Lawyer Lee Suet Fern’s “Dignity Blooms” quilt, which was made during the COVID-19 circuit breaker, has been auctioned to the highest bidder for S$33,000.
Social enterprise Dignity Kitchen announced the winning bid in a Facebook post on Monday (26 October).
“A big thank you to Mrs. Geraldine Lim for her generosity,” the social enterprise wrote.
Dignity Kitchen also noted that Mrs Lee and her husband Lee Hsien Yang–one of Progress Singapore Party’s most prominent members and the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong–have matched Mrs Lim’s winning bid.
Together, they raised S$66,000 for the social enterprise’s renovation efforts of its new facility at 69 Boon Keng Road.
Dignity Kitchen is Singapore’s first social enterprise food court where it works with underprivileged and disabled persons since 2010. Their efforts include using a functional food court as a training platform and a combination of innovative teaching methods to support their trainees in developing skillsets.
It is registered with the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE), a collaboration among the Ministry of Social and Family Development, National Council of Social Service, Social Enterprise Association and Tote Board.
Dignity Kitchen is the recipient of the Singapore President Challenge Social Enterprise Award in 2015.
Last year, Mrs Lee bagged an award at the Yokohama Quilt Time Festival in Japan for her work “Castel del Monte”, which was inspired by a protected World Heritage European castle with octagonal towers located in southern Italy.
The Straits Times reported in November 2014 that two of Mrs Lee’s quilts were selected for the Traditional Pieced Quilts category at the International Quilt Festival Houston the month before — reportedly the world’s largest and most competitive quilt show.
The ST report noted that it was Mrs Lee’s first time partaking in a quilting competition.
While Mrs Lee’s quilts didn’t win in Houston back in 2014, it was still a significant moment for her, as that was the first time that a Singaporean contestant’s quilt made it to the finals.
