share with the other quilters. Then it’s back to work.

“We do this for the love of our community,” Ms. Eltgroth said of the group. “We don’t need anything other than fabric and our health.”