They didn’t have to send a dress code memo to the members of Baldwin City’s newest quilting club on what to wear to its first meeting Sunday.

Liz Granberg, left, and Donna Thomas hold a quilt with a red, white and blue color scheme that will be donated to a local veteran. The two women on members of the local chapter of Quilts of Valor, which had its first meeting Feb. 8. The club will meet at 1 p.m. the second Sunday of each month as it works to complete quilts of all local World War II vets in time for Veterans Day.

It was understood the four Quilters of Valor members, Liz Granberg, Karen Kohn, Jo Cornelius and Donna Thomas, would wear red, white and blue or some form of patriotic dress. The four women started the local Quilts of Valor with the goal of duplicating the efforts of other chapters across the nation of making quilts to give to hometown veterans.

“We’re working with the American Legion to get the names of veterans in the area,” Granberg said. “We’re starting with World War II vets.”

The group currently has the names of 12 WWII vets and encourages family members or friends to send the names of others in the community who served in the war, Granberg said. The goal is to have the quilts done in time to present them to veterans during the Baldwin Elementary School Intermediate Center’s annual Veterans Day assembly next November.

The women are all members of the Stitching Grannies, a group that meets weekly at Quilter’s Paradise in downtown Baldwin City. Quilters of Valor’s mission attracted them because they all have multiple family members who have served or are serving in the military, Kohn said.

“I think we all have the military spirit,” she said. “My husband is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and I have two sons and a daughter-in-law in the Air National Guard.”

With that shared background, it’s not surprising one group member has already made a couple of the patriotic gift quilts.

“I’ve already made two quilts of valor, one for my brother who served in Vietnam and another for a vet who had served in Afghanistan,” Granberg said.

Sharon Vesecky, the owner of Quilter’s Paradise in downtown Baldwin City, is supporting the effort by paying the local chapter’s group membership to Quilters of Valor and making the shop available for the club’s monthly meeting.

Other Stitching Grannies and members of the Maple Leaf Quilt Guild will help by contributing the blocks, as the square patterns of material in the quilts are called, Granberg said.

“Quilters are going to make them in red, white and blue and give them to us,” she said. “It’s our job to pull them all together and make the unfinished quilt.”

Once that is done, others in the local quilting community will pitch in again to help with the quilts’ final finish stitching, Granberg said. The group is also taking donations of red, white and blue quilting materials and cash for supplies. Donations can be left at Quilter’s Paradise at 713 Eighth St., or donors can call 620-344-2694.