When I first came up with the idea of creating a group quilt to illustrate the quilt community experience during social distancing, I don’t think I would have ever imagined that 4 months later the country would basically still be in quarantine.
I put out a call for quilt blocks the first day that our local schools were closed. I had spent the night before making some sample blocks and received the school cancellation notice late that night. This really solidified the reality of the pandemic for me. You can read about the inspiration for the blocks in the original call.
I was pleased with the excitement and interest people had for participating in the quilt. I was even interviewed for an article in the Winnipeg Free Press. Blocks started to slowly trickle in. I took precautions with my mail and “quarantined” everything in a ziplock bag for several days before opening.
This quilt was not the only group quilt inspired by COVID-19 and quarantine. I was also a contributor to two other quilts. In order to remember the blocks I made and sent away for those quilts I decided to make more Petri Dish blocks for this quilt in the likeness of those blocks. One quilt is by @stephskardal and @southbaybella, the other quilt is by @jenbroemel.
As the months went on and we were still staying at home, I kept collecting blocks and adding them to my design wall. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to assemble and finish the quilt but for some reason my mind kept coming back to the idea of a fence.
To me, the fence symbolizes the invisible force that is keeping us apart. So many barriers have come up during the quarantine starting with mundane things like toilet paper shortages and then more serious shortages of milk or meat or eggs, and the still developing things like economic downturn and human rights protests. Not to forget the lives taken or impacted by the virus.
Ultimately, I landed on creating a chain link fence using 1/4″ bias tape. This is also partly a tribute to the miles of bias tape ties that I made for masks during quarantine. [I’ve made just over 100 masks; read about my mask making here.] The fabrics I chose for making the fence links are an ombre effect of blenders; black to light gray. I did not use solid fabrics because one of the pandemic shortages happens to be solid black fabric. Yet another accolade to using what I had on hand or what I could source during quarantine.
Once I basted the bias tape fence to the quilt I kept the quilting simple and performed dual duty by stitching down the bias tape and using that as quilting also. The only other quilting is what I’m calling a “ghost block,” white stitches on white background fabric. This block symbolizes the unreliability of the international post and also any blocks that were started or designed by people with intentions of participating but did not finish or submit them. I knew I was expecting a couple blocks from overseas but because of the pandemic there was no way to know when exactly they would arrive. I had set a personal deadline so that I could finish this quilt in time to submit to a specific show, so I needed to make design decisions that would include any late arrival blocks but not affect the quilt top construction.
On the back of the quilt, which features Latifah Saffir chain link fence print fabric, I stitched a second “ghost block”. This time I used dark thread to make it like a portal where the late arrival blocks are trying to break through to the front of the quilt. I was able to applique just the Petri Dish portion of the overseas blocks to the back of the quilt. I love this little design element and it turned out better than I imagined it would.
I am so grateful for everyone who participated and made a block(s). I received blocks from 47 people in 21 different states, 2 Canadian provinces, and one European country. The youngest contributor was just 7 years old. And the furthest away blocks traveled here all the way from Paris, France. See the full list of contributors.
This quilt has been selected for a 2021 book curated by Sandra Sider, Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos.