Alliance Memory Quilt Squares Honor Ovarian Cancer Victims
September 27, 2007
Asheville, North Carolina, September 27, 2007 — Under the auspices and sponsorship of Blank Quilting, The Alliance for American Quilts has posted the photos and stories of seven remarkable women whose lives have been touched by ovarian cancer. The pictures and biographies of the women are now a permanent part of the virtual Star Memory Quilt at the AAQ's website,
www.centerforthequilt.org
Blank Quilting, a New York-based fabric company, has been working to heighten awareness of ovarian cancer and help fund research through its Inspiration Guild. Participants in the Inspiration Guild program make a quilt square in honor of someone whose life has been affected by ovarian cancer. Eighty-one of these blocks are assembled into a quilt and the completed quilts are auctioned off to raise money for the cause.
As each quilt is completed, it is named for someone whose life was touched by ovarian cancer, whether as a victim, caregiver or survivor, and that is the case with the seven women honored here. Some, like Melanie Normann, founder of the State Guild of New Jersey, died of ovarian cancer, while others are still living with the disease. Joyce Jensen, who continues to make quilts for her 20 grandchildren, is battling ovarian cancer for the third time.
At www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/projects/memory/ you can read about these brave women and see the finished quilt that was dedicated to each. The Alliance is proud to help Blank Quilting publicize the stories of these women, because our mission is to preserve and share the stories of quilts and quiltmakers, and it's very clear that quilts helped these women make beauty and meaning in their lives. Judith DeSiro of Sharon, Pennsylvania, one of the women on the Star Memory Quilt, survived breast cancer in the 1980s, only to learn she had ovarian cancer in 1993. Her successful treatment then was followed by recurrences of ovarian cancer in 2003 and 2005. How does she cope? Quilt therapy helps. In both those years, Judith ran off to the Houston International Quilt Festival with her sisters for an inspiring diversion.
The Alliance's two Memory Quilts, the Star and the Chinese Coins quilt, are available to anybody who wants to honor a beloved quilter or quilt lover. The celebrated person can be living or deceased. These permanent tributes are a personal way to pay public tribute to people, and the power of quilts as inspiration. All of the funds from these Memory Quilt squares go to support the projects of the AAQ.
For more information on Blank Quilting's Inspiration Guild, go to the company's website,www.blankquilting.com . The Alliance for American Quilts is a national nonprofit organization committed to documenting, preserving and sharing the rich stories that quilts tell about our nation's diverse people and communities. The AAQ's website, www.centerforthequilt.org offers a wealth of free resources related to quilts and quiltmakers.
If you have any trouble reading this press release or have any questions, call or e-mail Meg Cox, a journalist who is vice president of The Alliance for American Quilts. meg@megcox.com or 609-924-9135
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