I came in the front door of the Centre and stopped short. The Gallery was almost completely blanketed by a wooden quilt rack framing the beautiful LCA International Literacy Year Quilt. The sun shining through the windows highlighted the spectrum of colours in the quilt. Pat was sitting in a chair by the quilt stitching quietly, lost in thought.

Pat is the coordinator of the Crows nest Pass Read It/Write It Program. I didn't like to interrupt her but I was anxious to add a few of my own stitches to the quilt. As soon as she heard footsteps behind her she tucked her needle into the quilt and turned to greet me.

Not one to sit idle Pat said hello, told me where to put my coat, found me a chair then gave me an already threaded quilting needle. She had worked hard to get enough quilting done, rolling the quilt forward on the frame so that when I arrived I would be able to quilt the square I had made on behalf of the Camrose Adult Read and Write Program. I turned my tape recorder on and set it on the quilt in front of us so that we could stitch and talk at the same time.

Pat was the driving force behind the making of the Literacy Quilt. "Back in the fall of 1988, at one of our Regional meetings here in the southwest corner of the province, we started talking about what we could do to celebrate 1990, International Year of Literacy. We came up with the idea of making a large quilt with quilt squares representing all the literacy programs in Alberta. I'm a quitter so I volunteered to follow up on the idea."

"It took 2 years to gather all the squares we needed to make the quilt. We displayed the top of the quilt at The Literacy Conference in Edmonton where it was viewed by about 1200 delegates and speakers. Now the top, batting and backing need to be quilted together. The quilt will be set up here at the Centre for the month of February. Another 1000 people travelling through this area have also viewed the quilt and various people and quilting groups have helped with the stitching. By the way, do you have the scissors there?"

"Here they are," I said, laughing as I passed them to PaL "Please, goon ..."

"There are 56 literacy programs represented in the quilt 'The squares were designed and put together by literacy coordinators, tutors, advisory committee members or quilters from the community. All of the squares are so unique and special and they all depict in someway an aspect of literacy within the community where the square was made. It has been a wonderful group effort."

"The quilt should be completely finished by next month so that it can be displayed at the LCA Conference where everyone who contributed to it can see it. After that people will be able book the quilt so that they can display it at agricultural and trade fairs, the local library or any special community literacy event."

I listened to Pat as I pushed and pulled my needle through the fabric, stopping now and then to look more closely at some of the quilt squares. They were each so different, each so intricately done. The literacy symbol was interwoven with scenes of mountains, prairies, books and people. It is a work of art and a labour of love.

Pat didn't quite know what she was getting into when she volunteered to get the quilt idea off the ground, but she has stuck with it giving the literacy coordinators the gentle nudging they needed to finish their squares. We owe Pat tremendously gratitude for her cheerful tenacity: the literacy quilt is a treasure.