quilts

MY FIRST QUILT!

Front and back of the 'Cover Them' quilt project.

"COVER THEM"

A quilt exhibit by Rachael Brumer

At the

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOUSTON

September 5, 2001 to January 27, 2002

The Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) will present a quilt exhibit in the fall of 2001 entitled "Cover Them". The exhibit features 10 remarkable art quilts by Seattle artist Rachel Brumer. In an effort to better

identify with the 11,000 children listed in the book , French Children of the Holocaust by Serge Klarsfeld, Brumer selected ten little girls who shared her birthday and created a quilt in each one's memory.

The Museum hopes to fulfill the artist's vision by placing a stack of "Children's Quilts" at the end of the exhibit that is intended to provide the children of today with comfort and joy. Museum visitors and

scheduled school tours will have the opportunity to pass on a quilt to a child in need and challenged to consider the questions: Who would benefit most from one of these quilts? What suffering exists in our

world today? And how can I make a difference in the life of a child?

Volunteers are needed to produce these quilts to accompany the exhibition. During the course of the show over 200 classrooms will visit the museum and each will receive one quilt as long as the supply

lasts. Educators/Chaperones will receive a lesson plan to help engage

the students in a dialogue about who is in needwhat suffering children

are enduring todaywhat agencies/organizations, provide help and relief

to children. The students will then decide what special child will receive it. This will take the message of caring for the children of today out of the museum into the school environment.

Cover Them has been shown twice before, in New York and in Seattle. Both times the artist made all the "Children's Quilts" included in the stack. After both exhibits Rachael received letters from the visitors

thanking her for her inclusion of the "Children's Quilts" and described the journey of the quilt they took.

One person gave the quilt to the Salvation Army Children's Clinic in their area. Another entrusted the quilt to a friend who was traveling to Romania. The friend gave the quilt to a child in an orphanage. A

third person wrote about donating the quilt to the Red Cross in China.

With Rachel's blessing we have developed a community approach to creating the stack. Beryl Myers, a Houston quiltmaker and museum

member, and Lynn Lewis Young, editor and publisher of Art/Quilt Magazine, are heading up this effort. What began as a telephone campaign has grown to include a call for quilts on the flyer accompanying issue #13 of Art/Quilt Magazine and is now on the internet. You may want to check out the museum's website, www.hmh.org.

Under exhibitions if you scroll down you will see one of Rachael's quilts. The project's website is http://www.geocities.com/chilrensquilts/. We

can also be found on http://francepatchwork.com/.

Suggestions for making the quilts: Sizes may range from 35" by 50" to 40" by 60" but we're not measuring! We recommend 100% cotton fabrics and cotton batting. Please keep in mind that these quilts should be safe, without embellishments, and washable. You may machine quilt,handquilt or securely tie the layers. The design of the top can be anything that would make a child happy.

Quilt graphics provided by www.quiltingabout.com!