On her deck in Guilford, Genevieve Bailey is wrapped in her Recovery Quilt, a gift that was made for her by friends from the First Congregational Church. The other quilts shown are Bailey's creations. Melanie Stengel/Register

Fabric of Life: Woman's battle with cancer includes making quilts for those who need them most

By Sandi Kahn Shelton, Register Staff 

For Genevieve Bailey, hope comes in the form of fabric and color, patterns and designs that she sews together and then gives away to friends.

Bailey, 42, has been battling metastatic breast cancer for the past six years, chasing it with chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and even a total hip replacement, as it has slowly spread, first to her lungs and then, last year, to her hips. But in between the surgeries and the trips to the hospital for the latest round of chemo, she's been making quilts.

In fact, her house in Guilford - a yellow farmhouse tucked back near the woods - is filled with the bright colors of quilts, folded on the couch, hanging on the walls, tucked into baskets. And even though quilts spill out from everywhere, even more of them have gone to other people, gifts from Bailey as she works on her healing.

A Pink Paper Ribbon shows your support Y-ME of Connecticut is conducting its Pink Paper Ribbon campaign throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For a $1 donation, you may buy a paper ribbon from an area merchant, sign your name to it and have it displayed in the store. With each ribbon, the buyer receives a Y-ME bookmark as a thank you.  For the location of the nearest participating store or for more information on how your store may get involved in this fund-raising effort, call Y-ME in Branford at (203) 483-8200 or toll-free, 1 (800) 933-4963.

She learned how important quilts are when she had her mastectomy, and as she came out of the anesthetic, there in front of her was her friend holding a magnificent quilt that nine women from her church had made for her.

"I woke up laughing," she recalls. "I saw my friend, and I saw this beautiful quilt, and I laughed. All the doctors turned and looked at me, surprised. And I took that quilt with me everywhere I went - to all the chemo appointments. It was a key point in my recovery."

After that, Bailey started making lots and lots of quilts herself - for anyone she felt needed one. She made quilts for AIDS patients, for her husband, Bill Bailey, for people from her church, for friends who needed a bit of cheering up, for other women recuperating from surgery.

One quilt, composed of pink angels, she gave to Barbara Cooney Oliver, the director of the Y-ME Breast Cancer Support Organization, upon Oliver's 10th anniversary free of cancer.

"I couldn't believe it was for me," recalls Oliver. "It was so beautiful, and so moving. I felt incredibly touched to be given something so lovely and so meaningful. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of all the love that went into that quilt."

Bailey has worked on quilts under all circumstances: when she was so ill from chemo that she could barely hold her head up, and when her husband needed to rig up the sewing machine so that she could press the pedal without hurting her hip. These quilts, she says, have kept her going on bad days.

"One friend calls me a 'quilting animal,' " she says, smiling, "and that's exactly what I am. I think quilts bring with them an incredible amount of love and power and magic, and when I make them for other people, I love seeing how good it makes them feel."

Several of those quilts have been for the children in her life: her own, Jeff, 17, and Katie, 15 - and also her sister's children, whom she's been raising for the past six years, Jessica, 18, and Andrea, 16. It's when she talks about the special quilts she's made for the children's graduations from high school that her voice softens and she looks away.

"I've already got the fronts of the quilts made, just in case," she says. "I've already outlived the prognosis they gave me after the bone marrow transplant. And now my goal is to make it until the youngest one graduates."

Lately, in addition to making quilts, Bailey has been writing a book about her life and her quilts. She's calling it "One More Quilt: A Story About Life," and it sits in a loose-leaf notebook in her living room. It is, she says, the story of her life, complete with photographs and even swatches of fabric from special quilts she's made.

"I work on it because I want the kids to have something to know about me when I'm not here. I want them to know my philosophy. I want the book to say, this is how you survive," she says. 

Today Bailey is feeling well. A new round of chemo seems to be working, she's walking well with her new hip, and she's not short of breath, as she was last year. There is every reason to hope, she says. She wants to finish her book by the end of the December, and then she'd love to find a publisher who'd be willing to take a chance on her.

"This is a book of happiness," she says softly. "What I want to impart is what quilts really mean. I think any creative craft you do is really about healing. And I think my story should be told."