Quilts, quilts, and more quilts!  The American Heritage Tea, “Quilts from the Home Front,” was held on Saturday, November 9th in Fresno, with one hundred ten guests attending. The perimeter of the small ballroom at the Radisson Hotel was surrounded with a display of quilts shared by DAR members.

Sherry Werum of the Sacramento Chapter gave a fantastic talk, dressed in a beautiful reproduction dress from Martha Washington’s time.  She showed wonderful samples of quilts from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War.  Many Daughters joined in to help walk the smaller quilts around the room so all could see them up close.

Everyone in attendance was thrilled to see the beautiful craftsmanship of both hand-quilted and machine quilted beauties.  The attendees viewed a slide show of quilts from World War I and II and learned of the efforts made by those who were on the home front.  Photos of quilts from the period were shown as well as interesting war posters and newspaper clippings. The state regent says, “This portion of the program, given by Chair Arleen Richards, was so interesting, especially the newspaper clippings and old quilt patterns.”

Quilts of Honor Director, Gail Belmont, told us of her organization’s goal to give “quilted hugs of gratitude” to veterans of all wars.  Three quilts were presented to deserving Fresno veterans: Henry Lemay, John Cline, and Chad Kangas. The audience was moved by the work of this organization and by the gratitude of the veterans who received handmade quilts.

The event chair would like to thank all of the ladies who loaned quilts to display and sent pictures of quilts for the slide show, you helped make our day a great success!  Thank you to Clyda Dehn, Vice Chair of the American Heritage Committee for all of her assistance.

Arleen Richards, State Chair
American Heritage Tea
A_richards@sbcglobal.net