Quilters Honor K9’s With a Quilt of Honor.

DULUTH, Minn — What began as an effort to recognize the K9 that lived next door when he retired after 11 years serving the Indian River County Sheriff’s Department in Florida, is now spreading throughout the country and internationally.

The creator and founder of ‘K9 Quilts of Honor’, Carolyn Bluhm was a novice quilter when she made her first Quilt of Honor. So she says the design was very basic.  But, that’s worked out well, as anyone can create the quilt in just hours.

“Every time I would go give these presentations somebody would poke me and say, ‘You’ve got something here, you need to share this with the world,” said Bluhm. “That’s where we come in and started to share what’s in my heart with quilters and how generous they are and who share their love and hugs through quilts.

At the Minnesota Quilters show at the DECC this week, four K9 Quits of Honor were presented to K9s from the Duluth Police Department and the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department. One of the three honorees from the police department, Kallie, was on hand and was very excited to be there.

St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay was pleased with the quilt presented to the department. “In the day-to-day duties and oftentimes in the current environment around law enforcement, it’s just so refreshing to have someone not even from the area recognize our staff and do something like give a quilt to a K9. It’s special and it warms the hearts of our staff.

The four quilts created for the K9s honored stood out from the hundreds of other quilts on display at the DECC for the Minnesota Quilters annual show.