1 Hour Quilt

1 Hour Quilt has a closer link to my earlier work, instead of making the objects and then labeling it with the time it took to produce, I decided to set myself a fixed time limit (1hour) and see how much of each stage of making a patchwork quilt I could produce in that time. The objects produced are intended to be shown alongside the video of their production, a small allusion to Robert Morris’ Box with the Sound of its Own Making. I wanted this piece to be something akin to a time and motion study, a more scientific, quantifiable look at the process of producing what is often considered a practical, sentimental and homespun type of object, thus I used plain, unbleached calico instead of the brightly coloured cottons I usually make my patchwork quilts with. This piece was also strongly influence by reading Quilting: The Fabric of Everyday Life by Marybeth C Stalp which is a sociological study into the production of quilts as a hobby by American women. What struck me most about this book is that for these ‘amateur’ quilt makers, the final object is not the important thing, it is the process of making the quilt and the chance it gives them for time to themselves.