Pandemic Quilt

Date2020-2021

Credit LineGift of Jacquie Anderson, London, Ontario, 2021.

Object number2021.005.001

Label TextQuilt donor, Jacquie Anderson, wrote: “To begin the story, first let me tell you that I work for Correctional Service Canada at the London Parole office. We were deemed to be an essential service a year ago when the pandemic was first declared, so I have continued to work full time (taking the bus every day) throughout the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. By the end of March 2020 I was sewing masks for everyone at work, and their families, and had decided to also make them available through my home-based quilting business, Quilting Cousins Canada. My cousin, Denise Johnston, and I started this business in 2013 because we both were quilters and there seemed to be a niche for the craft here in London. Mostly we create custom quilts for clients using their kids’ sports jerseys, dance costumes and t-shirt collections, but also custom memory quilts using a loved one’s clothing. So designing a quilt and using many different fabrics is all part of the process and I often have an idea or two running like a loop tape through the back of my mind. As the pandemic progressed through the spring of 2020, I began to notice t-shirts in the dollar stores specific to Covid-19 and thought a Covid t-shirt quilt would be a pretty interesting keepsake so I began to collect the t-shirts. As the pandemic itself grew worse and protesting began around the world – and in particular the United States – I began to see that each month seemed to bring some unprecedented event with it and that 2020 was going to be a year that changed the world in unthinkable ways. By July, I had the beginnings of a plan of how to create a quilt that would chronicle the year 2020 in Canada. So, some of the blocks are the Covid t-shirts I collected and the others are blocks I created from fabrics I already had to depict particular events and developments. The Covid-19 Virus block is actually a painting of the virus itself. One block contains a fabric face mask and another depicts the shift in education from in-class learning (fabric prints of books and pencils) to online learning (fabric prints of keyboards). Other blocks depict the lockdowns we experienced at Easter and Christmas last year by using a fabric printed with Easter and Christmas symbols and then appliqueing black bars over top of it. (influenced by my job, no doubt, lol). Social restrictions like no travelling, no trick-or-treating at Halloween, and no gatherings were depicted by the circle and line symbol. I even included the Stanley Cup being played in September! That one was to just lighten the quilt a bit so it wasn’t all doom and gloom. 😊 It was really challenging to come up with quilt blocks that did depict some of the changes in our lives and I think the most difficult for me was how to include the Black Lives Matter protests that became so front and centre by the summertime and that still remain so prominent. For me it was important to include that because the BLM movement encompassed the entire planet just like the Covid-19 virus did. In the end I decided on simply the 3 letters BLM and blue flames beneath them. The embroidered ‘buzz words’ was a last minute idea but an important part because it shows how world events really do influence our language and sometimes change or expand the meanings of our words. The fabric on the back of the quilt was chosen because it reminded me of what the virus really does look like. Yes, the stitch pattern of the quilting is a toilet paper roll! Lol I think the making of this quilt not only documents the year of 2020, but also was my way of processing the reality of a lethal pandemic, to cope with the horrifying videos from Italy and other countries, and to comfort myself after hearing each day’s death toll from around the world. What could be more comforting than a quilt?”

NameQuilt