I am a storyteller working for the Sumner County (TN) Arts Council through a grant from the Gallatin (TN) Junior Service League, going to local day care facilities and retirement homes and assisted living facilities and bringing themed story programs to young and old. After purchasing The Quiltmaker's Gift for my 10 year old grandchild, I read through it and promptly fell in love with the beauty of both the story and the art. I decided to use it as the centerpiece for this year' stories — an hour long program about quilts, quilters and individual personal histories. I am also giving the book to special friends and family members for their delight. Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with the world.
–Carol Roberts
Castalian Springs, TN

The Quiltmaker's Gift is being used for character education at our school. The book has also inspired lots of ideas for community service.

I have just picked up a copy of The Quiltmaker's Gift after hearing about it at my Charity Quilt program. I am about to start teaching sewing and quilting to a group of home schooled students and this story will work into our program beautifully. I had planned to teach them to make a baby quilt to give away to some worthy organization. Now I can read the story to them in preparation for this. The beautiful illustrations will also help me to teach the about different quilt patterns. Thanks so much for a wonderful story.

My 3-year-old daughter received TQG as a holiday gift this season.
We have enjoyed reading it together several times already and we are both touched by the power and beauty of the book. Part of my connection to TQG is that it is a direct reminder of the work done daily by young people in Fresh Youth Initiatives, an after-school program in the Washington Heights section of NYC. Since 1995, teens at FYI have been hand-sewing sleeping bags from scratch, which are then delivered to the homeless in our area. We have probably made over 400 sleeping bags over the years, and have had over 1,000 youth take part. We have particularly enjoyed demonstrating this project to others at conferences and trainings around NYC, and in our service trips around the country, which have taken us to Michigan, Maryland, California, Florida and in 2002, Eastern Kentucky.
Like the message of TMG, we find daily at FYI that the act of giving is more powerful than that of receiving, and that young people can move themselves forward in all kinds of good ways through consistent, meaningful service activities.
I look forward to sharing TMG with the young people in my program.
– Andrew Rubinson
New York City
www.freshyouth.org

Shortly after The Quiltmaker's Gift was first published we had a visitng priest at our church one weekend. I noticed when it was time for the homily that he had a beautiful book in his hands ( I am a quilter who also collects children's books) and was very moved as he told the story of The Quiltmaker's Gift and made a beautiful comparison to the point he wanted to make. My family was all looking at me and noting that I also never sold my quilts, they could only be given away for love. This was quite an interesting aspect of the story for us. After mass, Father was pleased that so many people were moved by his presentation. I wanted to know where he had purchased the book which I subsequently gave at Christmas time to all the people I love. Of course Father knew that I was a quilter and when he said, "Oh. I wish that I could have one of your quilts," I asked him to do something for the Latino population of our area and made him a beautiful quilt.
–Mary
Madison

I was given The Quiltmakers Gift as a gift from a member of the CHD (congenital heart defects) community as a thank you for starting the The Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Quilt Project. It is a treasured keepsake from someone who has become a very dear friend. When I first started the CHD Awareness Quilt Project, I wanted to create something that would help me promote greater public awareness of congenital heart defects. In as much as I had no quilting abilities at all I was truly dependant on the generosity of others who rallied around my idea. To date we have twenty completed quilts. I selected the heart block pattern because it was the perfect symbol as well as the easiest to sew. Over the past three years since I started the project, I have "met" so many wonderful families with so many heartwarming (and sometimes heartwrenching) stories about dealing with chd. They have shared their thoughts and heartfelt emotions about what it is like to be born with or to lose a loved one to chd. Just like the Quiltmakers Gift, The Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Quilt Project has become a "story about generosity". As Jeff Brumbeau will attest, a "quilt represents the ultimate gift" and the CHD Awareness Quilt is my ultimate gift to the more than one million people affected by congenital heart defects.
–Gabrielle Schoeffield
Taneytown, MD