Memory Maintenance quilts done

I: Upkeep (50cm x 33cm)

Detail of Memory Maintenance I: Upkeep

II: Filling the gaps (88cm x 37 cm) 

Detail of Memory Maintenance II: Filling the gaps

III: Repair (96cm x 50 cm)

Detail of Memory Maintenance III: Repair

Especially in older age, our memories are tied to our identity. To keep them alive, we must revisit them often and rehearse them, using the red thread of connection to weave them together, mending the gaps, pulling our history from the dark cupboard of our minds into the social sunlight.

The ragged edges, the rough stitching, the fact that the newspaper will yellow, even now is starting to lift at the edges - these are part of the theme, the deterioration of memory and our efforts to keep it going. I'm not entirely happy with the titles and the statement, and should have been thinking harder while stitching, but they'll have to do. I want to move on to something different now ... and maybe later return to this format, perhaps making blocks with smaller edge pieces, or a different sort of web ("memory text") made with the newspaper. Or - done in a light colour - I've had enough of black for now!

The digital images have been submitted to SAQA's Metaphors on Aging, rather at the 11th hour. I know for sure they have 161 quilts submitted; they are looking for 30-35 pieces, so I don't hold out much hope of success for any of these bits of darkness, and in the final stages of finishing I've got very tired of them. Looking back at previous posts on this project, though, I feel I've met my own criteria of starting with the idea and working out how to present it.

What started with drawings of "ravelled patches" at the tail end of December has become three quilts (and at least a dozen left over blocks) at the tail end of January.