“Combat Quilter” Andrew Lee transforms trauma into art

Last week marked the 12th annual Oxford Fiber Festival — a week-long online and in-person education and commemoration of the fiber arts. One of the in-person events featured an inspiring and heartfelt presentation by U.S. Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee, affectionately nicknamed the “Combat Quilter.”

Lee led an in-depth conversation at the University Museum on Saturday, detailing his journey into the artform of quilting, as well as providing valuable insights into both the development of his quilts and how the very act of creation ties into his greater self-purpose. 

“Quilting became my therapy,” Lee said. “It became my outlet.”

Following his withdrawal from art school and, subsequently, multiple army deployments to Iraq, Lee felt rather listless, puzzled as to what direction his life should take next. 

“Within that military cycle, my light switch of emotion got turned off,” Lee said. 

Unexpectedly, however, Lee’s efforts to piece his life back together almost directly manifested in the art of quilting, opting to combine this newfound interest with his past experiences in the military, in turn, utilizing quilting as a method to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. Through these efforts, Lee created Quilts of Valor, an organization devoted to developing personalized quilts for veterans and their families across the United States.

Lee has provided quilts for veterans of almost every major U.S. conflict — recently including the son of a World War II veteran who fought on the beaches of Normandy — and his service remains in constant demand. He will often find himself utilizing various rooms of the house, acquiring different fabrics from multiple vendors at once, all to provide each quilt its proper care and attention – this  personalized touch is what “Quilts of Valor” remains praised for. 

The process can be extremely intricate, yet what takes many quilters months to accomplish, Lee can often accomplish in a mere number of weeks.

“If the army taught me anything, it’s efficiency,” Lee said. 

While the quilts themselves are not always military-themed, Lee especially carved his name into the world of fabrics with his 2019 recreation of Joe Rosenthal’s iconic Iwo-Jima photograph: the expertly crafted pixelated image depicting the soldiers heroically raising the American flag in 1945. The piece, designed from over twelve-thousand individual pieces of fabric, took Lee an entire year to assemble, serving as his most ambitious and recognizable work to date. 

Outside of quilting, Lee frequently finds himself returning to the world of the military in various capacities, recently administering a seven-month long advanced leadership course in 2021. Yet, what inspires him most is the rather personal inflection point between his two respective worlds: witnessing a former squad-member’s emotional response to receiving a surprise quilt, and the quilt — as wrapped around his fellow soldier—serving as a warm embrace amidst the cold, post-military world.

“I quilt for me. But I am glad it helps others,” Lee said. 

Lee is currently working on a pixelated quilt commemorating the flag-raising ceremony following the September 11 attacks. His final design is set to be unveiled this May.