WTC Quilt

The following article appeared on the JSCC website for several months. Click on the thumbnails below to see the details of the quilt.

Special Quilt Holds Memories Of

World Trade Center Victim

Birmingham, Alabama… “If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to heaven and
bring you home again.”

These poignant words from Lori Preziose to her husband Greg, who was lost in the World Trade Center

Jefferson State Nursing Instructor and accomplished quilt maker Sheryl Colle of Pelham recently finished a special quilt for Lori of New Jersey and her three children ages 2, 8 and 9. The quilt, complete with photos, a poem, and personal expressions of love sewn in, is a personal symbol honoring their husband and father.

Bonds Trader Greg Preziose, 34, was a Senior Vice President with Cantor Fitzgerald and worked on the 105^th floor of Tower One of the World Trade Centers. Greg was a loving husband and a devoted father who was deeply active in the lives of his family. His tragic death, and so many others that day, caused people to do what they could to help.

“I knew I wanted to do something,” said Jefferson State’s Colle. “Being a quilter, I found an internet site called ‘United We Quilt’ from Vermont. This site was looking for volunteers to make quilts for the families who lost someone in the September 11 tragedies. I sent them my information and they sent it to a victim’s family.”

It wasn’t long before Preziose contacted Colle and discussed her husband, her home and family. It was then

she requested the quilt be red, white and blue and include three phrases including: Always in our hearts, we

“I found a quilt pattern on the internet, drew the basic quilt using my computer quilt design program, and adapted it somewhat to include the pictures I printed onto fabric using my scanner, computer and printer,” said Colle.

Each quilt creation by Colle is labeled. The label for this particular quilt reads:

“Stairway to Heaven” was made in loving memory of Greg Preziose (1967 – 2001)
killed in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
It was machine-pieced and machine-quilted by Sheryl Colle from Pelham, Alabama, in 2002
and given to his wife, Lori and children, ages 2, 8, and 9 as part of the United We Quilt Project.

“There is a lot of emotion in this [quilt]… I get goosebumps every time I open it,” said Colle. “I hope it will, in some way, help the family heal and remind them of their wonderful husband and father.”