9/11 Commemorative Quilt Made by Muslim Women Could be Lost

August 30, 2005

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/08/30/911_commemoration_quilt_could_be_lost_cause/

On August 30, 2005 The Boston Globe reported, "Days before a quilt created by local Muslim women was set to go on display at the Peabody Essex Museum, it has disappeared -- possibly carried away with the trash. The elaborate quilt, designed in part by Clara Wainwright, an artist who founded the New Year's celebration First Night, is part of a three-year project to create designs representing ways in which the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed people's religious faith. It was the first of nearly 60 quilts from various religious and cultural perspectives to be completed, said Wainwright, who started the Faith Quilts Project in 2002. The quilt was created by 20 immigrant Muslim women who now live in the Boston area. Its bold colors and intricate designs featuring the pillars and prophets of Islam so impressed project organizers that they decided to unveil it at the museum. But the 6-by-8-foot work of art was discovered missing last week from the Cambridge study of one of its designers, Wainwright said. A $500 reward has been offered for its safe return. 'The quilt was stored with the woman who helped me organize this project,' Wainwright said. 'She was storing it in her study in a trash bag. The quilt is very large, and she thinks that when she went away in June, the cleaning woman must've put it out on the street and there it went.'"

See also: Interfaith, Islam, Women