Peggy Sadler of East Thetford is one of the organizers of the quilting marathons that take place four times per year in Hanover to produce quilts that are distributed worldwide by Lutheran World Relief. The following is an edited interview.

When the tsunami hit, people were saying everywhere, “What can we do?” We decided, “Why don’t we have people come here and make quilts with us?” So we advertised it and 67 people showed up. It was our first marathon.

We had no plans to do it again but everyone said, “When are you going to do this again?” Now we do them in October, January, February and March. All of the fabric is donated. We don’t know where it comes from sometimes, it just appears.

That first year we thought, “Let’s try for 100!” Last year we did 132, so one of our members, Susan, she said, “Let’s try for 150!” We set up at 7:30 or 8 o’clock in the morning so that people can start right at 9. Sometimes it will be 9 o’clock at night and people will still be sewing away because they don’t want to leave. Our husbands come in the evening and they work, then they help us clean up.

By the end of the day it definitely feels like a marathon. We do insist on a coffee break, and we have lunch. We have to encourage people not to work through the breaks because it gets to be very tiring. You can look around and see most of us are not 25-years-old anymore.

These will likely be going to Darfur or to Iraqi refugee camps or Afghanistan. We never know for sure where they go. We do know that there are some people that don’t have something to wrap around themselves. It gives people a sense of purpose. It’s a way of having fun and doing service at the same time.

These are utility quilts. These are not fancy quilts. Real quilters will worry about making their corners match. We don’t worry about that. A real quilter would never put this fabric next to that fabric. We don’t worry about whether the colors are exact. When you stand back they’re all just beautiful. And they’re warm.