Why a Signature Quilt?

Signature quilts are a typical expression of quilting in America. Historically, they are a fashion that started in the 1840s. They are collaborative projects often for community benefits, such as building a hospital, church, or school.

And in our times?

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, started in 1987, is now worldwide the largest piece of community folk art with over 48000 panels weighing 54 tons.

Smaller projects like the National Tribute Quilt commemorate the victims of November 9, 2001.

It seems appropriate to both express our gratitude for the efforts of all, especially the firefighters and the emergency responders and to commemorate the four victims of the Cascade Oregon House fire. Our local newspaper published the names and ages of the victims. For each year of their lives there is a cross-stich on the front of the quilt.

As the American poet Walt Whitman says in To Think Of Time:

"The law of the past cannot be eluded,

The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,

The law of the living cannot be eluded, it is eternal"

Signatures of gratitude

and drawing one continuous line

Hand-quilting the line

Detail of the back