“Underneath the quilt you’re safe.”

With help from friends, Appleseed’s Callie Greer is capturing the pain of families who have lost loved ones to violence and creating something beautiful. Join her quilting event on July 19 in Birmingham. Details below. 

By Callie Greer

Appleseed Community Navigator

I’d thought about making a memorial quilt for our loved ones for a while, but I’ve never made a quilt. So, from time to time, I would mention wanting to make a quilt, but there were no takers. Maybe I was dropping my hints around the wrong people. People thought it was a great idea, but I never got any suggestions on where, or how, to start the quilt. 

But the more I listened to the stories from mothers like Ms. Barbara Maxwell, who shared with me in one of our conversations about her grieving process, I knew this was something that needed to be done. When we spoke she told me that sometimes she would be crying and had to stop in the middle of her grieving to ask herself which one of her sons she was crying for! You see, Barbara lost two sons within five months of each other–  she’s still seeking answers and justice for both of them. I thought about the quilt listening to Ms. Brenda Page Smith, who also lost her son to gun violence. She started the search for him herself with some help from others and found her son lying in a ditch– she’s also still seeking answers and justice for her son. And of course, I thought of myself and my children that I will always carry in a wound in my heart. With our need for a way to continue healing, the quilt never left my thoughts. 

Then a friend of mine, Dana Ellis, made me and my husband a lovely quilt. Believe it or not, I didn’t connect those two things together, at least not for a while. You see, I wanted my quilt to have the faces of our loved ones who were lost to violence sewn into it, and I wanted it to be a symbol and a dedication of our undying love to them, even though they are not with us physically anymore. I felt like it would be an embrace that only we knew why we needed it. 

Because when I think of a quilt, I think of comfort, warmth, a place of healing when something ails you. You know, the kind of calming only your momma or grandmama can give you when you need to hear, “Everything’s going to be alright, maybe not right now, but in time.” Underneath the quilt you’re safe. Safe to groan, moan, cry, be still, and heal. Covered, safe, quiet, restored, peaceful, and yes, loved. I know that’s a lot, but you can choose whatever you need from it and leave the rest for others. And there are so many others. This quilt will hopefully be all those things and also a gathering place as we come together to sew together the faces that were torn away from us too soon, always too soon. 

And what else will we do with this quilt? We’ll rally for life and the end of so much gun violence. We’ll rally for safe spaces for our families, counseling for those directly affected by the traumas that come with the violence and the loss. 

I offer you the same voice I did before: take whatever speaks to your passion and join the fight.  Don’t waste your pain! Use it to create something terribly beautiful, like this quilt. Thank you Dana Ellis for catching one of my many hints and running with it. Our MAAVIS Memorial Quilt is a reality. Thank you, Alabama Appleseed and Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice for your initial support. And thank you everyone who has since joined.

We’ll be hosting our next event to add to the quilt on July 19, 2025 at Greater Birmingham Ministries, 2304 12th Avenue North in Birmingham from 1 pm- 4 pm. Space will be limited. You can reach out to me at callie.greer@alabamaappleseed.org.