- College of Medicine Student Affairs
The quilt hanging in the reception area of the College of Medicine’s Clinical Skills and Simulation Center quietly but powerfully tells its story in hues of black and gold, each stitch revealing the care and compassion of its maker – standardized patient Kathleen Hale.
Gently turn up the lower right corner of the quilt, and an inscription reads: “Bedside Manner by Kathleen Hale – 2012 Donated to UCF Medical School in Memory of My Father – Paul D. Felter.”
A professional quilter, Kathleen said she not only created the piece to honor her father, a UCF graduate, but also to inspire medical students she is helping train as a standardized patient.
“The more I worked on it, the more I saw how the quilt’s theme is related to UCF,” said Kathleen. The quilt has a pattern of four vertical fabric blocks that represent a patient in bed.
“The fabric blocks are different colors and patterns because you never know what patients you will have, “ Kathleen said. Each block is surrounded by two longer pieces – one on top and one to the left to represent the people who care for patients.
The 5-by-7 quilt is bordered by copper and gold fabric, and took six months to complete. It is machine-pieced, with a quilted featherlike pattern to suggest medical students flying off after graduation.
Kathleen said the project started when the leader of her Seminole County quilting guild challenged her to create something different. She normally likes to work with brightly colored fabric but sought material in the muted tones of autumn.
Second-year students Sal Crusco and Daniel Sehrt studied the quilt and called it “awesome.”
“Very comforting,” said Sal. “‘How many different pieces of fabric are there?”
Kathleen laughed and said: “A lot.”