By Hand

For this quilt I wanted to express the way we use letters to build words, then thoughts and ideas.

When we create there are always imperfections due to the very nature of making something by hand, but there is also beauty and individuality caught in those  imperfections. Using the stamps and stencils symbolises the joy of spreading those ideas to others in the form of the written word  and show the hand of the maker, or letter writer. The hand stitching and embroidery represents for me the art of the letter writer making marks to convey their thoughts, dreams and desires to others and the colours and beads capture the richness of illuminated manuscripts especially the Book of Kells which I had the pleasure of seeing several years ago.

The printed word brings news, stories, learning to our lives and has done for many years from those very first printing presses to todays computer aided machines. To capture some of that history and create my own letters I used hand cut stencils, old printing press letters and textile ink. There materials used hand dyed fabric, embroidery thread and seed beads.