Covid angel wings

And then came Covid. We were in lock down for several months and businesses struggled and many people found the enforced confinement difficult to deal with. It changed the world and how it works forever. For me it became a glorious treasure trove as many of the textile artists I admired were forced to provide on line courses to create an income so artist who I might never have had the opportunity to study with became so accessible right here at my computer. And even after lock down the ability to learn textile art on line has continued to be a treasure trove of ideas

So what about this little quilt. This was an experimental quilt from a tutorial of Merrill Comeau. Merrill works on large installations and to reduce the weight she uses net as the substrate for her work. This piece is assembled and sitiched on net.

At the top of the quilt is a mask and latex gloves - all so familiar in those early days of lockdown. They are perched on top of some angora paper that I made. This “Paper” is not perfect it has holes in it to represent those who fell through the gaps - My husband’s mate was one. He didn’t die of Covid but from not getting medical attention in time for a secondary infection following a bout of pneumonia. We all had our bubbles of restricted contact and Owen was outside of ours. He was a bachelor and lived alone and by the time I broke the rules and took him to emergency the infection was too strong for his constitution. I was in trouble for breaking the rules but as I said to the medical people “was I supposed to let him die in his house alone?

The bulk of the angel wings are used teas bags (we drank a lot of tea during lockdown) sandwiched between layers of net and free machined in a figure of eight design using variegated thread.

The Japanese anemones were flowering at the time and provided a ray of hope at the bottom of the garden when I looked out the window. In fact the leaves are actual anemone leaves stitched between layers of black tulle. The flowers are made from parts of an old shirt. These flowers are symbolic of hope so they seemed appropriate to add as a focal point.

The whole is extremely light and was an interesting and different treatment of substrate.