The Power of Quilts
- cranbrookcreativecircle
- Mar 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 6
For many people, quilting is seen as a traditional craft that’s reserved for those with lots of time on their hands and a free bus pass. And despite the recent emerging trend of “grannycore” crafting making it’s way into the Gen Z realm, there is still a stigma around the quaintness of quilting. In reality quilts have been used in a multitude of ways from documenting history to campaigning for human rights to visualising a collective emotion. Here we will be exploring some of the quilts that made history, plus a way that you could too.
The HIV/AIDS Quilt
Conceptualised by human rights activist Cleve Jones in 1985, the HIV/AIDS quilt aimed to create a memory of all those who had lost their lives to AIDS and to bring more awareness to the devastating impact of the disease. By 1987 the project had grown to 1920 panels and was displayed on the National Mall in Washington DC with over half a million people visiting to see the quilt in one weekend alone.
The Quilt’s popularity meant that it was able to tour the US and raised nearly $500,000 by 1988. Along with being recognised nationally, other countries were beginning to take notice and wished to add to the quilt. By 1992 29 countries had made contributions to the HIV/AIDS Quilt and in 1996 it returned to the National Mall in Washington DC where over 1.2 million people came to view it. Fast forward to today and the AIDS Memorial Quilt now has nearly 50,000 panels which are dedicated to more than 110,000 and weighs 54 tons!
The Grenfell Tower Quilt
Inspired by the AIDS Quilt, the Grenfell Tower Quilt was designed to both commemorate those who lost their lives in the terrible Grenfell Tower Fire and to act as a social connector to represent collective trauma. Prioritising preserving memories and bearing witness, many of the panels are made form bedclothes and scrap fabrics and continues to grow as the initiative puts of weekly sewing bee’s in the London area. Tuesday Greenidge from the Grenfell Tower Quilt Project says “Slowly, names of the people who died in the fire are being stitched onto the quilt, along with green crocheted hearts and stuffed animal toys. These fabric momentos act as sensory affirmations that these people are not forgotten”.
Social Justice Quilts
Protest through craft is a thriving and empowering action for communities of people to get their views across. From feminist quilts such as the “Women's rights are human rights” quilt to the Norfolk Trans Joy Community Quilt, groups of people who want to stand up for what they believe in are taking to stitching and creating a lasting piece of history. Take a look at some of the examples of community quilts below.
The Cranbrook Community Quilt?
At Cranbrook Creative Circle we are passionate about arts and culture, which is why we would like to create our own community quilt. As a new town we have a limited amount of history, but BOY have we packed a lot in to that first decade! We would like to utilise the power of stitching and quilting to create a piece of heritage for our community which will document the ups and downs of Cranbrook across the decade and solidify our history for generations to see in the future. If you would like to be involved or would like to support this idea then please get in touch with us at cranbrookcreativecircle@gmail.com
References
Aids Memorial https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history
The Conversation.com https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-anniversary-how-a-quilt-in-the-making-is-a-symbol-of-the-communitys-love-and-quest-for-justice-184972#:~:text=Because%20it%20is%20made%20from,a%20shared%20process%20of%20healing.
Norfolk Trans Joy Community Quilt https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/trans-community-quilts
Womens Rights Quilt https://weststpaulreader.com/2021/07/07/darci-read-national-quilt-museum/
By National Institutes of Health - en wikipedia - [1], taken from National Institutes of Health website - http://aidshistory.nih.gov/tip_of_the_iceberg/quilt.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2685602
Social Justice Social Academy Quilts https://www.sjsacademy.org/community-quilts
Grenfell Memorial Quilt Image https://opencollective.com/sewingforjustice/projects/grenfell-memorial-quilt
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