NAMES: AIDS Memorial Quilt Panel
This is the story of a 12 foot square panel made for the Aids Memorial Quilt on behalf of the employees of United Airlines.
See Caryl's story below.

In 1996, the United Airlines Foundation sponsored the traveling display of a 12' x 12' quilt panel hand-crafted by Caryl Bryer Fallert, who was, at that time, a flight attendant for United Airlines.  The quilt was made in memory of employees, customers and loved ones lost to this terrible disease.

This panel toured the world, making 26 stops in 18 cities in 3 countries, and was viewed and embellished by hundred of United Airlines employees. See full image of complete quilt.

  The panel is "United Airlines We Remember" #04668 in the AIDS quilt registery.
To go to the NAMES main site http://www.aidsquilt.org

Working on the final six panels, then assembling the finished quilt was an adventure for all of us. Bill and Scott quickly learned all the parts of quilting that don't require sewing skills, On June 3, they measured and cut all the panels, then laid out and fused all the words to the background fabric. 

The next day, Bill and Scott measured and cut the backing panels, and batting, and pin basted the panels together.

Late that night we began stitching together the large pieces of the quilt. As the quilt grew to 12 feet square, it got heavy and awkward. Eventually it took all three of us to haul it through the sewing machine. At 3:30 am on the morning of June 5, the quilt was complete.

Later that morning, Bill began a six week journey to take the quilt to as many United cities as possible so that employees could attach red ribbons to remember those they knew and loved who had died of aids.

A memory book traveled with the quilt to record our memories of those we lost.

In October of 1996, all the panels of the quilt were displayed in Washington D.C. on the mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. On Saturday, October 12, I arrived at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. just in time to watch the last of the panels being unfolded on the mall. The unfolding ceremony requires hundreds of volunteers, dressed in white, and lasts about an hour and a half.

Click here to see another picture of one of the 12 foot squares.  A detail of can be found below.

The quilt is made up of three by six foot panels with the names and memories of individuals who have died of aids. These are sewn together to form twelve foot squares. Each of the twelve foot squares is surrounded by a three inch white canvas border with grommets. The twelve foot panels are lashed together to form twenty-four foot squares. The twenty-four foot squares are laid out on the ground with black canvas tarpaulins about six feet wide,

First four people reached to the center and folded back the inside set of corners.

The next four people then went to the center again, and folded back the outside set of corners.

The walkways were often as crowded as the aisles at the AQS show in Paducah, KY, but there was a quiet kindness and respect among the visitors. The crowd were as diverse a group as you could ever expect to find in one place. White, African American, Asian, Latino, rich and poor, gay and straight, able bodied and disabled. Some individuals wept silently by the panels of those they had loved. It was not unusual to see a stranger approach and lay a comforting arm on their shoulder. No one is untouched.

From the beginning of the unfolding, until the panels were refolded at sunset, the names of those who have dies were read over the public address system by a series of readers, including nationally known political and spiritual leaders, corporate officers, health professionals, artists, writers, and family members of those who have died.

The squares filled the entire Washington Mall (the space between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument) Our panel, was in the center of the very first row, by the Capitol reflection pool, and the stage.

I chatted for a while with the volunteer who was assigned the first three-hour shift in the area of our quilt panel.....a United, customer service representative. As we talked he said, " Someday, my daughter will probably have a panel in this quilt. She was a nurse" he explained, "and she was stuck by a contaminated needle" I asked him about the promising new drugs we have heard about.. "Yes" he said, "She is taking one of them now. It costs her $995.00 each month, just for the drug. It is not covered by health insurance, and the hospial for which she worked bears no financial liability for the illness she contracted working for them. She gets a disability insurance check for $235.00 each month, and that is her only income."

Another United volunteer, one of my fellow flight attendants, wrote the name of one of her friends on a red ribbon and attached it to the quilt. It was a name I knew well. At six in the morning on Memorial Day, 1978, I was setting up the galley on a 737, when I heard a bright, eager voice, and I looked up to see a blond, young man in a brand new uniform. "Hi" he said, "I'm Doug, and this is my first flight"

On one panel were the tiny shoes of ten children who had died.

Volunteers served three hour shifts, watching over the quilt panels in a particular area. This was not the kind of archival, white gloved guarding that usually happens at quilt shows. The quilts, after all, are laid directly on the grass. Many relatives sat for a time or laid flowers on the panels of their loved ones.

I walked nonstop for four hours, and realized I wasn't even half way to the Washington Monument. Lunch had been arranged a few blocks away, but I decided to skip so that I could see more of the quilt. I walked faster, and began going up only every-other row, trying to see each twenty-four foot panel from one side. After another hour of walking, I had reached what I thought at the time was the half way point.