Thirty years ago I began to make abstract quilts exploring the contradiction of dynamic movement within the stillness of a quilt. Later, figures began to appear, and a residency in New York sparked a body of deeply-felt work inspired by the memorable people I met there.
I first learned traditional sewing skills from making ecclesiastical vestments and furnishings.
Nowadays I leaven the beautiful with the workaday, using basic hand-sewing techniques of piecing, layering and stitching. I make my quilts mostly from discarded garments: I use not just the patterns and colours, but also the hidden structure: seams and trims, pockets, buttonholes, the faded knees of jeans. I value every bit of the garment, even turning clothes inside out. My background in ceramics has been influential, in terms of textured surfaces. Although I am a lover of well-made things, here it’s all about the raw feel of things and the right fabric language for the subject.
The spirit I find in these leftover garments helps me to conjure ‘leftover’ characters: people struggling, faltering, falling short. I’m not intending to make gloomy comment, but to convey a sense of mending and hope; the inner light. I’m drawn to frailty, no-frills raw humanity. looking in a face, into a soul. They’re all real people I’ve met and felt a connection with. I feel I am helping to honour their lives, and to mend them in some way. I am very conscious of this ‘mission’, to contribute what I can in my own terms.
An idea percolates for a long time: it has to be strong enough because it takes so long to make. I don’t plan too much, wanting leave it open and not join all the dots, so that I can get surprised and entertained along the way instead of it just being a mechanical task.
It’s usually a battle, that’s what drives me. The challenge of starting from scratch, feeling my way, discovering new land. There’s a burning curiosity to see how it will turn out, because you can never predict it. I never look back and never feel a need to conform to previous work, it’s all new and now.
