Gwen Edwards & Mary Brewer
58.5″ x 40″, March to October 2020
Exhibitions & publications: separate blog post.
Techniques
Front of quilt: needle-turn applique, hand embroidery, hand quilting.
Back of quilt and self-binding: machine patchwork, hand embroidery.
Quilt sleeves: one horizontal, one vertical, from Martyn’s patched shirts.
Binding: stitched by hand.
Materials
Quilt top: calico from Mark Pickles Sewing Studio, Bath.
Applique, quilt back and binding: recycled fabric, many of Martyn’s shirts, and fabric from the stash.
Batting: recycled, quilted cotton mattress top.
Buttons: from Martyn's shirts.
How we made the quilt
11th April 2020. Starting with a piece of calico, we cut it into 6 squares, so that we could work independently and more easily, and share each piece. Each piece of calico was machine stitched in blue thread to mark “the edge”, with plenty of seam allowance to stitch them back together again.
With my husband, Mary’s eldest son, Kev, we discussed which shared adventures we wanted to represent, and which animals and stories to include, and then started drawing and sketching.
With a table full of ideas, we then started to place them onto specific squares, with hearts in each corner.
We carefully selected which animal would appear on which square, adjusting the layout as they emerged from the cloth. Different fabric from the stash, or from Martyn’s shirts, was selected to best represent each animal.
Most animals and characters are needle-turn appliqued by hand.
As the project grew, the amount of embroidery did too, and some animals became quite complex! Old embroidery thread, old cottons from the stash, and old crochet floss combined to create a cacophony of stitch and fabric.
The characters, animals and items on the quilt top
Hearts: a heart in each corner. This one contains dried flowers from Martyn’s wreath.
Below: long blue basting stitches pass through the heart, with kantha quilting ongoing. The blue stitches along the edges mark the “edge”.
Mary hand appliqued all the hearts.
Blackbird singing
When Mary moved in with us at the start of UK Lockdown 1, a pair of blackbirds were attempting to nest in the honeysuckle next to the patio doors. They were very busy marking their territory, washing in the baths and chasing away other birds.
This blackbird is singing “Sing happy birthday twice” echoing the advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Prof Chris Witty, urging us to frequently wash our hands with soap for the time it takes to sing happy birthday, twice. (No messages at that stage about wearing a mask, or ventilation. We did not make our own masks until 3rd May.)
Mary stitched the blackbird, Gwen the WHO text.
Butterflies
The two butterflies were the first characters we applied. We didn’t use much patterned fabric after that! We stitched one each.
During lockdown, we bought a number of batches of captive-bred native caterpillars online from Devon Butterflies - they arrived in the post in a petri dish. We then transferred them into a netted cage, with a pot of stinging nettles to feed on. After about 2 to 3 weeks, they change and become a chrysalis, and then a few weeks later emerge as a butterfly. The magic of releasing them into the garden is almost indescribable.
Impossible shopping list
As the pandemic swept around the globe, we saw news reports from China, then Australia, that certain things became impossible to buy - the same thing happened here in the UK. Toilet paper seemed to be out of stock globally - despite Covid-19 having no impact on your stomach! Some things seemed more explainable - everyone was at home baking, so flour and yeast vanished, or were heavily (informally) rationed. As the pandemic progressed, and factories remained closed, other items, like bikes, became impossible to get hold of, as all stock in warehouses had shipped, and could not be replenished.
In our bubble, we raided Mary’s flats, and brought all “useful” items of food back to our home. “Luckily” Gwen had stockpiled ahead of yet another doomed Brexit deadline, so we already had a stash of toilet roll, rice, tinned tomatoes, yeast, flour and potatoes.
The impossible shopping list hand stitched by Gwen, onto old recycled curtain header tape. Added to throughout the project, as different things became hard to acquire.
Cherry blossom The cherry blossom is particularly important to Mary, Kev and Gwen, and the last few days with Martyn.
Machine stitched and embroidered by Gwen.
Birds
These birds were inspired by the beautiful card, painted by Shefali Alvares, received when the four of us travelled to Reni Pani, Satpura. One of our favourite places in the world.
The blue bird was stitched by Gwen, the multi-coloured one by Mary.
Elephant
The four of us have seen elephants in India, Nepal and Kenya on different trips, together and apart.
Gwen stitched this elephant (they are the best, apart from giraffes, hares, and cats, obviously). This silk fabric is from some old Laura Ashley cushions.
Snow leopard
Kev has travelled to Ladakh to see snow leopards in the Himalaya. (The four of us have also seen them in a zoo, sadly.)
Mary stitched this cat.
Giraffe
All four of us have seen giraffes in Kenya, separately. They are Gwen’s favourite animals, so she stitched this one!
The fabric came from one of Martyn’s shirts, with plenty of embroidery over the top. The size of the giraffe meant that he was stitched over two squares of calico - and therefore these two squares were stitched back together when work on the giraffe started.
Langur monkeys From a joint trip to Jamtara, and a jeep drive into Pench National Park where we spent a memorable time watching a troop of langur monkeys on a dusty track in the sunshine. Lots of mothers and babies, and plenty of squabbles.
Gwen stitched these monkeys, using one of Martyn’s shirts.
The boy, the mole the fox & the horse
The end of March and first few weeks of April were difficult. Isolated from friends and family, with the uncertainty and fear all around the world, we struggled in our bubble of 3 to make sense of what was going on around us.
The book “The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse”, by Charlie Mackesy, provided great solace and comfort.
These vignettes capture some of the sentiment and love that book gave us.
Designed and stitched by Mary. The fabric is all from the stash. Ribbons provided a bit of extra sparkle on the cake.
Hare
The most magical animal, and Gwen’s favourite. We’ve seen (different) hares in India and Kenya, and the UK. Stitched by Gwen.
Zoom: a cloud-based app enabling people to have conversations over video. Used extensively during the pandemic, but hardly heard of before then. Famously used by the UK Cabinet for their early “working at home” meetings during the pandemic - then someone pointed out that it wasn’t secure. Used frequently for work (and then Microsoft Teams), and online creative workshops. “Zoomed-out”: the sensation of looking at your own image for far too long; 2021, and many (work) zoom calls happen with cameras off.
Hubble space telescope
Martyn worked for British Aerospace Space Systems as a project manager for part of the Hubble space telescope project, working with, amongst others, subcontractors Matra Marconi Space in Napoli, Italy.
Hubble was launched April 24th 1990, and marked its 30th birthday not long after Martyn passed away.
Mary designed and stitched this.
Tulip
Bright red tulips were in flower in Gwen’s garden when Mary moved in in March 2020.
Red, the colour of Bristol City Football Club, Martyn’s team for all his life, and for which he was a season ticket holder.
Pangolin
The one thing on this quilt which none of us have seen (so far!). The one animal Martyn wanted to see very much, and would ask about wherever he went.
Stitched by Gwen.
Tiger
The four of us have seen tigers in India, together, and on separate trips.
We had a very memorable close encounter with a tiger at Pench National Tiger Reserve, when Raghasthan (sp?), a huge male tiger walked behind our jeep and down to the water - Mary swore!
This fabric is from one of Martyn’s shirts. Stitched by Gwen.
Rhino
Of slightly dubious origin, this rhino represent all the different species we have seen in Nepal, Kenya and India, on separate trips.
The seersucker fabric is from one of Martyn’s shirts, stitched by Gwen.
Rainbow
At the start of the UK’s first lockdown, many children, adults and businesses put pictures of rainbows in their windows, supporting the NHS, and the “stay safe” message. Mary drew one for her bedroom window whilst she stayed with us, during the “shielding” period.
15th March 2020, Health Secretary Matt Hancock says that every UK resident over the age of 70 will be told "within the coming weeks" to self-isolate for "a very long time" to shield them from coronavirus.
Shielding lasted for 20 weeks, until 1st August.
This rainbow is from fabric in the stash, stitched by Mary.
Hedgehogs
In May 2020, we started seeing hedgehog pooh in the garden, and set motion-triggered IR camera traps to try and catch them on video. In one clip, we watched a hedgehog rolling a slug - apparently they do this to remove the slime!
Fabric from one of Martyn’s shirts, stitched by Gwen.
Jungle cat
One evening in Satpura, on the return journey to Reni Pani, we stopped at a farmhouse to find Jungle Cats in the long grass, in the gloom of the evening light. We all saw them... except Martyn unfortunately.
Fabric from one of Martyn’s shirts, stitched by Gwen.
Timeline
The red wool line and stitched months, tries to illustrate how time went faster, slower and backwards during 2020. One day was like another, but was then so different. Is it the weekend, and what difference does that make? Some weeks, it was only the arrival of the bin men that marked the progress of time (they arrived every week and didn’t miss one, despite almost all the crews apparently catching it).
Inspired drawing seen on IG. originally drawn Liz and Mollie.
Stitched by Gwen.
SARS COV-2
A representation of the tiny virus which reeked/reeks so much chaos, loss, and pain.
Stitched by Gwen, on both sides of the quilt.
Buttons
Martyn’s buttons are stitched on both sides of the quilt. Kantha stitches (usually) radiate out from around the buttons, some forming squares, one a heart, most a circle. Connectedness, impact, ripples through time.
Quilt back
The back of the quilt is a patchwork of pieces from Martyn’s shirts, and other fabrics used in the quilt. Machined together by Gwen, in strips, using as much of the left over fabric as possible, even the tiny crumbs.
A big piece of cloth was made, from which the quilt back was cut.
Joining & basting
Once the quilt top was finished, we joined up the remaining 5 sections on the machine, carefully aligning the squares and adjusting the overall size.
Then, we basted the back, batting (an old mattress topper) and quilt top together, on the floor in the front room, careful adzing them to line up. Once aligned, we pinned them together with curved safety pins, and then transferred the whole thing to the dining room table, where we tacked everything together with long blue basting stitches, just to be sure.
Quilting
We used Gütermann hand quilting thread, and hand quilting throughout.
We chose to avoid all the appliqued and embroidered areas.
The stitch density deliberately echoes Kantha - inspired by the book “Kantha, Recycled and Embroidered Textiles of Bengal” Mingei International Museum, Radius Books ISBN 9781942185192, recommended to Gwen by Ekta Kaul, on a stitched map course (IG flick-through).
Gwen, March 2021: “I love the texture we created with these kantha-style stitches. The folded quilt has a lovely #SoftBulk to it”.
Binding
Below: The two images on the left show the quilt part-quilted. On the right, the binding is half way through. You can see we cut the batting down as we went.
Thanks to Heidi Parkes for sharing how she binds her quilts, on a “Wholecloth hand piecing and improv hand quilting course” Gwen attended online in September 2020.
Binding references: see also,
Heidi Parkes Scavenger Hunt Quilt, Step 10, Week 7: Frame it (Binding)
Corners: Heidi Parkes on IG video demo
Quilt sleeves
Remaining parts of the patchwork made for the back of the quilt were patched together to make the two x 4 inch hanging sleeves, ensuring it can be hung on a 2″ batten either vertically or horizontally. Thanks to Heidi Parkes for explaining the geometry and construction of the sleeves to Gwen!
The sleeve design was made more complex by,
adding two sleeves, so that quilt can be hung either vertically or horizontally . Where they overlap in one corner, both sleeves still work and a batten can still pass through in both directions.
the gap in the sleeves ensures that they can be hung from the same screws located in the same place on the wall, but with different lengths of batten (ie, length A = length B). The left hand side of sleeve B is sewn carefully, so that the stitches are fixed only to (not through) the red sleeve.
I used a piece of architrave for the batten.
Below: maquette of sleeve and batten, trying to work out “how it works”. The holes in the batten slide onto screws in the wall.
Below: Geometry of two sleeves, showing how they overlap. A and B are the same length, so that the quilt can be attached to the wall with a different batten but with screws on the wall in same position.
References for quilt sleeves,
Heidi Parkes Scavenger Quilt, week 8, 09:20
Sew Easy Lesson: How to Add a Hanging Sleeve to your Quilt
Other items on the back of the quilt
Label
Designed and stitched by Gwen (plus, Mary stitched her name), on a piece of calico, using DMC embroidery floss, hand sewn onto the back of the quilt.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) square
In May 2020, across the USA initially, and then the rest of the world including the UK, protests against the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis, brought thousands onto the streets, dancing, singing and marching in protest against police brutality. The “Black Lives Matters” movement used a black square as shorthand to represent their movement. This small square acknowledges this significant moment in time.
#SameSeaDifferentBoat square
In the summer of 2020 Gwen submitted a collagraph-printed and embroidered square to Sue Brown’s #SameSeaDifferentBoat quilt project. This second printed square was a spare that Sue sent to Gwen, as it has a printing error on the flower - included on the back of “Adventures Shared”.
A year when the ability to breathe was not taken for granted. Text inspired by the stress of lockdown, the @ChrisKenny.Art twig drawing, awareness of what you can and can’t control as illustrated by A Modern Day Ruth, and the tragedy of George Floyd’s murder, “I can’t breathe”.
#SameSeaDifferentBoat quilt: exhibited in Stroud 2020, Harley Gallery 2021 (and more to follow). A joint project between The yard:ARTspace, Littleheath Barn Studios and Hope & Elvis.
Cross-stitch pictures
Added after Christmas 2020, stitched by Sara Packer (my sister-in-law), and sent as Christmas cards to Mary, Kev & Gwen.
The last stitch
Mary, stitching the last hand stitch of the binding, and the quilt.
16th October 2020, it’s finished!
Thank you
Gwen “After seeing my #QuiltConReject2021 post on Instagram, I would like to express my thanks to Karen @capitolaquilter for reaching out and encouraging me to submit this quilt (and #Hugs1) to the PAQA-South exhibition. Also, thanks to Sam @threads_of_my_life my #accountabilabuddy for making sure I did. Thanks to Heidi Parkes for the encouragement and specific advice about binding and sleeves, and Ekta Kaul for being part of my journey.”
Mary, “Stitched with loving care in memory of Martyn. 16 April 1944 - 6 April 2020.”
Below: Kev, Gwen, Mary, Martyn, and our Jamtara guides, Pench 2017.
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