Making a Quilt Panel

Every panel in the Quilt began the same way: with someone who loved a person enough to make something in their memory. This workshop invites people to do the same - to make their own AIDS Quilt panel that remembers someone lost to HIV and AIDS.

 

The session will take participants through the whole process, from start to finish. We'll begin by thinking about the person being remembered - who they were, what they loved, how they'd like to be honoured - before moving on to sketching out a design. From there, participants will get hands-on with fabric, appliqué, and other materials, with support on hand at every stage.

 

No sewing experience is needed - this workshop is designed to be welcoming and accessible to complete beginners. And there's no pressure to finish a panel on the day. The workshop will give people the process, the skills and the confidence to keep going in their own time, and the tools to do so. Panels can go on to join the official UK AIDS Memorial Quilt collection, and the workshop will include details on how to do this.

 

The workshop will be co-facilitated by original panel makers and artists, and a local sewing group, who will provide sewing machines and equipment for the session. Just as importantly, they offer an ongoing community for participants to connect into once the workshopis over - a place to keep coming back to, whether to finish a panel, start another, or simply stay involved with the community through their ongoing sewing sessions.