The March Quilts

Friends Gallery / Jan 4 – Jan 31, 2020
Plaza Gallery / Feb 1 – Feb 28, 2020
Bib & Tucker Sew-Op is a non-profit located in Birmingham, AL. Their mission is to cultivate skills and an environment for those who sew or want to sew (ages 9-99) where everyone can be both a student and a teacher. They achieve their mission through projects conducted in the community, workshops and weekly sewing sessions conducted in their shop. They aim to be a hub for sewing-related activities that promote empowerment, education and economic opportunity.

The March Quilts began in 2015 when Bib & Tucker Sew-Op partnered with UAB’s Department of Art & Art History and the Birmingham Museum of Art to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches through open sewing sessions that yielded 461 quilt blocks. Sew-Op members stitched the blocks together and made three quilts, which hung at the Selma Public Library and the Alabama Department of Archives in Montgomery during the anniversary. Due to an overwhelmingly positive response, collaborators agreed that it should become an annual project. For five years, Bib & Tucker members have chosen a civil or human rights theme and facilitated open sewing sessions and discussion. During these sessions, community members created quilt blocks that express personal feelings about the theme. Since the beginning, Bib & Tucker members have sewn 10 quilts from over 1,050 submitted blocks. Themes have included celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court Ruling, raising awareness of gender pay equity, environmental justice and most recently, unsung heroines of Alabama.