INSTRUCTIONS SOURCES
and SAMPLES CONTACT US
A Chronicle Quilt of Outrage and Hope
In the summer of 2003, we, a small group of Vermonters,
joined by friends from New York and Texas (and a growing number of states)
began a project to unite people from across the country in giving voice to our
deepest emotions and values about our place in the world.
We decided to use the American tradition of the signature or
message quilt to chronicle the many daily outrageous policies and actions of
the present United States government that erode and offend our ideals of
democracy, integrity, fairness, justice, international cooperation, and
environmental reverence and protection.
Every day, there are so many challenges to our credulity, so much
alarming news, that senses and memory are overwhelmed.
The quilt will serve as an
archive, encompassing
the years of the Bush II administration, documenting and imprinting realities
in order to secure our own memory of these times and also to ensure that the
next generation will know our outrage.
Because the outrage stems also from optimism and idealism,
the quilt will also include statements of faith and hope, of peace and justice.
Hope and outrage will be side by side in a bold adaptation of a traditional,
common people’s art form.
We are soliciting quilt blocks from people throughout the country.
The quilt is to be made of 7” muslin blocks, most of which will have messages,
written in archival-quality black ink. Contributors will write on “Outrage
blocks” the specific actions and policies they decry, and they may express as
well their own interpretations. “Hope
blocks” will include poems, prayers, quotations, specific wish lists, etc. Additionally, contributors may wish to
decorate blocks with fabric paint, batik, colored pens (if guaranteed to be
waterproof and fade proof), embroidery, or applique, and it may be that some
will prefer design-only to words. We
will continue to gather and assemble blocks until May of 2004 when the project
will then turn primarily to public presentations.
Blocks should be returned to us in Vermont. Volunteers will border them with beautiful
batik prints, hot colors for the outrage block, cool greens and blues for those
of hope. If contributors wish to border
their blocks themselves, we ask that they use this same approach, using 2”
strips of border material. The blocks
will be assembled into a large single quilt and also into smaller banners, the
large one for dramatic effect and the smaller ones for travelling displays.
The quilt will serve as
political commentary and inspiration to others and, accordingly, we need as much
publicity as we can arrange. As the
quilt is in preparation, we’ll use a variety of ways to publicize the project,
and pieces of it should go “on tour” as soon as possible. We welcome ideas
about publicity and are looking for individuals who would volunteer to organize
and implement the outreach.
INSTRUCTIONS SOURCES and SAMPLES CONTACT US