Western Washington women making quilts for Newtown

A group of Western Washington women were so moved by the tragedy at Newtown Connecticut , they decided to get involved by creating special quilts for each of the victim’s families.

Kelly Beedle of Anacortes is helping lead the effort. “I was sitting at home one night after the tragedy happened, and I was trying to think of something meaningful to do. I thought, I know how to quilt, I know others who quilt, and I was thinking of something to do to provide comfort to the victims’ families, to give them something to hold or snuggle with six months or two years down the road.”

Beedle says they researched each one of the victims to see what kinds of things were special to them, then that went into each quilt. “One little gal really enjoyed dance and ballet, so her quilt has some ballerinas in it. One little boy really enjoyed being at the beach with his family and making s’mores, so we found some fabric that had some of that theme in it.”

Also involved is Mary Jensen of Lynden. She’s working on a patriotic red white and blue quilt for the first responders. “I put 26 stars around the edge of the quilt, and put each of the victims on a star, and put that around the edge.”

Dorinda Curran of Buckley is doing three quilts, including one for a little girl who lost her life at Newtown. “She liked the color pink and dresses, so I found some material that had little dolly dresses in them and started from there and used a lot of pink.”

All three women say the tragedy touched something deep inside, and that moved them to act.

Beedle says “somewhere along this journey we’re all pretty emotionally connected to this project, and for each person I think they’ve found some comfort emotionally because it’s touched us like it’s touched everyone.”

These three women from Western Washington are part of an incredible group of 55 doing quilts for Newtown.

They’ll unveil the quilts at a special show coming up March 23 in La Conner. They’ll be raffling off some other quilts to help pay for materials and shipping.

They’re working with the junior league in Newtown to distribute the quilts to the families.

You can check out these very moving works of art on their Facebook page – Quilts for Newtown.