Q1 of 2018 was marked by needlework to overcome the winter doldrums. In January I sat down with 100s of women and a few men to stitch for Melissa Blount’s Black Lives Matter Witness quilt, and a few weeks later I worked on a different quilt.
Photo by Jason Brown
As part of the Winter HeARTh series, Jason launched UnCOVERed, a community project to get hibernators out of the house and do a communal art project with family, friends and strangers.
Jason had us stitch denim quilt squares with words that made us feel covered by the Evanston community, as well as contemplate words that had us feeling exposed.
He gathered the 40+ quilts squares numerous attendees created, and then stitched them together into a gorgeous 8-foot quilt.
In April, this labor of love was unveiled at 1100 Florence, where makers could visit and wrap themselves into the creation they contributed to.
I had fun rolling myself into this beautiful piece, and admired the handiwork of my friends.
Photos by Jason Brown
As we perused the quilt more closely we were struck by the deeper meanings of the words, as well as the representation of stitches that added more layering to the meaning of each square.
Some people wrote notes to go with the square that they created, which added more profoundness.
Jason is looking for public places to display the quilt, where people can interact with it some more. This project was produced by Jason Brown of Geocommetrics as part of the annual Winter HeARTh Series.
Photos by Jason Brown
You can meet more local artists at the May 17th Main-Dempster Mile Sauce Walk. After that the month of June will be filled with Evanston Made Events.
Photo by Jason Brown
There are plenty of ideas for the next Winter HeARTh, but right now we are enjoying the warmer weather that will lure poeple out to peruse art fairs and other events to keep us building community.