More than 100 quilts are being pieced, stitched, stuffed with batting and finished up nicely with intricate quilt patterns for the new Veterans Home in Ogden. Or at least, that’s what Diane Jaeger, state representative for the Quilts of Valor nonprofit, intends by the time the official opening is held Nov. 19.

Jaeger, a management assistant with the 571st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, has a number of quilts that have been committed to the project, in several stages of completion, but her ultimate goal is a quilt for each bed — 120 of them.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to cover all those service members and veterans touched by war with wartime quilts it calls Quilts of Valor, according to the foundation’s Web site at www.qovf.org. “This includes everyone from World War II to Vietnam, to the two actions in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Jaeger said.

“These (quilts) are a way to say, ‘Someone is there supporting you with a nice big hug,’ââââ” she said.

The organization’s Web site puts it this way: “It is a tangible way to say: ‘Thank you for your service, sacrifice and valor’ for our country.”

The efforts to provide quilts for the Veterans Home came as a result of a request from the Veterans officials in the state, and Jaeger explained that these are intended to be “heirloom quality,” suitable for passing on to other members of the family as a keepsake.

She prefers a quilt top of at least 60 inches by 72 inches and made from 100 percent cotton materials.

Volunteers can help bind the quilts, provide materials, piece together their own quilt tops or can also help “long-arm” them, as she characterizes the process of adding the intricate quilt patterns by machine. “I can get a quilt done in one to two hours versus one week,” she said.

When Jaeger was diagnosed with a medical condition which interfered with her ability to use her hands as freely as she once had, Jaeger took her Veterans Administration settlement, and used it instead to purchase the long-arm quilting machine that is as large as a small car.

“I don’t watch TV,” says the former 419th Reserve member who served from 1999 to 2008. “If my kids can’t find me, they know where to find me — I’m downstairs quilting.”

The machine does all the work when it comes to sandwiching the top, the batting and the lining together but she still has to figure out, mathematically, how to make sure the quilting designs she creates for will fit onto the quilt top.

This is one of the final stages as the stitches go through the layers, adding another unique dimension to the top of the quilt already replete with contrasting squares and shapes of such designs as “Log Cabin,” “Pinwhweel,” various kinds of star patterns, and endless other possibilities. The Quilts of Valor donated quilt tops do often follow a patriotic theme.

“One Airman contacted me, after receiving a quilt in Iraq,” Jaeger said, “and wanted to know how did I know she collected butterflies?” It was one of the rare instances in that shipment of quilts in which a quilt deviated from the norm. “And I could see I made a difference,” she said.

What started Jaeger into the creative arts? Some years earlier, she began providing art work for a Best Western Motel in Missouri. Her original interest in paintings was transformed into the world of quilting when she found that as she raised a family, it was hard to keep the painting supplies out of inquisitive hands, as she spread them out and gathered them back up. But quilting, that was another matter. Most quilters know that even if you can’t find a way to spread out other projects, you can still find a way to piece together a quilt block whether it’s on a sewing machine or by hand.

As Jaeger got more and more prolific, she found she had to give them away to charities and other organizations.

Jaeger, who served in Germany in 1994 with the Air Force, took an arts and crafts quilting class there and got some nice books and tips from her mother-in-law on the subject once she found out that her in-law was a skilled quilter.

Jaeger even helped to start a branch of the QOV in Australia after donating some quilts to service members deployed from down under, and she urged their contacts to begin their own group. Jaeger said she is planning to visit them one of these days to “check up on them, and see how they are doing.”

She said because of another quilting event in the state, a lot of quilters have contributed through that event but that she is only about half-way to her final count of 120.

To help volunteer or donate material, quilting supplies or quilt tops, contact her via e-mail, at curtanddiane@att.net.

The national organization of QOV also takes donations at their Web site at www.qovf.org, however there is no guarantee a state or local group will receive the donation as gifts are spread out over the entire organization of quilting groups.

The Quilts of Valor organization has donated more than 24,000 quilts to military personnel and veterans.