United We Stand

At the beginning of the year 1A, a radio show, challenged listeners to use the 45 words in the 1st Amendment to make something artistic during the first 45 days of our 45th president's term. (Lots of 45's there.) This is what I made. I thought (for 2 seconds!) about foundation paper piecing all of the letters, but decided that printing the words on fabric was a more time effective idea. (Here's the tutorial I used.)

Adding background fabric to the text bubbles.

I chose different colors and shapes of text boxes and background fabrics to represent all of the different people in the US. We are all different, but that is OK. In fact, it is what makes America great! The 1st Amendment outlines some of the limits of government and protects all of us. All. Of. Us. 

That is why I think of this quilt it as my "United We Stand" quilt. Even with all the political discord, I hope we can all stand behind protecting 1st Amendment rights.

I continued the "we are all different" theme into the quilting. There is chunky hand quilting and machine quilting in circles, triangles, and rectangles.

After a lot of thought, I decided not to quilt the speech bubbles. If the quilt is handled to much (like when I was hand quilting) the fabric poofs, but it ironed down flat again. Since I am planning on using it as a wall hanging, I think it will be alright.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. It gave me time to think about all of the good that comes of having freedom of religion, speech and the press. Let's stand united in embracing our 1st Amendment rights and defending others' rights with the same passion. (Even if you do think they are dumb.) Eroding anyone's rights just erodes our own.