To mark Refugee Week in Hay-on-Wye, Emily Hedges from The Friendship Quilt will be presenting an event called Common Threads at Hay Castle on Sunday 25th June from 11-3pm.
A celebration of stitch from around the world, the event will showcase embroidery from
various countries and focus on how the simple craft of sewing can bring communities
together.
The Friendship Quilt was a project set up during Covid lockdown, to support refugees
and asylum seekers in Swansea, whom Emily first met through Hay, Brecon and
Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees (HBTSR). The project has been a regular fixture at Hay
Castle since last summer, where local quilters and visitors to Hay have been invited to contribute a few lines of
stitches to help with the quilt’s construction.
At Common Threads, the completed Friendship Quilt will be on display in Hay Castle for
the first time and there will be stitchers from various countries including Afghanistan,
Somalia, The Ukraine and Wales showing their work. There will be an opportunity to
join in with some projects and lots to see.
Two refugee charities, HBTSR and Swansea Asylum Seekers Support, will be there too
Emily said:
“I’m hoping that people will come along to Common Threads, to meet and talk to the
stitchers and find out more about their embroidery and their cultures. We may come
from different places and traditions but stitch is a common language and the Friendship
Quilt shows how communities can work together to make something really gorgeous.”
HBTSR secretary Ailsa Dunn commented’ Emily has worked tirelessly with others to produce this beautiful quilt that has been displayed at several of our recent Welcome days to great acclaim. The quilt is a demonstration of how collaboration and friendhip between people from different places is possible, productive and a way of interacting across boundaries. ”