The Wende Blanket

A place of peace you can carry. For every blanket you buy, I give one to a woman in recovery.

Wende Valentine smiling, sitting among a pile of colorful kantha blankets

How it began

I found my first kantha quilt at a farmer’s market in Hawaii in 2022. The woman selling them had five or six, and I was mesmerized by the colors and patterns. Those of you who know me well know what happened next. I bought two.

I didn’t know that little blanket would go with me on an adventure that changed my life. It folds up small in my backpack, and I don’t travel without it. It has kept the chill out around a fire in the mountains of Arizona and Colorado. It has been my place to meditate on an ocean dock in Tulum and in the forest in Munds Park. It has wiped my tears, held me when I cried and when I laughed, and seen me through some of the hardest and happiest times of my life.

During my prayer and meditation time, I thought about the women who have loved me, prayed for me and held me while I cried. I wanted to give each of them something that would always be a place of peace and grounding. My blanket came to mind right away.

A woman wrapped in a pink kantha blanket, holding it to her face with her eyes closed

A safe place to land

Kantha comes from the Sanskrit word for rags. For centuries, women in India and Bangladesh have stitched old saris together, layer over layer, and the old cloth was believed to protect the one wrapped in it from harm.

I see that every time women gather. At every retreat, the women arrive with their blankets. They wrap up in them to meditate, to journal and to rest. When a woman pulls her blanket around her shoulders, something in her settles. She feels safe enough to be honest.

It’s like taking home with you. Wherever she goes, and whatever she’s walking through, she has a place of peace she can carry.

“You are unique and wonderful. You are strong and soft. You are loved and cherished.”
From the letter in every blanket