SOCIAL JUSTICE SEWING ACADEMY
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    • THE MOVEMENT >
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      • Audrey Bernier
      • Bryan Robinson
      • Cecilia Charney
      • Kailah Foreman
      • Ann Guiam
      • Carina Cabriales
      • Chloe Gorski
      • Fia Carlone
      • Yohana Tecleab
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    • SPONSOR
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EMBROIDER A BLOCK >
      • Examples of Embroidery
    • HOST A WORKSHOP
    • JOIN THE TEAM
    • HOST THE ART
  • GALLERY
    • WORKSHOPS >
      • Arts in Corrections Conference
      • Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School
      • Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
      • Cambridge Rindge and Latin
      • Jefferson High School
      • Girls Garage Workshop
      • Lakota Youth Speak
      • Obama Portrait Workshop
      • Pollination Project Workshop
      • RAC x Latina Center Workshop
      • Stitch. Resist. Persist.
      • Overton High School
      • Vallejo Probation
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      • SJSA x SJQTM >
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      • Art Behind Bars Volume I
      • Art Behind Bars Volume II
      • Community Quilts >
        • 2016 Community Quilts
        • 2017 Community Quilts
        • 2018 Community Quilts
        • 2019 Community Quilts
        • 2020 Community Quilts
      • Cuba Series
      • Obama Portrait Series
    • Exhibitions >
      • Current Exhibitions >
        • UC Riverside
      • Past Exhibitions >
        • Connecting Threads: SF Jewish Center
        • Fuller Craft Museum
        • Pacific International Quilt Festival 2018
        • Threads of Truth Gallery Guide
        • Panorama Framing Gallery
        • Pick Museum at NIU
        • Mule Gallery >
          • Mule Gallery Guide
        • Museum of Design Atlanta
        • New England Quilt Museum
        • QuiltCon 2018
        • QuiltCon 2019
        • QuiltCon 2020
        • Richmond Art Center
        • Ross Art Museum
        • San Jose Museum of Quilt & Textiles
        • Utah Quilt & Sewing Marketplace
        • Voices in Cloth
        • World Quilt Tampa 2019
  • PRESS
    • ARTICLES >
      • A Stitch in Time - Fuller Craft Exhibit Review
      • Brentwood Press
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      • Creativity Project
      • Harvard GSE
      • Huffington Post
      • Hyperallergic Article
      • Mercery News
      • Midwest Craft Con 2020
      • Modern Patchwork
      • Quilt Trip
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      • Seriously Badass Women
      • Stonemountain and Daughter
      • Teen Vogue
      • Urban Plains
      • Washington Post - Injustice Block
    • PODCASTS >
      • Close Knit Podcast
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      • Just Wanna Quilt - Colleen Haraden
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Nancy Williams
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Sara Trail
      • Law and Disorder Podcast
      • Positively Creative Summit
  • CONTACT
  • Resources

History of Quilts + Community

Quilting is an age-old process, practiced in many cultures throughout the world. In America, its origins were strictly utilitarian, recycling discarded materials to create warmth and protection from the cold. The word quilt is defined as a warm bed covering made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines of stitching. Historically, this process might draw together a community to create and complete a quilt. Such is the origin of the Social Justice Sewing Academy’s process.

Throughout the creation of our quilts, we are focused on community. The creation of a SJSA quilt is the living definition of the quilt itself, layers of community that come together to create. The quilt top is the students and young people across the country using their voice and personal expression to create the message we all see. The quilt back is the collection of organizers, sponsors and volunteers that support the community outreach and stand behind the organization providing foundation. The stuffing is comprised of donations and materials from fellow artists and vendors, collected to create the quilts. The stitching is the international community of volunteers that embroider and embellish our work, echoing and amplifying our artists’ messages and bringing it all together. Finally, the piecing and binding is the volunteer sewers and longarm quilters that provide the final assembly and finishing touches to complete the quilt.

Our Community Quilt Process


 
Step 1 | SJSA Workshops

Participants are invited to design and create quilt blocks expressing their passion, pride, concern, anger or sadness regarding social justice issues they care about. Through one- on-one and group discussion, topics are selected and design decisions are made. Using a scale drawing of their message, an individual raw-edge appliqued block is created using fabric and fabric glue.
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Step 2 | Embroidering The Message
The quilt blocks are then sent to a community of embroidery volunteers around the world. Once they receive the blocks, each volunteer embellishes and embroiders them, following the young artists’ design requests while also adding their own personal style, to amplify the messages conveyed on the blocks.

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Step 3 | Piecing the Quilt Top
Once the blocks have been embroidered, embellished and mailed back, the blocks enter the hands of another community of volunteers who sew the blocks together to create a quilt top. Once it is pieced, the quilt top is layered on top of batting and then a backing fabric, creating the “quilt sandwich”.




​Step 4 | Longarm Quilting
SJSA's longarm quilter, Nancy, takes the quilt sandwich and mounts it on a large machine frame for the final quilting step. The longarm quilting machine sews through all of the layers, permanently joining them and providing an overall stitched secondary design to the quilt. Once this is complete, the binding of the edges of the quilt finishes all raw edges and creates the outermost edge of the quilt.

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Step 5 | Sharing the Message
The finished quilts make their way to museums, schools, and community spaces where they stimulate community dialogue and bring awareness to the wide variety of social justice issues. Quilts are showcased  to advocate and further amplify the messages and bring awareness to social justice issues  that youth care about. All in all, our approach centers community, youth voice and social justice. 
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Address

Social Justice Sewing Academy
​PO Box 2473 
​Antioch, CA 94531

Email

info@sjsacademy.com
  • HOME
  • Shop
  • ABOUT
    • THE MOVEMENT >
      • WHAT WE DO >
        • Quilts of Remembrance
        • The SJSA Remembrance Project >
          • Remembrance Project Page
        • Block of the Month
        • SJSA Business Incubator
      • TESTIMONIALS
      • OUR COMMUNITY QUILT PROCESS
    • MEET THE TEAM
    • SJSA AMBASSADORS >
      • Audrey Bernier
      • Bryan Robinson
      • Cecilia Charney
      • Kailah Foreman
      • Ann Guiam
      • Carina Cabriales
      • Chloe Gorski
      • Fia Carlone
      • Yohana Tecleab
  • DONATE
    • SPONSOR
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EMBROIDER A BLOCK >
      • Examples of Embroidery
    • HOST A WORKSHOP
    • JOIN THE TEAM
    • HOST THE ART
  • GALLERY
    • WORKSHOPS >
      • Arts in Corrections Conference
      • Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School
      • Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
      • Cambridge Rindge and Latin
      • Jefferson High School
      • Girls Garage Workshop
      • Lakota Youth Speak
      • Obama Portrait Workshop
      • Pollination Project Workshop
      • RAC x Latina Center Workshop
      • Stitch. Resist. Persist.
      • Overton High School
      • Vallejo Probation
    • PROGRAMS >
      • SJSA x SJQTM >
        • Community Action Projects
      • 2019 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • 2018 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • SJSA Summer 2018
      • Berkeley Summer 2016
    • Quilts >
      • Individual Quilts
      • Berkeley SJSA Class of 2016
      • Art Behind Bars Volume I
      • Art Behind Bars Volume II
      • Community Quilts >
        • 2016 Community Quilts
        • 2017 Community Quilts
        • 2018 Community Quilts
        • 2019 Community Quilts
        • 2020 Community Quilts
      • Cuba Series
      • Obama Portrait Series
    • Exhibitions >
      • Current Exhibitions >
        • UC Riverside
      • Past Exhibitions >
        • Connecting Threads: SF Jewish Center
        • Fuller Craft Museum
        • Pacific International Quilt Festival 2018
        • Threads of Truth Gallery Guide
        • Panorama Framing Gallery
        • Pick Museum at NIU
        • Mule Gallery >
          • Mule Gallery Guide
        • Museum of Design Atlanta
        • New England Quilt Museum
        • QuiltCon 2018
        • QuiltCon 2019
        • QuiltCon 2020
        • Richmond Art Center
        • Ross Art Museum
        • San Jose Museum of Quilt & Textiles
        • Utah Quilt & Sewing Marketplace
        • Voices in Cloth
        • World Quilt Tampa 2019
  • PRESS
    • ARTICLES >
      • A Stitch in Time - Fuller Craft Exhibit Review
      • Brentwood Press
      • Britex Fabric
      • BTMB Magazine
      • Chicago Tribune
      • Craftivism Blog
      • Crafty Planner
      • Create Whimsy
      • Creativity Project
      • Harvard GSE
      • Huffington Post
      • Hyperallergic Article
      • Mercery News
      • Midwest Craft Con 2020
      • Modern Patchwork
      • Quilt Trip
      • Quilting Art Magazine
      • Quilting as a Social Medium
      • Seriously Badass Women
      • Stonemountain and Daughter
      • Teen Vogue
      • Urban Plains
      • Washington Post - Injustice Block
    • PODCASTS >
      • Close Knit Podcast
      • Craft Alliance Podcast
      • Crafty Planner Podcast
      • JCCSF Panel
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Colleen Haraden
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Nancy Williams
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Sara Trail
      • Law and Disorder Podcast
      • Positively Creative Summit
  • CONTACT
  • Resources