THE "NEBRASKA WOMEN SUCCESS QUILT" HAS NATIONALLY TURNED INTO
"THE WOMEN SUCCESS QUILT!"
Willa Cather, a famous Nebraska author, wrote “There are some things you learn best in calm and some in storm.” The Nebraska Women Success Quilt is a tapestry representing women doing just that. Each piece of fabric declares their stories of “overcoming obstacles and achieving accomplishments”. The front of the quilt of red & white squares incorporated with a appliqued pieces symbolizing the state of Nebraska. The patchwork design on the other side is a collection of fabric pieces collected from women and young girls from across this state. I purposely mismatched the fabric seams in the quilt as an artistic gesture of life’s rollercoaster ride. “Not all the seams match from corner to corner because many times in a woman’s life, those seams of her life don’t match either on this mismatched creation. The Quilt’s stories can offer encouragement to other women trying to overcome their own personal crises or awake from their success in their accomplishments. As this quilt tours Nebraska and other States Nationwide, It can help bring awareness to the issues that effect women. It’s mission is to obtain women signatures from those who donated pieces and also to those who want to claim their voice that bridges the issues women encounter everyday in their lifetime.
The Quilt was launched by Lincoln, NE Mayor Colleen Seng and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Women Commission Director, Bonnie Coffey, Senator Marian Price, A represenative from the Friendship Home, to name a few on September 4th, 2003. Not only did these women help launch the quilt but also have their fabric incorporated in the project. Other contributors are: Juli Burney, Gwen Combs, Former Gov. Kay Orr, Lincoln Police Officers, American Heart Association (Go Red For Women & Heartwalks), the Nebraska Heart Hospital Staff, Heart & Stroke Survivors, The Friendship Home Staff, a dying Mother, Cancer Survivors and those who became Angels, A child who survived a fire, Women in the Military, A woman facing MS but was able to dance on stage, A woman who almost died in an automobile crash resulting to Postpartum depression, A Mother who had a Premature Baby- three months too early and many more from our state.
In 2004, Mary Walters Schwartzkopf was presented a Proclamation for the NE Women Success Quilt from NE State Governor Mike Johanns. He also proclaimed that March was NE Women Success Quilt (NWSQ) Month which is printed on the Proclamation Certificate. Mary was also honored to have shared part of that morning with NE Senator Marian Price, NE Gov Press Secretary, Terri Teuber, and a few other special people here in Lincoln. March is actually Women History month and to Mary, it’s been a HUGE mark on her History Calendar this year. The Proclamation states that Mary who is the Creator of the NWSQ spent three years sewing and completing this project that represented women from this state. That it is a tapestry of nearly 100 squares that represent over 500+women in our state telling a story of adversity or achievement in the lives of many women on one side which is a tapestry of women voices overcoming obstacles and achieving accomplishments in their lifetimes.
Signatures of women not only in our state but nationwide have been signing declaring their success in overcoming their obstacles or success in achieving accomplishments throughout their lifetime signing a side that has appliquéd the state of Nebraska.
The NWSQ was made to encourage and inspire women in this state as well as nationwide to be survivors, successfully overcoming their own personal crisis and achieve their own personal goals rising accomplishments life gives them.
The quilt has traveled from coast to coast Nationwide. From my old Alma Mater which is Bainbridge High School, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, which I had the wonderful privilege to speak to students on campus of overcoming adversities and achieving goals, to our Nation’s Capitol in Washington DC, the quilt has been making it’s tour. Over 500,000 miles the Quilt has traveled, not only throughout the state of Nebraska but nationwide which reflects that the Quilt could change it’s name not to just the “Nebraska Women Success Quilt,” but can also be referred to as “The Women Success Quilt.”
