Quilt designer, author and educator Meryl Ann Butler shared with me that she has a daughter at Virgina Tech. When I asked how folks were coping she told me she was coping the best way she can- by making a VT-themed quilt in school colors.

The email took me right back to the weeks after 9/11 when quilters all over the world turned to their fabric stashes and sewing machines to work through their grief. Unlike Meryl Ann, most of those quilters did not have a connection to the World Trade Centers or anyone who died that day. For them the process of making the quilt was a way to express grief and work through the horror.

The fall quilt market fell only weeks after that. I'll never forget the exhibit that the folks at Quilts Inc. brought together practically overnight. I confess I found the quilts to be hard to look at. Not because they weren't beautiful. Quite the contrary... it was hard because they were so true.

Isn't it remarkable how scraps of fabric and stitches can be so  healing? Quilts have always comforted, but in the last few decades we are seeing how the creation of a quilt block or quilt can provide an emotional salve. Whether it is block for the Aids Quilt, a tiny top for a sick baby or a photo quilt that helps folks deal with the tragic circumstances in Africa and the Middle East, the fabrics heal. They heal the maker who pours heart and soul into the quilt. And they touch the viewer who opens his or her heart to the spirit in the quilt.

Meryl Ann's quilt will be true. It will be tangible healer. Somehow, I think she's not the only quilter out there doing healing the same way.--Beth