Author: Patricia C. McKissack - Illustrator: Cozbi A. Cabrera

Gee's Bend in Alabama is home to an African-American quilting community that is recognised as being amongst the most historically important artist communities in the world. Famous for "my way" quilts that use recycled fabrics - originally out of necessity - the quilts are now in museums worldwide.  This beautiful picture book uses many of the original quilt patterns in the illustrations, and sensitively centres around a young girl making her first quilt, drawing on the history of her community, including slavery ("where families with the same name are kin not by blood, but by plantation"), the right to vote ("I hope the black corduroy remembers that it was once the pants...my uncle wore to go vote for the first time"), the visit of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. ("With misty eyes, Grandma says, "The words we heard that night changed our lives""), and so many more. Each double-spread serves as a self-contained poem, and together, they chart the girl's quilt and the community's history. A beautiful and important book - for more information about the community, read here.

Author: Linda Elovitz Marshall - Illustrator: Elisa Chavarri

Ixchel is a young girl growing up in a Mayan village in Guatemala. She wants to learn weaving techniques from her mother and grandmother, but they are too busy preparing goods for the market, so she ends up weaving with whatever she can find: first, blades of grass, but then she discovers the many discarded plastic bags around the village. Based on a true recycling initiative, this book is bilingual English/Spanish, and could be a good starting point for either weaving with plastic bags, or making a Quilt of Welcome out of recycled materials (e.g. old clothes, bed sheets etc.).

Author: Aya Khalil - Illustrator: Anait Semirdhzyan

Kanzi moves from Egypt to America, where other children laugh at her food, and her language. A quilt made by her grandmother proves to be the conversation starter she needs, and, with support from her teacher and her Mum, they set about making a quilt for the class, featuring the children's names in Arabic.  A perfect companion to a Quilt of Welcome, the book considers how we treat those who come from different backgrounds to ourselves, discussing language at a variety of levels, and, of course, featuring a class quilt, which could just as easily be a Quilt of Welcome!

Author and Illustrator: Valériane Leblond 

"We inhabited the land, and the land inhabited us." A beautifully told story of migration. A Welsh family struggling to make ends meet move far away, with the mother's handmade quilt one of their few belongings. This book is beautiful on so many levels - not only does it gently introduce a background to migration, not only does it weave the making of the quilt into the story, it also features some Welsh words, including one of my favourite words ever: "hiraeth" (Welsh): a longing for something you have left behind (described much better here!) This word alone can be a beautiful starter for any Quilt of Welcome.

Author: Renée Menart  - Illustrator: Candice Bradley

As Demetri's birthday comes near, he realises his Mum won't be there with him, so his aunt encourages him to find fabrics that remind him of the special moments with his mother, to create a memory quilt. Written in collaboration with a group of incarcerated mothers, the picture book sensitively provides insight into a child's life when a parent is in prison, and the power of happy memories.

Authors: Ferida Wolff, Harriet May Savits - Illustrator: Elena Odriozola

The village's children sit on Babba Zarrah's beautiful woollen blanket to listen to her stories. But when villagers need mittens, or scarves, the blanket mysteriously begins to shrink, until it is completely gone. What will happen to the stories now? A beautiful story about sharing and looking out for each other. A great book to plan a story about the Quilt of Welcome, giving it the role of a "story blanket" to play.

Author: Tony Johnston - Illustrator: Tomie dePaola

A mother lovingly stitches a quilt for her daughter by candle light. It becomes a beloved companion - a picnic blanket, a place for hide-and-seek, somewhere to snuggle and feel safe. When the family move, the quilt is the only thing that feels familiar and safe. Many years later, another little girl finds the quilt, now full of holes, and asks her mother to repair it. I becomes cherished again, and, again, is part of a migration journey. 

A reflection on how the familiar helps us feel safe and settle into new surroundings, and the many uses of a quilt - a great companion to any Quilt of Welcome work!

Author and Illustrator: Patricia Polacco

A young girl moves with her family from Russia to America. When she outgrows her dress, her mother turns it and other clothes into a quilt to remind them of "backhome Russia". Across four generations, the quilt is present at the family's milestones. Beautiful insight into customs from the Jewish community, and many ideas for what role a quilt might take in a story.

Author and Illustrator: Debbie Dee

As Bella the Bear gets ready to hibernate, she worries about staying warm, so all her forest friends come together to donate a piece of fabric for her hibernation quilt.

Author: Valerie Flournoy - Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney

Tanya's Grandma is planning a masterpiece - a family quilt that will take her all year. But when Grandma becomes unwell, the whole family pitch in to finish her work. An award-winning book from the 1980s that shows the importance of intergenerational family bonds through quilting.