Celebrating Diversity

A challenge from the Contemporary Quilt Group to make a 20cm square piece celebrating the diversity of Britain.



This piece has turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would, mostly due to my inability to cope with the “back-to frontness” of using Bondaweb.

Biscuit cutter silhouette of the British Isles, with scraps of different fabrics that are, or were, made in Britain: tartan, wool, linen, cotton, silk, lace and hand embroidery. Arashi-shibori dyed cotton background, indicating an increasingly stormy sea and the ropes that lash ships to the shore. Machine quilting of the names of textiles of importance to Britain. Backed with a fabric showing old suitcase labels.

The white cliffs at the bottom, looking rather tattered, indicating erosion and change. Fortuitously, as it turned out, Britain has ended up facing in the “wrong” direction, leading to wondering if we will maintain our diversity by facing away from our neighbours in Europe, or if we will start to become more homogenous due to continued influence from the USA.