Doctor displays his patriotism with handmade quilt

Even though he was born and raised in India, Dr. Anis Ansari has always felt stronger ties to the United States over his birth country. Ansari’s American patriotism is reflected on the Stars and Stripes Forever quilt he designed and made.

“The whole idea … had been kind of festering after 9/11,” said Ansari, who came to the United States 25 years ago and is now an American citizen. “I felt I needed to show something with no negative emotions. 9/11 raises a lot of anger and frustration, I wanted to bring out something that was more positive, so it was a combination of trying to bring positive feelings plus I wanted to do something for my two daughters and they were very young and impressionable.”

That something became a 10 foot by 10 foot quilt with signatures from 50 state governors, the president of the United States, five chiefs of the armed services and the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

“The idea behind the quilt is the U.S. is the heart and soul. We are made up of 50 states,” Ansari said. “They are represented by state flags, in order of ascension Delaware to Hawaii. It implies we are all joined in hand and hand.”

Getting all those signatures turned out to be a long and laborious, but successful endeavor.

“When I first came up with the design I thought why not have it signed by the governors. I took it on thinking it was not going to happen,” said Ansari, a board-certified physician in internal medicine with a practice at Trinity Medical Center. “In July 2003, Gov. Rick Perry was the first one to sign under the Texas flag.”

Ansari then contacted the White House to see if George W. Bush could sign the quilt and found that Bush would sign the quilt once it was completed.

“The rest of the 49 governors … I mailed it out with a letter. They were very gracious. I got a lot of feedback. They put it that I was doing them an honor,” he said. “Then I asked if the chiefs of the armed services would sign.”

“It was a very interesting journey trying to get through the pentagon to the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff for somebody who has no political connections. I was going blindly and ran into people so gracious to me and made it happen.”

Ansari had help from many along the way.

“I acknowledge a physician by the name of Dr. Alj Sparrow. She has definitely been a strong factor. The main inspirations were my daughters, Laila who is now 15 and Sabrina who is 11 now. My two daughters are the inspiration for the quilt and were also constant motivation to stay on the course,” he said.

Ansari made a total of six quilts and each of them have original signatures. The project was completed in 2005. Currently, Ansari has them all, but he plans to donate them in the near future.

“I had promised to donate one to the Pentagon. They have a quilting museum,” he said. “I had just moved to Dallas when I was working on the quilt, then I got overwhelmed with other things going on, but have not forgotten what it was for. I would love to have it displayed so other people can see it.”

Contact Senitra Horbrook at 972-628-4074 or shorbrook@acnpapers.com. Comment on this story at scntx.com.

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