The Centre

Helen brought the quilt to me on Friday afternoon. We discussed the quilting, cutting the edges ragged and further distressing the quilt. We put some black paint on the belt that will be sewn over the cross as the pale fawn colour was too light. We didn't want the cross to be too obvious, more a hidden element that the viewer would find on further study.

I felt that Helen had done an excellent job of the quilting. It seems to me to reflect what is going on in the mind of a victim of violence - some dark threads, some brighter and multicoloured, the threads are changing colour, some are going off at a tangent but overall they are spiralling deeper into the dark heart of the quilt. And that is what I felt needed a bit more work, the heart of the quilt wasn't dark enough. I kept the quilt and added a couple of careful layers of black paint to the centre. This is what it looks like now. I'm waiting for Helen to come over again to see if she likes the result. I'd like to get it even darker but risk it getting too stiff if there is too heavy a layer of paint. We also are running out of time as we need to get it photographed for submission next weekend - that being the time my husband, Terry, is able to do it. So it needs to be substantially finished on the front at least, by then! Here is a photo of the centre as it is after two coats of black paint have been applied.