The Greater Brisbane area has just come out of a three day Lockdown albeit with restrictions. Having been flat chat for the last month I relished the enforced slow down: movies during the day, toasties for tea and never picked up a broom.
It reminded me once again of all the satisfying projects that came out of Lockdown 2020. ( Don’t look at me like that : stuffing and baking a cauliflower does not qualify as a project apparently).
Back in autumn, when Lockdown was as its strictest, ABC Radio Brisbane put out a call to Queenslanders to contribute a small textile square which would be made into a ‘quarantine quilt’.
The only criteria were that the squares needed to measure a particular size, they should feature joyful and colourful motifs, and they needed to represent people’s isolation experiences during the pandemic, with a focus on what made them happy.
Too easy? Not for this black duck who failed art and sewing and was asked to leave cookery class in High School.
The submitted squares came in by the hundreds.
“Woven into each square are the personal stories of individuals who have not only struggled through life in lockdown, but who have also kept a sense of humour about life in a pandemic. The finished squares, mostly depicting the lives of women around the state, feature everything from going bra-less at home, a plumber doing repairs, gardens, books, cups of tea, jigsaw puzzles, and face masks.”
Once all the squares were collected they were attached to backing thereby constructing the quilt, which is now hanging proudly in the Queensland State Library.
What I really like is that each square includes the details of how it came to be : who created it, how it was created, and what it represents.
For more info, including a breakdown of each and every square, go here:
https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/queensland-quarantine-quilt-comes-state-librarys-collection
Considering I neither knit nor crochet I found this fascinating.
Now that’s what I call a PROJECT.
Brizzy Mays Books and Bruschetta 
What a fantastic idea to create a quilt as almost like a time capsule to capture the unique situation. I agree it’s fascinating and will be a talking point for years to come
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Thank you for dropping by StitchNSew. I had to share this information: it’s so positive and so inspiring, and these are things we need these days……..:)
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What a great idea! I hope other places have made quilts like this! What a great way to inspire others! Thanks for your post!
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A lot of good things have evolved from this wretched Pandemic. It is important to hold on to all those positives. Thank you for dropping by 🙂
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This is next level awesome!!
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Even as a person with absolutely zilch crafting skills this project impressed me.
Thanks for dropping by 🙂
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Wow 🙂
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Yes, impressive effort. I’de like to travel into the city to see it though will wait till we can forget these masks.
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True, mask-wearing is growing a bit thin especially in this current humidity. I would like to see their Cut Copy: Brisbane Music Posters 1977-87 exhibition – so my era! There is an online discussion coming up but it’s just not the same.
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