After The Party

This is the second quilt I've collaborated on. Three years ago, my daughter and I together designed and made a quilt for my niece, Mary. It took us an hour or so to work out the design and a weekend to make the quilt - with household and childcare help from our lovely husbands! Which brings me to the point really, the point that I have trouble even thinking about, let alone talking about.

Helen has asked me to collaborate on a quilt to enter into our Symposium Challenge: Human Rights Challenge - to exhibit a clear statement (the problem and/or strategies to resolve it) about family violence and/or violence against women. Although I have read about family violence and understand some of the pathways that could lead a person to inflict violence or to accept it, I have no personal experience of family violence. Its not easy to think about it at all so mostly I don't. Or haven't. But Helen asked me to collaborate and, while I'll leave her to tell her part of the story, she felt she needed to make this quilt. My initial reaction was to say no, I've nothing to add, I can't help. But in the next breath I found myself suggesting a change to the design, suggesting a way to achieve the impact she needed and understanding the feeling that Helen's design was projecting. I understood that we are bringing different resources to this collaboration and just like that I was part of the project!