The experience of a community quilt

activism, collaborations

Today, March 8th 2021, it’s the International Women’s Day. And I’m so happy to celebrate it in good company of a wide quilting community!

The social sewing initiative, launched by local quilt shop Patchworkvictim, aimed to create a charity quilt dedicated to the women in need, has just reached its milestone: a wonderful king size quilt has been completed, thanks to the hands of many volunteering participants, and it is full of beauty!

I’m honored to have handled almost two hundred pieces, combining them into a wide improv composition, together with Francesca. It was an occasion to learn more about several people. Francesca’s precious common sense, bringing me again to practicality when I was flying too strange; Tiziana professional ability, which transformed raw material into real thing overnight. And I felt the personality of each participant. The fantasy of so many different improv small creations expressed it well. And also tiny details revealed a lot of the hidden beauty of so much work.

Behind each white and blue square, looking at the back of each work (which I was lucky to access while assembling it all), I could see, like in a movie, the different choices of each participant. Sewing margin linear, or wavy? Pieced curves, with small cuts to let the margin be adapted? Open seams? Closed seams? Margin turned towards the dark fabric side? 

All these contributions found their place, in a double-face king size quilt: it was great to understand how every input, similar or odd from the others, could find a perfect fit in some point of the map! And it was a good gymnastic exercise, for Francesca and myself, to go tens of times up and down the stair, to position all the squares on a gigantic design wall! I admit, it took three appointments in different dates, to decide the final combination, but it was a wonderful dive into fabric waves of light and blue! When I finally took the photo of the completed work, a more than 100 inches tall blue wall, I felt like a queen in front of a tapestry of majestic preciousness.

The charity recipient, local center for protection of women from violence, G.O.A.P., will be involved in the next phase. This combination of secret and explicit beauty will soon find its way: stay tuned to hear more!

To conclude, thanks to the generous partners of the initiative, Aurifil and Cooperativa Torrenuvola.