The Friendship Quilt: Sewn with Stories, Kindness and Belonging

The year 2023 marked our 120^th anniversary, celebrating a long and fascinating history that began in 1903 when a group of doctors and almoners came together to tackle poverty in Westminster. At the time, I was writing the book 50 Fantastic Ideas to Encourage Diversity and Inclusion with my co-author Nausheen Khan and we had the idea for a Friendship Blanket.

Friendship blankets act as memory keepers; recording relationships, key moments and wider social networks as gifts of remembrance.  In historical terms, friendship quilts symbolised solidarity, memory, and collective labour– a physical metaphor for community learning and belonging, kindness, inclusion and love.

Each patch told a unique story of friendship, sewn into a collective tapestry of connection and shared experience. It seemed a perfect way of honouring the previous 120 years.

We asked each nursery to design a quilt square with their own unique message about friendship and kindness. The children would be designers and makers, and the aim was to create something beautiful that we could frame to stand the test of time. Another LEYF colleague, Amy Kennedy kicked things off by embroidering ‘120 Years’ at the very heart of the blanket.

As we stitched the Friendship Blanket together, I was reminded of a story I explored some time ago in a podcast reflecting on Giraffes Can’t Dance. Gerald’s journey, finding his rhythm only when he is accepted for who he is, mirrors so much of what our children were expressing through their quilt squares: belonging, kindness, and the quiet power of being seen. Like Gerald, each nursery, each child, brought their own way of “dancing” to the blanket, creating something far richer together than any single square could be alone. It felt like a beautiful reminder that inclusion is not about fitting in, but about making space for everyone to shine, a theme that runs through our pedagogy, our sustainability journey, and the stories we choose to share.

While we were doing this, we were also developing our organisational approach to sustainability. I loved reading around the subject and was enjoying Braiding Sweetgrass: Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  His celebrated work blends indigenous ecological knowledge with scientific botany. Its central premise is that humans can only heal their relationship with the living world by embracing reciprocity, gratitude, and mutual care. An ecological friendship blanket!

Both friendship quilts and Braiding Sweetgrass highlight the power of reciprocity and collaboration that can enrich harmonious relationships, a strong strand of the LEYF pedagogy. It’s on display at our Head Office reception, drop in and have a look!