Love and Loss

Status: In Progress
Year(s): Started 2017 · Completed 2017

Overview

Love and Loss began in 2017 and remains intentionally unfinished. The quilt moves from vibrant color into muted greys and black, reflecting the shift from love, connection, and possibility toward absence and loss.

The piece was left an irregular, non-standard size by design. Just as our lives do not come with a predetermined length, this quilt resists a fixed format. Some lives are brief, others long, and most fall somewhere in between. The uneven edge becomes a quiet reminder that there is no promised timeline—only the experience of moving through love and, eventually, loss.

    • Size:
      Non-standard, irregular dimensions (intentionally unfinished)

    • Materials:
      Cotton fabric scraps, primarily solid and near-solid colors

    • Techniques:
      Improvisational construction, intuitive color placement, abstract composition

    • Piecing:
      SST (Slapping Shit Together) — an intuitive scrap-piecing approach where fabric is joined without a predetermined plan. Seams are intentionally disrupted and redirected to break up visual pathways, forcing the viewer to spend time tracing how the piece was constructed rather than immediately understanding it.

    • Quilting:
      Not quilted

    • Backing / Binding:
      Not applied

  • Love and Loss began in 2017 and remains intentionally unfinished. From the start, this quilt was never meant to arrive at a fixed conclusion. Instead, it reflects the experience of moving through life with no guaranteed outcome and no predetermined length.

    The composition shifts from dense, vibrant color into muted greys and black, tracing a quiet progression from connection and possibility toward absence and loss. This transition is not abrupt or dramatic, but gradual, mirroring how love fades, changes, or disappears over time. What begins with energy and optimism slowly gives way to restraint, silence, and uncertainty.

    The quilt’s irregular, non-standard size is a deliberate choice. Just as our lives do not follow a uniform or predictable timeline, this piece resists a fixed format. Some lives end early, others stretch long, and most fall somewhere in between. There is no promise of symmetry, balance, or completion, only the experience of moving forward until movement stops.

    By leaving Love and Loss unresolved, I acknowledge that loss is not something we finish or move past. It is something we carry, quietly reshaping how we remember love and how we understand time. This quilt exists in that in-between space, where color lingers, edges fray, and meaning remains open.

  • Process Notes

    This section is for your voice.

    Use this space to document:

    • how the quilt evolved

    • decisions you remember making

    • things that surprised you

    • challenges or breakthroughs

    • ideas that didn’t work

  • Anything else you want to remember:

    • personal context

    • external influences

    • future ideas connected to this piece

    • why you may or may not return to it

  • Exhibitions

    Abstractions in Fabric
    Castleton Bank Gallery, Rutland, Vermont — 2018

    Awards

    Publications

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