Quilting through Pandemics: COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all our lives, including my own. While we all may have different feelings about these past two years, they still affected us tremendously. In that spirit I created a quilt to reflect the affects on that the pandemic had on my life as a time capsule of sorts for the generations to come. My COVID-19 quilt uses fabric from left-over hospital gowns. I worked on a project where we used the ties on the gowns to create additional ties for reusable isolation gowns for healthcare workers. The blocks and colors were chosen to look like the first microsopic pictures of the corona virus. It is quilted with shapes of the virus and swirls and the fabric used for the binding looks similar to barbed wire (take that as you may). My creations will be passed on to my children who will share the story of this quilt with their children, as generations and generations will learn the stories of history.

It turns out that I'm not the only one who is recording this time in history or other similar times. In 1918 quilting was also used to share stories about moments in the Spanish Flu Period of history. 1918 was a tumultuous time in history with the ongoing great war (World War 1) and one of the greatest pandemics of all time, the Spanish Flu. Found in the Archives of the International Quilt Museum is this quilt pictured below. Red embroidery on white blocks features advice on hygiene for the American people. Some of the advice includes, "Avoid soft drinks," "Dirty hands carry disease germs," and "All children should play in fresh air and sunshine."

Many of the quilts made during this period were used as fundraisers for the Red Cross and the war efforts. Quilting in this way brought people together both as they worked together to create the quilt and in supporting a universal cause. This happened as well in 2020 and 2021 during the early COVID-19 pandemic. The Quarantine Quilt Exhibition at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts is a collection of 12"x12" blocks created by people all over the world to share their individual and collective experiences of the early pandemic. Over 500 blocks were assembled in many different quilts to create the collection. Just like my quilt, this collection tells the story of 2020 and will preserved for generations to come.

Sometimes there are connections between periods in history where we have similar experiences to those of our ancestors. One story is that of Betty Jones who was looking through some things and found some unfinished quilt blocks and a letter dated October 12, 1918. The quilt was interrupted at the onset of the Spanish Flu and not to be finished until it was found over a hundred years later in 2020. Betty and her daughter are going the finish the quilt together as they relate to the experiences of their ancestor.

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