The BREAST CANCER QUILTS PROJECT began as a project of Art for Recovery at UCSF in 1995. While listening to the heartfelt stories of women coping with breast cancer, an idea to create quilt blocks was conceived. Expressing pain, hope, anger, and joy - the quilts represent not only women coping with breast cancer but also their friends and family and those who have lost a loved one to this disease. As of the winter of 2002 there are 35 completed quilts, and the project continues to grow. Each quilt is eight feet square and includes twenty-five images or quilt blocks. Each artistic or quilting requirement for participation in this project. All quilt blocks are collected and sewn together by professional quilter. Each participant includes a statement, poem, or story that explains their quilt block. The stories are compiled into individual books that travel with the quilts. Participants have described their experience as poignant and intense. Some not knowing what to express in their quilt block and then being taken completely by surprise with the image that appears. Others knowing exactly what they wish to voice and anxious to see their block sewn into a quilt and displayed.

These are a few of the quotes written on the quilts blocks or included in the booklets. "I WON THE LOTTERY THAT NO ONE CARED TO ENTER". "I WILL NEVER FORGET THE DAY I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER - IT WAS THE DAY THAT ELVIS DIED".

The ART FOR RECOVERY BREAST CANCER QUILTS travel around the country and are on display every year at Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in San Francisco in October. We invite everyone to participate in this project. If you or a friend of yours would like to create an image for the BREAST CANCER QUILTS PROJECT, please contact Cindy Perlis, director, Art for Recovery (415) 885-7221. Instructions will be sent directly to you.