By Debbie Frediani
This week, I had the honor to speak with Sue Bixby who played an important roll in the latest Quilt of Valor presentation. Sue, who lives in Fruitland, belongs to a local quilting club, the Happy Bee Quilters. She has been quilting for 5-7 years now and considers the hard work that goes into every quilt “stitches of love.” The group gets together to construct quilts for all of the local vets as a small way of saying “Thank you” for their dedication and service to our country. Following completion, these quilts are then presented to the Ontario Vets Center where they can be distributed as needed. Sue had previously designed and assembled a unique quilt block with a military theme of red, white and blue colors. This quilt block was highlighted as the “Block of the month” in the Quilt Shop along Railroad Drive in Ontario. Following the showing, Sue was unsure what to with the block until she decided to build a quilt around the block to be donated as a Quilt of Valor to a local recipient. That lucky recipient is 94 year old Claude “Denny” Dehnhoff. Claude served 5 years in the Army, 4 of those years stationed in New Guinea. Sue was delighted to be present when Claude received his quilt. Her words were filled with emotion as she described the smile on Claude’s face and emotion in his eyes as he was presented the quilt. They plan on doing many more quilts in the future for those military personnel who fought for our country and it’s freedom.
