Rags to Riches

This quilt is made from scraps of old shirts, dresses, pyjamas, etc., what some might consider rags, and I have made them into a colourful quilt using a design called the kaleidoscope.  it is a favourite of mine, though some people consider it too complicated  and messy.  Like people!  We can be complicated and messy, colourful, and made up of  lots of different bits and pieces of experiences, memories, things we have learnt, inherited, skills, faults etc.

In my series of quilts on the theme of money, this represents those who come from nothing and get rich through sheer hard work and skilful use of every opportunity.  While I was making it, the piles of pieces and half made blocks looked like a messy nothing, like some of our efforts in life might seem, but when finished it looks like a rich tapestry– the rich tapestry of life, to use a cliché.

While I was making this quilt, I had a strange experience.  It was going slowly;  I was working on the blue and grey blocks, and I was finding it difficult, un-inspired. Time was running out before my show, and this was the last quilt to get finished.  And then I got some bad news about a relative who was ill, and I became doubly anxious and stressed.  But surprisingly, the effect on the quilt was that it suddenly became alive, exciting, full of movement and colour!  I was very amazed.  My relative recovered, my show was a success, and someone even understood all this from looking at this quilt!  I haven’t been able to part with this quilt, it has a lot of personal meaning for me now, and it hangs in my living room. It reminds of  hope out of anguish, a meaningful design out of bits and pieces.  Not to give up.