Arts & Culture

"There’s no way that soul is resting with an unfinished project left behind"

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson

Published November 15, 2019 at 12:03 PM CST

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Shannon Downey with the box containing the unfinished quilt

Shannon Downey/Twitter

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The embroidered map of the U.S. that originally caught Shannon's eye

Shannon Downey/Twitter

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Shannon Downey/Twitter

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Tiffany Quade's "Minnesota" square for Rita's Quilt. She's planning to add some wild rice to the design to honor the state's Ojibwe heritage

Tiffany Quade

A Chicago needlework artist who scours estate sales for unfinished pieces of stitchery to finish.

A 99-year old woman who passed away in August, leaving an exquisite embroidered and framed map of the U.S. and a unfinished, 100-piece quilt project.

A call for volunteers that resulted in ten times the number of offers than were needed to finish the project.

And the Duluth needleworker whose right in the middle of it.

You can follow Shannon Downey on Twitter and on Instagram ... and use the hashtag #RitasQuilt to keep tabs on the project.

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Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.

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