Covid Quilts
Two beautiful Covid Quilts have emerged out of WCAB’s quarantine-inspired Summer Craft Cafe. Fashioned from scraps left behind by the heroic, all-volunteer Waupaca Medical Mask group, each square represents the vision of an individual Waupaca community member — some new to quilting, and some seasoned pros.
Now on display in the atrium between City Hall and the Waupaca Library!
Mask-Making Scraps Sew Joy
The Covid Quilt Project evolved from WCAB’s quarantine-inspired Summer Craft Cafe take-home art projects, and was fueled by the heroic efforts of Waupaca’s all-volunteer mask-making group.
Before WCAB launched our Summer Craft Cafe in late June, the volunteer-driven Waupaca Medial Masks group — which formed Mar. 21 — already had produced more than 30,000 ThedaCare-approved cloth masks. They distributed these masks for free to medical personnel, and then to the public through a contact-free pick-up system at the Waupaca Area Library. This Herculean mask-making effort produced mounds and mounds of small fabric scraps. perfect for creating quilt squares! Challenges always create opportunities, especially creative opportunities.
So, WCAB collected the scraps from the mask makers, divided and bagged them by coordinated colors, and wrote up directions for creating a 12x12
quilt square. Quilt Squares packets then became the third Craft Cafe project of the summer. Packets were available for pickup at the Waupaca Library.
In the directions, WCAB asked Quilt Square makers to return their finished square to a Waupaca Historical Society drop-off site for inclusion in the community quilt. Both novice and experienced Quilt Square makers happily returned their finished squares with stories of pride and happiness.
WCAB was thrilled to collect enough Quilt Squares to create two quilts — one with earth tone squares, the other one with bright-colored squares. Black fabric binds all the colors together on both quilts..
The finished Covid Quilts, and their story, will be displayed in Waupaca during 2021. The Covid Quilts commemorate the summer of 2020, Waupaca’s creative community, and the selfless efforts of dozens of volunteer seamstresses who gave so much time and energy to keep all of us safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Waupaca’s Covid Quilts.
Fall Quilt.
Spring Quilt.
Square of Honor.
Waupaca resident Hope MacIntyre used her square to honor Waupaca’s railroad and potato crop history by adding her own original embroidery. This square will be framed separately, and then given a permanent place of honor in the Waupaca Historical Society, as a thank you to that organization for being the finished-square, contact-free, drop-off site.
WCAB Quilt Team Making It Happen.
Organizing Mask Scraps
The team sorted the mask-making scraps into color-coordinated piles, before assembling the Craft Cafe bags with instructions.
Laying It Out Piece by Piece
As the WCAB Quilt Team received finished squares back from the public, they began the process of deciding the perfect layout.
Selecting a Background
It became obvious fairly quickly that a black background would show off the rainbow of colors produced by the mask-making fabric scraps.
First Quilt Finished!
WCAB Associate Member Mary Phair picks up the first machine-sewn finished quilt from professional quilter Robyn Gans.