There is a saying – ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. And I guess we can all think of times in our history when good intentions, often cited as being for ‘the greater good’ have lead to evil, brutal acts. But the saying is also sometimes used when referring to our all too human tendency to fail to act on our good intentions.

We fill our lives with good intentions. From the serious ‘I will vote’ to the trivial ‘I will eat less chocolate’. I will …, I willl …, I willl …. So positive, so empowering, so easy to avoid. I will walk to the shops …. but not today because it’s raining. I will use up leftovers …. but not tonight as I’ve had a bad day and absolutely need to order pizza. I will finish this quilt this week …. oops where did the week go? I will volunteer …. but not if I’m going to have to do all the work. 

For this quilt I took strips of breakdown printed cloth and wrote out about 160 different ‘I will’ phrases. Some will only make sense to people who know me. Some are satirical. And some come from social pressure to conform. Some are legible, some are not. 

Title: Good Intentions

Size: 20 inches x 30 inches

Materials: artist own printed fabric, fine Sharpie

Technique: Raw edge / fused applique, machine quilted