Few people live up to their names quite like William Stich-Smith who’s in the middle of completing a nationwide tour showcasing his hand-sewn pandemic quilt.
Hailing from Acme, Washington, Stich-Smith has so far traveled to 39 states, most of which were completed in between his junior and senior year of high school. Now having graduated, he’s out to complete the remaining states and hopefully have the quilt donated to the Smithsonian Institution once he’s finished.
Stich-Smith said he found inspiration for the pandemic quilt after he caught COVID-19 and was sent home sick from school.
Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire Stich-Smith’s mother Candace Leonard helped him with the embroidery designs that he then sewed into one large quilt, using fabric from pandemic masks along the outer edges.
“I ended up moving back up north, and my mom taught me how to sew and she also made the embroidery designs that are on it, and then I stitched them out to help and then I thought it’d be cool to make a quilt out of it,” Stich-Smith said “All of the sashing and colorful parts of it are made from thousands of pieces of fabric, a lot of which came from masks.”
With the help of his mom’s car and the aid of Kampgrounds of America throughout the country, Stich-Smith traveled from state to state, taking photos at each of the state capitol. Since most of the journey was completed amid the pandemic, many of the country’s National Parks were closed, however, Stich-Smith managed to get the back of the quilt stamped by the remaining parks that were still open.
In addition to his gofundme page, Stich-Smith received a lot of help from his mom Candice Leonard and her company Tangled Threads Quilt Store which funded much of his trip, as well as helped prepare him with the skills necessary to make it all happen.
Though many of the National Parks throughout the country were closed due to the pandemic, Stich-Smith managed to collect stamps along the back of the quilt for the remaining parks that were still open during the first haul of his journey. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire)
“We taught him how to public speak, how to get a hold of the governor’s office, and helped with media relations,” Leonard said. “My Facebook group has about 12,000 members so we had house-moms in every state, so if he ever broke down, we had a back up plan for him. So it was definitely a group effort between my facebook group and my company and then William to have the courage to go and do this between his junior and senior year.”
Now that Alaska has been crossed off his list, Stich-Smith has his sights set on completing New England states next year, Kentucky and Tennessee the following year and then Hawaii after that. With all of the time to explore and weigh his options for the future, he’s decided to stay within the realm of working with his hands by joining a union apprentice program to become a welder.
“It was definitely a great journey for William, and him having the courage to break the state boundary and get out there and explore the country, I’m really quite proud of him and everything he’s managed to accomplish,” Leonard said.
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
