Sometimes, images for quilts just come to me. Two great examples are the Beyond the Brick Wall and Healing quilts. Those images just appeared in my mind one day and wouldn’t leave until I made them. My most recent quilt vision is a special one though. It is the result of a visit to St. Louis, MO, for a conference.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to meet Iya Okunsola M. Amadou, a Fulani-American Midwife, and Texas native, who became the first Black Certified Professional Midwife in Missouri. She is changing the face of maternal healthcare in her community through the Jamaa Birth Village, which she founded to help combat the high maternal mortality rate in the U.S., especially among Black mothers.

A Quilt Is Imagined

As we toured her building and listened to Amadou describe her journey and her work, I started to imagine a quilt. By the time we got back on the bus, it was already designed in my mind. When we got back to the hotel, I started playing around with images and knew that I really wanted to make this quilt for her.

I recorded the process, from start to finish, if you’d like to learn how I made the decisions along the way. The filming was a bit tough as I’ve been sick for a few weeks and my voice is still very raw (a cold –> asthma exacerbation), but I did it. 🙂

This quilt is a gift to Jamaa Birth Village. Whether they choose to hang it on a wall or to raffle it off — or whatever they see fit — is fine with me. It was a gift and it is theirs to do with what they will. I just hope they like it! You can learn more about Jamaa Birth Village in this post I wrote for Decipher Your Health.