07/24/2020
During the early part of the COVID -19 pandemic, residents of Avondale Estates answered the call to make masks for frontline healthcare workers. The small community made and donated approximately 3,000 masks. Jane McMullan Howe’s idea was to create a quilt from the same fabrics used to make masks and dedicate the quilt to those who had given time and talent to make them. She initiated the project by contacting Melitta Brandt, who had coordinated the mask-making project in Avondale, and Christi Granger, a local talented quilt maker, to complete the project. All three women had made masks.
They gathered fabrics and found enough for 84 rectangles. Christi pieced the rectangles together and completed the quilt top. Local quilter, Peggy McIntire Longarm Quilting, was commissioned to quilt the piece. The quilt will be donated to Emory Decatur Hospital, where most of the original masks were used.
Jane Howe said, “While sheltering in place, making masks gave life purpose and helped the healthcare workers. Turning the masks into a quilt was a way to honor the citizens who donated time and talent to making masks, and highlighted the caring community of Avondale Estates.”
