Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 38
I hope that many of you checked out the Virtual Quilt Festival the last few days, organized by the same people who bring us the Houston Quilt Festival in a normal year. eQuilter is proud to sponsor 3 exhibits plus the NEW Youth category! We are super excited about the latter, because now there is a stepping stone for young people who want to get involved in the this wonderful textile art and craft. Tokyo and Birmingham UK have had Youth categories for many years, so we applaud Quilts Inc for adding this fantastic segment to the quilt exhibits!
Lets face it. Quilting has been occupied by middle-aged and retirement-aged women for decades, but it is so exciting to welcome students, young moms, more men, and now children to the wonderful world of quilting. Come on in – the water’s fine – and we love to have you join us!
The motto of Boulder High School (where all 3 of our kids graduated) is “A Place for Everyone” and I am so gratified to see that the quilting world continues to expand and embrace this motto as well. A long time ago, a young person who ventured to a quilt guild, might have felt that it was a bunch of old ladies and there was no place for her…or him. We continue to tear down those walls and give newcomers a place to show their work and share their voice, and that’s a GOOD thing. The Quilting Multiverse has room for everyone to do their thing, and most of us recognize that it is a place of refuge in troubled times such as these.
It is a place for hand applique, traditional blocks, textile painting, historic embellishment, experimental fiber art, wearable art, teachers, students, historic researchers, collectors, activists, authors, photographers, and fabriholics. Some day soon we will get together in our guilds, our exhibits, our quilt festivals and our workshops…over cups of tea or coffee, glasses of wine, and long meals where we catch up on how we got through the quarantine.
But yes, that day is coming! We just have to get through the next few months! As Covid spreads into more communities and sadly, takes more lives, more and more people will realize the importance of making and wearing masks to keep each other safe. The army of mask-makers who stepped up in the Spring, are still out there, still making masks for teachers, students, family and neighbors. And just as we put LOVE in our quilts, these masks we sew also come from a place of Love.
Hang on. We are going to get through this together!
with Hope for the Future,
Luana and Paul
