I was invited to contribute to the V&A's exhibition looking at three centuries of British quilt-making and women's role in it. My research is a continuous exploration of new ways of working with textiles/ print/ stitch and I continue to question and innovate within an otherwise traditional area. This project references the tradition of quilt-making, but questions the perceived function of the quilt as a vehicle for comfort, warmth and solace. The diptych centres on the function and form of the box: a structure designed to contain and protect its contents. Opened out and flattened, its function is questioned and the contents released, so that the final construction of this 'quilt' appears unstable. The open seams, curving and falling flaps suggest disintegration and fragility.
The surface printing is intended to suggest the worn, discarded quality of paper and card found in street litter and recycling. The process of transformation is long and labour-intensive: the cloth is dyed black, the shapes are prepared and layered, and then machine stitched. Each piece is washed, shrunk and dried before screen overprinting with a bleaching agent. This is followed by washing and finishing, before construction starts by hand stitching. Through this process, surfaces are reworked and transformed to become something new: a reflection on the role of stitch to move beyond the everyday.
The exhibition ran March–July 2010. My contribution led to invitations to give lectures and run a two-day workshop at the Function & Form in Textiles conference, Cork, in March 2011, and to deliver lectures to the London Quilters, and a Dulwich quilt group. Box 1 was selected in competition for Fine Art Quilts at the Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham, August 2013 and Box 2 is showing in Making Connections at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, July 2013–January 2014.
