What’s on the squares
The organizer asked for patriotic squares in a consistent size and palette, then left the design up to each stitcher. The result is a sampler of American and international symbols: flags of many countries, eagles, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the Twin Towers, firefighters, police badges, rescue dogs, angels, hearts and verses. Some stitchers charted original designs just for the project. Others added beads, buttons and charms. A few squares are dedicated to a particular person lost that day, and one came from an elementary school class honoring a former student.
The state stars
The World Trade Center and Pentagon quilts are built like American flags, and every star on their blue fields is a stitched square for one state. An Illinois stitcher, Karen Kluba, designed the state squares, and ten volunteers stitched the full set:
| Stitcher | From | States stitched |
|---|---|---|
| Angela Beaver | Indiana | Indiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas |
| Sally Swaine | Nova Scotia | Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho |
| Nancy Boston | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana |
| Carol Lauffer | Pennsylvania | Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi |
| Becky Steele | South Carolina | South Carolina, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada |
| Terry Louise Kermode | Tasmania | New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma |
| Kathie Baumgardner | Florida | Florida, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, California |
| Karen Kluba | Illinois | Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, District of Columbia |
| Jeanie Valentine | Oklahoma | Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah |
| Linda Newton | Florida | Vermont, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming |
A stitcher who went by SallyNS also stitched the Fireman’s Prayer and Policeman’s Prayer designs for the FDNY and NYPD quilts.
Stars are still the favorite motif for patriotic quilts. In patchwork they're usually pieced rather than stitched; our patriotic star throw uses 20 sawtooth stars in red, navy and cream. To stitch a square like the ones here, see how to cross-stitch a memorial square and our free flag chart.
Find a square
The project kept a photo album of finished squares, filed by the stitcher’s last name. We recovered 520 of its photos from the Internet Archive, and they’re back on the stitcher pages, each credited to the person who stitched it. Look up any stitcher by letter:
Or see which quilt each square went on.