It has recently come to my attention that another quilting group based out of Wisconsin is calling itself "Freedom Quilts". Please know that this Wisconsin-based group is not affiliated with our group Freedom Quilts, Inc. The organizer of this Wisconsin-based group lost her son in Iraq. True to our mission, we reached out to her and made her a personalized quilt in honor of her son.A photo of the personalized quilt we made later appeared on the the Wisconsin group website. Much of the confusion surrounding these two organizations stemmed from a lack of proper attribution and credit for the online posting of this personalized quilt.
Because both groups have the Freedom Quilts name, it is kind of confusing to people as to whether Freedom Quilts WI Sisters is part of our group. The answer is no. The Wisconsin Group is a group that reaches out to the families of WI and truly does a great job of helping those families that are hurting. We do it on a bigger scale and started this project back in 2001 reaching out to families all over the world. While our organizations are not affiliated, we both do our part to help others.
After all is said and done, my hope is that two helpful outcomes may arise out of all of this...
- That more people come to learn that there are many of us who believe in the power of comforting another with the love and dedication that comes from a quilt. Freedom Quits, Inc. out of Iowa and the Freedom Quilts WI Sisters are two wonderful organizations that make this dedication a reality.
- That more people will have a greater understanding of how to properly attribute, or give credit to, another's work. Online communication makes it amazingly easy to collaborate and share. But, it also means that we need to pay special care to respect copyright laws. Adhering to copyright laws -- when you boil it down -- is really pretty straight forward... obtain permission before copying, posting, or reproducing another's work and include proper credit.
