Welcome Blanket is a platform for engagement that transforms the
abstract concept of immigration into a tangible crowd-sourced artistic
action. We ask you to use your head, heart, hands, and histories to craft the country we wish to see. Handcraft makers (knit, sew, quilt, crochet, weave, felt, etc.) are invited to make Welcome Blankets. (Lifted from their website.)
The Welcome Blanket project started some three or four years ago here in the United States. The idea is to provide cheerful tokens of welcome for the newest immigrants and refugees to a nation that has been built by immigrants and refugees from its' inception. I made and contributed one quilt in the beginning - but don't ask me to look for a picture of it or to remember anything about it at this point. I'd sort of lost track of the project, the way you do over time. Just received an email announcing the extension of the deadline for new submissions: they need to be in Atlanta by 1 March. Parts Department to the rescue!
I pondered how I might go about creating a 40" square quilt as quickly as possible. Six inch blocks set 6 x 6 plus a 2" border all the way around would do the trick. But what if I began with a 12" block? That would eliminate four blocks and speed the process up a bit. That's where I started. Then I auditioned some of my many Shoo-fly and Hole in the Barn Door blocks.
I decided to change things up for the final round of blocks and went for my liberated log cabins. Hmmm. Let's try something else, a little less busy...
I like this better. And with one exception I had just enough of these rainbow blocks to make it all the way around. I hadn't a clue what I would do with those rainbow liberated log cabins when I was making them. That phase didn't last long either. I'm delighted to be able to put them to this good purpose.
I will look for something to use for a whole cloth border once I get the top assembled. Fabric for the back will not be a problem, and batting scraps can be pieced together for the innards. James says it won't even take him an hour to get this quilted. He offered to sew down the binding for me too, to spare my hands. We might even make the deadline at this rate! 😊
James to the workforce, love those bright blocks, and what a wonderful project to welcome those entering your country.
ReplyDeleteWhat a warm welcome this will give someone. And there goes quite a few blocks from the Parts Department, off to be over by someone else!
ReplyDeleteHooray for the Parts Department! That black and white centre is the sort of start that allows almost anything to happen around the outside. Personally, I rather liked the busy version, but the layout you ended up with is also gorgeous. How lovely, too, that you have such good help right there when your hands are giving you a bit of trouble.
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