With the quilt appeal for the Grenfell Tower tragedy coming to a close, it’s given me time to think about what being charitable means within the quilting community and the good it can bring.

Certainly sewing for a good cause is not something new. While many feel sewing is good for the soul, it also can pull people together in the face of tragedy and bring comfort to those who are grieving. Many people will have heard of the Canadian Red Cross Quilts (CRCQ). Thousands of quilts were sent across the Atlantic in the 1940’s to those affected by the Second World War. Many of those quilts came to the UK, including 25,000 from the Nova Scotia region alone. These were gifted via volunteer organisations such as the Salvation Army and British Red Cross. Many a soldier and evacuee received these gifts of comfort which were also sent out to hospitals treating the sick and injured while bombs fell across the country. Some of the surviving quilts have now been collected and were exhibited around the country in 2016. The story of quilts has been documented in detail by the CRCQ Research group founded by Dr Anna Mansi, Maxine March and Jackie Maxwell and a book Comfort from Kindness compiled by Dr Mansi is now available. More details can be found here.

These Red Cross Quilts are all from private collections but their stories have been gathered and recorded. The quilts were made from what fabrics and materials could be found at the time. The Crayford tweed was machine pieced with the brightly coloured tweed pieces likely from women clothing.  The Catford Nine Patch quilt was donated to the Page family and was pieced with seersucker and dress cottons, it can be dated back to between 1939 and 1942. Almost 1,250 one and a quarter inch squares make up the Folly Farm quilt. It takes its name from Folly Farm in Reading, a country house loaned and designated as a maternity unit for evacuated expectant mothers. In March of 1943, Olive was gifted the quilt on the birth of her second son Terry.

Many of the quilts have labels still attached. We have been granted permission to show this label by the British Red Cross who have asked us to state “The red cross emblem is a protective symbol used during armed conflicts and its use is restricted by law.”  We wish to thank the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and the British Red Cross Society for authorisation to show a Canadian Red Cross quilt bearing the emblem in this article.

My first involvement of sewing for an appeal was the Pillowcase Appeal which went out shortly after the tragic event at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut back in late 2012. The request came from a quilt shop owner with the aim of collecting 600 pillowcases for the children of the school and siblings of those lost. I remember hearing about the appeal and instantly grabbing some fabric from my stash. Within an hour or so, I had 3 pillowcases made which I posted off to the US where they were soon joined by over 9,000 others from around the world. They were gifted to many children and indeed adults in the school district, emergency services, families and others and provided a little brightness and colour in what must have been an otherwise very dark and difficult time.

In America, it is now an almost ingrained response to any tragic event. The shooting at a nightclub in Orlando in the summer of 2016 brought about another such an appeal. With the help of social media the #quiltsforpulse hashtag went round the world in hours and sites like Instagram were flooded with rainbow and heart shaped blocks as many people took to their sewing machines and answered the call. The appeal, lead by the Orlando Modern Quilt guild, received hundreds of quilts and blocks and eventually resulted in over 1,700 quilts being gifted to those affected on that fateful night.

Back in the UK, in May of last year, many young people were injured and 22 people lost their lives after a device was detonated at a pop concert. It shocked the country that something like that would happen here and particularly that the younger generation would be targeted in such a way. As people sought to comprehend what had happened quilters took to their machines. Hexie blocks were requested, representing the honeycomb of a bee, a symbol long associated with Manchester and its hardworking past during the Industrial Revolution. Quilters and sewers alike responded and in December 2017 quilts were delivered to Manchester Police to be gifted to those caught up in the attack via their family liaison officers.

A very quick search via social media brings up many current appeals, including one for those affected by hurricane in Texas (#quiltsforharvey) and collections remain ongoing by the Las Vegas MQG after the terrible shooting in October 2017 (#quiltsforvegas).

Most of you will know of the work of Project Linus, which has been in operation for almost 25 years and has gifted over 4 million quilts to date. The website for the UK branch, opened in 2000, states that over 2,000 quilts are delivered every month and there is no doubt they bring some comfort to those in need.

It strikes me that these charitable projects and appeals are of significant value to the fabric market and quilting industry. To breakdown the cost of the supplies and value of time put into the thousands of gifted comfort quilts made each year is more than my head can handle but it must be significant. The companies that we all buy from are often the first to offer supplies. From my own experience with the Grenfell project, Aurifil, The Warm Company, Fabric Freedom and Empress Mills were just a few of the extremely generous businesses that wanted to show support by providing thread, wadding and fabric to help us towards our goal.

Many of us have a stash of fabric, supplies of thread and wadding that might be more than we can reasonably use. That fabric you just had to have, possibly with no project in mind, ends up sat in a cupboard or drawer and then we hear of another event and suddenly it has a purpose.

The gifting of a quilt can bring such joy to those involved. When given to a family member or close friend we can see happiness on their faces when they receive them. To know each time the quilt is used it will spark a memory and bring a smile. For the receiver to know that the fabric has been carefully chosen with them in mind, the design perhaps with a special meaning, the gift of a handmade item can mean so much more than any store bought gift. In times of need or loss, a quilt to curl under can bring a short period of relief, a moment to gather one’s thoughts or simply time to rest knowing that someone out there cares – the value is simply immeasurable. Be it a present to a close personal friend or a gift across county or even overseas, the care put into each stitch reflects the concern of the giver. In times of tragedy, it is easy to feel alone and struggle to comprehend the world around us but through the quilting community we can come together and lean on each other. We can join together with a common goal and try to find a way to work through the shock and grief.

It takes one person to have an idea, one person to shout out and the community comes together. And while we may wish that these calls didn’t come quite so often we know that when they do, the call will be answered and quilts will be made.

One comment repeated several times by people making for the Grenfell Appeal was that they would continue to make quilts so as to have one ready in reserve for when the next appeal comes. The desire to give and offer comfort speaks to a fundamental goodness in people when the world around us sometimes reflects darkness and fear. Now, I can’t bring myself to wait for another tragedy but I can try to keep the positive spirit going and with that in mind I challenged the group to make a Christmas stocking each month through out 2018. The stockings can be any size, quilted, lined, embroidered – anything goes! At the end of the year, the stockings are to be donated to local food banks, organisations helping the homeless or other charitable causes. Many people have got stared already, some even picking up supplies to fill the stockings! A few small soaps or a pack of colouring pencils could mean so much to those facing hardship. A stocking with some socks, wet wipes and a toothbrush would be helpful to anyone facing Christmas without a home to call their own. It has been reported that in the year to March 2017, food banks provided almost 1.2m three day emergency food parcels to those in crisis, 436,000 of them to children (Source:The Trussell Trust). It would be wonderful to see just a few of those food parcels with a donated stocking on top to bring a smile to someone who is struggling, or to a child perhaps not expecting Christmas gifts this year. Together we can make a difference.

We are more than just an industry: we come together in our guilds, we chat in Facebook groups, we bond over a love of fabric, we whisper about the size of our stash – we are a community. A band of people, around the country and across the world, we are quilters, and particularly in times of tragedy and need we are united.

To join the 2018 Stocking challenge, find GT Quilters on Facebook or Instagram.

Amy Watson

Come join me on Instagram to see my latest projects!

Work in progress pictures of my quilts donated to the Grenfell Appeal

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