THEMES: Politics, Establishment Questions of Integrity, Isolation, Family NHS Workers

5’5” figure holding a 1m Diameter quilt.
More an installation ideal for a bay window or alcove

Intricate hand stitched multi themed textile piece. Hung as part of a figurine dressed in PPE.

– AMANDA’S words –

The covid quilt was started in April 2020 and finished in December 2020. All the patterned pieces are scraps of fabric I kept from scrub bags I made for mainly Rotherham Hospital during the first lockdown. 

I made over 130 during April/May 2020, most of the fabric was from my own collection. I had some lovely feedback from some of the recipients. That the colourful fabrics I used really cheered them up and made them smile.

When I was sewing the scrub bags I used to think about the person that would be using them. What had they seen? Were they Exhausted? How did they motivate themselves to keep going? Would this fabric cheer them up?

Whilst I was sewing the scrub bags I would be listening to the daily Government briefings on TV and the ever changing advice and soundbites!! I was, and still am, so angry how they have let the NHS down. This is reflected in my quilt both in choice of fabrics and the various hand sewn words on the quilt. The quilt is 90% handmade and the quilting around the edge is machine stitched.

PPE nurse came about as a way to display my quilt. I remembered reading an article during the first lockdown about how NHS staff were told to fashion PPE out of whatever they could.  I imagined how scared the staff would feel and the heat of working in bin bags , hence the flames in the eyes.

I also wondered how patients would feel being looked after by workers in PPE (prior to Covid this would generally be an alien and unfamiliar concept with head to toe PPE)

Article the NHS workers wearing bin bags as protection https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › health-52145140