Every Wednesday morning for most of the year, Charles and Elise Bornschein of Lake Ronkonkoma drive east to Chez Shea, a big Victorian house in Southold, to join a quilting workshop that owner and teacher Maureen Shea calls The Flying Geese Quilters. It’s a group of half a dozen seniors who meet to work on quilting projects while socializing — in much the same manner as quilters of generations past gathered for quilting bees. Others join a guild like the Smithtown Stitchers, The Eastern Long Island Quilters Guild in Peconic or The Evening Star Quilters Guild in Mineola, while some sign up for classes at senior centers or at any number of local sewing stores like Patchworks in Sayville. Laura, 70, teaches free quilting classes at The Rainbow Senior Center’s Quilting Angels in Lindenhurst and at the Yours, Ours and Mine Community Center’s Platinum Quilting Seniors in Levittown, where some members are in their 90s. She also belongs to a private group of longtime friends, The Calico Cutters, who meet in each others’ homes for quilting bees and often work on communal quilts for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Eighteenth- and 19th-century quilters developed heirloom regional and universal patterns that are much copied today, such as the evocative Log Cabin and Wedding Ring, but many modern quilters use personalized themes for inspiration, such as anniversaries, births, housewarmings, pets, flowers and travel destinations, and embellish them with embroidered names and dates.

Joyce Parsons, left, and Judy Westcott, founding members of the Knotty Women, start work on a new ugly quilt Friday, Sept. The Knotty Women make quilts to donate to the Salvation Army and Domestic Violence Intervention, both Iowa City. An ecumenical group of women who call themselves the Knotty Women work to make quilts for the homeless in the Iowa City area. The Knotty Women are trying to meet their goal of 40 quilts to donate to the Salvation Army, Iowa City, by this winter. The quilts not only help the homeless of Iowa City, but also provide therapy for the women making the quilts.

Take a look at photos submitted by our readers.

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MARION Marion Technical College and The Ohio State University at Marion hope area residents 50 years and older will participate in the autumn 2008 Lifelong Learning Institute courses. LEI combines the educational resources of Marion Technical College, The Ohio State University at Marion, other community organizations and dozens of volunteers to offer two terms (fall and spring, each lasting approximately five to six weeks) of programming that meet the diverse needs and interests of 50+ adults. In this class will discuss using Google most effectively, explore Google’s many features, investigate some other search engines that may find things Google doesn’t, and talk about the so-called “Invisible Web,” those databases and other information Google can’t reach and how to find and explore them. This class, taught by a member of the Ohio State Patrol Marion Post, will focus on driving skills and preparing your car for winter driving.