Quilt Blocks by Boston Area Mask Initiative (BAMI) volunteers using their fabric face mask scraps. Quilt Top pieced by BAMI Founder, Stephanie Cave.  Quilted and bound by gather here.

In the June/July 2020 issue of american craft, Hrag Vartanian writes, 

“Craftspeople are a force, providing a shelter with their work, ideas, and comfort in sensitivity. The craft community records our world — with every loose thread, shard of pottery, shaving of wood — and creates stories we may not be able to read yet, but will in the future.”

This king-size quilt is the embodiment of 2020 for many of us in the maker community. The quilt top is made from the scraps of thousands of fabric face masks. Sewn in memory of those lost, sewn in honor of those struggling to survive, sewn to commemorate the hours of unpaid labor of thousands (maybe millions) of women around the world who cut, stitched, threaded elastic, packed, delivered, and repeated this every day/week/month of 2020.

 It was an absolute honor to quilt and bind this community piece. BAMI founder, Stephanie Cave said “I randomly pieced it [the quilt top] except for [the] pattern because it was way too big to “arrange” and I don’t believe it was meant to be arranged. Like this [past] year.” 

BAMI volunteers made and distributed over 50K fabric face masks in 2020.