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 with the thumbnail sketches and the notes on my thoughts of the day.
Again…
For New Zealand, for the world…
This ominous thing…
Families divided…
Lockdown – a balancing act …
In the news: family violence is on the increase…
Hope is planting a tree…
Our shrinking world…
Closed windows and doors…
Together but apart…
Displacement in a time of Covid. A country in flux, the change of guard, and people fleeing their country – after the bombing of Kabul…
The value of rituals. Flowers in the home always help…
This mountain we are climbing – when isolation is no longer a choice…
The hawthorn gave up. She will not flower or fruit this year…
Held hostage by this thing hanging over our heads…
Lock without a key…
Bubble is no longer a playful word…
What will protect us? A shield?
The anticipation and comfort of morning tea ritual…
The comfort of our morning ritual. Feeding the Tui and getting a song in return…
The comfort of rituals. Picking flowers for the home…
The comfort of rituals. A candle on the breakfast table for quiet reading…
In the news: gardens bloom under lockdown with record demand for seeds…
We cook for comfort…
There will not be a Christmas market this year, but we keep on making because it makes us happy…
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…
A smell that will recall this time…
A taste that will recall this time…
The sounds of lockdown – silence and birdsong…
Something familiar to smile about – the Bluebells are flowering…
To the mask…
Everything up in the air. Reports of a father and three children still missing…
The 1pm daily update on Covid numbers. Three young lives lost – not Covid related…
A long way to go. This isolation mountain we are climbing…
Three young children buried on foreign soil…
I heard it on the radio: … we are never more united as when we have somebody to vilify…
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…
Severed connections…
To live in a country where leaders take the time to stand up and talk…
She does not know – after seeing how peaceful the cows graze during my walk …
The sun – a constant. Somebody says, a smiling face has not received the news yet. But the sun is still smiling with us …
Hurting…
A bouquet for all the health and support workers…
The sound of a bell can make you feel homesick even if you are at home…
To hug a tree helps…
Says the Kowhai tree: Covid stole my colour. The Kowhai is in full bloom and the Tui is happy…
Go back! Hamilton and Waikato moved back into Level 3 after a Delta case was found in Hamilton East and Raglan…
Thousands wait for placement in MIR – to come home for Christmas but with little success…
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…
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.
Making the sashings.
Joining the blocks.
Joining the blocks.
On the design board.
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.