Modern Day Heroes Project

COMPLETED MODERN HERO QUILT PROJECTS:

Bishop Mariann Budde

This was the original call for blocks.

Some participants who live in Northern Virginia

were available to help assemble the quilt.

Close-up of some of the blocks. We used

a simple snowball block pattern with all

Philip Jacobs floral fabrics.

Assembly continues.

Blocks all sewn and ready to be quilted. Thanks to

Rosanne Williamson for quilting, to Lisa Arthaud for binding, and to Philip Jacobs

for providing us the beautiful backing fabric he designed.

Thanks to Maryanne Rozelle's daughter, who delivered the quilt to Bishop Budde!

This is part of Bishop Budde's prayer at National Cathedral.

___________________________

President Zelenskyy

This is a short excerpt of the meeting at the White House with President Zelenskyy. This is what prompted us to let him know that the White House does not speak for all of us.

Here is the paper-pieced sunflower block, designed by Barbara Hollinger.

When four of the blocks are put together, you can see the sunflower.

The center is purposely offset.

Blocks arrived by the dozens and dozens for the quilt.

Assembly begins under Barbara's careful direction.

All blocks are joined and the quilt is ready to be quilted.

Here is a close-up of the beautiful sunflower design,

quilted by Rosanne Williamson.

It was a joy to show this completed quilt to our local guild chapter,

Fairfax Quilter's Unlimited, in Northern Virginia

The pattern and directions for the Sunflower Block, as designed by Barbara Hollinger, are copied below. They are and are available by clicking HERE

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eO4ngsM2XjLLfXqJWNBgBH-Xq1ZV14r-/view)

If printing from the downloaded version, please be sure to select the option to print "Actual Size" or at "100%."

Follow up: In June 2025, Kateryna Smagliy, Counselor, Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Ukraine in the USA, hand-delivered this completed qulit to the Office of the President in Ukraine.

___________________________

Heather Cox Richardson

Source https://exeter.edu/people/heather-cox-richardson/

Who is Heather Cox Richardson and why are we making her a hero quilt?!

Born in Chicago (a hotspot this week for births!), raised in Maine and educated at Harvard, Professor Heather Cox Richardson has been faithfully, fairly and honestly documenting the history that we are living through for over five years in her daily “Letters from an American,” which can be found on Facebook or Substack.

Her area of expertise is American History, with particular interest in the Post Civil War period, and a broad understanding of our entire American Story. She has authored seven books about history, politics and democracy, and teaches history at Boston College.

Many of us follow her daily letters (you can subscribe to these for free) and weekly Youtube/podcast question and answer sessions, where she offers explanations, perspectives and background to aspects of politics and history. Those answers aren’t always reassuring or positive, but understanding itself is empowering.

And that is her gift to us.

Heather lives in Maine and enjoys kayaking in her rare free time, so our gift to her is a quilt of kayaks. She has been a guiding light and a safe harbor in these stormy seas.

(If you want to know more, you can find her newsletters and politics chats on Facebook, Substack, YouTube and Blue Sky.)

Thanks to Ricki Selva for providing the above information, crossed kayak quilt block pattern, and block tutorials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson

Details and links for Crossed Kayak quilt block and how to participate

Image of completed quilt block:

Block details and instruction:

***Fabric and color selection: please use all of the colors of the sea, from deep ultramarine to pale seafoam, blues and blue-greens. Think batiks, tone on tones with very subtle designs, even solids are ok. Make sure to pre-wash all fabric.

Please make these blocks in identical pairs.

This pattern is for paper foundation piecing, but a skilled quilter with an avesion to paper piecing could certainly use the pattern to create templates with plastic or freezer paper. It is a simple pattern, as there are only 4 pieces! If you make more than one block, don't sew them together. When paper piecing, remember to shorten your stitch length a bit, and please remove the paper before you send the block(s) to me.

The finished block including 1/4" seam allowances should measure 5.5" square.

The cutting guideline makes patches that are generous, specifically for foundation piecing. Those pre-cuts should not be used without the foundation paper pattern.

Use this link to print out the pattern and make sure the block measurement within the dotted lines are 5.5 inches square. Make sure your computer is set to print at a scale of 100%.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mO5dd7PIjtyDGoMzzPh7WKpKz9CQoQ5o/

Quick Cutting Guide:

Stack four 7" squares, two dark blue and two light blue.

This will give you all the patches you need to make the four quadrants of this block, as seen in the cutting video below..

(This is a good use for spare 10" squares.)

Here is the video for instructions on sewing the kayak block using a paper foundation:

Here is Heather's completed quilt!

Received 10/10/26:

Dear Donna (and the other quilters):

Your spectacular quilt came to hand the day before my birthday, fittingly, and I am simply blown away by such an incredible gift. The whole idea honors the community of decent and principled people we are building, soul by soul, and this quilt in particular is perfect for me: evocative of the ocean and the solace I find by being on it in my kayak.

I love the idea of modern-day heroes, because that's what we're doing, right? None of us woke up one morning and decided to change the world. We got up and decided to do the next right thing. That is heroism... and that is the secret to this moment: all of us ordinary folks trying to make the world a better place.

And so, in an era where our leaders disdain such values, we become heroes.

I cannot thank you enough for your work and your good wishes. They will always remind me that we are all doing this together.

Normally, I would write you a snail mail letter, but I'm hoping you have emails for the other quilters, and can forward this message to them.

Here's to art, community, and keeping the faith.

Best,

Heather (Cox Richardson)

Questions:

Email me at desotomailbox@cox.net

Thank you for your help! Together we can make magic. And we can make a difference.

___________________________

Rachel Maddow

Photo Source:

American political commentator Rachel Maddow. Ali Goldstein—NBC-TV/Kobal/Shutterstock.com. Media Title: Rachel Maddow; Media Type: Image; Website Name and Publsher: Encyclopædia Britannica; URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rachel-Maddow#/media/1/1702705/251189 (Accessed 27 July 2025).

Why are we making a quilt for Rachel Maddow?

Some say Rachel Maddow is the most brilliant, informed and trusted voice in the news media right now. She is a journalist, an author, a political analyst, and the host of an award-winning news program on MSNBC. Many of us have regularly tuned into her show over the past years. Recently, we closely followed her nightly reporting during the first 100 days of this new administration, and it is easy to say she never shies away from the hard stuff in current events. We trust her, as she is known to be meticulous in fact-checking. She maintains calmness in the passionate way she weaves history, policy and current events into compelling narratives. In her spare time, we hear she enjoys fishing and spending time by her favorite lakes in western Massachusetts. That is why we decided to use the crossed kayak block pattern for this project, quilted with a fish design. Thank you to Rachel for all you do to help us hold onto sanity.

The same crossed kayak block pattern was used as the one we did for Heather Cox Richardson, but this time we laid out the blocks differently. This one will be quilted using a fish pattern.