Local Ladies Quilting Warmth Here

County Sheriff’s Office.

Most of them go to children at Christmas time through the Deputy Santa program. Deputies keep a few of them in their patrol cars for various situations that may arise – to keep someone warm after they crash their vehicle on a cold night, or to cover a deceased body when someone dies.

This group – the Fayetteville Quilting Bee – will hold an open house on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fayetteville. The public is invited to come out and learn about quilting and to see some of their finished quilts.

This week the Record spoke with one of the quilters, Jeanette Brown, about the organization. It all started as a ladies church project for Lutheran World Relief.

“A good portion of our quilts go to Lutheran World Relief, so they go worldwide,” she said.

Some years ago, a Meth-odist lady joined their group and inquired about giving away some quilts for a local cause.

“I looked around and called the Sheriff’s Office,” Brown said. “The Sheriff said he hadn’t thought about it but it seemed like a good idea. Then we got a Catholic member, and she was involved in Deputy Santa. So there we go. Now we give probably 50 to 80 Deputy Santa quilts a year.”

Fayette County Sheriff Keith Korenek launched the Deputy Santa program years ago to provide Christmas gifts to underprivileged children throughout Fayette County.

“Most of the ladies make the tops at home,” Brown said. “Then we work two Thursdays a week. We layer and tack them. It’s all different skill levels. Someone cuts the thread. Somebody irons. You don’t have to know how to sew.”

Brown said about 20 ladies are part of the group, and they’re not all Lutheran.

“It’s really an outreach of our church,” she said. “The church contributes, like if we need batting and stuff like that. But it’s definitely an ecumenical group. We have Baptists and Methodists and Brethren that work with us. It’s a really nice thing.”

Lt. David Beyer of the Sheriff’s Office said the Sheriff and deputies greatly appreciate the ladies from the Fayetteville Quilting Bee.

“They donate those handmade quilts and the deputies keep them in their patrol ve- hicles,” Beyer said. “Maybe they’re at a scene where somebody is cold and needs a blanket. Or if we’ve got somebody who didn’t make it in a wreck, for example. They just come in real handy.

“They also make baby blankets for the kids,” Beyer said. “And we give those out at Deputy Santa. They’ve been making them for a long time for the Sheriff’s Office, and I know they donate them to other organizations as well.”

Brown said her group sends many more quilts every year to Lutheran World Relief headquarters in Maryland, where they are distributed around the world to people in need.

“As of 2025, quite a few go to the United States, which is probably not a good sign,” Brown said.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Fayetteville Quilting Bee and those interested in joining the organization can visit the open house at St. Paul in Fayetteville on Nov. 2.

“Maybe we’ll encourage somebody else to join,” Brown said. “These are mostly retired people. So we lose members. Some pass away and some move closer to be with their children. It’s kind of an evolving group.”