ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the ways in which a number of Denver-area women have come to volunteer their time, energy, and skill in constructing panels for the Quilt. Collectively, the panels created by these women memorialize the lives of two sons, two friends, a sister, a brother, and a niece. The chapter examines how women's subjective experiences with AIDS and loss have been made meaningful through their experiences with and responses to Quilt. It also queries the function of the Quilt in the creation of new kinship communities and the maintenance of other AIDS-related communities. Quilting has traditionally been viewed as domestic, and therefore female, work. The three types of traditional quilts that provide a framework for discussing the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the individual panels comprising it are the Crazy quilt, the Mourning quilt, and the Album quilt.
