Soldier's Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts

Laurie Malms photo
Sgt. W. Eric Rodman and his mom, Laurie Malms

Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts

By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Each time Laurie Malm's son "goes down range," as he describes his three deployments to Iraq, she has sent lap-size quilts for his whole unit.

The project isn't what's hard, because Malm of Fernandina Beach usually enlists the help of willing volunteers from quilting guilds.

The hard part for Malm is knowing this is her son's third time being sent into a dangerous war zone.

The first time was when her son's Army unit marched on Baghdad in 2003.

"He was there when they invaded," Malm said in a phone interview. "What I wrote to President Bush and Colin Powell at the time: 'If you are sending my son to die, there better be weapons of mass destruction and a horde of them.' So now, to know that there wasn't, and so many of the soldiers have fallen, I feel it's wrong."

Rodman's return was welcomed with a parade for his unit, and Malm thought it was over.

As a result of the first project, she started Lollipops Designer Bindings -- an online business that sells bias bindings made for quilting and sewing enthusiasts -- when she learned "how many quilters hate to make bias," she said, referring to the bindings created using strips cut on the bias of the fabric.

For her son's recent deployment she assembled nearly 40 volunteers to make more than 20 quilts with the help of her friend Gracye Beeman, owner of The Sewing Garrett in Daytona Beach. Beeman has a special sewing machine that helps speed up the process of building a quilt.
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Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts