LB’s Justice Quilt

We have received the most generous of offers from Janet Read, Janis Firminger and Margaret Taylor. Janet, Janis and Margaret are all exhibiting at the Time and Place exhibition and have adopted Day 59 and they wanted to something more to support JusticeforLB. Inspired by the stitching-as-resistance movement, they have offered to stitch a Justice Quilt for LB. It’s worth reading an blog post written by Sara last September about this.

Over the next three months, we want to make a very, very large quilt or blanket in memory of LB and we’re asking everyone who’s been following LB’s story and taking part in #JusticeforLB to think about making a contribution. Before you get put off and stop reading, no, panic not, you don’t have to be good at needlework (though contributions from good stitchers are welcome), you just have to want to say something you think is important about LB’s story and the fight for justice.

Want to know more about what they’re planning?

We have a vision of a large, strong, colourful, quite disorderly quilt or blanket that reflects the mood of the contributions people have been making  through social media. The blog posts, tweets and the rest capture a lot of love, affection, fury, sharp insights, analysis, good politics, protest, and decent humanity all unified around  LB’s story and the determination to get justice for him. That’s the sort of quilt we’d like to make. A really good piece of ‘outsider art’, if you like. You don’t have to think of yourself as an artist to take part, you just have to want to do it. Anyone, yes anyone, can join in.

I don’t know about you but I’m tempted. So here is what you need to do, four simple steps by 31 May 2014:

1. Cut a patch measuring 6X4 inches/16X10 cm out of cloth. It can be new fabric, or re-cycled.
2. Decorate your patch with something that conveys a message that you think is important about LB’s story and the fight for justice. It might be an image, words, a pattern or something we haven’t even thought of. You can stitch it, paint it, print it, draw it or whatever you like as long as it will pretty much hold fast. Please don’t hem your patch. OK, OK, you knitters and crocheters can do it too, but please fasten your piece onto a cloth patch to give those doing the final jigsaw a sporting chance!
3. Put the patch in an envelope (if you stick to the size we’ve said, you should be able to send it at letter rate). If you would like us to record your name as a contributor, include a note of the name you’d like to be known by and the place where you live. If you have a small reel of spare sewing cotton in a bright colour, slip that in too, but don’t worry if not. NB See also optional step below
4. Visit your friendly post office counter and post your patch to: Blanket for LB, Suite Box 430, 41 Oxford Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4RB

Optional additional step/I’m not at all artistic but I’d like to support the quilt:

Don’t worry you can still help. If anyone has any plain cotton fabric that we can use for backing the quilt, please put 1 yard or 1 meter only (any width) in a standard envelope and send to the PO Box. We’re looking for bright shades of red, yellow, turquoise and sky blue but other colours are welcome.

There are only two rules for this task

1. Please DO get your post to our resistant quilters by 31 May 2014 – after that date the postal box will close and we don’t want to lose any contributions.
2. Please DON’T overload your envelopes or send parcels as this will incur additional postal box costs for our quilters.

We are so grateful to our resistance stitchers for such a generous offer and hope that you will all find time to get involved. This quilt needs everyone to pull together one more time for LB, so please get your creative hats on.