QuiltCon 2022 Feature: Social Justice Sewing Academy, Remembrance Project

We met with Sara Trail to discover her inspiring and moving tribute to those we have lost too soon as a part of the Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project, featured at Quiltcon 2022.

The SJSA compiled extraordinary portrait art quilts that memorialize the individuals and say their names, over and over. SJSA also works with young adults and teens to help them find their voice through the art of fabric and quilting, shown through student gallery photography. By working with SJSA, students learn how to cut fabric and make quilt blocks, and along the way, they find the strength to express the systemic problems that plague their everyday lives through their artwork.

Sara Trail is the Executive Director of Social Justice Sewing Academy.  She wrote her first book at 13, “Sew with Sara,” and her own DVDs at 15.  She designed two fabric collections. She attended UC Berkeley, where she made a quilt in memory of Trayvon Martin.  She says that it was this moment that social justice and sewing came together.