Memorial Day Quilts

Memorial Quilt Honors Georgia's Fallen

When students walked past the automatic doors leading into the Reese Library this summer they came across a patriotic display on the right; a complex arrangement of American flags known as the Memorial Quilt.

The idea for a quilt, a tribute specific to Georgia soldiers that have lost their lives from 2001 to the present, was thought up by Yadira Payne, the Government Information Librarian for the Reese Library.

“I know most memorials are usually overall for Vietnam vets,” she said. “I wanted it to be for soldiers we are losing now and specific to Georgia.”

If visitors took the time to count, they would find that there are 190 flags, meticulously pinned together for the display, giving the students of Augusta State University a visual reminder of just how many soldiers Georgia has lost since the war started in 2001.

But how did the idea for the Memorial Quilt come to fruition?

“I wanted to originally have the flags out in the grass to signify each person and then I was trying to think of a way to bring all of those flags inside and just came up with the quilt,” Payne said. “We said, well, let’s pin all the flags together so that they’re still individual flags so they still represent each individual soldier but we’re pinning them together because they all lost their lives for the same thing; our American way of life.”

By we, Payne referred to Tristan Nall, the administrative special projects assistant, and the one who helped her bring the entire project together.

“Yadira had this idea to do something for Memorial Day with all the soldiers that had died from Georgia,” he said. “So we got the number of flags and eventually came up with the idea for that quilt.”

But coming up with the quilt was only half of the battle. Putting it all together took some creativity, which is where Nall came in.

“She came up with the concept for the quilt, and then I designed the poster in the center of the quilt,” Nall said. I went out to our cemetery and took photographs out there of the cemetery and then photo-shopped it together, and I physically pinned the quilt. The pinning itself took about two hours, and the poster took three or four, so I think the whole thing took about seven or eight hours.

Memorial Quilt Honors Georgia's Fallen | The Bell Ringer

When students walked past the automatic doors leading into the Reese Library this summer they came across a patriotic display on the right; a complex arrangement of American flags known as the Memorial Quilt.

The idea for a quilt, a tribute specific to Georgia soldiers that have lost their lives from 2001 to the present, was thought up by Yadira Payne, the Government Information Librarian for the Reese Library.

“I know most memorials are usually overall for Vietnam vets,” she said. “I wanted it to be for soldiers we are losing now and specific to Georgia.”

If visitors took the time to count, they would find that there are 190 flags, meticulously pinned together for the display, giving the students of Augusta State University a visual reminder of just how many soldiers Georgia has lost since the war started in 2001.

But how did the idea for the Memorial Quilt come to fruition?

“I wanted to originally have the flags out in the grass to signify each person and then I was trying to think of a way to bring all of those flags inside and just came up with the quilt,” Payne said. “We said, well, let’s pin all the flags together so that they’re still individual flags so they still represent each individual soldier but we’re pinning them together because they all lost their lives for the same thing; our American way of life.”

By we, Payne referred to Tristan Nall, the administrative special projects assistant, and the one who helped her bring the entire project together.

“Yadira had this idea to do something for Memorial Day with all the soldiers that had died from Georgia,” he said. “So we got the number of flags and eventually came up with the idea for that quilt.”

But coming up with the quilt was only half of the battle. Putting it all together took some creativity, which is where Nall came in.

“She came up with the concept for the quilt, and then I designed the poster in the center of the quilt,” Nall said. I went out to our cemetery and took photographs out there of the cemetery and then photo-shopped it together, and I physically pinned the quilt. The pinning itself took about two hours, and the poster took three or four, so I think the whole thing took about seven or eight hours.

What Day Is It?

Day

Memorial

Day

Memorial, Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary