Unity...and Diversity with Crazy Quilters

This quilt won BEST of SHOW at the Garden Patch Quilt Show at the Wheaton Arts Center in Milville, NJ March 15, 2008!! CONGRATS!!

Today I want to acknowledge a group of women in New Jersey that call themselves South Jersey Crazy Quilters! They are unique individuals who all express themselves through their designs and stitches. If you could look at this "challenge project" that they have just completed, you will find something the same in each of the 20 squares. Each person received a piece of the same fabric with bright colors, butterflies and bugs and flowers on it. They had to create a square for the quilt that included this. They had two months to do it.
THERE THE SIMILARITIES ENDED!!
The women are in the "mid-life range" from early 40s through - well "mom" is 95 next month!! and quite fascinating in the ways they express themselves.
If you could look closely, you would see that one person took the fabric and a little piece with a flower and used traditional colors. Others went to the opposite extreme and picked up the brightness of the oranges and yellows and pinks.
This was a "no rules" project - except for making sure the square was the right size and a piece of the fabric was included.
To complete this chapter of the story, the quilt was stitched together and embellished on all of the seams. It is important to affirm the energy and skills of a very special "leader", Jeanne Hagerman, the founder of the group, who guided the task. She is amazing and needs to be recognized and thanked! No, she did not do it alone, but she was the guiding light and a powerful set of "nimble hands".
Why do I share this story? We talk about affirming and valuing others and we recognized Jeanne. We also must recognize the other 19 women who brought their creativity and individuality to this project. It shows that we are all the same...all crazy quilters, yet we are each so different too in the way we choose colors, assemble our square and stitch.
IT IS NO DIFFERENT FROM EACH OF US IN EVERYTHING WE DO IN OUR LIVES. We are all one, yet we are all different. In realizing the sameness and respecting the differences, our lives are stitched together like the patterns of the crazy quilt. Like the quilt, there is UNITY for all of us, created by combining our originality and working to accomplish shared missions.
P.S. Watch for this quilt to be entered in quilt shows. We have also documented each square - and like each of us, recording our stories will add value to the quilt's historical value.