The Dialogue Meeting

The first part of creating the Middle East Dialogue Quilt was held on February 11, 2007, in the Braun Room of Harvard Divinity School's Andover Hall. A great group of people showed up to talk about the Israel-Palestine conflict, to brainstorm ideas for the quilt, and to think together about what messages we could send to the Friends Meeting House in Ramallah.

It went beautifully! After introductions, we began by making fabric self-portraits as a way of getting used to working with the fabrics and of introducing ourselves in a novel fashion. We split into five discussion groups and began addressing how the Israel-Palestine conflict had affected us, how we reacted to the events happening there, and what kind of images and messages we would want to put into this quilt. The list included:

Transformation
Symbols from the three Abrahamic religions
The Light Within/Inner Light of the Quaker tradition
Clothing remnants built into a bodily reminder of the violence and loss
A shoe; either as a remembrance of someone lost or as a sign of walking on a path
Fragments of both cultures making a whole
Weaving peace from war
A pebble falling into a pond, casting ripples outward
Images of someday, ourselves or our grandchildren going to Ramallah
A chain of inspiration; a chain of quilts around the world
"Quilters Without Borders"
Two cities, Boston and Ramallah; Tel Aviv and Ramallah
A fist
An open hand
Tipping point
Strength in communities; birds feeding their young
Israelis and Palestinians living side by side
Children playing together and embracing
Hands and arms reaching out to each other and to the viewer
Broken hearts
Tears--or blood drops--flowing into freely running water, which nourishes green growth
Trees growing in the desert
Connections
Open roads
A new generation
Fire of hope and water of tears
Voice, speaking, seeing

With those images in our minds, we went to work on the fabric. Five mandalas were created together, weaving these ideas into images of brilliance and sadness.

Now it's my task as the lead quilter to synthesize these designs, to draw together the ideas in these mandalas into a single quilt for Ramallah. Not an easy task--especially when the mandalas themselves are each so full of meaning and beauty!