The Free Patch Work Project
2021
Patches made from quilt remnants, acrylic, furniture and sewing notions

Installation at the University Art Gallery, The University of the South, Sewanee, TN. From the exhibition Imagining Matriarchy.

Detail of patches
Detail of request forms
Basket with garments waiting to be mended
A completed and mended garment
Peter Gray with mended pants
Nick Liston-Avnaim with mended pants

Statement

In the Free Patch Work Project, remnants of the quilts from Imagining Matriarchy are turned into patches that are used to mend garments of community members. Visitors to the gallery were invited to bring worn garments to the gallery, pick out a patch of fabric from the installation, complete a request card, and have their garment mended as a gift. This project is a gesture of care–it is not a transaction. It is a gift to the community, one that is slow, one that is work, and one that requires time spent touching and holding. In this way, little pieces of the quilts can go out into the world and live lives of comfort beyond the gallery.