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Quilts as social protest

Mary Fons, writer, quilter, and designer at her studio in Chicago.

Mary Fons, writer, quilter, and designer at her studio in Chicago.

  (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Tribune
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Quilts are the quintessential comfort object — but some come with messages intended to make us think.

Quilter's art

Mary Fons’”Welcome to Nolandia” quilt, (2015 ) by Mary Fons and quilted by Angela Huffman.

  (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Mary Fons, quilter

Quilter and author Mary Fons, who will speak at the International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, has a long history with the quilting world.

  (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Quilting sorrow

Jacquie Gering with her quilt “Aftermath,” a comment on gun violence.

  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Bringing the issues home

Chawne Kimber with her quilt “The One For Eric” which was a first place Improvisation winner at QuiltCon in Pasadena on Thursday February 18, 2016.

  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Expressing political leanings

“Hillary Quilton” quilt by Diana Vandeyar

  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Stark statement

Karen Maple with her quilt “Black Lives Matter”

  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Protest quilts worldwide

A man looks at a quilt with the image of a yellow umbrella -- a symbol of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong -- on a blockaded road in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong.

  (ALEX OGLE / AFP/Getty Images)

Quilt of remembrance

Pat Bearden of Chicago with a Freedom Quilt displaying pictures of former slaves. Bearden is the co-founder of the Chicago-based International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry.

  (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

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