A local woman is using her sewing machine to try and mend the wounds of war.

Diana O’Connor, a 44- year-old mother of four, spends her spare time scrounging up fabric and piecing together quilts to send to the families of soldiers, airmen and seamen who have died since Sept. 11 in a tradition that originally dates back to the Civil War.

“Think of it as a sympathy card on fabric,” O’Connor said. “What we’re doing is getting a quilt to every family that has lost a loved one.”

The Home of the Brave Quilts Project, of which O’Connor is the Massachusetts coordinator, grew out of an effort by a California quilting guild in 2004 to honor the sacrifice of men and women in uniform by sending the families of fallen soldiers, seamen and airmen reproductions of the quilts donated by the northern women and distributed by the U.S. Sanitary Commission throughout the Civil War.

Measuring 48 by 84 inches – large enough to cover the cots of Union soldiers – the reproduction quilts are sewn using the same colors and patterns as their 19th-century counterparts, according to O’Connor. In addition, she will add a stamped replica of a U.S. Sanitary Commission label and another label embroidered with the name of the fallen serviceman or woman.

“They’re all like the quilts that date back (to the Civil War), every one is so different,” she said. “Some people make blocks. Some people will take the blocks and put them together in the quilt. Some people will take the tops and sandwich them into quilts. We have people who offer to do all different things. It’s amazing to see the help. It’s just very rewarding.”

According to Sandi Carstensen, the national coordinator of the project, quilters from almost every state in the country are volunteering their time and fabric to the group and the effort has even spread to the United Kingdom.

“To me, our quilts are special because of its connection to the Civil War and because every state is making the same quilt. We’re all using Civil War patterns and that makes it special to me and I think it does to the family too,” Carstensen said. “I’ve had many soldiers from all prior wars talk to me and the comfort that this brings to the families is just amazing.”

To date, the national group has produced and presented almost 3,000 of the quilts, Carstensen said.

For O’Connor, who got involved in the project through her work with the Hannah Dustin Quilt Guild, which has about 250 members and includes the coordinators from New Hampshire and Rhode Island, the reward comes with being able to reach out to the families of fallen soldiers and let them know that the country has not forgotten their sacrifice.

“It just is rewarding for me to help out and to know that I’m helping some of these families,” she said. “More than anything (sewing) is very relaxing. I’m very busy, I have four kids between the ages of 10 and 16 and sometimes I’ll just go over to the machine and sew. To know that a lot of what I’ve been doing is for charity, it’s even more rewarding.”