Tuesday 17 May 2011

Alzheimer's, my Mother and my Quilt

I have been working steadily on my quilt and have been reluctant to show its development.I guess because it is such a personal response to my experience of my mother's illness but here it is so far, the stitching phase will be next.
In the quilt I have ten images of my mother in various stages of degeneration. In the final image she is facing the opposite direction as if she is looking back. In this image she is almost totally gone, she is not there anymore, it appears white and ghostly. Along the bottom, I have symbols of her memories painted onto the fabric within circles to represent the circle of life.



I then added the simplified bold symbols of the African comb at the top to link with the head and lost memories


It is getting there but I still have a long way to go. I sent the images to my sister and I don't think she really likes it. The experience has been quite different for her as she and my father have had to live with Mum everyday and have seen all the daily changes. She did say that it is not always darkness and that at times she laughs, for me it is different.

Tuesday 10 May 2011



I have been meaning to share this wonderful photo of Selena 10yrs with a quilt she made and entered into Stitch and Craft exhibition in March this year. The competition was for children and the brief was -
Picture Me! Competition We’re asking children to make a picture of themselves by knitting, stitching, drawing, painting or any other creative means – the more imaginative the better!
She was very pleased with the results and got a goody bag for taking part. This event took place at the Olympia in London and as she saw her quilt on display in the gallery she smiled a wide happy grin, walked up to it and began to "fix" the hair . These opportunities build self confidence and esteem in young children.
Thank you Stitch and Craft show.