Help the Framework Knitters Museum create a quilt made up of individual creative textile responses to the unprecedented events and experiences of 2020.
You’re invited to help the museum document these extraordinary times by creating a textile quilt piece using images, colours, patterns, words, stitches and textures to represent the isolation, the worries, the gardens dug and flowers planted, the extraordinary blue skies, the time we had to listen to the birds, the improvement in air quality, the amazing gestures of friendship, support and bravery, the uncertainty…and the boredom!
Whatever you’re doing, however you’re feeling, whatever you’re hoping for, sew it into a quilt piece! The museum would especially love you to document your reaction to the Resilience Quilt project and the progress you make with your quilt piece on social media – please use the hashtag #resiliencequilt so they can identify your posts.
The quilt will be assembled into a diamond pattern, which has a strong significance for the museum as when Ruddington was at the centre of the 19th century knitting industry, it was known as “the diamond village” because the knitters finished their work with a diamond signature. The qualities of strength, beauty and resilience associated with the diamond provide further inspiration for the quilt. Each diamond will interlock into a pattern and, most importantly, will be connected.
When the current lockdown restrictions are relaxed, the museum will run physical workshops bringing interested participants together to combine the contributions into a finished piece, which will be known as The Resilience Quilt. It will be displayed in the museum on one of the framework knitter’s beds (pictured), celebrating creativity and resilience in the face of hardship, both historically and in our current situation.
The project is led by Common Threads (http://common-threads.org), an organisation which supports wellbeing through creativity inspired by historical collections. The Resilience Quilt project builds on a previous Common Threads project called the Recovery Quilt, created with more than 50 participants in response to the theme of recovery and PTSD.
How to get involved
You can download the instructions and submission form at the museum website, www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk. Please complete the submission form and send in your quilt piece by 20 June 2020. You can also follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with the latest news on the quilt. When posting about the quilt on social media, please make sure you include the hashtag #resiliencequilt.
Many thanks!