The five quilts
The project was first called the World Trade Center Memorial Quilt, but it soon grew to honor every place and group struck that day. The squares were divided among five quilts, each meant to be given to the people it remembers.
The World Trade Center and Pentagon quilts are the two largest, each about 7½ by 14 feet with 117 squares. Both are built like American flags, with a stitched design for every state on the stars of the blue field.
The FDNY and NYPD quilts honor the New York firefighters and police officers. They are flag-style too, red and white stripes and a blue field, about 7½ by 9½ feet, and each carries a stitched prayer: the Fireman's Prayer and the Policeman's Prayer.
The Pennsylvania quilt, about 8 by 10 feet, is cut in the shape of the state, with squares from Pennsylvania stitchers placed where they live. The square for Shanksville, where United Flight 93 came down, is outlined in red.
- World Trade Center117 squares · 7½ × 14 ft
- Pentagon117 squares · 7½ × 14 ft
- Pennsylvaniacut in the shape of the state · 8 × 10 ft
- FDNYthe Fireman’s Prayer · 7½ × 9½ ft
- NYPDthe Policeman’s Prayer · 7½ × 9½ ft
Read how they were put together on the quilts page.
Who made them
The squares came from hobby stitchers, needlework shops, a school class and online stitching groups. Most stitchers sent one square; a few sent five, ten or more. Stitchers came from 60 different states and countries, from Alaska to Tasmania. Some designed their own patterns; others stitched flags, eagles, firefighters, rescue dogs, the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers.
Joyce CastleMichigan
Suzanne PatrickAustralia
Bev MitchenerColorado
Eileen SzydlowskiPennsylvania
Linda ZuroffNew Jersey
Anu WickholmFinland
Connie SubjectFlorida
Michelle PaysonNew Hampshire
Every stitcher the project credited is listed here, with a photo of their square where one survives, where they stitched from and which quilt it is on:
You can also browse the full list, stitchers by state and country or stitchers by quilt.
Where the quilts went
Because the permanent memorials were still years from being built, the finished quilts went on the road. They were shown in Nashville, at a cross-stitch shop in Pigeon Forge, at the Opryland Hotel, at the Somerset County Courthouse in Pennsylvania (where Flight 93 family members held up the Pennsylvania quilt), at needlework shows in Hershey and Santa Clara, and in New York City for the fifth anniversary in 2006. The timeline has every stop we could document.
Nashville, 2004Hershey, Pennsylvania, 2005Santa Clara, 2005Every stopIn the news
Carrying on the stitching
The project described what it hoped the quilts would do in plain terms: a quilt is something warm to wrap around you that gives comfort. That's still why most people make one. So alongside the history, this site now publishes free guides and patterns for the quilts people make for each other, starting with the kinds the project made.
If the project inspires you to organize a group quilt, start with how to organize a memorial quilt and how to stitch a memorial square, or download our free flag cross-stitch chart. For a quilt that honors a veteran, read the Quilts of Valor requirements and try the patriotic star quilt, whose pieced stars echo the stitched state stars on the World Trade Center and Pentagon quilts, or the double Irish chain. To turn a loved one's clothes into a keepsake, see memory quilts from clothes. The AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest memorial quilt of all, has its own page.
New to quilting? How to make a quilt walks through every step, and there are free patterns from baby quilts to Christmas table runners. Everything is in the quilting guides.
