By Staff
From staff reports
Madison County Record
There are only 18 others like it in the entire world.
It is a rare and beautiful work of art that is unique to Madison County. The only HOPE Place quilt not in private hands has been donated for public display to the Madison Public Library.
Madison resident Thea Coats won the quilt last October. She said she wanted to make sure the quilt would be available so that everyone could appreciate its beauty.
"I thought the Madison Public Library would be a perfect location," Coats said.
Officials at the library agreed to her request and began finding a permanent location in the building to mount it. It was dedicated to the library on Jan. 29, along with a brief history of the quilt and its origin.
Some 30 local artists spent several months cross-stitching the 30 squares that make up the quilt. Each square depicts a prominent Madison County landmark. When the squares are finished, they are collected and turned over to quilters from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program at the Senior Center in Hazel Green who finishes the project. The entire project took nearly a year and hundreds of hours of labor.
The quilt is HOPE Place's oldest fundraiser. During the past 20 years, it has raised more than $150,000 that has been used to make sure victims of family violence have a safe refuge. HOPE Place is a program of Crisis Services of North Alabama funded by the United Way, the Combined Federal Campaign, The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs Law Enforcement and Safety Division and donations from the community.