When we heard about the death of James Byrd, in June 1998, rctq'ers were shocked. So, we did what we always do - we made a quilt - this time to express our outrage that this could happen in our country and our sorrow for his family. Many of the blocks were made to signify things important to James Byrd. Marianna Greenberg had the original idea for this quilt and it has been such an exciting project for all of us.
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Susan DiNapoli laid out and put together the quilt top.
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Peggy McDaniel hand quilted it.
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peggy quilting
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newpaper article printed in the St. Petersburg Times.
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Gail Pittman and Marilyn Sobel added the binding which was donated by Country Quilts and Bears in Clearwater, Florida.
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The finished quilt has been delivered to the Byrd family. Peggy McDaniel was the blessed individual that had the opportunity to go in person and visit with the family and deliver this special quilt.
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This forward has been written as if the quilt is completed. It is for the booklet that will be presented to the family along with the quilt.
James Byrd, Jr. Memorial Quilt
This quilt started on February 24, 1999 with a post to the RCTQ (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting) online newsgroup. The original post asked if there are people interested in making a friendship/reconciliation quilt for the Byrd family. The Byrd family had suffered a horrible tragedy the previous year, when their son/father/brother was dragged to death by racists in Jasper, Texas. Within a couple of hours of the post, 15 people had responded; by the end of the day over 50 quilters from all over the U.S. and some European countries were involved.
The quilters settled on 6” squares, which were sent to Marianna Greenberg in California for photographing and scanning. The scans were forwarded to Susan Sisk in South Carolina who developed the website for this project. Many quilters included personal background information, along with messages to the Byrd family. Just like the quilt itself, this book accompanying it is a collection of various individual expressions.
Another important contribution was made by Keepsake Quilting, which donated the batting for this quilt.
From California, the individual quilt blocks traveled to New York for the layout and piecing group headed by Sue DiNapoli. From New York, the quilt top went to Texas to meet Peggy McDaniel who did the actual quilting. And there was one stop left: the quilt went to Florida for the final work, the binding, to be done by Marilyn Sobel.
It is difficult to put one’s heart into a 6” square of fabric. But each and every quilter has done so, hoping the finished quilt will bring some comfort to the family of James Byrd, Jr.
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Leslie Schneider MO
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billie oglesby
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