VoiceQuit - Great 90th Birthday Gift

A customer emailed us:

"VoiceQuilt was a HUGE hit with my family!

When we placed it on the table at her assisted living home as part of the 90th birthday festivities, my grandmother listened, rapt, to the entire 40-minute presentation. At various times she sang along and at other times she spoke right back to the box it played from.

The quality of the sound and the intimacy of the voices made it seem to all of us as though many more people were present for the party. And the effect of hearing so many different voices and perspectives honoring my grandmother--like the patches on a quilt--was more powerful than I, even as the organizer of the VoiceQuilt, could ever have imagined.

Because we know that memories are increasingly difficult for my grandmother to recall, the gift of a VoiceQuilt was all the more special for the 30 of us who participated. It was so satisfying to be able to express gratitude and relay memories directly to my grandmother, and it is reassuring to know that our voices will continue to keep her company whenever she wants or needs it."

Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own unique, personal sentimental gift...

VoiceQuilt "Memories of a Life Well Lived"

It's a familiar refrain. Loved ones speak eloquently at funerals and everyone laments that the person being remembered is not there to hear the tributes. This was not the case, however, for husband and wife, Don and Beth. Rather than waiting for eulogies, Don asked friends and family members to leave messages on a very special VoiceQuilt for his terminally ill wife, Beth. While in hospice care, Beth was able to hear numerous words of love and support as she neared the end of her life. The outpouring of love eased her passage and helped to ease the sorrow of those left behind.

The VoiceQuilt brought blessings to everyone involved. Beth was comforted and buoyed by the outpouring of love. Don and their children were gratified to hear about the many lives Beth had touched. Friends who were unable to visit Beth in person, due to distance or Beth's gradual weakening, were heartened knowing they were there with her in spirit – and in voice – and they were grateful they had a chance to tell her how much she meant to them.

In the early days of hospice care, Beth and Don talked about the sequence of voice messages and used VoiceQuilt's easy system to arrange them in a preferred order. Don played the VoiceQuilt for Beth several times as she slipped away. Even past the point where she could take visits, Beth was still wrapped in the loving words of those who cherished her most. And Don was moved by the many heartfelt expressions of love.

Beth passed away on February 15, 2010. Two friends from church were at her bedside, singing to her as she slipped away. We are grateful that her family will have the VoiceQuilt as a treasured family heirloom and a priceless reminder of a life well lived.

Two more articles about the importance of personal stories!

1.) Author Samuel Pisar, a Holocaust survivor, recently wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, “Out of Auschwitz”. Click here to read more.

“Today the last living survivors of the Holocaust are disappearing one by one. Soon, history will speak about Auschwitz with the impersonal voice of researchers and novelists at best, and at worst in the malevolent register of revisionists and falsifiers who call the Nazi Final Solution a myth.”

2.) University of Utah researcher Becky Lloyd is documenting the containment and treatment of polio by interviewing those who’d been infected. (In the twentieth century the polio virus paralyzed thousands of people. Infections peaked in 1952 and a 1955 vaccine eradicated the illness.) Lloyd quickly found that interviewees also wanted to discuss their current struggles with post-polio syndrome, too.

You can read more about it here:

Both articles stress the importance of collecting personal stories before it’s too late.

We’re constantly reminded of this when we do quality testing on VoiceQuilt keepsakes – and hear a quick snippet from a grandparent relaying a story about childhood. I always feel good about those messages. Won’t it be inspiring when a grandchild hears that story twenty years from now? Perhaps it will give that grandchild the courage to persevere in the face of a major life challenge…

Start preserving those personal stories now! Please go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own personal sentimental VoiceQuilt..

VoiceQuilt -- More ways to invite callers!

Some VoiceQuilt gift givers invite callers using VoiceQuilt’s email tools. Others invite people in person or even include dialing instructions with paper party invitations. The important thing is to choose the method that works best for you….

During the last week, I’ve spoken with two gift givers who used relatively “new” ways to invite friends and family. One updated his Facebook status with a post requesting that everyone phone in messages; another created this very cool online photo invitation using Smilebox. (I’ve hidden the invitation number – to protect privacy.)


















These gift givers recognize that the most important thing is to cast the net as wide as possible. Quite often, relatively distant acquaintances record a special message of unexpected impact and contribute a vital piece to the finished VoiceQuilt.


Create a unique, personalized, sentimental VoiceQuilt gift to commemorate a special occasion - Birthday, Anniversary, Retirement, etc. Go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started".

VoiceQuilt "A StoryCorps Moment"

Telling a story is a gift of the past. It’s sharing a time you remember, the people you can’t forget and the places that are now long gone. Your story provides a context for the listener’s life. As any VoiceQuilt gift giver knows, a story tells the listener that they matter.

Several years ago, an award winning radio producer named Dave Isay built a booth in Grand Central Terminal in New York. His goal was to interview anyone and everyone about their lives. It’s called StoryCorps and – if you’re an NPR listener – you know that the effort is still going strong.

With Valentine’s coming soon, my all-time favorite is the story of 93 year old Paul Wilson, sharing the story of meeting his future wife on an elevator in the early 1940s. It’s the first one on this page.

http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/category/romance

Isn’t it time you shared your memories with a loved one?

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Create your own personalized, sentimental Valentine VoiceQuilt gift. Just go to to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started".

VoiceQuilt - "We laughed and cried..."

Just had to share an excerpt from an email we received on Monday...


The following is the message that my parents wrote to us kids after listening to the VoiceQuilt...

"This afternoon Dad and I sat facing each other in our recliner chairs and listened to all of the VoiceQuilt messages. We laughed and cried and were even shocked to hear some of the voices that were resurrected from our past......Hazel, our next door neighbor in Evanston over forty years ago, whom we had lost rack of......and Linda, our babysitter in Naperville nearly forty years ago. Talk about jogging one's memory!...

From people who knew us as small children to Baby Braxton who was introduced to us just two months ago, we could visualize the wide variety of patches on that voice quilt that will warm our hearts forever….....you've given us a powerful gift from the heart that we will appreciate for the rest of our lives."


Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own one-of-a-kind, personal sentimental gift...

Check out these 2 new TV shows!

From February 10 to March 3, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will explore who we are as Americans in his new PBS series, Faces of America. Like his previous show African American Lives, Gates guides his guests on a journey into their family history. From Yo-Yo Ma to Dr. Oz to Meryl Streep and Malcolm Gladwell, this documentary promises to be fun and interesting. Check out the clip here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/.

The long-awaited NBC production, Who Do You Think You Are http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/ begins on March 5th. Produced by Lisa Kudrow (Friends), this series focuses on the family history of celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon.

VoiceQuilt gift givers are already capturing family memories from a variety of angles and perspectives. We’re delighted to see popular culture acknowledge that family stories are important. As we’ve said all along, a child's laughter, a best friend's quirky expressions… These are sounds that nurture the spirit.

Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own personal sentimental gift...

VoiceQuilt - "Tell Us Your Favorite Children's Story"

Our friend, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective had some interesting comments about family stories. She’s one of more than 100 notable people who contributed to Everything I Need to Know I Learned in a Children’s Book, edited by Anita Silvey. Maureen’s favorite is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

The main character, Meg, constantly questions the world around her. Meg’s inquiries inspired Maureen to seek out the stories behind old photographs. The rest is history!

The premise of Silvey’s book is that children’s books change lives. According to Maureen, we are all surrounded and influenced by powerful stories in our family. If a fictional children’s book can influence a child’s life choices, it’s not hard to imagine what a true story, one told in the voice of the person that lived it – might do…

Tell us about your favorite children's book and be eligible to win a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card.

Just follow these four steps:
1) Call 1-877-OurQuilt (1-877-687-7845).
2) When asked for your invitation number, enter 88274
3) Tell us about your favorite children's story and why...
4) Press # to hear more options or just hang up.

Thanks for contributing!

VoiceQuilt preserves messages "from the far corners of the world"

Customer wrote to us today:

"People I hadn't talked to in 30 years called, people from the far corners of the world were able to call and tell my mom how much they appreciated her"




Create a unique, personalized, sentimental VoiceQuilt gift to commemorate a special occasion - Birthday, Anniversary, Retirement, etc. Go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started".