The stitchers made the squares, but finishing five quilts also took money and materials, plus a lot of machine quilting. Local businesses and more than 90 individual donors covered it.
The biggest single job, the machine quilting, went to The Red Barn Quilt Shop in Belleview, Florida. The shop quilted the World Trade Center and Pentagon quilts at reduced cost and covered it with donations collected at the counter, and the owner’s sister quilted the FDNY and NYPD quilts. Air-Lite Synthetics Manufacturing of Pontiac, Michigan donated the batting for all five.
Two needlework designers, Sampler Cove Designs and Vikki Clayton Silks, supported the project, and the Lowe’s store in Florence, Alabama donated the PVC pipe for the stands the quilts hung on at exhibitions. The individual donors' gifts paid for quilting and travel.
Quilt shops and volunteer quilters still do this kind of work. The Quilts of Valor Foundation's volunteer longarm quilters, for example, quilt members' tops at no charge; see our Quilts of Valor guide.