Quilt Gallery

What a year 2020 was! This quilt is the result of my reflexion about the social sacrifices made by individuals in order to stem the spread of the pandemic. The work, presented as a graffitied wall, records some of the activities we take for granted until we have to forgo them.

A purposeful raw edge has been ripped down the middle to expose batting—and to symbolize the torn apart year of 2020. I juxtaposed pandemic and protest images: weary medical workers and an exhausted police officer, a blue-gloved fist and a BLM fist, a gravestone of my best friend’s father (the first personally known Covid victim) and a toppled statue, as well as many more contrasting and comparative images.

These were my 2:00 a.m. thoughts and frustrations scribbled down during the pandemic lockdown. There was something very calming about writing the words that were ruminating in my mind and setting them free. Some of my secret ramblings are completely covered and some are barely visible through the protective veil of silk coverings.

Early in 2020, COVID-19 and fear descended on the world. We were told to stay home. Toilet paper was hoarded, sanitizer became scarce, TV and internet were important, baseball season was canceled, and teddy bear hunts began.

January 13, 2021. The director of the Danish Health Authority looked directly at all of us and said : We all need “PATIENCE” (TÅLMODIGHED) in Danish. I split it up into smaller parts and then played with the word in Danish (TÅL-withstand, MODIG-brave, DIG HED-you hot MIG HED -me hot, UTÅLMODIG -being IMPATIENT. Around the middle I have quilted words related to political issues, healthcare, work, school, social distancing, Corona viruses, and social bubbles.

To exorcise the chain of gray days spent locked in the house during lockdown, I made these colorful windows behind which life, and love continued to flow.

When George Floyd was brutally murdered, I turned my feelings of hopelessness and indignation into a quilt that could express what I felt. Each line is there with a purpose.

COVID Normal is the resumption to something resembling normal, but I think we have all forgotten what normal looks like... behind the masks have we forgotten what our fellow humans look like? Maybe our teeth and tongue are in different positions! Our eyes are our most prominent feature.

In 2020 with the onset of Covid, there were many new words and terms that originated due to the pandemic. Who knew what a PPE was before Covid? How many people used Zoom before Covid? Unexpected change hit us all. This past year has been scary but we coped and made it through with our masks, social distancing, and concern for others.

My inspiration for this piece is essential workers - grocery store workers, fire fighters, healthcare workers, delivery men, and more. My gratitude to them for being on the frontlines keeping us safe while we remained in lockdown. I used some pandemic vocabulary for the background of the piece to remember this period.

As 2020 so perfectly illustrated, reality is not always the place where we want to exist. Unfortunately, I am a very science based thinker, so creating and living in a Fantasy Forest was both daunting and liberating. The sunny rays warmed my spirit and moved me forward.

Blue is a color for grief, but also for healing. Each day of quarantine was an attempt to balance both. At first, individual days were measurable, each day divided into moments, each group of friends divided among households. Over time, expectations and emotions lost all sense of order.

Adrift, a boat with a large hole stranded in a tangle of bushes bumps against the rocky shore, giving one pause. Is it lost or abandoned? What is its story? Captured here in collage and quilting, it begins again.

Molecular Mission celebrates scientific biomedical research for rapid development and distribution of effective Covid vaccines.

When the pandemic began in early 2020 I was quarantined from work. The words associated with the virus were constantly on the news and unfamiliar. I used these words, which are now everyday words, on the quilt background. The image of the virus was always visualized as red. I turned the round spiky virus molecule into a woman’s hair while wearing a 3-D mask and toilet paper shoulders inspired by the TV show Project Runway’s Unconventional Challenge!

This is my NO quilt as a reaction to the Corona lockdown and some of the things we have experienced all over the world. NO to represent all the thing we are not allowed to do, NO when the politicians overrule the medical experts and influences people unnecessarily, NO when I feel used in a political game about vaccines. But turn my quilt upside down and it says ON! Giving us hope that we will come back to normal and turn life on again.

In these polarized times, it’s important that we step back and get perspective on how we need each other to survive. The essay Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan speaks to this ideal. In his words: “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” This quilt is based on an image from the Cassini Spacecraft.

Behold the humble roll of toilet paper, elevated to heroic status by scarcity!

During our lockdown, I dreamed of the perfect place to be in quarantine, named Quiltville. I am quilting late into the evening, the fabric store is open at night, coffee and donuts served to-go and the Quilt Police are closed. Our local quilt store is making masks to help in the effort to control the spread of the virus. I wanted to create a whimsical scene that would counter the feelings of fear and hopelessness we were all feeling.

Did we all really feel safer at home during quarantine? Behind the facade of the cozy looking cottage, there may have been abuse, depression, and mental health issues. Even if we experienced safety, we longed to escape the nebulous, ongoing feeling of untethered entrapment. We wanted to land on solid ground and be able to open our doors again.

This quilt is based on a selfie I took on June 29, 2020. I had finally made a mask I liked the fit of; I headed out into the sunshine.

This quit was pieced during shelter in place in rural California. We were one community all trying to cope with the isolation and frustration of our new situation. The people in the piece are looking out their windows hoping for a glimpse of a familiar neighbor.

Many of my quilts feature people in windows. What a perfect time then to focus on that motif. I found fabrics with various sized faces and created skyscrapers to house these folks, making no attempt to follow the rules of linear perspective. During the past year, we humans were separate, but united in isolation.

This quilt depicts the dichotomy of life under Covid. In the dark areas I’ve quilted words that are negatively associated with pandemic life...24 hour news, testing, and isolation. In the light are words that show the positive aspects...home, friends, and quilting. The light comes from the home representing the source of all life’s blessings.

I have been using this simple antique chair image to symbolize belonging and inclusion. The chair in this piece is lonelier than my others. Life has quieted, our homes are emptier, we are isolated and uncertain and our lives have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in previously unimaginable ways. The whole world sits and waits......

I imagined a brick building, made of masks. In this building, during the lockdown, people are trying to survive and to find activities. I wanted to give a living, joyful spirit and not a dramatic image. Inspiration comes from both Robert Scarry’s childrens books Busy Busy Town and Roberto Benigni’s film Life is Beautiful.

The Connected Project was made by members of the North Jersey Modern Quilt Guild during the pandemic. The block design is a Link in a Chain, the symbolism being that as guild members, even while apart, we are all connected, as quilters, as friends and as a community. With each participant making a monetary donation, we raised over $1,500 for Trinitas Health Foundation.

During the two months it took to complete this quilt, more than 77, 000 people died of COVID-19 in the U.S. according to The COVID Tracking Project. Meanwhile, the president spewed hate, spread misinformation, and stoked conspiracy theories.They died while he lied, and so I shall bear witness.

The lockdown gave my husband, teenage son, and me the opportunity to explore the many hiking trails in our area. The time we spent outdoors surrounded by nature opened us up to all kinds of discussions and sharing of dreams and gave us a reason to treasure this time. I replicated maps of some of our favorite trails which feature native flowers, birds and creeks. I added over all trails and creeks to commemorate this time in our family history.

Twenty-Twenty was designed and created during my third month of complete isolation. Our whole world was under attack by a vicious villain called COVID-19. Thoughts of our pandemic reminded me of the Bubonic Plague. It was also known as the Black Death of the mid-1300’s and it’s imagery often includes long, beaked masks that were worn by doctors. I referenced this symbolic shape of death into my representation of the virus.

After the coronavirus pandemic took over our lives in 2020, I made this quilt for a Hearts and Flowers challenge. This heart graphic represents my underlying condition, which has been an ongoing cause of concern. The floating viruses look like flowers to me. The virus shapes are from a pattern by Becky Goldsmith called Searching for Beauty. And, the fun virus allover quilting design is from abitorange.com.

The words we hear on the news during the coronavirus crisis in Spring, 2020 build a mountainous curve of common experience. We huddle in our homes, haunted by warnings, loss, predictions, and confusion. Sheltering in place brings us closer yet separates us. We are alone together, amid the Unprecedented.

The pandemic has had a profound effect on us all, including the children. As always, children find a way to connect. Separated by window glass, they invented their own game. They could not hear each other, but they mirrored each other’s movements. A safe and fun way to play!

Zoom is the mixed blessing of the pandemic, connecting us for work, worship, friendship, and school. As the pandemic wears on, I find myself Zoomsick: sick of sitting, of endless yacking, of repeated Zoom behaviors, of being captive in a little box. Do you see some Zoomers you know?