Lansing- The first quilt Linda Plyler made was for her sister's doll when she was 9.
Now more than 40 years later, Plyler is the proud creator of a quilt depicting every city in Michigan with a ZIP code starting with "488." Each of the 80 cities has a square with a photograph, drawing or design .
The quilt was on display at the Michigan Historical Center on Friday.
"All the photographs I took myself with the exception of Lake Odessa and Cedar Village," said Plyler, who is a Mason resident.
East Lansing's square has a picture of Beaumont Tower.
Plyler, who is the postmaster in Shaftsburg, Mich. - ZIP code 48882 - was asked to make the quilt for her boss, who was the U.S. Post Office manager for the entire "488" area.
It was supposed to be a small banner in an office, Plyler said.
"But I became obsessed with it," she said.
Today the quilt is more than 7 feet tall with the words "488 PRIDE" written across the top.
To find information on each city, she started a phone campaign.
"I just visited the cities that didn't call back," she said.
Most of the depictions of the cities had a story behind them, and Plyler was excited to tell each one.
Dansville, Mich.'s square, for instance, had a picture of a burning bed. This was an homage to an incident that happened there in 1977, in which a wife who was abused by her husband set fire to his bed after he passed out on it from drinking too much, Plyler said.
It was a nationally publicized court case and resulted in spousal abuse being outlawed, she said.
"It's this woman's courage, her will to be known, that makes you safer today," she said.
Her hometown of Shaftsburg has a picture of citizens fighting to keep the post office. In the 1980s, the Shaftsburg post office was going to be overtaken by Perry, Mich., Plyler said.
The citizens petitioned and wrote their congressmen until they convinced them to build a brand new post office for Shaftsburg, "which is thriving," Plyler said.
Plyler's quilt has won several awards and was featured in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. It has traveled to domestic violence events because of its Dansville square, and is going to Washington to be put on display later this year.
