The Springfield Republican article about BCforum

"We wanted to wrap her up in our love and get some spontaneous healing going," said Frisius who recently traveled to Georgia to deliver the quilt to member Ronda Burge.

Frisius was accompanied by Pat D'Andria who stitched together the 16 painted, embroidered and applique squares sent by women across the country. D'Andria is a Connecticut resident whose father survived breast cancer surgery in the 1940s. She recently had a third non-malignant lump removed from her breast.

"Ronda's been the real strong support person on the Internet and we wanted to do for her what she has done time and time again for us," said D'Andria, calling the gift, a "quilt with a purpose."

Quilts have long been made by American women as part of what Jennifer J. Gilbert refers to as "life's ceremonies."

"Quilts have been made to mark marriages, births and deaths. In colonial times, they were representative of a family's wealth because of the cost of the cloth," said Gilbert, curator of the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell.

Today quilts have evolved to play a wider role in the culture in the last 20 years.

They have become canvasses for conveying both personal and political concerns of late 20th century Americans.