It looks so … homey. Six women sitting around a table in the George P. Thames Senior Center, cutting fabric and piecing for quilts. Several have brought portable machines, and one uses the center’s machine, purchased with funds raised with a quilt raffle. The group has an appropriate name, “Stitch-N-Friends.”

Then you look at the quilts. While a few are multicolored, designed for another charity, most have a red, white and blue motif.

These are not ordinary quilts,

The Stitch-N-Friends (formerly the Loxley Quilt Club) are making “Quilts of Valor.”

Established in 2003, the group, once called “Quilts for Soldiers” strives to give every member of the armed forces who returns wounded physically or psychologically from the Middle East a special handmade quilt.

QOV was founded in 2003 by Catherine Roberts, whose son, Nathaniel, was deployed to Iraq.

Looking for some way to help, Roberts hit on the idea of making quilts for returning wounded veterans. So far, more than 20,000 quilts have been awarded to veterans.

“It was an idea to keep me busy,” said Roberts in a telephone interview, adding that her first thought was to give someone up at 2 a.m. worrying something constructive to do.

“Rarely will the warrior admit to being wounded,” said Roberts. And while family members often make a quilt for their veteran, the QOV program is special Roberts says, because the veteran is getting a quilt from a stranger, it’s a token that the public understands the dedication and sacrifice.

Each quilt is given with a presentation case and often there is a personal letter from the quilters enclosed with the quilt.

The project has special meaning for Barbara Landers of Robertsdale, the president of Stitch-N-Friends — her son, James Landers, is in the Navy and has been sent into harm’s way more than once.

“We had a lady speak to us (about QOV) and we decided to do this,” said Landers.

According to Landers, a Robertsdale resident, the group has produced “60 to 70” QOV, which have been distributed to troops in Germany, California, and VA hospitals in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Landers speaks with pride about a trip she made with 10 quilts to a Navy hospital in Balboa, Calif., near San Diego.

“The guys in wheelchairs inspired me to make 100 more,” said Landers.

The response the women have received from quilt recipients has been overwhelming.

“They tell us not to expect an answer, that sometimes the service members have enough to deal with,” said Landers. “But, the responses we have gotten have been tear-jerkers and inspire us to make more.”

According to Landers, it takes about a month for the six women and a friend who Landers declined to identify, to make one 50 by 60 inch quilt.

“We do a lot at home ,” said Landers. The group meets on the second Tuesday of the month for an organizational meeting and then meets to sew at 10 a.m. at the senior center on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

The group will accept donations of fabric, batting, thread and of course, money so they can buy more supplies to create more quilts. So the quilt can be washed easily, the group only uses soft, 100-percent cotton fabrics.

“It probably costs about $100 to $150 to put one together,” said Landers.

For more information on how to donate, call Landers are 947-4436, or the group’s vice-president, Pat Hallberg at 947-3265.

“This is a way of giving back to the community,” said Hallberg.

She says she began quilting “32 years ago.”

“Everybody (in her family) gets a quilt,” said Hallberg.

For Peggy Wilcox of Robertsdale, the QOV project is a way of using her skills to support the armed forces.

“Anything we can do for our soldiers is awesome,” said Wilcox.

For Barbara Krob of Silverhill, the social atmosphere of the group is important.

“I like being with the girls,” said Krob, who said she began quilting around “40 years ago.”

Shirley Walley of Fairhope, the group’s treasurer, joined the club about two years ago.

“I retired and started quilting. I have learned a lot from the group,” said Walley. “There’s a lot of satisfaction in knowing the quilts go for a good cause.”

Maxine Kline of Daphne, a retired Air Force staff sergeant, says she’s been quilting most of her life and knows just how important this project is. Being able to use a skill learned from her mother and grandmother to give today’s troops a boost is important to her, even with a wrist broken in three places, the result of a fall.

“It gives me comfort and gives me joy,” she said.