Coming Together for Iris

19 Sep 2022

Alongside the print version of Issue 2 of Flourish Magazine, The Connections Issue (available to view digitally at:https://yestolife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ISSUE-TWO-WR-SPREADS.pdf ), we are releasing weekly digital content on the Artlift and Yes to Life websites, such as music, creative writing and blog posts.

This week our digital piece is a collaborative project led by Annie Gotts, a community-made quilt featuring individual squares, sewed together by Annie in honour of her village’s oldest resident’s 90^th birthday.

Annie tells the story of the quilt below:

In the village where I live, our oldest resident was about to turn 90. This was during lockdown, so the party we had planned had to be abandoned, but we still wanted to show our respect and affection for her.

So, I issued each household with a square of cloth, upon which people could write, draw, or stitch their birthday messages. The idea being that we could somehow turn these into a ‘book’ or bunting. As each was delivered back to me, it became apparent that many could be stitched over and made into something more permanent, and I started to wonder if I could make a quilt, turning the virtual love being expressed into something that would be physically comforting.

I hand-embroidered over some of the early submissions, but had to switch to freehand machine embroidery as the stack of squares coming in got higher and her birthday drew closer!

Eventually, and with much support from my partner, I and my overworked sewing machine finally managed to make a large quilted blanket, showcasing 16 of the squares from friends and neighbours. I also put the less-robust pieces together to create a bunting-style greetings ‘card’. This one project drew an already tightly-knit community even closer together – connecting us all, regardless of age, gender, or health status.

For a moment, we all came together for Iris.