Special Comfort Quilt for Douglas County Deputy

March 2008

Normally, quilts donated by volunteers of Firehouse Quilts aren’t made for or given to adults; their mission is making & donating snuggle quilts for children that have been involved in a traumatic event like a car wreck, fire in their home, domestic violence, etc.

Firehouse Quilts received a special request from Stephanie Trotter at the CSV Association (Community Safety Volunteer) that works closely with the Douglas County Sheriff’s office.  Now, two FHQ volunteers, Dusty Darrah & Barbara Dean, have husbands (Mike Darrah & David Dean) that volunteer with the Douglas County CSVs, so you’ll begin to see the connection real quickly here.

Shortly after beginning his morning shift a few weeks ago, Sgt. Max Young of the Douglas County Sheriff’s office was seriously injured in a head-on collision on south Santa Fe.  He has been through more than one surgery since the accident to repair damage on his arm and leg and has recently been able to go home. 

Sgt. Young is a strong supporter of the CSV program and the help they offer the Douglas County deputies like himself.  A comfort quilt would be the perfect way for the CSVs to show how much they care.

Ok, so now the volunteers of Firehouse Quilts are on a mission to find just the right look. After flipping through a huge stack of quilting books, they found the perfect pattern; stars that look like the sheriff's badge.

Ellen Palmer & Dusty Darrah met at The Creative Needle in Littleton to search for just the right colors and fabrics to use for the special comfort quilt we’re creating for a very special guy.

Ellen Palmer (FHQ) arranges the fabric chosen for his quilt so Marge Serck, owner of The Creative Needle and Dusty Darrah (FHQ) could see how the colors looked together.

Have you ever tried to find just the right shade of a certain color?  Do you know how many different shades and designs there are in a particular color?  They spent several hours at The Creative Needle, trying to match the maroon CSV shirt somewhere in the rows of fabric in the shop and finally found just the right shade.  Also used in the quilt are the dark and light blues and gold of the uniform.  Oh yeah, a LOT of thought and planning went into this special quilt.

These quilts are all washable and that works out especially  well for giving them to children.

So as soon as they got all the fabric home, into the washer it went to be sure it would shrink now rather than after the quilt is assembled.

Barbara Dean & Dusty Darrah worked for hours together cutting, ironing and sewing the pieces back together to form the star pattern.

Soon it was taking shape on the design wall at Dusty’s house.

Piece by piece, the smiles were getting broader.  Once the blocks were pieced, they were sewn into rows and then each row connected to the one below it.

Borders were added to the outside of the main design to increase the overall size.

Now, the backing has been pieced too.  Even though the back of a quilt is rarely seen, it’s still important (to FHQ) that the colors match the front.  It’s almost as nice as the front when it’s done.

It’s time to send it on its way for the next step . . . . to be quilted.

Dusty brought the quilt to Ellen, meeting in a church parking lot for the ‘drop off’.

There will be another surprise for Sgt. Young on the back after it’s quilted but for now, its just time to be quilted.

 Ellen Palmer used her long arm quilting machine to scatter loops & swirls & stars all over the quilt.

She echoed the lines around each of the large pieced stars

on the top of the quilt.

After Ellen finished quilting the entire top, batting & backing, it was time for it to be ‘squared up’ and have the binding attached.

Debby Nye drove to Ellen’s house and picked up the quilt.

Soon the quilt was on its third machine since the fabric was purchased and brought home from the shop.

Debbie put a beautiful feather stitch along the binding to hold the quilt altogether.

The quilt has now come ‘full circle’ back to Dusty,

who still needs to hand sew the quilt label on the back.

The cloth quilt label displays the CSV embroidered patch beside a list of

all the members of the CSV Association.

At the very bottom is the FHQ puppy logo and

“Made especially for you by the volunteers of

Firehouse Quilts of Colorado, Inc. in February 2008.”

This quilt has traveled all over the Littleton, Highlands Ranch and parts of Denver

in its journey to be created especially for Sgt. Max Young.

The four volunteers of Firehouse Quilts that created this Comfort Quilt proudly display the completed quilt.

   (L-R Ellen Palmer, Dusty Darrah, Debby Nye and Barbara Dean.)

Next step?  Delivery!

 CSVs Buford Rice and Stephanie Trotter

present the quilt To Sgt. Young, while Sgt. Young and

Walt Wohlgemuth, the coordinator of Douglas County CSVs look on.

It has finally come home to be with Sgt. Young as a constant reminder of his friends in the CSV Association.

 Sgt. Young proudly displays his new comfort quilt with Jackie Salopek, while he continues to recuperate at home.