Dream Quilt Travels to Continue Ongoing Sleep Awareness Efforts

November 8, 2007

Dream Quilts are made to be traveling exhibits to bring sleep awareness to communities throughout the year. The first Dream Quilt was created in 2003, a collective effort by many dedicated people in the sleep community. Each year a new quilt is added.

Travels of the Dream Quilts

The four Dream Quilts (see images) have had audiences in many cities thought out the United States and Canada where they have been on display on primary and secondary school campuses, hospital lobbies, and counseling centers for children.

These quilts have traveled to several sleep related conferences and events, including those of the Narcolepsy Network, the National Sleep Foundation, the Association of Polysomnographic Technologists, and the meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies and the first National Patient Sleep Conference hosted by Talk About Sleep in 2006.

The Dream Quilt was included in a segment about sleep disorders for an American Family series, produced by GoodLife Television, a cable company affiliated with Washington Times Newspaper Corp.   Fatal Fatigue, a group of people dedicated to promoting awareness about drowsy driving due to the loss of loved ones in drowsy driving accidents, utilized the Dream Quilt at their booth at a state fair in Washington. The Ontario Provincial Police in Canada have used the Dream Quilt in conjunction with their roadside drowsy driving awareness “Driver Reviver” stations.  The awesome quilts are continually making their way into communities across the country and in Canada bringing sleep awareness in less than likely places.

Sleepy Seeds

Michelle Hemingway, the person responsible for creating and organizing the Dream Quilt, was diagnosed with narcolepsy and cataplexy at the age of 18. The disabling impact of narcolepsy on her educational and career aspirations forced her to find inspiration through creativity and art. In 2002 she founded Sleepy Seeds, a grassroots organization with a mission to "plant awareness" about narcolepsy and the importance of sleep education and advocacy. But her creativity had more to offer the world.

"I wanted to find another avenue to generate greater public awareness about narcolepsy," explains Michelle. "I have never quilted. So when I thought about creating a quilt to increase sleep awareness - similar to other organizations who exhibit quilts to advocate their cause - I wasn't sure of how I was going to make it happen."

Michelle clarifies that last statement, "I never doubted that I had it in me. But because of my narcolepsy and cataplexy, I haven't known what it is to set a goal and strive to accomplish it successfully. However, with Xyrem, a medication which controls my cataplexy, I have been rewarded by knowing that I can. For me, the Dream Quilt is, in many ways, really what dreams are made of.

Looking at the finished work of art, the purpose of the quilt becomes apparent. As each square portrays an individual’s experience and expression, such as breakthroughs in sleep science, unbounded creativity, burdens of exhaustion, and fortitude of hope, it inherently compliments adjacent portraits, and is predictably bound together by threads of community.  Greater awareness and continued progress is its message of inspiration.”

Do you have an exhibition opportunity for a Dream Quilt to travel to your community?

You are invited to join and leave your mark on the Dream Quilt Travels.  Any of the finished quilts can be displayed at your local library, a quilt show, health fair, a county or state fair or many of the other places ongoing sleep awareness effort can be shared with our communities. If you would like to be sent a quilt to display please email Michelle Hemingway for more information.

Participate in the 2008 Dream Quilt by submitting a quilt square

The 2008 Dream Quilt is in production. If you would like to submit a square see the Dream Quilt submission guidelines.