Hundreds of colorful “crazy” quilts have been pinned together and stitched since LaVonne Metter began making them in the early 1990s.
Since then, her homemade quilts have warmed the hearts and body’s of hundreds who have received them as gifts.
“I started making them when my oldest granddaughter went to college, and she wanted a quilt,” said Metter, who lives in Huron with her husband, Raymond.
He celebrated his 88th birthday on Saturday, Jan. 6, and she is 85 1/2. They have three children, a daughter, Debra Kates, and two sons, both deceased, six grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Metter has given away more than 100 quilts this past Christmas, with donations going to hospitals in Huron, Mitchell and Sioux Falls, youth at the Abbott House in Mitchell and Our Home in Huron, veterans and immigrants, and to Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis for overseas missions.
“I sent the word out for everyone to save their gift bags for me,” said Metter, who wraps each quilt and delivers them.
Metter said they still feel a warm glow when they remember watching young people at Our Home open the gifts she and her husband had labored over.
“It just made my heart sing,” Metter said.
Indicating a table covered with hand-written thank you notes, she added: “One boy wrote and said he had stopped getting Christmas gifts when he was 7, and how much he appreciated it.”
Their daughter, who divides her time between Huron and Georgia, where her children and grandchildren live, said any bit of material is carefully saved for use in a quilt.
“She was raised during the depression-era and learned to make use of everything,” Kates said. “Never waste anything — consequently, she uses many different materials to construct her crazy quilts.
“She sews to the glory of God, and feels he is present many times matching the last stitch on a seam to the last thread in the bobbin,” Kates added.
Last fall, Metter said she received “seed” money from the Thrivent Financial “Live Generously” Action Team, which allowed her to purchase supplies, including large spools of thread, tape and fleece.
Metter finds material suitable for making quilts at Helping Hands Thrift Store, auctions, yard sales, and she also receives donations of material or sheets from friends.
Along with remnants she picks up at yard sales, she has also used cloth napkins, tablecloths, drapes, sheets, dresses, slacks, sweat pants and shirts to make her quilts.
If an item isn’t suitable for the outer panel, it might become the warm liner for the blanket.
Because Metter suffers from severe hand tremors, Raymond has been “volunteered to assist in seam ripping to prepare items for sewing,” Kates added.
The husband and wife team, who farmed together until moving into town in 1995, have always worked together on hobbies. After her husband suffered a heart attack in 1981, he began creating wooden tractors and trucks in his shop. LaVonne, a talented artist, worked with him to add the finishing touches.
Her framed artwork, many boasting ribbons from the fair, decorate their home, along with shelves of Raymond’s tractors and trucks. She has also created genealogy books on three branches of the family.
Metter said she plans to get another 60 quilts stitched together for youth in the local youth facility for next year, and she just received a request for 70 quilts for Christmas 2018 for young people in a private youth facility in Plankinton.
“She is hopeful she will be able to fulfill that request,” Kates said, “and, if not, that someone else would.”
“I haven’t sewn since Thanksgiving,” Metter added, laughing. “I have to get busy now.”
CRYSTAL PUGSLEY/PLAINSMAN LaVonne and Raymond Metter hold a couple of quilts they have made. The couple work together to make quilts, which they give to local and area hospitals, Global Health Ministries and youth facilities such as Our Home in Huron and Abbott House in Mitchell. A table is covered with thank you cards from young people who received quilts for Christmas.
