TQC Projects

TQC Projects

 

The Documentary

The Quilted Conscience partners with public schools to create story-quilts of immigrant children.

The Quilted Conscience documentary is a 60-minute film showing the important story of a group of sixteen Sudanese-American girls – refugees from the genocide in their troubled homeland — who are thrust into a new life in the town of Grand Island, Nebraska; of a quilter’s guild of local European-American women, some of whom have had little previous contact with ethnic or racial minorities; and of a famed African-American quilt-maker, Peggie Hartwell, who travels a thousand miles to help “stitch” the two groups together by means of a “culture-blend” fabric-art project: the making of a beautiful wall-size mural, composed of dozens of dramatic story-panels created by the Sudanese girls with the help of the local women.

 

The Workshops

The purpose of each TQC workshop is to create a beautiful story-quilt on the subject of the Dreams & Memories of immigrant and refugee youths, while at the same time, teaching basic sewing and quilting skills to the student artists, and fostering friendships and positive bonds between the students and their new community neighbors.

 

Completed Workshops

  Date Workshop Location Immigrant Group Sponsoring Organizations
16 September 2018 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Stuhr Museum / Grand Island Public Schools
15 May 2018 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
14 May 2017 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
13 March 2017 Lincoln, NE Mixed Ethnicity International Quilt Study Center / Lincoln Public Schools
12 May 2016 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
11 July 2015 Boise, ID Mixed Ethnicity Boise State University
10 May 2015 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
9 May 2014 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
8 Sept. 2014 Omaha, NE Karen Joslyn Art Museum / Omaha Public Schools
7 May 2013 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
6 Sept. 2013 Lincoln, NE Karen Sheldon Museum of Art / Lincoln Public Schools
5 May 2012 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
4 May 2011 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
3 May 2010 Grand Island, NE Mixed Ethnicity Newcomers Quilt Program / Grand Island Public Schools
2 Oct. 2009 Goose Creek, SC Mixed Ethnicity Sedgefield Intermediate School
1 Sept. 2008 Grand Island, NE Sudanese Stuhr Museum / Grand Island Public Schools

 

The Newcomers Quilt Program
A Quilted Conscience Adventure

Tracy Morrow pays a home visit to Nyabiel & her family. From the documentary The Quilted Conscience
Tracy Morrow pays a home visit to Nyabiel & her family.
From the documentary The Quilted Conscience

 

The Newcomers Quilt Program (NQP) is an annual TQC project organized by the Grand Island Public Schools, under the direction of ELL teacher, Tracy Morrow. In the NQP, students who are newly arrived from countries all over the world create quilt story-blocks that share special Memories of their homelands and their Dreams of America. The program began with the class of 2010 and is ongoing.

Newcomers Quilt Awards

  • 2019: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2018: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2017: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2016: Nebraska State Fair Second-Place Red Ribbon.
  • 2015: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2014: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2013: Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2012: Nebraska State Fair Second-Place Red Ribbon & a financial gift to purchase supplies for future Newcomers quilts.
  • 2011: Memories of Our Homeland and Dreams of Our Future, Nebraska State Fair First-Place Blue Ribbon.
  • 2010: Memories of Our Homeland on permanent display at the Administration Offices of the Grand Island Public Schools.

For images of some of the Newcomers Quilts, visit the Success Stories / Photo Galleries page on our site.