Home During Lockdown

During New Zealand’s second lockdown in the Spring of 2021, I made one quilt block every day to capture the mood, media reports, and my thoughts of the day.  I started every day with a quick pencil sketch and a few words in my diary – before I made the block.  My diary entry for every day is to the right of the image – in Italics.

My diary

My diary with the thumbnail sketches and the notes on my thoughts of the day.

18 August 2021

Again

19 August 2021

For New Zealand, for the world…

20 August 2021

This ominous thing…

21 August 2021

Families divided…

22 August 2021

Lockdown – a balancing act …

23 August 2021

In the news: family violence is on the increase

24 August 2021

Hope is planting a tree

25 August 2021

Our shrinking world

26 August 2021

Closed windows and doors

27 August 2021

Together but apart

28 August 2021

Displacement in a time of Covid. A country in flux, the change of guard, and people fleeing their country – after the bombing of Kabul

29 August 2021

The value of rituals.  Flowers in the home always help…

30 August 2021

This mountain we are climbing – when isolation is no longer a choice

31 August 2021

The hawthorn gave up.  She will not flower or fruit this year

1 September 2021

Held hostage by this thing hanging over our heads

2 September 2021

Lock without a key

3 September 2021

Bubble is no longer a playful word

4 September 2021

What will protect us?  A shield? 

5 September 2021

The anticipation and comfort of morning tea ritual

6 September 2021

The comfort of our morning ritual. Feeding the Tui and getting a song in return…

7 September 2021

The comfort of rituals. Picking flowers for the home

8 September 2021

The comfort of rituals. A candle on the breakfast table for quiet reading

9 September 2021

In the news: gardens bloom under lockdown with record demand for seeds

10 September 2021

We cook for comfort

11 September 2021

There will not be a Christmas market this year, but we keep on making because it makes us happy

12 September 2021

New life, new needs. Made a pocket to keep masks in the car. After reading the book, The Pocket – on the history of the pocket

13 September 2021

A smell that will recall this time… 

14 September 2021

A taste that will recall this time… 

15 September 2021

The sounds of lockdown – silence and birdsong

16 September 2021

Something familiar to smile about – the Bluebells are flowering

17 September 2021

To the mask

18 September 2021

Everything up in the air.  Reports of a father and three children still missing

19 September 2021

The 1pm daily update on Covid numbers. Three young lives lostnot Covid related…

20 September 2021

A long way to go.  This isolation mountain we are climbing

21 September 2021

Three young children buried on foreign soil

22 September 2021

I heard it on the radio:  … we are never more united as when we have somebody to vilify

23 September 2021

Perhaps we all need a Gormley Angel.  My daughter, Yvette, says it looks like a penguin and that will do too.  For all who are going out to work today

24 September 2021

Severed connections

25 September 2021

To live in a country where leaders take the time to stand up and talk

26 September 2021

She does not know – after seeing how peaceful the cows graze during my walk 

27 September 2021

The sun – a constant. Somebody says, a smiling face has not received the news yet. But the sun is still smiling with us 

28 September 2021

Hurting

29 September 2021

A bouquet for all the health and support workers

30 September 2021

The sound of a bell can make you feel homesick even if you are at home

1 October 2021

To hug a tree helps

2 October 2021

Says the Kowhai tree: Covid stole my colour.  The Kowhai is in full bloom and the Tui is happy

3 October 2021

Go back! Hamilton and Waikato moved back into Level 3 after a Delta case was found in Hamilton East and Raglan

4 October 2021

Thousands wait for placement in MIR – to come home for Christmas but with little success

5 October 2021

In the news: a man died in Middlemore Hospital after 40 days in the ICU unit.  New Zealand reports that 28 people have so far died since the start of Covid in 2020

6 October 2021

Not sure why I stopped on Day 49 making the daily blocks, because the lockdown lasted for about 90 days. Starting to join the blocks.

October 2021

Making the sashings.

October 2021

Joining the blocks.

October 2021

Joining the blocks.

October 2021

On the design board.

Title: Home During Isolation

Shown at Wallace Gallery Morrinsville as part of my solo quilt exhibition, House Home Place, from 1 October to 6 November 2022.

Sold – private collection.

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