What lengths would you go to love your neighbors?
For Edee Anderson, the answer is 2,800 miles, round trip. As National Quilting Day approaches on March 21, 2026, we are celebrating our quilters who make this ministry possible.
Quilters like Edee.
In June, Edee drove 2,800 miles across six states in a Ford F-250 pickup truck, towing a 27-foot RV full of quilt batting.
“You might be interested to know I’m 78 years old,” she says. “But I’ve driven it plenty of times camping, and I can even back it up!”
Edee began her journey in Deer Lodge, Montana, where she makes quilts and kits with St. John Lutheran Church and serves as the Key Leader of four Ingatherings across the state.
Her first stop was the Lutheran Women in Mission National Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, where she enjoyed the event with thousands of women, including her sister and a cousin.
From there, she took I-29 North to Oklee, Minnesota — home of Oklee Quilting Supply, Inc.
“They have the best batting for LWR quilts, because it’s specially made at sixty inches wide and has the best price,” she explains. “But the shipping is expensive.”
One roll of batting, which makes 25 quilts, costs roughly $100. The cost of shipping is nearly half that. To maximize the number of quilts they can make, she says, “That’s my focus: get quilt batting back to Montana and save us on the shipping charge.”
Delivering batting — and love — on a budget
But she didn’t just pick up her own church’s batting. Edee worked with 12 congregations throughout Montana to coordinate their deliveries. Then the staff at Oklee, knowing her mission, asked if she would deliver to two additional churches on her route to save them money as well.
In total, Edee hauled 48 rolls of batting back to Montana — 12 in the truck bed and the rest piled to the RV’s ceiling. After her first delivery, she was able to fold down a bed and sleep in the RV at night, surrounded by batting.
“When I travel, I hate paying the cost of motels,” laughs Edee, ever the money saver.
On her way back to Deer Lodge, she stopped at churches in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Fairview, Hamilton, Helena, Polson and Ronan.
“The gals at Oklee calculated how much we saved on shipping. It was almost $1,400!” she said. “Plus, it was a fun adventure.”
Edee’s story is a testament to the lengths quilters will go to share love and hope with neighbors near and far. But what happens when that love reaches its destination? For someone like Natalia Chernenka, it means everything.
Natalia Chernenka lost everything after Russia invaded Ukraine. You gave her hope.
Natalia had nowhere else to go when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. So she stayed in her home, even during the harrowing time when soldiers occupied her community. And she stayed in her home even after a missile blew off her roof, shattering all her windows and destroying everything in its path with force and fire. Whatever belongings didn’t burn up have since turned moldy, because rain leaks under the tarps she uses as a roof.
“We built everything,” she said through tears, “and now we have nothing.”
For months, she had no electricity, no gas, no water, no heat. She survived on whatever foods she could grow herself, and that first winter of the war was brutally cold.
When she attended a distribution, she clutched her new quilt to her chest and said, “This quilt is very important to us, because the bedding that didn’t catch fire is all ruined. At least we can cover ourselves, thank God.”
There’s a reason LWR Mission Quilts have been part of our humanitarian response since 1945: they are practical, comforting and a sign that even on their darkest days, our neighbors are not alone.
“Thank you for not forgetting us,” Natalia added. “Thank you very much.”
This National Quilting Day — and everyday — we are grateful for quilters and kit makers who go the distance (quite literally!) for our neighbors in crisis. Through hurricanes and earthquakes, war and disaster, your love reaches further, surrounding the hardest to access and most vulnerable neighbors.
THANK YOU.
As we celebrate you, we invite you to host your own celebration commemorating your service. You can find loads of resources, an event flyer, hosting tips and more at lwr.org/nqd.