The Covid Chronicle, founded by Wendy Bliss, is a community textile art installation, currently touring in the UK. It comprises about 140 panels worked in a range of textile art techniques and records contributors’ experiences of the pandemic since the first UK lockdown. You can see the work here from today until 19th June, and from July it will be on display at Riverside Studios, near Hammersmith Bridge.
The Hammersmith venue has a huge window space that isn’t suitable for the textile art because it gets too much light, so contributors have been invited to make hearts that can be displayed there a bit like the Wall of Hearts.
I already had a couple of patchwork hearts lying around in a drawer so it was quite easy to put these together.
I really like layered sheers. I like the way they reveal as well as conceal, the way they cover the background but you can still see through them if you look closely. And of course we are all like that too. Very few people get to see through all our layers.
The other two are slightly smaller, about 6” x 8”, and are made with eco-dyed fabrics from Jane Hunter.
The white heart is just strips of cotton fabrics pieced together into a heart shape, with some decorative stitching over the seams.
I really like the scrap of eco-dyed felted wool – it’s quite thick and substantial, I’m guessing from an old wool blanket, and perfect for this. It always amazes me how these orphans and scraps find their home eventually.
These will be travelling to Wendy very soon, and if you’re in London in July maybe you could go and visit.
there was a heart-wrenching graphic in the Sunday New York Times depicting the one million lives lost to Covid in the Unites States … and as much as I love your patched hearts, I am saddened at the losses that they represent
thank you for the close-up shots detailing the colors and textures, along with the bound and raw edges … your stitching is so very fine
Thank you – yes, absolutely – the losses are horrifying. Many visitors who have seen the exhibition have reportedly been very moved by what they’ve seen. The act of stitching in itself I think is both an act of remembrance and an act of healing, as far as you can use the word in this context. Many hands, many hearts, many minds, joined by needle and thread. But so much loss…
These are lovely. You manage to make something with even the smallest scraps!
Somehow I find scraps easier to handle than larger pieces. I like the way they fit together.
Totally delightful.
Thank you 😊
It’s always delightful seeing what you’re doing. So inspiring!
Thank you so much 😊