The 5-7 prompt had been given as Deconstruction (ed) (ing).   Deconstruction is a process, so I thought I would take plenty of photographs to illustrate the process I use to create a textile and use them as the basis of my text about the resulting quilt.

Our local quilt group received a big box of unfinished quilts and large scraps from the estate of a local quilter.  The box was so big we had to tip it out on our double worktable so we could see what was in the bottom of the box.  The scraps were sorted and divided up, various items thrown about, much laughter as challenges were laid for using the fabric.  The principal pieces thrown at me were the white daisy print on black and the pink large scale floral print, both shown below.  The daisy print was leftovers from a top that had been cut out and the pink floral had hexxies, fussy-cut from various spots.

I start with a ground, or canvass, so I collated a bunch of fabrics and started to work on them, trying to bring them together and combine all the different patterns.  I commonly call this a HOT MESS but sometimes a few ideas will come from it.

I usually find that I have overdone the number of fabrics, or there are too many different patterns.  I need to edit it down a bit to get a clarity that allows me to see what the art is saying to me.

The arrangement above seemed to feature a fat seahorse with a square jaw. Time to consider a bit more interest in the shapes.  The pink flowers became the remnant shells of pink worlds in the next iteration shown below.

But now the white daisy on black fabric looked like a very fat pig with two heads. I fell back on the prompt – deconstruction.  The black and white was the only item that would show enough of its shape if I started to deconstruct it.  I had a limitation in the size of the background, so I had to lay the first three strips in the original shape, but the further strips had to be arranged around corners and in the parallel and the perpendicular.

When I had all the strips in place and had assembled the remnant pink shells to represent shattered worlds, I decided that the deconstructed strips needed more definition, so I edged them with thin black strips.  The deconstructed shirt leavings were starting to look like an enormous black military drone.

The working name has been War of the Worlds whilst I attended to the finishing of this quilt and I have decided to retain that name.  It seems the use of drones in epic numbers is not just the problem, it may also be the solution.  I just hope that the Martians don’t arrive to wipe out mankind while we are too busy trying to wipe out each other.  Please look at some of the illustrations of the spacecraft and the book covers from the early editions of The War of the Worlds and you may pick up why I have used long pink legs in my piece.

Commenced:     May 2026

Completed:        July 2026

Dimensions:      100 cm H X 104 cm W

Materials & Technique:   Commercial patterned cotton fabric, vintage and recently purchased; neon pink ripstop nylon; batik.  Pieced and appliqued background with appliqued surface embellishment.  Top stitched using longarm.

Reference:                       The War of the Worlds, H G Wells, 1898