In Memoriam: Kathie Harrington

On January 25 several of our members attended a memorial service for Kathie Harrington at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. Several of Kathie's family members, friends and co-workers gave moving eulogies interspersed with some of her favorite jazz recordings. This included Marcy George's vivid portrait of the love and respect that true friends develop over many years. Here are the thoughts that I shared with the congregation on behalf of our guild.

My name is Janet Kempf and I am a member of the Heartstring Quilters Guild. I have had the priviledge of knowing Kathie for the past 3 years. About 2 years ago we spent a day together at a local crafts fair where we represented the guild. We had a lot of time to talk that day and I remember something that Kathie said that truly surprised me.

She said that she wished she could be more creative, more of an "artist" in her work. Looking at her exquisite work and her gift for combining colors and textures it was hard for me to believe that she didn't realize that she was an artist. I certainly did - and I know I can speak for our entire guild by saying that we all considered her to be a quilt artist.

Anyone looking at her work can appreciate the artistry that produced such beautiful pieces. And those of us who quilt can also appreciate the consummate technical expertise that Kathie demonstrated in creating these works of art.

We all have many different relationships in our lifetimes. We are family members to some, co-workers to others, friends to many. Kathie was not only a friend but a fellow artist to all of us in the guild. We know the part of her - the right brain part - that was creative, talented and always ready to contribute her time and talent to our guild. Looking at her work always inspired the rest of us to do better work ourselves.

And that is the legacy that Kathie Harrington leaves to the Heartstring Quilters.

-Janet Kempf

Dear fellow members:

I just wanted to thank EVERYONE for all that you have done to support Kathie's family and me over the past several months. The many, many emails, expressing your own sadness and your support of my grieving were so beautiful. The ideas for making Kathie's memory in the quilting world something tangible by connecting her to the Art Quilts at the Sedgwick just blew her family away - they are so touched! The creation of the Water Lily Quilt, which I will ask her children if I can bring to our Feburary meeting, was an experiment in adventure, creativity and relationship-building not to be surpassed! The making of all the blocks (there were EXACTLY ENOUGH) was so much fun to do together; the designing, embroidering, basting and sharing touched me so deeply, and then, the wonderful thoughts shared by our President, Janet Kempf, at Kathie's memorial service brought me again to that grateful place of love. Kathie did give me many gifts in her death, not the least of which was a closer relationship with all of you at Heartstrings. Kathie will surely be with us at every meeting or whereever we gather.

Thank you all from my heart

-Marcy