OHCE presents quilt to Bonnie Talley

Mar. 10—Through carefully sewn stitches creating an angel pattern, a group of ladies presented their creative project to the founder of Gabriel's House March 7.

Members of Oak College, Oklahoma Health, Community and Education (OHCE), joined together to create a colorful t-shirt quilt to present to Bonnie Talley in hopes to raise funds for Gabriel's House at its next auction.

Sue Garrett said their purpose is to educate and help the community by doing good deeds. She said this is the 100th anniversary for Oak College.

Garrett said to help celebrate the 100 years, they wanted to do something to commemorate the club and make a lasting representation.

Susie Haws said they began the project March 2023. She said they started by gathering patterns and worked throughout the year to complete the quilt just before Christmas.

Tricia Stogsdill said it's an exciting project.

"I helped with some of the minor cutouts and helped put it together and lay it out," she said.

She said Jackie Neely worked to put it all together.

"It turned out so beautiful," Stogsdill said. "It's just amazing to me that you can take something that was going to be a scrap and make it into something beautiful and useful again."

Neely said she joined Oak College in September while they were putting the quilt together.

"I just took it and went with it," Neely said.

She said when she took it to have it quilted, she saw the angel pattern and thought, "that's Gabriel's right there."

Garrett said there is an embroidered square to show who created the quilt. She said Betty Rupp, Barbara Hartley and June McGuire helped put together the quilt as well.

Garrett said they have projects all the time to give back.

"That's the key," she said.

Rebecca Harlow said, as a staff member Gabriel's House, they are always trying to come up with ways to contribute or raise funds.

She said she made the t-shirt suggestion and they collected the shirts at Gabriel's House.

"Ms. Bonnie had several," Harlow said.

Harlow said she took the idea to the OHCE to see if they could do something as a club. The club's done previous projects with Gabriel's House, such as a reading program. She said it was good to tie the programs together.

Talley said they are grateful to OHCE for all of the time and effort they put into making the quilt or wall-hanging to raise money for Gabriel's House.

"We just appreciate all they've done over the years volunteering with Gabriel's House and helping our children and we can't thank them enough for what they've done," Talley said.