Forbidden Words Quilt Project

A few weeks ago, Lorraine Woodruff-Long @quiltinginthefog and Patricia Hickey @trisha_quilts shared about a community group quilting bee they were forming in response to the scrubbing of particular words from government websites and documents in an attempt to remove references not only to diversity, equity and inclusion, but also to climate change, vaccines, and a host of other topics. The list of 370+ banned words are identified by PEN America @penamerica. "PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide."

So I decided to join the project, and the first step was to choose three words or phrases from the list: Federal Government's Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship - PEN America.

SO many people were signing up so quickly, that it was suggested we could return a word/phrase, to allow more folks to join in the project. So I returned low-emission vehicle and was left with one phrase and one word to create into blocks.

Complete instructions were given on how to construct our blocks - using a particular template, cutting out letters in black fabric....

adhering them onto white fabric, and cutting out with pinking shears. I obviously got busy working and forgot to take more process pictures, but once the black on white letters were cut out, they were arranged on fabric from a repurposed button-down shirt, in particular one from my husband's closet. (Thanks babe!)

THEN, I learned how to free-motion quilt on my new Janome, as I needed to FMQ in black to assure durability of the letters. That was actually pretty fun! So my finished blocks are 6" x 12" and 6" x 22", and I'm anxious to get them in the mail this week so they can be included in the project. Hopefully, I'll be back early in 2026 to share a picture of the finished quilt! Meanwhile, we can follow the progress on Insta under the hashtag, #forbiddenwordsquilt.