CONTENTS: Announcements -  Ask EQ -  Free Stuff -  Works For Me -  Show & Tell -  Quilter Community -  Quilt University -  A Quilt for Sean -  Club EQ -  Make it Simpler Paper Piecing -  EQ Mac Users Group -  Let's Make Marshmallows -  EQ & HP Sponsor Computer Labs -  Coming Soon from EQ -  Our Booth in Houston

A Quilt for Sean

Making a memory quilt for a WTC victim

by Diane Anderson, Tomball, Texas

United We Quilt (UWQ) is a non-profit organization of experienced volunteer quilters who are creating one-of-a-kind memorial quilts, each celebrating the life of a particular person who was lost on September 11. Quilts are made at the request of family members; friends or other relations, and are for their use, rather than for public display. EQ5 user Diane Anderson describes her experience with UWQ.

I found United We Quilt by surfing from website to website after the attack on 9-11. I was looking for some small way to help. I'd already donated 4 blocks to the United in Memory quilt, and several blocks to various groups raising money for fire departments, but I really wanted to be involved in a more personal way.

The photo on the front of Sean's quilt shows him skiing.

I e-mailed Jane at UWQ, and offered my time, energy, fabric and skills. She got back to me very quickly with details of how the program works, and the name of a woman in New York who was wanting a memory quilt of her husband's brother. She also gave the woman my name and encouraged each of us to introduce ourselves.

Jane indicated that families sometimes want certain things in their quilt that might be beyond the quiltmaker's skill, such as photos on fabric, or incorporating the victim's personal mementos into the quilt. She said not to feel badly if the first attempt didn't prove to be a good match.

She instructs both quilters and families to be candid with each other, and to let her know if it's not going to work out. She has many more families from which to choose. Many more than quilters, by the way, so they're always in need of volunteers. My time, and materials cost would be donated by me, though she said some families insist on paying for the materials. (To my mind, they'd already paid enough.)

After our initial introduction via e-mail, I proceeded to work up about 10 quilts in EQ, using blocks obtained by doing a "search" in the block library for words like mourn, love, brother, memory, life, everlasting, heaven, New York, Irish, etc. I sent jpegs of the quilts to the sister-in-law, so she could get an idea of some possibilities. She decided on an overall Irish green quilt, with an indication of Sean's hobbies, as well as a photo of him skiing.

The back of Sean's quilt is pieced with fabrics to symbolize some of his interests.

The only problem I had was how to incorporate the predominantly blue color of the photo into the mostly green quilt. EQ allowed me to play with color schemes and share them with the sister-in-law so she could pick out the one she liked the best. I was even able to scan in the photo, and place it into the EQ project so she could see exactly what the finished quilt would look like before committing to it. We tweaked the design a bit, then I set to work trying to find just the right fabrics. Looking for Irish motifs in August was a challenge!

It took 6 months to complete from the time I signed up, to the time I sent it off to her. As a surprise, I pieced the back with fabrics I found on the internet, that represented the man's interests: skiing, playing traditional Irish stringed instruments, carpentry, scuba diving, and his love of this country (an American flag fabric with splashes of green in it). The back was pieced as a diamond in a square, echoing the layout on the front of the quilt. I wouldn't have been able to figure out the proper dimensions of either, without EQ!

I sent the 60" x 60" quilt by FedEx (the less time in transit, the better), along a repair kit with fat quarters of each fabric, and instructions on how to wash it, and waited for her reaction.

She told me later that her husband (who'd been kept in the dark about the project) was overwhelmed by it. He hugged it and cried. He wanted to send photos of it to his family in Ireland, and as I'd thought ahead and taken a photo of both the front and back, I was able to email them the photos and they were able to send them off. Isn't technology wonderful?!

The brother and his wife were expecting their first child when Sean was killed, and the sister-in-law mentioned that they would probably hang it on the wall to keep it safe. My advice to her was to use it for a year or two first. To encourage her husband to wrap up in it, and cuddle the baby with it. Share with him the meanings of all the different images on the quilt, from the shamrock print of the dark green fabric, to the actual pieced shamrocks, to Uncle Sean's photo, as well as all the things he loved on the back. After the quilt had been 'infused' with all those moments in time, both happy, sad, and bittersweet, then hang it on the wall.

Sean's family was not the only family that was touched by this quilt. My own children, especially the younger ones, were greatly interested in all aspects of the quilt. It gave us an opportunity to talk many times about the attacks on September 11, 2001, and also allowed them to see and participate first hand in helping someone who's hurting. Even a stranger. It was a memorable experience for all of us, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be involved.

If you are a quilter and would like to volunteer your efforts, contact Jane Jackson, e-mail: JaneAtMil@aol.com.

CONTENTS: Announcements -  Ask EQ -  Free Stuff -  Works For Me -  Show & Tell -  Quilter Community -  Quilt University -  A Quilt for Sean -  Club EQ -  Make it Simpler Paper Piecing -  EQ Mac Users Group -  Let's Make Marshmallows -  EQ & HP Sponsor Computer Labs -  Coming Soon from EQ -  Our Booth in Houston