Artist Janet Patterson is repairing an old quilt, in public, inviting people to join her. The project is a metaphor for repairing the planet
On June 7, Janet Patterson took the quilt that she had inherited from her grandmother, to Raven Recycling. Not to throw it away, but to repair it using textiles and buttons retrieved from the red textile bins at the depot. She was putting a patch of fabric over the damaged part of the blanket and sewing it by hand. It is her second artist residency at Raven Recycling Society.
The Quilt Project is more than repairing an old blanket: “I am inviting members of the public to stop by the depot and help me repair the badly damaged quilt. The project is a metaphor for the thoughtful, careful work that is needed to repair our planet right now. My hope is that the project will build community and provide a space for people of all backgrounds to have deeper conversations and share world views about the state of our planet and what we can do to bring about positive change,” Patterson said. “In my feelings of despair for the state of the planet, I realized that a mending project like this could be more than just fixing a blanket; perhaps it could help me work through my sadness and provide some clarity as to a path forward.”
She had been meaning to mend the quilt for years. As it turned out, she wasn’t the only one who owned an old quilt. “Some people who came by said they had quilts at home that were damaged, and I encouraged them to bring them into the recycling depot and we could work together to mend them.”
Patterson’s grandmother Glennie Patterson was born in 1880 and died in 1975. She lived with Patterson’s parents and siblings. “It was a rare occasion when my grandmother was not knitting socks, mending socks, cutting up old clothing for quilt squares, or sewing a quilt,” she said. After she died and after her parents died, Patterson was helping to clean the family home and came across the quilt. “It was one of the few things left from my grandmother, and I brought it back to the Yukon with me.”
Janet Patterson is in her sixties and has been a visual artist since 2019, when she retired. Art has always been a part of her life, but in the past she was involved in performing arts. For many years she taught piano. Patterson is one of the artists of Yukon Artists at Work. She likes to work with natural and used material, focussing on environmental issues. This is Patterson’s second residency with Raven Recycling: last summer she spent two weeks at the depot creating an installation that focussed on fast fashion and its impact on the environment.
The quilt will be taken to Nova Scotia, where she grew up. In addition to that, she wants to take the blanket to some rural communities in the Yukon—for public workshops. She told What’s Up Yukon that she hasn’t made firm plans about it, yet, and will decide when her current project is finished. “I will see who is interested,” Patterson said.
The project has gone well, so far: “People were curious to know what I was doing, and a number of people sat down and mended the quilt with me. Several said it brought back memories of their own grandma making quilts.
“In general, I think my project has made people nostalgic about a time in their own past. In this time of fast fashion, fast food, fast cars and a fast pace in the workplace, I think people appreciate just taking a breath. Hand sewing is slow, contemplative work. I think people are relieved to step off the treadmill for even a short while to focus on something like this.” She added that anyone can mend a quilt: it takes some simple hand-sewing skills, and Patterson can help people if they have never used a needle before.
“I think my grandmother would be pleased that her quilt is being given a new life in this way.”
Patterson took the project to both the Fireweed Market and to Raven Recycling, earlier this month, but plans to take the quilt to some rural Yukon communities—for public workshops. In addition, she plans to take the quilt back to Nova Scotia, where she grew up and where her grandmother made the blanket.
