Eve Kushner (left) and Gail Shea have worked in adjacent offices for six years. Gail, an Albany resident, is a book editor who loves to quilt. Eve, of Berkeley, is a freelance writer who loves the Japanese language and published a 2007 book on kanji (Chinese characters used in modern Japanese writing). They were largely oblivious to each other until the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month led to a conversation about their desire to help. They discovered they have complementary skills and talents, and a shared sense of urgency, in the face of this disaster. Quilts4Japan is the result of that conversation.