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Richfield • With three grandsons and a nephew set to deploy with the Utah National Guard, Jackie Bulloch was intrigued earlier this spring by a national news story about a Wisconsin woman sewing quilts for soldiers.
Bulloch, retired secretary to Southern Utah University's president and a quilter, figured it would be a cinch to make four of the camouflage-fabric blankets for her "boys."
By the time she finished a phone call to order military-approved fabric from the Camo Quilt Project in Wisconsin, though, Bulloch had cut out a much bigger swath of work.
"It turned into 474 quilts," said Bulloch. That's one for every member of the 222nd Field Artillery Battalion, which deployed June 4 from Cedar City and St. George.
"I said, 'We can do that!' " Bulloch recalled Monday at the first "community sew" at Richfield's armory, where women ironed, pinned, marked with pencil and machine-stitched 40 quilts. "Southern Utah is very patriotic."
In the past three weeks, about 100 volunteers in Cedar City — and now 20 in Richfield — have completed more than 140 quilts, which will be shipped to the Triple Deuce soldiers, who are training in Indiana before being sent to Iraq later this summer. Their deployment is to last more than a year.
The 45-by-72-inch quilts can be rolled up to not much bigger than a loaf of bread and attached with sewn-in ties to the soldiers' backpacks. The blankets' heavy twill fabric sheds water, and besides providing warmth, can act as a pillow, ground cover or be used to block sun and sand.
Women of all ages came to help at Richfield's Armory on Monday, some recruited by Bulloch at a Guard picnic earlier this month and others enlisted via Marcia's quilt shop in Richfield.
Angel Day, whose husband is in the 222nd, drove two hours from Pleasant Grove to join other volunteers Monday. A quilter for the past year, Day painstakingly eased the two layers of fabric, stuffed with cotton batting, through her machine.
"We can't have any bunches," Day said.
"Yes, no tucks in the military," chimed in Marion White, who spent her 78th birthday sewing at the armory.
"I'd rather have champagne and roses, but I'll take what I can get," said White, a transplant from Missouri who fell in love with Richfield seven years ago. After 90 minutes of sewing, White was the first to finish a quilt Monday.
Most of the volunteers are related to or know somebody who knows somebody in the Triple Deuce.
Janae Blake's son used to be in the 222nd; in fact, he deployed with the battalion to Ft. Lewis earlier in the Iraq War, just days after his own son's birth. And her niece's husband is in the battalion now.
Blake said many people in town try to help Guard families with gestures big and small. Her own husband, who has an electrical business, won't charge Guard families for appliance repairs, she said.
Jan Larson and several friends from Central Valley, a community south of Richfield, typically get together to quilt several times a week. On Monday, they came to the armory instead.
"It's what makes the world go around when you're retired," said Larson, a retired jail cook who has a grandson-in-law in the Triple Deuce.
One of those friends, retired teacher Peggy Peterson, says her husband was in the 222nd for 27 years before retiring several years ago.
DonaMae Workman, whose husband, Cody Workman, is the commander of two units of the 222nd, said the quilt project gives the community a chance to help military families.
"So many people say, 'How can I help?' " said Workman, who pitched in with errands and pinning batting to fabric on Monday. "This is something they can do to help."
Judy Monson of Richfield, seated behind her sewing machine, said she has no personal connection to the Guard. But she feels as many in the community do: "We can't do a lot, but it's good to do what we can."
Learn how to help with 'community sews' project
O Get more information or donate to the project to make 474 quilts for the Utah National Guard's 222nd Field Artillery Battalion.
> 222proud.com
All labor and fabric is donated, but shipping costs and the cotton batting are expected to cost $7,700. About $4,700 has been donated so far, says Jackie Bulloch, of Cedar City, who is spearheading the project.
To donate • Make checks out to State Bank of Southern Utah.
To volunteer • Volunteers still needed for "community sews" in St. George, Hurricane, Fillmore, Richfield, Cedar City and perhaps other communities. Bulloch can be reached at 435-586-5638 or 435-590-6388 or via bullochjackie@hotmail.com.