The room was filled with the chatter of women, the irregular beat of sewing machines at work and the unmistakable odor of freshly-ironed fabric.

The scene repeats each month as members of Whidbey Island’s Quilters on the Rock get together to create dozens of individual, hand-made quilts in all sorts of styles. Some are brightly-colored block-patterns with child themes while others have more complex patterns with creative names like “Stack the Deck, “Puss in the Corner,” “Log Cabin” and “Rail Fence.”

On this day, the the women were working on their community quilts, which are donated to foster children in the community or seriously ill folks at Whidbey General Hospital.

“People who receive them are so greatful in a way that words can’t express,’ said Renn Yanke, manager of the cancer program at the hospital. “It just makes them feel well cared for.”

Although they never get to meet those who receive their hand-made gifts, Quilters on the Rock member Lois LaBarge, who co-chairs the community quilts program with Dale Donovan, said the women hope their creations bring some measure of happiness and warmth.

“A quilt is a tangible form of comfort,” LaBarge said. She said she’s heard that people at the hospital “were surprised and delighted that something like this could be made for them and they wouldn’t have to pay for it.”

Oak Harbor resident Dorothy Waite started the group about 20 years ago — announcing it during a quilting class taught by Helen Thompkins — and quickly learned she was onto something when 22 people from all over the island showed up for the first meeting. Today, the group is 105 members strong and growing.

As group member Beth Whitman explains it, “Whidbey Island and the entire Northwest are hot beds for quilters.” The members agree that there are an amazing number of quilters all over the island, as well as a great deal of interest in the craft. M’Liss Rae Hawley, who is known internationally as an author and leader in the field of quilting, lives on Whidbey with her husband, who happens to be the county sheriff.

LaBarge, however, is quick to point out that Quilters of the Rock is not about being competitive or creating master works of art. “Those of us here are just happy quilters,” she said.

Besides donating their time and energy, the members work on an opportunity quilt each year which is raffled off. The money goes to support community quilts and other local organizations.

The group also puts on workshops, go on quilting weekend retreats and have day camps, LaBarge said, where “members meet and do our own thing.”

Some of the Quilters on the Rock even have their own quilt-related business. Whitman, a Freeland resident, said she runs “Memory Quilts by Beth,” in which she creates new quilts from old clothes “to remember times past.”

Arlene Anderson of Oak Harbor has a home business called “Rumpelquiltkin.” She has a 14-foot long-arm sewing machine so she can offer custom machine quilting. “I can do a king-sized quilt without hassle,” she said. Right now she has a six-week waiting list of clients.

Quilting is also a national obsession. According to a survey commissioned by International Quilt Market & Festival and Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, there are 21.3 million active quilters in the country who spend more than $2 billion a year on their hobby. There are quilting guilds, quilting shows, quilting pen pals, quilting camps and even quilting ocean cruises.

So what’s the big attraction to the hobby? Besides the social time the women enjoy together, members say they are intrigued by the endless patterns and colors they can put together, as well as the idea of making and giving away something made by hand that is useful, long-lasting and comforting.

“I enjoy the use of color and what you can create,” Whitman said, “the tactile, the feel of it.”

Quilter Marilyn Arnsberger had a somewhat different reason. “I tell my husband it keeps me out of bars at night,” she joked.

On Whidbey, members of Quilters on the Rock originally met 20 years ago at a classroom a Skagit Valley College, but moved to more comfortable accommodations after a few months. They moved to members’ homes, then at an apartment meeting room, then a church. Nowadays they usually meet monthly at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Coupeville.

LaBarge said a quilter named Mary Lou Hart suggested that the group could turn their hobby into charity work and community quilts was born.

The members started out donating quilts to Child Abuse Prevention Foundation for kids in crisis, but then CAPF became primarily a fund-raising organization. So they decided, LaBarge said, to donate quilts to folks at the hospital’s MAC unit and to foster children through Child Protection Services. They’ve given 55 quilts to CPS this year out of a goal of 70.

“What is really important is a group of people who have a talent and are willing to share it. That’s really, really important,” LaBarge said.