SANDY SUFFIELD
Necessity being the mother of invention, the quilts came about in lockdown and used only the materials I had to hand, this is still the case – so nothing is bought to produce them. They’re made out of an excess of paper packaging from my eBay habit, my dad’s old paints and PVA school glue.
“The inception of the paper quilts came from loving old fabric quilts. Much of what attracts me to quilting is the re-use of material, from worn-out curtains making up a Pinwheel patterned quilt from 1800s to the more abstract quilts of Gee’s Bend, Alabama which were made out of threadbare work clothes by slaves who tilled and harvested the cotton fields of Alabama. These quilts are beautiful and have a vital practical use, keeping people warm at night.”
As a kid my mum and dad would take us to the American Museum near Bath, the quilts were always a highlight, my mum would bring antique quilts back from California when we visited friends there. The quilts always sat folded on the arms of sofas or used as bed spreads at home, in a break between lock-downs I got to see a show of beautiful Gee’s Bend quilts at Alison Jacques Gallery in London, last year I found an amazing quilt on eBay and spent a slightly silly amount of money getting it shipped from the US. So inspiration comes from a few sources.
I love the rigorous pattern of this latest eBay quilt, when I make the paper quilts I actually like how the strict geometry gets messed up by the crinkles in the paper, they always end up a bit wonky. I also love playing with colour. I’ve started making larger paper quilts now. But in lockdown it was satisfying because I could make a smaller one in a day or two, the whole process was a lovely balm in the odd isolation of Covid. The very first one came about while I was absent mindedly playing about making a card for a friend’s birthday.
