Buried
Drawing on the historical practice of burying our dead with grave goods, allowing them to continue their societal role from beyond the grave, I have drawn together the imagined grave goods of my family members who have passed, the tools of their trades, and the ways in which I remember them. For me, the act of creating draws on all the knowledge my family left me with and in continuing my craft I am keeping them close, not always consciously, but they live in my stitches. The patchworked central blocks of this quilt are accompanied by a poem, written whilst holding the memories of my family close, both of their life and death. This poem has been hand embroidered around the edge of the piece, encompassing the work.
The initial digital sketch for this piece helped work out the scale.
Before committing to the project I wanted to ensure I could execute the embroidered text element.
Cyanotype coated fabric before exposure.
I used our UV exposure unit to create the photograms, using objects matching those in the written piece.
Final photogram collection.
Assembled quilt top.
All the text was hand written onto the fabric in heat erasable pen before embroidering.
I created a darker, more even spool of cyanotype thread to work the embroidery in. This should make it more legible even in the fainter parts of the variegation.
All text is hand embroidered using a stem stitch.
Due to the size of this piece both the backing fabric and the mid layer had to be pieced to size.
I used a lighter cyanotype thread in the quilting both to provide contrast to the text and to allow it to be more visible on the blue of the cyanotyped pieces.
Rather than use a separate binding I trimmed and turned the backing fabric to the front and hand stitched it down.
To accompany the quilt and to make it easier to read I made a typed zine of the text paired with photographs of the objects used to make the cyanotyped photograms.
The cover of each zine is cyanotyped then the spine has been machine stitched.
The final piece hung for exhibit during 2026's unthinkable exhibition in HARI.