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'Quarantine Quilt', collaborative patchwork quilt comprised of 110 patches of 25 cm2 contributed by different people in a variety of styles, techniques and mediums reflecting diverse ways of coping during the COVID-19 pandemic, assembled in London, 2020
‘Quarantine Quilt’ is a patchwork of pictorial stories submitted by makers from across the UK and the globe that tells of hope, gratitude, grief, and daily joys during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was initiated by a three London-based friends in April 2020: textile designer Rachel Schofield Owen, social media influencer Emma Slade Edmondson and costume maker Kathleen Nellis.
Contributors were invited, via Instagram, to contribute a 25 cm2 patch with the aim of uniting as a community while the world was socially distancing. The quilt also provided much-needed focus, ‘structure and meaning’ for the project’s originators, whose usual work evaporated amid the uncertainty and lockdowns of the early pandemic months. In a BBC London interview broadcast on 24 April 2020, Schofield Owen described it as ‘building a lasting testament to what we’re going through’.
Though open to all, the project circulated in a primarily stitch focused algorithm on Instagram, and many respondents were textiles workers or crafting enthusiasts. Being ‘acutely aware’ that the world’s garment makers, who are predominantly women of colour, are ‘rarely given the voice and platform they deserve’, the friends expressly invited designers and makers in the global south to contribute.
The idea for a quilt was Schofield Owen’s, who took inspiration from the long history of the medium to ‘express love, care, protection’ as well as The NAMES Project (also referred to as the AIDS Memorial Quilt). Patches responded to open-ended themes of links, chains, community and unity, and reflect a wide variety of techniques: appliqué, hand and machine embroidery, patchwork, knitting, beading, lacework, cross-stitch and tufting to name but a few.
Contributors were initially asked to share a photograph of their patch and the story behind it, which were digitally stitched together on Instagram until it became possible to create the physical quilt.
Recurring motifs include hands, nature and rainbows. Other patches speak to the effects of social isolation and act as memorials and tributes to (among other things) queer chosen families, lost loved ones, the Black Lives Matter movement, the NHS, and textile workers who supported the pandemic effort not only in making scrubs but embroidering messages of gratitude and hope for workers inside their uniforms. There is a strong emphasis on social justice, with contributions highlighting the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on marginalised groups, and the work of charities including Women’s Aid and The Trussell Trust.
‘Quarantine Quilt’ is one of several community quilts that emerged independently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notable examples include the ‘Covid Memorial Quilt’ started by 13-year-old Californian Madeleine Fugate, the ‘Covid Commemorative Quilt’ initiated by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, and the online ‘COVID-19 Global Quilt’ set up by Australian artists Kate Just and Tal Fitzpatrick. The projects shared similar goals – to allow participants an opportunity to share personal experiences and feelings while engaging in making as a form of coping and collaborating remotely to document a collective memory of this period.
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