Jodi Rave: Star quilt ready to be sent to Obama

National

Thursday, January 29, 2009

"Angela Sprague Kidder of Missoula could hardly have imagined making a hand-stitched Indian star quilt for President Barack Obama, a gift for his inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C.

And the president's adoptive parents, Mary and Hartford “Sonny” Black Eagle of Lodge Grass, could hardly have imagined they'd never get close enough to Obama to give him that star quilt after his Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony.

But it's not easy to get next to the president of the United States, even if, as his adoptive parents, you were assigned $50,000 donor inauguration seats. So, the Black Eagles spent the day like hundreds of thousands of others on the National Mall with a barely a glimpse of Obama.

“We couldn't even see anything,” said Mary Black Eagle, 74, who attended the swearing-in ceremony with her 75-year-old husband. “There was a tree in front of me and it was so cold, we had to leave. All I could see was that big screen on the right-hand side. I should have got on the (Crow) float, so I would have been able to see him. I would have been able to wave at him.”

The Black Eagles left the inaugural festivities carrying the eight-pointed star blanket quilted with a black eagle holding a pipe in its talons.

As for Sprague Kidder, she's content the quilt she made will still be delivered to Obama, only this time by mail. Plans are also being made to include the quilt in an art exhibition titled “Quilts for Obama: Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President.” The exhibit runs through July 26 at Historical Society of Washington, D.C."

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Jodi Rave: Gift for Obama - Quilter makes special present for president (The Missoulian 1/29)