Beloved’s Breastplate

Fragments of heirloom quilt, blue taffeta, red silk and tulle

The Brief: An opportunity to create an artwork that tells us a story about you and an object in your life with personal significance

Some fragments from a quilt fashioned by one of my ancestors, have been passed on to me by my much loved Aunty. I was entrusted with this cherished and highly regarded heirloom, in the knowledge that any decision I made concerning its ongoing life, would be respected and cherished in return.

This makes the quilt an object of great significance to me and a fitting starting point for a piece of art. I am also sure that the process of creating the artwork will magnify the significance of the quilt.

Inspiration

It is my joy and privilege to sing in the Church Choir at East Dean. Ever since we first practised it, the hymn ‘Saint Patrick’s Breastplate’ has captured my imagination.

Knowing that they are facing certain ambush, Saint Patrick is reciting a prayer of protection as he leads his monks through the woods.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger.
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Upon viewing them instead as a mother deer and her fawns, the enemy did not attack, so St Patrick and his monks were saved.

This idea fascinates me; St Patrick summoned up and surrounded himself with all that he believed in. By doing so, he sanctified a space where these important things could be protected. The notion of wearing his beliefs as a breastplate, wrapping around the space that he himself filled, saw him firmly positioned at the core of his faith, as both the embodiment of it and protected by it.

What to create with my fragments of quilt?

A breastplate, of course – St Patrick had a great plan!

Beliefs and faith are intangible things; hard to materialise. But a breastplate made according to St Patrick’s strategy is a very solid and wearable thing that can bear witness to beliefs and make them visible in the actions of the wearer.

My bits and pieces of old quilt encapsulate an abundance of things that I hold very dear. I have sewn for most of my life and appreciate what is involved in hand making a quilt like this one; it is a labour love. It is full of patience, devotion, attention and most of all, thoughts and love for the person who is destined to snuggle up under it and feel its comfort! These attributes are embodied in the invisible hands of its maker and bring into my presence all the women who have helped me arrive at this point in my own life…the Nanny who adored me, the Granny who loved me, the Aunty who taught me, the Mother who nurtured me. The sewing machine of the sadly departed sister-in-law and the Niece who gave it to me. My own Daughters who welcome my skills in their lives. This breastplate will be made of their love!

The resurrection of these fragments from their entombment in a camphor chest, to fashion a wearable breastplate, sanctifies my own beliefs and will support me in upholding them.

How to make it?

The quilt fragments were very fragile and worn, so I had to find a way to both stabilise and reveal them. I wrapped them in the love and compassion of Madonna-blue taffeta, quilting them between two layers, both as protection and to render them strong enough for ribbon strands to be dissected away and reveal the precious inner layer. The added stitching needed a meaningful direction and a design that upheld the attributes I believe in. So to explore what that might be, I took to my sketch book!

An image from my childhood that seems to encapsulate the right feeling, is one of my Nanny holding me as a baby, in her garden (that she loved, full of hollyhocks!) in the sunshine outside her house called ‘Clovergate’. I love this funny picture and it sums up everything I wished to attest to.

In my sketch book, I stuck in patchwork-like papers and fabrics and experimented with extending the blue to enfold the baby…

…then added possible stitching lines to unify lines the design.

Extracting just the linear marks gave me the meaningful quilting design I was searching for.

Whilst the red contours did a good job of tracing the loving embrace and all it implies, the break in the stitching was very notable. In some way, recognition of the presence of nurturing made it safe to reveal another level of vulnerability; the stitching design could be driven by a further reality – that of my own asymmetric form, following a life-saving mastectomy. And so came to mind more important women… the Surgeon who was prepared to perform an act of brutal consequence, the Macmillan Nurse who provided steadfast comfort and wisdom, and there is also my own compassion for my life-giving sacrifice.

These realisations gave me the resources I needed to stitch with confidence and meaning.

Having quilted the front and backs, joined the seams and bound the edges to form the breastplate, I adorned it with more Madonna-blue taffeta skirts, and supported it with red silk and tulle petticoats…ready for action when called upon!

And so it is…

…that this breastplate, made of fragments of love, has evidently been made by, and for, a person who feels beloved. To all the afore-mentioned women whose attributes and actions bear witness to my beliefs, you are ever-stationed on the circumference of my existence; I thank you. As I put on this breastplate invisibly, I am dressed in your love daily.

…and that taking part in this exhibition organised by the Community Programme has given me the opportunity to transform the rich intangible nature of a few treasured fragments of quilt, add my own love and create an object that is full of so much that I hold dear. I am very grateful for that; thank you also.

You can see Nicola Hancock’s Beloved’s Breastplate in Significant Objects: The Things that Matter until 20 October.