Mary Whitaker is the community outreach coordinator for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild. She is involved in the sub committee that is involved in the legacy for the Quilts for Pulse Project.
The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is fairly new, having started in about 2012. It started small but now there are over 100 members. It has become a responsible non-profit. Meetings are once a month with the usual treasurers report and minutes for every meeting.
There are at least two dedicated outreach projects each year. They educate and push themselves through activities and supporting one another to finish projects. Each meeting ends with a show and tell so members can share what they are doing. Sometimes an instructor comes in from out of town.
Mary lives close to Pulse, she was out of town at remote spot when the shooting happened. When they went into town, her phone suddenly started exploding with messages when she got reception. They poured over the news and messages from a distance.
Every quilter in the guild immediately felt they needed to make quilts. It is how they show warmth, comfort and love. It is also a way for each quilter to work through their own thoughts about the situation. The quilters decided on a heart shaped block pattern, each being 2.5 inches in rainbow colors. The goal was to make 102 quits originally, one for each victim’s family, and one quit for each person injured. Blocks stared coming in fast along with finished quilts.
They hadn’t though of how overwhelming the repose would be. They didn’t realize they would end up producing over 1800 quits. A label was sewn onto every single quilt that points it out as being special to the project. Businesses and individuals made donations to the project. Support came in many forms. Thank you notes were sent to everyone. Every single state in the United States helped with the project along with 23 countries.
