Daniel Rubin: A labor of love stolen in Phila.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080526_Daniel_Rubin__A_labor_of_love_stolen_in_Phila_.html

By Daniel Rubin

Inquirer Columnist
Here's a tender Philadelphia tale for the holiday, full of patriotism, camaraderie and grand larceny.

All it's missing is a happy ending, but there's an opportunity here, if the lowlife who ripped off Lynda Houck's luggage at Philadelphia International Airport steals today's newspaper as well.

Houck is a 47-year-old Army reservist who lives with her husband, Doug, in Strasburg, Pa. She spent 18 months making a red, white and blue quilt for a friend who was deployed to Iraq. And Houck still wasn't finished stitching.

Her friend, Kathy Brill, is director of recreational therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. For three years they served together in Norristown, with the 358th Civil Affairs Brigade.

Then Brill was called up to active duty in February 2007 and assigned to work with the Iraqi Health Ministry in Baghdad.

Houck thought a quilt with a patriotic pattern would make a nice homecoming gift.

"In honor of her serving in Iraq, I thought I'd do this for her."

She bought a kit that would help her stitch an eight-point star in the colors of the American flag onto a twin-size spread that measures 14 feet by 14 feet.

"We're talking thousands of stitches," she said.

Stitching time

FULL story at link.