The Friendship Quilt began as a lockdown project, designed to support people seeking sanctuary based in Swansea, whom Emily Hedges and her friend Jenny Chippindale met through Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Support for Refugees (HBTSR) – at one of the Welcome Days held in Hay school. They spent a happy day sewing and chatting with the sanctuary seeking visitors and Emily resolved to set up a regular sewing group.
Sadly the Covid pandemic put an end to sitting around a table together, but Emily devised the Friendship Quilt, where everyone could work individually on their own squares and, once lockdown was over, join together once more to complete the project.
80 small packs, each containing a square of linen, needles and threads, were sent down to Swansea and distributed amongst the refugee community and their supporters by SASS (Swansea Asylum Seekers Support). Everyone was asked to embroider a design based on the theme of friendship – and return it to Emily. She got an astonishing 72 embroidered squares back.
In spring 2022, Jenny and Emily stitched the squares together to make the quilt and it has has been hand-quilted at Hay Castle – with the help of local volunteers and many visitors to Hay who have all contributed a line or two of stitch. The friendship of over one hundred people has gone into making the quilt and Emily and her team have embroidered the names of those who have contributed, around the border.
Emily has taken the quilt to Swansea to meet some of the women embroiderers and met up with others at HBTSR Welcome Days in 2023. It was a delight to see the faces of those who stitched their squares in isolation, admiring the combined efforts and the beautiful end result. The quilt is now on Permanent display in Hay Castle where Emily and Jenny regularly meet to stitch quilts
HBTSR embroidery.
The quilt inspired a similar project in Abergavenny, amongst a group of Afghan women and their supporters. It would be lovely to think of similar projects popping up – to build sewing communities like ours further afield.