Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Kate Alexander of the Cayman Islands is calling all quilters. In cooperation with Maddy Crippen, Alexander is looking for quilters to help create a Safe Swim Open Water Swimming quilt to benefit the Fran Crippen Elevation Foundation.

Alexander explains, “Quilters and sewing artists are asked to donate fabric for a quilt project to benefit the Fran Crippen Elevation Foundation in support of safety in open water swimming. Quilts traditionally represent rest and comfort, healing and love, protection and security.

Indeed quilts are commonly called ‘comforters’. Quilts, also, of course, are designed to bring warmth. Of the many gentile qualities attributed to Fran, one was has genuine warmth – an abiding and endearing friendliness that mirrored his passion for open water swimming.”

The quilt will be auctioned to raise money for the Fran Crippen Elevation Foundation. This quilt, designed as a memorial to Fran and other open water swimmers, is an attempt by the quiltmakers to bring their own sense of peace to a tragedy that touched so many people. The Fran Crippen Elevation Foundation is working to advocate for safety and aid athletes as they journey to elevate themselves.

Please send fabric donations by May 1st 2011 to Safe Swim Quilt, c/o Jenny Gately, 2362 Radcliffe Village Drive, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546, USA.

The design: The quilt represents an open water race – orange buoys marking a rectangular course in deep/medium/shallow water. The traditional design made up of triangles is popularly called Thousand Pyramids.

Requirements: 100% cotton quilting weight fabric scraps in blues and dark oranges are needed for the quilt. Scraps must be minimum 3” square. No more than 1/8 yard.

“I contacted an open water swimming friend of mine in New Zealand who is a marvelous quilter and asked if she would help,” explains Alexander about the genesis of the quilt idea. “She loved the idea. Then I started thinking about how we could make it an international collaborative project, reflecting the international goodwill of open water swimming, Fran’s career and the camaraderie of our sport. Perhaps there are other open water swimming quilters out there who would like to have a hand in a memorial quilt. Fran was 6’2” so the quilt is designed to be 72 inches tall.”

The quilt will be displayed at the 2011 Global Open Water Swimming Conference in New York City during the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim weekend.

“It would be really great if we could identify an open water swimmer who is a long-arm machine quilter – then the quilt would be finished a lot faster.”

Copyright © 2011 by World Open Water Swimming Association