When I set ‘Disunity’ as the prompt for the group I was interested in seeing the response from members of the group living in different countries. I live in the UK where Brexit is threatening to turn us into a ‘disunited kingdom’. I was really saddened that one of my colleagues felt she had to change her post after receiving a nasty response on social media. She was expressing her personal opinion, her view on the society she lives in. She was not inciting hatred or violence. She was told to shut up and just talk about quilting. Maybe I’ll get a similar response but I am more than a quilter. If we feel we cannot have a reasonable conversation than how will we stop disunity? How will we heal our divisions?

For my piece I chose to depict a broken flag. I do not think society in the UK is broken (yet). My friends, my neighbours, the people I pass in the street are still the people they were but our leadership, our government, our parliament is broken and I fear where they will take us. My flag is made using breakdown fabrics – fitting I thought.  

Title: Broken

Size: 30 iches x 20 inches

Materials: Artists own breakdown fabrics on a commercial black fabric

Techniques: Fused applique, layered and machine quilted