Two commemorative quilts honoring women who served their country as pilots during World War II are winging their way toward Texas from Holmen.

Judy Wolff and her daughter, Stephane, started the quilt project in 2000, both as part of Stephane’s requirements for Girl Scout Gold and Silver awards and as a way to honor veterans of WASP — Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Stephane finished the first quilt in 2001, honoring the members of WASP Class 44-W-9, one of 13 WASP recruit groups that went through their training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

The quilt features 70 squares and most of them feature iron-on pictures of the pilots, both during the war and a more recent picture. The blue is the same color as the fabric from which the WASP uniforms were made.

Some squares also feature photos of airplanes they flew, and the quilt features the class’s special wing insignia hand-embroidered in multiple spots on the blue and white quilts. It takes about 90 minutes to embroider each wing insignia, but Wolff said it’s worth it.

“It means so much more to have the wings on there,” she said.

The quilt project has snowballed from there, with Wolff working overtime in recent weeks to complete a quilt honoring the 38 WASP members who died during the war. Around the edge of the memorial quilt it says: “They are not dead, only flying higher than they have ever flown.”

Both quilts will be shipped to Sweetwater in time for a homecoming event May 24 at the National WASP WWII Museum that opened this year in Hangar One at Avenger Field.

Wolff is donating the two quilts to the museum and plans to make 12 more, one for each of the other WASP training classes — there are more than 1,300 WASP veterans in all. The biggest class had 173 members in it, so Wolff will either have to change the amount of space she devotes to each pilot or make a very, very large quilt.

Although she’s an accomplished seamstress, neither Wolff nor her daughter had any experience making quilts when they first conceived the project. What they did have, however, was an interest in aviation and history. Meeting a WASP veteran at the annual air show in Oshkosh, Wis., got the ball rolling.

Since then, Wolff has done quite a bit of research on the WASP experience and talks to surviving members every chance she gets.

“It’s quite an experience to listen to these ladies. It’s quite an interesting history not very many people know about,” Wolff said. “They’re real sweet ladies. They’re just adorable.”

WASP flyers didn’t get involved in combat during World War II, but the duties they took on freed male pilots to focus on combat missions. According to the WASP museum Web site — waspmuseum.org — more than half of the Army Air Corps’ high-speed pursuit planes ferried in the United States between September 1942 and December 1944 were flown by WASP members.

Through her research, Wolff discovered that one of the pilots came from La Crosse. Mary Belle Ahlstrom, who is now deceased, graduated as class valedictorian in 1938 from La Crosse Central High School and went on to fly with the WASPs.

Although Wolff’s daughter is living in Marshfield now, she still lends a hand on the quilt project when she gets a chance, and Wolff is optimistic she will complete her mission, which goes beyond stitching quilts. She wants to help make sure people remember the WASPs.

“They’re afraid they’re all going to pass away and nobody will know anything about them,” Wolff said.

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or 786-6812.

WEB BONUS: Look for links with the online version of this story to learn more about the Women Airforce Service Pilots and the recently opened Texas museum that honors them.