Lazarus Quilt
I was pleased to be asked to involved with a Lent project at the church near to where I live. I facilitated a workshop for a group to make a quilt for the bed of Lazarus.
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Inspired by work done by artist Anna Dumitriu it mimicked the patterns bacteria make in a petri dish. We used dye, tea bags and bleach to make the effects on calico and this represented illness. The squares were then sewn onto a bigger piece of calico and random machine stitching run over the top to bring it all together. It was hung in the church over Holy Week and Easter and displayed along with a coffin, some pills, some fish and bandages.
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The making group did a wonderful job on their quilt squares and I was immensely proud of their effort and enthusiasm especially as some of the group were well out of their comfort zone.
First of all everyone had to tear 15cm squares of calico.
Everyone practised on small squares to get the hang of it.
They then made patterns using Brusho dye, tea bags and bleach.
Unleashing the creativity
Everyone's designs were unique.
Some of the group sprinkled Brusho granules to make vivid splashes of blue.
Keeping a simple colour palette of blue and sepia the group each made 9 squares.
The squares were then reduced down to 10cm and ironed onto 50cm calico squares using bondaweb.
Finally, the squares were stitched into place and random free machine embroidery was added to link it all together.
The quilt hanging in place ready for Easter.
A close up of the quilt.