Kaquana King believes there is no better time to make an American quilt.
King, a parent of a Willard Elementary School student, said the outpouring of financial and emotional support across the country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has prompted her to create her own memorial with a unique flavor.
King will collect photographs, drawings and names of victims of the terrorist attacks – whatever she can get – and then will knit a quilt, “like Grandma used to make.”
Her quilt will have a large U.S. flag in the center and also will incorporate images of the World Trade Center, Pentagon and plane crash site in Pennsylvania.
Surrounding this bittersweet centerpiece will be tiles to honor victims of the attacks and drawings from Willard students representing their perceptions of the national tragedy.
King, who has a 6-year-old daughter at Willard and is active in the Willard PTA, said the country needs to stay united after the attacks.
“Everyone has just come together, and this inspired me,” King said. “This is just my way of contributing to it.”
She said she has scoured the Internet for photographs to use and is seeking “as many as I can get, from as many sources as I can get them.”
Willard’s Art Club has offered to help King with some of the squares. The pupils will submit artwork to her, which she said should provide insight into how the children are reacting to the tragedy.
“Any messages the kids want to put onto their square is fine,” King said. “It’s how they feel. It’s how it affected them.”
King said her daughter, first-grader Deianira Smith, has responded surprisingly well since the attacks and has asked King questions as she tries to piece together the tragedy according to her own perception of the world.
“She’s doing better than I expected,” King said. “She’s mournful in her own way. She asks why bad people do bad things.”
King said the quilt will show how one small community has chosen to deal with a national tragedy that directly or indirectly has touched everyone.
The finished quilt will be something “to cherish, to hold on to,” King said. She will display the finished quilt at Willard, 2700 Hurd Ave., and then she hopes to send it to museums in New York and Washington for their consideration.
Willard Principal Shelley Paulson Carey commended King, saying the project will help students deal with the attacks.
“It’s a wonderful gesture on her part to link more directly with those who are affected by September 11,” Paulson Carey said. “We’re here to make sure (our pupils) can be the best they can be so that they, in turn, can make a better world for tomorrow.”
When King announced her project at the Oct. 9 PTA meeting, the other parents supported her, PTA President Stella Wilson said.
“It’s something that she wants to do, and it’s great she wants to include her daughter’s school,” Wilson said. “We’re so far away from it – not that we would rather be close – but it’s nice to have a memorial.”
But King downplayed the importance of her quilt, saying it is just her way to express how she and others feel.
“It’s just a project, something I wanted to do and something I needed to do,” she said.
King will accept submissions until Willard’s Winter Break, which begins Dec. 17. She then will begin to assemble the quilt, which she hopes to finish by June.
