Definition of a Quilt
soft filling sewn between two layers of material
Quilt
The original quilt belonged to my maternal grandmother. I had always loved its weight and the materials it was constructed from; some of the fabrics came from her brothers’ suits. She gave it to me in the 1970s, and it was one of those gifts that immediately felt like treasure.
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It has been a cherished part of my life ever since. Whenever I was ill or feeling under the weather, I would seek it out for comfort. A few years ago, during a particularly savage period with my mental health, that same quilt which had always offered sanctuary suddenly became something I could not escape from beneath. The comfort shifted into something heavier, more oppressive, mirroring my own experience at the time. As I began to emerge from this period, I started exploring slate as a material to stitch into. It was also when I first began imagining a quilt made from slate. Ultimately, this piece is autobiographical: both the work itself and my material choices reflect my journey with mental health. I tend to work in quite a black-and-white way and often take inspiration and direction from dictionary definitions. Because of that, it has always been important to me that this piece adheres to the fundamental idea of what a quilt is: a soft filling sewn between two layers of material.
Quilt
NOUN
1. a thick warm cover for a bed, consisting of a soft filling sewn between two layers of material, usually with crisscross seams
2. a bedspread or counterpane
VERB (transitive)
3. to stitch together (two pieces of fabric) with (a thick padding or lining) between them
to quilt cotton and wool
4. Com-fort: \ to-gether: \ Fuck: \ make-up: Fuck-up:\ wrap-ed up:
5. Hold-ing: \ sharing: arguing: remember-ing:\ day-dream-ing:
6. Political: \ protest-ing: Hu-man: rights: \ Queer: \ bodies:
7. Hold-ing: stories: death: \ grief: \ shar-ing: \ stitch: time: rhythm:
8. Material: touch: process-ing: \ celebrat-ing: \ memorial: living: dy-ing: \