Our Contemporary Quilt group have a new suitcase collection being assembled at the moment - submission deadline Friday. As usual I have pushed myself to the wire and will have to send it special delivery tomorrow. The theme is Childhood Memories and the pieces will be loaned out to groups around the country over the next three years.
Here is my statement that will accompany the quilt in a file:
My childhood memories are based on the fact that I was born and brought up in Durban, South Africa. In fact I was born in Addington Hospital which is literally across the road from the beach. Situated in the Tropics I was surrounded by brightly coloured flowers and birds, lush vegetation, exotic fruits and rolling hills.
The countryside was my playground and the first thing I did on getting home from school was to run bare foot out of the house and disappear until supper time.
The night sky at the top represents the clear skies and the Milky Way – no light pollution to spoil the view. I remember seeing Sputnik flicker across the sky.
Then there is the beach, the wide blue skies and the Indian Ocean, getting sunburnt, peeling, sand in the sandwiches and everywhere else! A trip to the beach was a treat which meant a ride on the train – a steam train with slam doors and windows that opened – the smell of the smoke and the smuts that got in your eyes.
Below is a representation of the garden my mother kept full of flowers and plants, the mulberry trees and the fruit which we gorged ourselves on, the Jacaranda tree with its purple flowers and the tree house and swing my dad built in it for us. The sparkles in the plants are the fireflies we saw at night.
What I can’t put in the picture are the sounds of the frogs croaking after one the frequent afternoon storms had passed and the smell of grass after the rain.
My life as a child was special. It was filled with love and music (my mother was a music teacher and played the piano) and art (both my parents were amateur artists) and crafts. We were encouraged and abetted by our parents to try all sorts of things from glass blowing to clay modelling, making kites to bashing sheets of corrugated iron into canoes to sail on the river. My mother sewed and made all our clothes – which is definitely where I got my love of fabrics from!
If the image I am painting sounds like paradise – it almost was.
I can't wait to see what the others have done.
Hilary
PS I now have to get cracking on two samples for the class I am going to teach at Festival next year - they must be finished and photographed in less than two weeks and they are only in my head at the moment! H
