Through a meeting at the Chalk and Cue Pool Hall in St. Joseph, Betty Miller and Debbie Teed realized that they shared a common thread.

Both Ms. Miller, 50, and Ms. Teed, 53, had been sewing since they were children. They were introduced through their husbands a few years ago, and a mutual hobby led to a creative partnership.

“It was just kind of a real good match,” Ms. Teed recalls.

The two ladies made quilts together, but that craft soon turned charitable when Ms. Miller’s mother, JoAnn Cooper, suggested they donate a quilt to the 2008 Heart of America Tractor Cruise in Maryville, Mo., to help raise money for Camp Quality and other local children’s charities.

For that quilt’s design, the idea came when they saw pictures of tractors sketched with Crayola crayons.

“I was like, ‘All right, Debbie, we’re going to try to do this,’” Ms. Miller said.

One of the duo’s quilts usually takes several months to make, with the ladies meeting an average of once or twice a week for six hours a day. In order to get the right materials, they drive to fabric shops as far away as Kansas City and Iowa. They also make and sell custom quilts upon request, but whatever money they make goes toward materials for charity quilts with precise patterns and ambitious designs they think will fetch big bids at auction.

“If you have something you’re doing, you want it to be the best,” Ms. Miller said. “The ones for charity, we try to make sure they are the best we can do.”

Their best seems to be good enough. The 2008 Heart of America Tractor Cruise quilt auctioned for $610, while another special quilt they donated to Children’s Mercy raised $800.

The quilt they’ve created for the 2009 Heart of America Tractor Cruise, which kicks off on June 20 at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, is based on country-style 1930s feed sack and contains iron-on transfers of photos of tractors that were driven in the 2007 and 2008 cruises. But the plans don’t stop there. Ms. Miller and Ms. Teed already have started work on the design for their 2010 Heart of America Tractor Cruise quilt and are sewing quilts to auction off for other charity groups as a way to use their crafty skills to raise hundreds of dollars to help those in need.

“I would never be able to give that kind of money in just cash donations,” Ms. Teed said. “Our talent is something we can give with.”

Lifestyles reporter Blake Hannon can be reached at blakehannon@npgco.com