It is finally finished.

A quilt block featuring a 1947 Chevrolet Country Club Woodie convertible, that is.

Since Jan. 1, I've racked up 50 volunteer hours in embroidering a quilt block for "The Most Heroic Generation" car quilt, an originally designed quilt made by members of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program of DeKalb, Noble, Steuben and LaGrange Counties. The heirloom quilt, all handmade, will be sold Labor Day weekend at the Kruse International Collector Car Auction.

This year's quilt, the organization's 25th, depicts cars of the World War II era along with center panels of historic icons of the period, Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower; the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan; and the PT-109 commanded by future president John F. Kennedy. Each block is stitched in Deerfield embroidery, a stitch that fills in the design completely, like a painting. Backstitched lines in black outline every detail and make the colors pop.

I was roped into volunteering my embroidery skills because my sister, Shirley Johnson, is the assistant director at RSVP, based in Auburn, and is the quilt's designer.

My late mother-in-law, Doris Prentice, was one of the volunteers who stitched a car each year, until she became ill with cancer in 2004. She was working on a red Mustang convertible that year and was unable to finish her block. Shirley asked me to learn the Deerfield stitch so I could finish the block for her.

I began by outlining the entire design in a backstitch of two strands of black floss. The Deerfield stitch is similar to a satin stitch but is worked with a single strand of embroidery floss. The single strand is laid across the design, with tiny couching stitches to hold it into place, making tightly placed rows. The rows create texture as well as filling in the color, so thought should be given to the direction of the strands.

After the blocks are turned in RSVP volunteers who are experts in quilting will set the blocks together and make the borders. The top will be paired with batting and the back, and the whole thing goes into the frame for hand quilting by Labor Day.