HOULTON – Talent, color and emotions converged on the first day of the Friends and Needles Quilting Guild’s “Threads of Hope and Courage” quilt show, as residents flocked to the Houlton Elks Lodge to see works that comfort the living and honor the dead.

The event, which coincides with the 42nd annual Maine State Federation of Firefighters Convention that is being held in town through Sept. 11, has several unique features this year. The three-day exhibition includes Lois Jarvis’ Ground Zero quilt, which the Wisconsin woman crafted in response to the wave of grief and shock that swept the nation after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The quilt’s key element is a huge star composed of 700 diamond-shaped pieces. Each one of those pieces is a photograph of someone who died in the Twin Towers in New York City. Jarvis downloaded images of the people on the quilt from the CNN Web site a few days after the tragedy.

Kim Hazlett, the guild’s president, said Friday that visitors had been “very moved and emotional, but also comforted” by the piece.

Most onlookers stood silently for several minutes, taking in the endless collage of pictures – the chestnut-haired woman with the engaging smile, the young entrepreneur in the colorful tie, the muscular man with the handlebar mustache.

In the room behind the quilt is another first for the club – an exhibit set up to honor one of their own deceased members.

While the “Courage” part of the show’s title honors firefighters, the “Threads of Hope” portion honors Hope York, a longtime member of the collective who died last year. Fellow quilters honored York by showcasing a host of quilts she made for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, covering a room with dozens of resplendent, well-worn pieces.

“Her goal was to make a quilt for each family member before she died,” Hazlett said. “And she did.”

Guild member Mary Ann Stewart said she could not remember the group putting together such an exhibit in honor of one of their own.

“But I think that we should do it more often,” she said. “It is a neat idea.”

Along with the emotions that surfaced after seeing the Ground Zero quilt and the countless stitches crafted by York for her own family, guild member Leigh Griffith said, visitors were expressing other sentiments Friday about the judging of the show.

“Everyone is saying that it is so hard to pick just one quilt as the winner,” she said.