Begin Again ... 2020 COVID Projects

Another post reflecting on the year ... seeking out the positives! 

I have been involved in two projects that were initiated in response to the pandemic - the idea  was to create a record of the impact of lockdown and subsequent restrictions on us all.  Both involved creating squares for a quilt.

The first of these projects was launched by OVADA (a contemporary art space in Oxford) - The OVADA Covid Quilt Project .  The brief was to create six inch squares using embroidery, stitch, applique, weave, sew, knit or print - as long as the base was fabric.  It would be a virtual quilt initially but once lockdown was over the submissions would be stitched together to make a quilt to provide a physical record of the times ... this would be exhibited at some point in the future.  Inspired to join in I thought I might create a couple of squares ... I ended up creating quite a few:

Quite an eclectic collection from hand embroidery, to machine applique and the final panel of boats is based around sashiko technique.  The two squares with hands on were both lino printed.

The final panel leads on to the second quilt project that I have been involved in - 'Same sea, different boat'.  This project was the brainchild of Sue Brown a printmaker based in Cheltenham, in the UK, in partnership with Littleheath Barn Studio and Hope and Elvis.  This time the squares were smaller and the idea was to combine collagraph printing with stitch or just stitched.  Sue offered to print a collagraph plate that others had created which would then be returned for further embellishment - again the brief was to design something to reflect our experience of the pandemic to become a social document of our shared experience. I created two squares ... the first a collagraph print enhanced with stitch:

After stitching:

The second square was just stitched:

Over 300 squares have been created and combined to make a number of quilt panels which are already being exhibited in the Museum in the Park, Stroud.  I managed to visit before the current lockdown began, hopefully these photographs will give you an idea of the scale of the project:

These are two projects that I never imagined that I would be involved in - they involve real artists.

I do hope you have found this interesting and hope you will pop back and check out what else I've been doing.

Stay Safe