Stitches in Time: The Roller Derby Quilt

Behold, the Roller Derby Quilt!

This week seems to have inadvertently become Awesome Blog Week, because today we're talking about the Roller Derby Quilt. The brains (and needle and thread) of the operation is Jessica Young, also known as Dreadnought of the Boston Derby Dames' team, the Nutcrackers. 

Dreadnought's project is simple but brilliant: send her  a quilt square between 5" and 10" with enough seam room that she can sew your square to the roller derby quilt without sewing over your design. Any material goes! Dreadnought suggests showing your name and number if it's a personal square or your logo if the square commemorates your team or league. It's that simple. Just email her at rollerderbyquilt (at) gmail (dot) com to get the address to mail your square to. In the mean time, check out the project on Twitter.

Though Dreadnought doesn't address this on her blog and it may not be part of her intention at all, the quilt recalls a number of amazing community textile pieces, including the simply astounding NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which memorializes lives lost to AIDS in what is apparently the biggest piece of folk art in the world. Whether Dreadnought was inspired by that quilt or not, the Roller Derby Quilt is a great idea for a number of reasons. 

Female artists have used textiles to amazing effect, such as Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party. Quilting, as a stereotypically feminine practice gets reclaimed as a collaborative art medium in projects like the Roller Derby Quilt. And happily for those who want to contribute to the ongoing history of derby culture, being a part of this project isn't necessarily expensive or time consuming. You (or a talented team-mate) just need to get out your sewing needle and get creative.