When H. Glenn Stauffer wanted to get a cedar chest built for his wife, Arlene, for Christmas, he turned to a neighbor who had shown cedar chests at the Bainbridge Fair.

The nice new chest, with a unique blocked corner, piqued Stauffer's interest and gave him the inspiration to start his own woodworking hobby.

Stauffer asked the neighbor how he made the corners, which were glued and clamped instead of nailed together. "But he wouldn't tell me," Stauffer said.

So Stauffer asked around and finally figured out the secret on his own.

Stauffer — who had plenty of 6-foot cedar logs he had cut down from his father-in-law Paris Good's property — built 18 cedar chests to give to his children and grandchildren.

"At one time, I had 13 waiting in a line for my children," he said.

When the Stauffers moved to Landis Homes Retirement Community from Elizabethtown a year ago, he had just a little over a month to make another cedar chest for the retirement home's benefit auction, to be held Saturday.

This time around, Stauffer began in June.

The cedar chest comes with a little chest inside. "You put love letters in there," his wife said. Stauffer agreed. He said his mother had one as well that she padlocked.

Besides the cedar chests, Stauffer also has repaired wooden antiques, such as a flax-spinning wheel.

Stauffer's brother-in-law, Hal Good, got Stauffer started on another of his hobbies — quilting.

Good, who lived in California, found an appliqued quilt top on the Internet from Honey Brook and purchased it as a present for his sister in Elizabethtown.

After the quilt top lay around "looking so pretty," Stauffer said, he wanted to have it quilted for his wife.

But Stauffer couldn't find anyone to do it, so he decided to quilt it himself. He found a quilt frame and asked a friend, Kathryn Saylor, to teach him how to put the quilt top on the frame.

Saylor took him to Weaver's Dry Goods Store; bought batting, backing, binding, quilting thread and a needle; and showed him how to quilt.

Stitching, however, wasn't new to Stauffer. His mother started him on needlework, embroidering baby bibs and pillowcases. "She taught me all the stitches, from a running stitch to a French knot," he said.

The Country Love-patterned quilt now adorns the Stauffers' bed, and Stauffer has made queen-sized quilts for each of his children and a neighbor.

Each of his children's quilts had a different pattern, such as Hummingbirds, Lily of the Valley/Rose of Sharon or Hearts of Roses.

The last quilt he made for his youngest son, which also used the Country Love pattern, won Stauffer the Best of Show award at the Elizabethtown Fair in 2006.

Stauffer, 77, is now working on wall hangings for his clan, for which he has devised a crossword-puzzle genealogical family tree.

His and his wife's and their parents' names are handpainted on the fabric as part of the trunk, their children's and spouses' names are the limbs and Stauffer's grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's are the fruit. Two sons who died at ages 6 and 9 are represented by limbs that waft into the clouds and disappear.

All the grandchildren are listed crossword-style with their parents.

"I tell them they have to be careful what they name their children so I can work it into the crossword puzzle," Stauffer said, laughing.

Stauffer has made five of the crossword wall hangings and is working on his sixth. He plans to make each of his children one, he said.

Landis Homes' Fellowship Day will begin at 7 a.m. Saturday with a garage sale and flea market, fresh produce stand, market place, share-a-meal booth, gift certificates and food court.

The gift basket silent auction will be held from 7 a.m. to noon, and the art and specialty items silent auction will be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The live auction begins at 8:30 a.m. with general items and continues with furniture at 9 a.m. and collectibles and antiques at 9:15 a.m. The quilt auction begins at 10:15 a.m. and the art auction at 11:30 a.m. Handcrafted and specialty items will be auctioned at 12:45 p.m.

Fellowship Day also will include children's activities from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting.

Landis Homes Retirement Community is at 1001 E. Oregon Road, Lititz.

lvaningen@lnpnews.com