Cotham Patchwork Project
When lockdown began we were landed in a strange place like never before, thrown apart from family and friends, but with time on our hands. By working on this patchwork project we ‘stitched ourselves together’ trusting that we’d eventually all meet up again in the unknowable future and share a little of our experience these past months.
Click each photo to enlarge.
I was reading a book at the start of lockdown – about non-violent communication “I’ll Meet You There” by Shantigarbha. He lists a plethora of human needs beyond the ones in Maslow’s hierarchy. I chose the ones that resonated most for me – then added grace – because that’s always my top need.
The Batik piece was created in an art workshop with the charity ‘Peony’ who support women to turn their lives around.
I had those women in my mind during lockdown and this is partly a celebration of them.
– Angie B
During Lockdown my garden became a sanctuary.
I loved watching the different flowers open, each in its own time and space. The garden was abuzz with insect life. This is inspired by a photo taken in June of a honey bee on a poppy which had chosen to grow among my leeks.
It encaptures the beauty and tranquility of the garden.
– Anne Harding
When lockdown was announced, I knew immediately that one of the things I would miss most would be swimming in Henleaze Lake, so I decided to re-create the Lake in my square as a means of staying connected. I tried to include all the physical things I love about it (the willow, the flowers, the waterlilies, the butterflies, the way the light plays on the water) in an imaginary representation. All the materials were found at the bottom of my sewing box. I occasionally worked on some of the hand embroidery whilst listening to the sermon on Zoom – which I probably ought not admit to – but I honestly often feel just as one with God when I am swimming as when I am in church.
– Lorna Robinson
I have loved rainbows for a very long time (long before I knew they were a gay symbol) and was so pleased when they began to be used as a symbol of hope and thanksgiving during the pandemic and lockdown.
I have been to work as a GP Practice Manager throughout the lockdown, so included the NHS logo to represent my very different experience of the last few months.
– Jeni Leggat-Green
Just Playing
– Catherine Richards
All those bits of silk…
– Catherine Richards
…then I had to do something green and spring-like.
– Catherine Richards
March days of sudden lockdown,
Restriction for our safety.
The opening of a slower life
With colours of summer.
– Mary Ward
‘Captive or protected’.
We moved to our flat only a few months before lockdown and are lucky to share a beautiful communal garden. But rather like the idea of a gilded cage I was drawn to the image of the Unicorn in Captivity; there she sits surrounded by fence and tied up with a golden chain.
– Diana Favell
Lockdown Life with Christ
As we battled the virus, the natural world flourished.
The cross represents Christ with us, He identifies with our struggles.
– Hazel Rolston
How blessed am I to have the Downs at the end of my road. We walked around it, across it, beyond it many times during lockdown. Noticing the detail of the unfolding Spring was a joy: colours of new leaves, the wild flowers – primroses, the stunning pink hawthorn blossom, a few orchids, the pink and white horse chestnut candles.
– Sally Seaman
I volunteer a day a week at the Community Farm, overlooking Chew Lake. That stopped as soon as lockdown began, ironically just when they needed their volunteers to be planting, weeding and harvesting organic veg. The Farm’s veg box sales went up by more than 100%, as buying local became the ‘new normal’.
How I missed those rows of leeks, salads and beetroot, and planting and stringing up tomatoes and cobra beans, working alongside a diverse group of volunteers.
– Sally Seaman
Each patch represents an isolated space and each face the thought of a person – separate but connected. As a child I drew “parties”, rows of these cup-shaped faces to fill space and time. I am grateful for the legacy of Great Aunt Gertie and her crazy patchwork.
– Sara Metelerkamp
My picture is based on a photograph of 4 of us skipping by a lake in mid-Wales. I dyed the background with vegetable dyes: coffee, onion skins, turmeric and spinach but didn’t use mordant so they have faded. The ‘people’ are made out of ground coffee bag of which I have a large collection. I really missed my family during lockdown.
– Sue Dibdin
We’ve never done anything like this before,
But we like the idea of birds above a town.
– Tilda and Alice
Put A Sock In It!
This piece is in response to the Lockdown Patchwork Project
– The Revd. Canon Neville Boundy
Whether you are well-established in the Christian faith, feeling called to a new expression of your faith, or teetering on the edge of any faith, we hope you will find resources, inspiration and good company here with us.
Cotham Parish Church is a registered charity in England & Wales (no. 1132307)