--- title: Quilting Project Goes Viral After Call for Help Goes Out description: After a woman sent out a call for help completing a quilting project that she came across at an estate sale, the response was instant. canonical: https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-24T16:41:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T08:42:10.460Z og:title: The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project og:description: A call for help went out and the internet responded og:url: https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b7ab46dbd121d29/698a04d5096a9444f26a72d7/viral-quilting-project.jpg?branch=production&width=518&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 518 og:image:height: 291 og:image:alt: A close up view of sewing equipment on a patchwork quilt. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project twitter:description: A call for help went out and the internet responded twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b7ab46dbd121d29/698a04d5096a9444f26a72d7/viral-quilting-project.jpg?branch=production&width=518&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=34185fb8-1377-4e48-9db4-fbe56c43abc6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project [Watch (HLS stream): The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xr26yZuE.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2019-10-25. The internet isn’t always an uplifting place, but sometimes, something happens that reaffirms your belief in the goodness of humanity_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 24, 2019 4:41 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 24, 2019 4:41 PM UTC The [internet isn’t always an uplifting place](https://time.com/5505431/internet-feel-awful-dignity/), but sometimes, something happens that reaffirms your belief in the [goodness of humanity](https://time.com/96731/faith-in-humanity-10-studies-to-restore-your-hope-for-the-future/). For Twitter user Shannon Downey, that seems to be exactly what went down after she sent out a call for help completing an unfinished [quilting project](http://money.com/money/3956355/sewing-machine-money-well-spent/) that she came across at an estate sale. In a [Twitter thread](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187025981418160129) that has gone viral since she posted it on Wednesday, Downey explains how she discovered a box full of yet-to-be embroidered fabric squares in the bedroom of a home that had been owned by a recently deceased 99-year-old woman named Rita and just knew that she had to finish what Rita had started. “I knew I had to buy it and finish it but it was a massive f—ing undertaking and while I embroider, I don’t quilt,” she wrote. “I bought it for $6.” Instead of tackling the project on her own, Downey decided to reach out to her Instagram followers for help; the response was instant and overwhelming. “In one day, I had over 1,000 volunteers!!! Because people are amazing,” she wrote. “There are 100 individual hexagons to be embroidered to make the quilt…” Downey went on to say that while her stitchers were still busy embroidering — using a quilt Rita had already completed as a style guide — she already had 30 quilters ready to handle the quilting phase. “The packages are arriving to my stitchers and they are furiously stitching their hexies,” she wrote. “We are using the completed map that I bought (that we can reasonably assume was made by Rita) to try to mirror her stitching techniques and style!” See the full thread below. > [](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187025981418160129) > [](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187026004369432576) > [](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187026023063478272) > [](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187026039278575616) > [](https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1187026048959111168) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/"},"headline":"The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project","datePublished":"2019-10-24T16:41:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T08:42:10.460Z","description":"Over 1,000 people volunteered for the project","url":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b7ab46dbd121d29/698a04d5096a9444f26a72d7/viral-quilting-project.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b7ab46dbd121d29/698a04d5096a9444f26a72d7/viral-quilting-project.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A close up view of sewing equipment on a patchwork quilt.","caption":"A close up view of sewing equipment on a patchwork quilt.","creditText":"golfer2015—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/","name":"The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Quilting Community Really Stepped Up to This Call for Help With a Massive Embroidery Project","description":"The internet isn’t always an uplifting place, but sometimes, something happens that reaffirms your belief in the goodness of humanity","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xr26yZuE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-10-25T18:04:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xr26yZuE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/","duration":"PT1M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5709690/viral-quilting-project/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```