Chapter 1: The Autograph Quilt, The Beginning

Chapter 1

 When quilt groups get together 

you can never be sure

 where the conversations might lead.

But I can recall a spring meeting

of my quilt group in 1994.  

Someone brought up the fact there

were currently 5 living presidents and

that there had been 6 in April before the

death of Richard Nixon.

Do you know who they were?

No peeking...

*******

We got to thinking how

cool would it be to get their autographs

and put them into a quilt.

Well, ideas got tossed around and 

in the end myself and two friends, Debbie and Liz

decided to see what we could actually do.

First, we decided that most potential

celebrities wouldn't care about 3 middle aged

women asking for their autographs, but

if we could get our junior high daughters involved,

we might have better success.

The girls were on board.

But there were quite a few questions that 

needed to be answered.

1.  What fabrics were we going to have someone sign?

And how were we going to prep it?

We decided we would each choose our own fabric,

cut 6.5" x 2.5" rectangles,

and back each with freezer paper.

We would include 3 pieces of fabric in each envelope, one

from each girl, 

and a self addressed stamped envelope.

We would ask each person to sign 3 times with a 

permanent pen.

2.To whom would we send these requests?

Seeing this was "the girls"  project

it was interesting to see who they perceived

as the movers and shakers of 1994.

I'm sure at first we tried to steer them in

a general direction, but they each

seemed to make interesting choices.

****

They each wrote a letter.

Here's what my daughter wrote:

My name is Elizabeth and I am in the 8th grade.  My two

friends, Lisa and Abbey and myself are each making a signature quilt.  

We are asking famous people who we think have made

a contribution to our society and culture to help us.

 We would appreciate it if you could

autograph the 3 enclosed pieces of fabric with a

permanent pen.  We have also enclosed an envelope for you

to return the fabric as soon as possible.  

Thank you for helping us put together a 

signature quilt of 1994.

****

The Big Question:

3.  Where were we going to send them?

You have to remember that in 1994 the 

World Wide Web had only gone public 

for about 3 years.

So we had to do some research to find addresses.

  Can you believe there

were books at the library with "famous"

peoples addresses of where to write

to get autographs!

We even used out of state phonebooks

which libraries had at the time.

This wouldn't be the case today.

Politicians were easy to write to at their offices,

 sports celebrities to team headquarters, and

movie stars to an agent or fan club.

We got very creative.

My daughter and I sent our our first batch

of letters in June, 1994 and

left on a family vacation.  

When we returned there was

one of our envelopes.

The then Governor of Colorado

The second one came days later.

Quarterback Broncos #7

Do you remember what first initiated this project?

The 5 Living Presidents.

Did we get any of their autographs?

No.

But we did get George W. Bush who 

was then Governor of Texas.

But we did get First Ladies.

Next time I'll share some of the autograph

stories, how many we received, 

and are they real. 

The girls kept going until 1996.

It was a great project and learning experience for us all.

Until Next time-

Kyle