Gale Hall

Gale Hall, retired professor of early childhood education moved from New Hampshire to southern Arizona in 2016. Seeing the immigration stories told in the artwork of children staying at migrant shelters found and transformed her. A life-long quilter, she began making quilts to welcome and comfort these children who were legally seeking asylum in the United States. One of the 100+ quilts that she has given to children who were migrating was the ballerina quilt depicted in Lili’s Quilt. Realizing that this could easily have been her story, Gale joined the education subcommittee of Episcopal Migration Ministries in 2020. There she connected with advocates for migration with dignity from all over the country. She was honored to be asked to make the 2020-2021 quilt for the Migrant Quilt Project which memorializes the lives of asylum seekers who had died in the Tucson sector of the Sonoran desert. 225 people are recognized on that year’s quilt. In 2023 with Voices from the Border, she developed the Welcome Quilt Project. The project seeks to counteract messages of hate and fear with those of welcome and hope. The Welcome Quilts were exhibited for 11 months from 2023-2024 at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson, Arizona. While there, she was able to facilitate a curriculum with local school children and adult community groups. One school age child summarized the experience at the museum like this: “So if I welcome someone, and someone else sees me welcome them, then maybe they will welcome someone too.” The Welcome Quilt Project is now being exhibited around the country. Ever since Gale has been involved in welcoming children and families seeking safety in the United States, she has wanted to tell a story about the courageous journey that families make when they immigrate to our country. For 20 years she taught a college course in children’s literature and knew the power of children’s books to reach both children and adults. Lili’s Quilt falls into a category of children’s literature called bibliotherapy: books that heal. These books help children to solve problems while developing empathy and emotional intelligence. As children see that the characters in the book can work through problems, they can begin to feel more confident when facing their own similar challenges. It is the author’s hope that Lili’s Quilt will encourage the reader to better understand the stories of families who are forced to leave their home and to welcome them more fully.