The March Quilts Year 4— Environmental Justice (2018)
Year 4: Environmental Justice
Year 4 of TMQ project focused on environmental justice and kicked off with community sewing sessions at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. It was the project’s first year to work with a number of schools, in addition to offering sewing sessions in the community, and enough quilt blocks were sewn to make two quilts. This quilt represents nature in the form of a sacred tree, with ground water and composted soil at its base. The background fabrics were chosen to evoke the colors of nature when it is healthy and vibrant. The second quilt for the environmental justice theme of TMQ4 represents a cross-section of nature, similar to a diagram found in an environmental science textbook. If you step back and un-focus your eyes, you will see the colors of a healthy ecosystem: at the top is clear, blue sky, free of smog; next are verdant green plants, trees, and fields; then fresh, running water, lacking pollutants; and at the bottom is dark, nutrient-rich soil, where life begins.