The Stars and Stripes Quilters Guild of Hinesville will open an art exhibit, showcasing quilts and other items, Thursday at the Hinesville Area Arts Council Gallery.
The “Every Quilt has a Story” exhibition will open with a free a community reception at the gallery from 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Thursday.
The guild, which has been in Liberty for about 30 years and has 30 members, started meeting on Fort Stewart. Since then, the guild has gathered at local churches and now meets regularly at the Liberty County Senior Citizens Center. The nonprofit  guild supports many local organizations and people. They make padding and bed mats for dogs for the Humane Society, and sponsor runners for cancer walks, the YMCA, education and families displaced by house fires.
Stars and Stripes donates to the senior center by raffling a quilt each year. All proceeds go to the senior citizens to fund activities and trips, as well as fees for outings and events.
“When we meet, we work on our own projects, take classes and, sometimes, it’s just socializing for us. We have some older members that have been there for 25 years, and we have new members, a few military, but it’s open to all,” guild member Karen Haymans said.
This month is National Quilting Month, and Stars and Stripes will display handmade quilts of all varieties, bags, table runners, place mats and other projects at the “Every Quilt has a Story” exhibit.
“We titled it ‘Every Quilt has a Story’ because behind every one of these quilts, there’s someone thinking about when they made it,” Haymans said. “For instance, there’s one member who recently lost her husband and she didn’t quilt. She started hanging with us because of friends that she knew in the guild and got into quilting. She took a couple of her husband’s shirts and made a bed runner, and has made some for her daughter and nieces.”
Every year, the guild displays different quilts and never the same thing twice. They plan to have over 80 quilts from locals. The guild also will discuss the art of quilt making.
“We have a lot of different talent in the guild. We have some people who only do handwork and they make some beautiful handwork designs,” Haymans said. “Quilting is basically a puzzle. Once you figure out how to start putting your puzzle together you’ll enjoy it.”
The guild meets at 6:30 p.m. every first Tuesday and at 8:30 a.m. every second Saturday.