By Kathleen O. Brown
Since Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina in September 2024, people have come together in myriad ways to help with recovery and healing in the aftermath of the disaster.
About 30 members of Let’s Sew, MadCo! responded stitch by stitch with the creation of three memory quilts that pay tribute to and capture the spirit of two young brothers who tragically perished in Helene. Founder Karen Governo Ingraham began a Facebook group for Let’s Sew, MadCo! in August 2023, and there are now close to 600 members in that online community. Meetings of the group remain intimate in number, however. “Apparently, the community is interested in our community service efforts as well as our teaching sewing,” Ingraham says.
Let’s Sew, MadCo!, artists
Mountain Breeze Preschool director Rachel Maietta, who had taught the boys at her Madison County preschool and kept in touch with the family through the years, had the idea of creating memory quilts for their father and grandparents as tributes to 9-year-old Felix and 7-year-old Lucas Wisely. The two brothers, their mother Alison Wisely and her fiancé Knox Petrucci all lost their lives during Helene as they tried to evacuate from their home in Green Mountain, a community along the Toe River in Yancey County.
Maietta had made a memory blanket from parts of her own children’s clothing and says she shared that idea with Felix and Lucas’ father Lance Wisely. Sometime in the spring, Wisely gave her a box of T-shirts, pajamas and other clothes of the boys’ that were his sons’ favorites and had special meaning to him.
In May, Ingraham says she was approached by Maietta for assistance with the project. Members of the Madison County-based sewing group, who often participate in community service sewing projects, eagerly offered to begin work on the quilts.
Let’s Sew, MadCo!, artists
“Let’s Sew, MadCo! members dropped by my home and picked through the box containing the boys’ clothing and chose items that spoke to them that they would make into quilt blocks,” Ingraham says. “Some of them were moved to tears. I feel that this project was more a labor of love—a process of healing—for our members rather than being looked upon as a community service project.”
The squares in the memory quilts celebrate the wonder and joy of the boys’ childhood, reflecting Felix and Lucas’ love of superheroes, Star Wars characters, dinosaurs, unicorns and more. For the quilt backs, members of Let’s Sew, MadCo! used Baby Yoda and Minecraft sheets from the boys’ beds.
“They were both brilliant,” Maietta says of Felix and Lucas. “Their imagination and sense of play was fascinating. They were always wearing costumes. If you knew them, you would understand how much these quilts represent them.”
Stephanie Duncan says she had never sewn in her life until she took a quilting class last year in the Walnut community. After signing up for that class, she joined Let’s Sew, MadCo!’s Facebook group and then learned that members were making memory quilts for the boys.
Let’s Sew, MadCo!, artists
Duncan says the project had special, personal significance to her as she had been Felix’s kindergarten teacher and Lucas had been in the classroom next door to hers. She says her work on the memory quilts was both bittersweet and therapeutic. “They wanted to learn everything and do everything,” Duncan says of the brothers. “They were so full of life and wanted to grab hold of everything. They were wide open and loved telling jokes. They’d walk into a room and it would light up.”
Let’s Sew, MadCo! member Tabitha Shelton has been sewing for more than 20 years and sells her handmade Mimi’s Creations at The Country Cupboard Vintage Market in Canton. Working on the memory quilts touched her heart, she says, and was also one of the most difficult projects she has ever worked on. “There were times that I went to pick up the boys’ shirts and I couldn’t bring myself to cut them,” Shelton says. “I had to lay them down and step away. I can’t tell you how many times I hugged the shirts and sent up prayers for the family.”
Let’s Sew, MadCo! members completed the three memory quilts in October. The following month, Maietta delivered them to Felix and Lucas’ father and the boys’ grandparents.
Like others involved with the project, Ingraham says love went into every square of the quilts. “I think it was cathartic for people who lived through Helene to create these in the boys’ memory,” she says. “I was honored to be part of this creative process.”
For more information about Let’s Sew, MadCo!, visit the group page on Facebook.
