NORTH BEND — When Evelyn Bucher decides she is going to do something, nothing can stop her. So when the 88-year-old said she is going to sew 100 quilts for local veterans by spring 2010, there is hardly a doubt she will.

“As long as I live through the winter, I’ll get these quilts done,” Bucher said, with a burst of laughter — and authority.

It is not that far of a stretch, considering she already has 67 sitting neatly stacked in her North Bend living room.

“I’m doing it because our vets don’t get enough recognition,” Bucher said. “They fought for us. Why shouldn’t I do something for them?”

Bucher has three quilts in the works. Once those are finished, her daughter, Linda Waterman, is going to help take all 70 to the VA Hospital in Roseburg. It should happen in the next couple weeks.

Bucher began the quilting project two years ago, after seeing a newspaper ad soliciting bedding donations for veterans sparked the idea. But her compassion for veterans, and quilting infatuation, have been lifelong.

For years, Bucher and a close friend took cookies and ice cream to patients at the Roseburg VA.

“They would see us coming and be half-way out of their chairs,” Bucher said. “I would come out in tears.”

Despite progressing arthritis, Bucher explained how she sits in the warmth of her sunroom for hours at a time stuffing, stitching and tying.

Then, in mid-conversation, the mother of three leaps out of her chair, darting down the hall to another room, with Waterman yelling behind, “Slow down, Mom.”

There, she reveals her 40-year-old fabric collection. Yards of oriental silk, pastel cottons and plaid flannels line the walls from floor to ceiling, spilling into the middle of the room.

“My sisters and I never understood why she bought all that fabric,” Waterman said. “We always told her she was never going to slow down enough to do anything with it.”

But now that Bucher isn’t spending her days at Tiny’s Tavern, which she has owned for 52 years, she is doing something with it.

“I’ve always said I was going to do something special with my life,” Bucher said. “I will get rid of this fabric, yet.”

Bucher also takes this opportunity to remind us, nothing can get in the way once her mind is set.

Her deceased husband, a U.S. Army veteran from the 1940s, didn’t want her to buy the tavern. So Bucher forged his name on the loan and bought it anyway. Even today, they can barely keep her away.

“I never let the man stop me,” Bucher said, with a wide smile.

Like her fabric collages, Bucher’s personality is a vibrant display of contrasting color and complimenting tones. One minute docile. The next defiant and determined. But always grateful.

“It makes me feel good that they would accept my quilts,” Bucher said. “I just wanted to say thank you.”