'A Quilt with No Name'

It is finished at last.

This is the story of the events that surround the making of this quilt.

The quilt started off being a quick, fun scrap quilt.  I made lots of patches and we placed the blocks all over the lounge room floor, then made more to complete our chosen design.

These were the blocks that were on the floor when the phone rang - 

It was the call that no-one ever wants to receive.  My 26yr old Nephew had been involved in a workplace accident.  I looked at those blocks - that were not yet a quilt and thought - "I'll finish it for his rehabilitation.  It will look cheerful in a hospital!"

There was no rehabilitation and the blocks were still on the floor a week later when I walked back into the house after his funeral.

A year later I pulled them out again - determined to make the quilt, and decided to use the original pattern's design, I sewed a grid of these blocks together - but it didn't feel right and they were put away again.

My Janome 6500 Group challenged us to finish a UFO.  I decided...

This Quilt needs to be finished and it needs a name.

I tried to make it larger by adding a couple more rows, but still it didn't feel right.  I was starting to see that the predictable straight lines were not reflecting the quilt's story and the impact my Nephew's accident had on my family.  

So the quilt went back on the floor, this time a gap of dark blue carpet showed between the constructed quilt and the remaining blocks.  It's new design started to take shape.  A dark blue sash between the old and the new would not only look good but signify the 'Brick Wall' that we hit that day and I decided that the blocks could ricochet off in a different direction.

Standing in the doorway staring at the quilt .... remembering ..... I realised - 

Not Ricochet - SHATTER! I need to shatter the blocks!

To do this I sewed 4 blocks together and "Stack and Slashed" them in groups - the effect was STUNNING... So there I had it.

My 'Quilt with No Name' I would now call "SHATTERED".

They are still the same blocks, yet put together in a different and unexpected manner - not unlike looking into a broken mirror.

All that it now needed was a deep border of that same blue all around - to lock the seams together and bind the two quilts into one.

But the story does not end there...

Sadly, when I went to my LQS (where they are well aware of the quilt's history) to buy the fabric for the borders. I was told that the DH of the shop owner had passed away, and his funeral would be the next day. Coincidently my DH was considering going to the funeral of a work colleague.  Comparing notes we realised we were talking about the same person - So we attended together.

I sat in that tiny Church studying the stained glass windows as the family struggled with their grief and I knew that their story is now also woven within this quilt.  As is the tragic events that unfolded in my local community this week.

I sewed those borders on today, with the TV softly on in the background - as two teams fought for the AFL (football) Grand Final.

And I smiled.

As I pressed the last seam, the siren sounded, and I didn't hear the reporter's question - just the reply....

"Shattered Mate - I'm Shattered".

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Postscript:
Shattered has been beautifully quilted by Desley.
The thread was always ever going to be dark.
We chose a quilting pattern and then discovered it was called "Dragon's Breath" - How apt! - this is Mark's Quilt - and Mark had a Dragon Tattoo.

It has now been bound and labelled and dedicated
- "to those we have loved and lost".

"Shattered" on display at 

Victorian Quilters Showcase - Melbourne Australia.  

26th June 2014