Significance of quilt

The quilt that Lydia, Christine, Isobel, and Grace make out of Zachary's clothes is a symbol of their collective grief after his death and their need to keep his memory alive. The quilt is something they can hold onto in order to remember Zachary, and Grace insists that Lydia keep it and sleep under it after Christine suggests they hang it on the wall. "No, we have to use it," she declares, "...We have to touch it every day and love it and spill things on it. It has to be part of life" (121).