THE WELCOME QUILT PROJECT

Part conceptual art, part textile craft, part community organizing & all heart. We want to change the conversation about immigration.

Since 2020, children and adults from all over the country have drawn heartfelt messages of hope and encouragement onto fabric squares, welcoming those who have immigrated to the US. The squares are sewn into Welcome Quilts by volunteer quilters and then displayed in public places. Together they create a collection of uniquely personal messages of support to immigrants.

While the right to asylum was terminated in January 2025, and the US border effectively closed, the need for immigrants to feel welcome has never been more important. The Welcome Quilt Project presents a very public counter narrative to the current negative rhetoric around migration.

The quilts use the soft power of art to display personal and individual messages of welcome that we hope will speak louder than words of rejection. Instead of fearing or dehumanizing people who are either new to the country or long-term residents, this project seeks to create a sense of community, hope and belonging for them. Utilizing the symbolic warmth of handmade quilts, it welcomes them as neighbors and friends.

Anyone, anywhere can participate.

“If I welcome someone, and someone else sees me welcome them, then maybe they will welcome people too!”

- A fourth grader, who was part of a school field trip to the Welcome Quilt Exhibit, at the Arizona History Museum during a discussion about welcoming newcomers.

“A square of butterflies on the quilt represents new beginnings emerging from a cocoon, from the desert, from a life of struggle, and in the hope of something beautiful. The other squares all come together with colors of sunshine and starlight, of hope and of love to people needing an enfolding of welcome.”

- The Rev. Jessica Braxton, who has been utilizing the Welcome Quilt idea in her parish.

School children creating Welcome Squares

School children creating Welcome Squares

School children creating Welcome Squares

School children creating Welcome Squares

School children creating Welcome Squares

School children creating Welcome Squares

Are you concerned about the negative portrayal of people who are immigrating to the United States?

Do you want to let children and families who are seeking refuge and asylum know that you welcome them into your communities?

Do you want to find creative ways to speak out on their behalf? If so, this project is for you.

Welcome Quilts were exhibited at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson from May 2023 – April 2024. The exhibit tells the story of how the first quilts were created. It includes accompanying curriculum to engage people with the art and to develop ideas for welcoming in their own communities. The exhibit is now traveling around the country. Listen to remarks made at the opening of the exhibit by Gale Hall, creator of Welcome Quilts, and India Aubry, President of Voices from the Border.

  • The mission of the Welcome Quilt Project is to counteract messages of hate and fear directed to people who are refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in the United States by including in public places messages of hope, welcome, and support created by people of all ages around the country.

  • The vision of the Welcome Quilt Project is to help create a sense of community, support, and belonging for people who have immigrated to our country.  

  • The Welcome Quilt Project leverages the soft power of creative activism through art as a means of welcoming and change.

  • For making and displaying Welcome Quilts:

    ∙      To make and display Welcome Quilts in communities around the country:

    ∙      To seek feedback on the impact of the welcoming messages from this project on those being welcomed:

    ∙      To combine the softness and warm feelings associated with quilts to welcoming:

    ∙      To develop a sense of community among those who draw the messages of welcome and decide where to display the quilts – and among the quilters: and

    ∙      To create beautiful works of art to use as an instrument of welcoming and social justice.

    For the traveling Welcome quilt exhibit:

    ∙      To share the mission of the Welcome Quilt Project in communities around the country by featuring the Welcome Quilts with messages of hope, welcome, and support to people who are immigrating to the United States:

    ∙      To include in the exhibit art quilts containing drawings and messages of what children and families immigrating to the United States love:

    ∙      To examine the messages displayed in the quilts to discuss and understand the wisdom they offer us:

    ∙      To engage in the curriculum of empathy and belonging accompanying the exhibit with others or as a self-guided discovery to deepen the experience of the exhibit:

    ∙      To respond to the curriculum in meaningful, welcoming ways: and

    ∙      To encourage exhibit attendees to make Welcome Quilts to display in their home communities upon leaving the exhibit.

    After engaging in the accompanying curriculum:

    ∙      To seek out what we have in common with each other:

    ∙      To learn what matters to families who are immigrating regarding welcome and then respond with love:

    ∙      To begin to understand the trauma that is typically part of forced migration including the reasons for leaving, the journey, the experience at the border, and the ability to become part of a new community:

    ∙      To realize that people already living in communities are the ones responsible for creating opportunities to welcome newcomers and safety seekers:

    ∙      To engage in discussions about belonging and how to foster it, and then create opportunities for belonging:

    ∙      To examine and discuss policy related to immigration and the border which are done on our behalf by our government:

    ∙      To speak out against policies that add to the trauma experienced by children, families, and adults seeking asylum in the United States:

    ∙      To offer ideas for change: and

    ∙      To develop partnerships with other organizations and projects with similar goals.

     For the Welcome Quilt Project Website:

    ∙      To document Welcome Quilt exhibits around the country:

    ∙      To celebrate and encourage welcoming and belonging by providing a forum for people to post pictures and stories of what they do in their communities: 

    ∙      To offer resources for people to learn more about the immigration journey, immigration policy in the United States, and opportunities to advocate for migration with dignity through suggested books for children and adults, websites, organizations involved in border work, and related articles: and

    ∙      To grow and expand the project by responding to new opportunities related to our mission.

People in Green Valley, Oro Valley, and Patagonia AZ as well as folks in New Orleans, LA made Welcome Quilts to send to Springfield Ohio which had become the center of anti-immigrant sentiment. Some looked up words of welcome in Haitian Creole to use on their squares. The priest in Springfield who delivered the quilts to the Haitian Community Center said, “This is what love looks like in Springfield today.”

Contact Us

To find out how to create a Welcome Quilt that can be displayed in your local community center, hospital, food bank, place of worship, library, school or college campus, please fill out the contact form here or email Gale Hall at welcomequiltproject@gmail.com