The Quarantine Quilt Project

People from across the country are being invited to contribute to a Quarantine Quilt in a creative response to the pandemic led by Crediton-based Significant Seams. This group of local artists has received Arts Council funding to lead a national project, which will inspire people to create quilts in many different areas. Their aim is to collect and stitch together people’s responses to the experience of living through a pandemic, as Significant Seams Director Catherine West explains.

Each patch contributed represents and tells a story. They are evocative and I think we can all relate to them, as varied as they are. We hope as many people as possible will be inspired to contribute a patch. You don’t have to be able to sew. People can paint, print or draw to make a very meaningful patch. That said, a stitch is just a line made with a needle and thread!

The Quarantine Quilt Project aims to bring together all our varied experiences and responses to this time and express them on textiles through stitch and colour.

The project featured  on BBC Spotlight 22 July 2020

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‍How to get involved:

We are inviting you to contribute one of two types of patches, reflecting your feelings and responses to the pandemic. 

1. A stitched word for ‘The Wall of Words’ on a 5 inch high x 7 inch wide rectangle with a word or phrase within the 4 x 6 inch centre area (leaving a ½” seam allowance all the way around the design. 
2. Alternatively (or additionally) South West residents are encouraged to submit any design representing feelings, responses and experiences related to the pandemic on 7 inch squares with your design centred within the 6 inch centre area.

Patches should be sent to:

Significant Seams
Apple Studio
℅ Carpenters Cottage
Crediton Hamlets
EX17 5BX

The project is also providing free learning materials through our website   Check these out to give you ideas for creative activities to make your patch! These have come about as we  develop new ways to deliver our arts courses remotely. The first courses are being delivered free to Devon residents this summer via Devon Recovery Learning Community, which is part of Devon NHS Partnership Trust. 

Also, we’d like to let you know, Devon Community Foundation has provided supplemental funding enabling us to post free kits to people who are shielding or isolated and might otherwise might not be easily able to get what they need to participate. If you know someone who would benefit from receiving one of these gift packages, email us their details at projectteam@thequarantinequiltproject.org

We’re pleased that an emerging network of organisations, artists and projects across the UK are producing quilts in response to Covid-19 and about the changes it has had on people’s lives. Our Significant Seams team is working to gather evidence of the benefits to health and wellbeing of these activities. Alongside Significant Seams, so far, there are projects in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Essex, Bradford, Derbyshire, West, Derbyshire, Somerset and West Yorkshire. 

The Quarantine Quilt will be part of an online exhibition in the first instance. Further plans are subject to evolving circumstances (like when arts venues have their re-opening plans clear). 

Significant Seams is an award winning social enterprise that uses textile and craft to build community and support people in vulnerable life moments. We offer textile and craft workshops, craft supplies and kits to organisations and groups, group facilitation and promotion, consultancy in the art, health, and well-being sector.