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From the Middle East with love

Master Sgt. Lynn Koger is honored with her own Quilt of Valor after spending her off duty hours crafting dozens of them

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Lynn Koger, center, a master sergeant with the 133rd Test Squadron in Fort Dodge, gets a hug from Carol Heatherington, left, as she and Nancy Riehl wrap a Quilt of Valor around her. Koger created 32 quilts while she was deployed in the Middle East last year.

A member of the armed services who made quilts in her spare time while deployed overseas was presented with a Quilt of Valor by the Fort Dodge Area Quilt Guild Tuesday evening.

Master Sgt. Lynn Koger, of Fort Dodge, was given the quilt during the club’s monthly meeting, held at the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office, 217 S. 25th St.

Quilts of Valor are given to armed services members who have been touched by war.

Koger made 32 quilts while she was deployed in the Middle East last fall and this spring with the 133rd Test Squadron, which is based in Fort Dodge.

She made the quilts to keep herself busy and help pass the time while she wasn’t working.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Master Sgt. Lynn Koger, right, with the 133rd Test Squadron in Fort Dodge, smiles as Carol Heatherington, center, and Nancy Riehl hold up a Quilt of Valor being presented to her. Koger created 32 quilts while she was deployed in the Middle East last year.

“People will work out, they’ll FaceTime with their family, they do a lot of reading,” Koger said. “Some of them will take online classes. It’s just something to make that time go by.”

While she doesn’t know exactly what got her interested in quilting, she’s fairly certain that an episode of “Little House on the Prairie” she saw when she was 12 was her main inspiration.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s cool,'” Koger said. “‘They’re taking these scraps and making a quilt out of them.’ I think that’s where it all came about.”

Including the 32 made overseas, Koger estimates she’s created as many as 250 quilts in her lifetime.

But where did she get the material from for the quilts while in the Middle East?

“I shipped a box before I left,” she said. “And then I also packed some of the stuff in my luggage.”

Still, she had to wait before getting started because she didn’t have a sewing machine.

She planned to either buy one or have one shipped to her in Turkey, which is where she was initially stationed.

“And I ordered one online, and it was supposed to come and it never did,” Koger said. “I had to have my mom run down, buy one and ship it.”

It was a long wait.

“The first two months, I didn’t have a machine, so that was really frustrating,” she said. “But once I got my machine, I was happy and very busy. Very productive.”

She considered quilting by hand, but ultimately decided she wanted to have them machine-made.

With her machine, she got into a routine.

“I was averaging one top every four days because I had all of the stuff cut up, and I put it in Baggies and stuff,” she said. “Everything was all ready to go, so I didn’t have to worry about cutting and bringing a whole bunch of extra fabric. Everything was pretty much in kits, so it made the process go faster.”

Her creative space was an issue.

“I was in a containerized housing unit. It’s called a CHU,” she said. “It’s basically a shipping container that’s pretty much divided by three, and you have two people in each section. It’s probably about a 10-by-12-foot area, and two people share that space.”

“It’s kind of a tight space to have a quilting operation.”

Fortunately, Koger’s roommate didn’t mind.

“I’m actually giving her one of my quilts for having to put up with me quilting.”

Koger actually didn’t finish the quilts while overseas. She made only the tops. After finishing a top, she would ship it back home. When she returned to Fort Dodge, she put the rest together.

Koger usually donates the finished quilts.

“I’m going to give some to family,” she said. “I have a lot of family members that don’t have a quilt or it’s been years since they’ve received a quilt from me.”

Sometimes she’ll sell her quilts, that happens very, very rarely.

“I don’t sell a whole lot of them,” she said. “I think quilts should be given as a gift more than to sell.”

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