Radical Threads members coast to coast have been making and sharing new and old quilts as well as participating in Get Out The Vote efforts in advance of the upcoming mid-term elections. Share your radical quilts and reach out about postcard writing projects nationwide and in your area. Quilts pictured above by Esther, Kit and others.
Two new Water Over Data designed by Autmn Harry and sewn by Kit and Bree Kasper. No AI was used in the making of these quilts!
No War quilt by Kit. Quilters worldwide – do you have Peace Quilts or No War Quilts? Let us know!
Rooftop Solar quilt by Kit for Third Act. This is the second version of this quilt. You can see the first in action below:
Ice is Evil – Resist! By Ann with Love and Solidarity to Minnesota
Intersex, Non-Binary & Trans Stronger Together by Esther. Learn more about her MRKH and Intersex Activism here.
Immigrants make us great! quilt by Kit Miller. Also available as a postcard:
Multimedia Quilt Collage and Embroidery Piece by Esther. Learn more about her MRKH and Intersex Activism here.
Ann’s Voting Rights Quilt pays tribute to the iconic accent of her adopted home town.
A second quilt honoring Fannie Lou Hamer. This one was delivered to Black Votes Matter.
New Quilts for the 2024 Election Quilts and Banners for the 2020 Election
People sometimes ask about our process. We started the Black Girls’ Joy quilt by ordering a lot of the great pink and brown and girl power fabric. The tour’s logo is in the center (puffed out). Then we cut and sewed the fabrics in a “Lazy Gal” quilt pattern. We sewed the top in Washoe Valley, Nevada. Fannie Pearl Etheridge and her granddaughter Kimani are shown quilting the top and bottom together in Alberta, Alabama. Fannie presented the Joy Quilt to LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter in Selma, Alabama.
With apologies to Virginia Woolf (and tapping into her imagery of the marginalization of women), the front of the banner is, I think, self explanatory. A woman’s body is hers and hers alone. No government, court or church should have any power over such a fundamental right. The back of the banner is the monkey wrench quilt pattern. Certain patterned quilts were hung outside the homes of supporters of the Underground Railway as a signal to fleeing slaves. “[T]he monkey wrench quilt was a signal for the slaves to begin preparations by collecting the “tools” they thought they would need in their journey north.” (HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW, p. 83.) Those tools were physical, mental and spiritual. The fleeing slaves needed to be prepared on all levels.
Quilting doesn’t stop for a pandemic. Fannie and Kit started these quilts in person and finished them over the phone.
These quilts were made by Kit, Fannie and Catherine, after the election, to thank activists for their work and to offer comfort to those around them.
I created this block for the The SJSA Remembrance Project Researching the case of George Robinson, killed by Jackson, Mississippi police in January 2019, I was horrified at the casual brutality that resulted in Mr. Robinson’s death. Policing has become militarized, leading to all-out warfare in our cities. Black people of any age or gender, but especially Black men, are not community members, not citizens. They are the enemy and must be destroyed at all costs. There is no empathy, no recognition of humanity. It’s not about “protect and serve,” it’s about domination and control. And it is systemic. This is not a few bad apples, this is standard operating procedure. Sadly, sometimes even Black officers have this mindset, as was apparently the case here. Mr. Robinson, age 62, was sitting in a car outside his own home when approached by police searching for a murder suspect. According to witnesses, Mr. Robinson was cooperative and agreed to get out of his car, but said he had difficulty moving, due to a recent stroke. Police dragged him out of the car and threw him face down on the pavement. Witnesses say he was beaten, kicked and punched. He left the scene on his own, but went to the hospital that night and died two days later from head injuries inflicted by police. All three officers were charged with murder, but in May 2021, a judge dismissed charges against two of them. The third will be tried at a later date. I read everything I could find about Mr. Robinson. He was clearly an important and beloved member of his community. He was a respected elder. Everyone talked about how kind, generous, friendly, and even-tempered he was. How could such a person be beaten to death by police? In designing this remembrance block, I wanted to uplift Mr. Robinson’s role in his community. The sun behind his head represents the light he brought into the lives of others. The words describe how his family and friends thought of him. The broken hearts symbolize the damage caused by violent death. Not only did Mr. Robinson lose his life, but his entire community was traumatized. #sew4justice
