The patchwork of life

Lately I have been immersing myself in creative patchwork, spending lots of time transforming small pieces of fabric into patterns and quilts. The metaphor of patchwork has been applied to life by many people, and I think that this is very apt.

Life is a quilt that is never finished

Unlike intentionally created patchwork quilts, our life quilts are not completed until we die, and then the binding can finally be added. Throughout our lives new patches and decorations are added, and the fabric becomes richer as our life journeys continue onwards.

Ragged edges smooth out when pieces are joined

In a patchwork quilt, as the pieces are joined together, the seams encase the ragged edges and leave a smooth surface on the outside. This can happen in our lives too as new experiences and/ or perspectives add new patches to the raw edges of our lives, smoothing these out and allowing new patterns to emerge from discordant experiences.

Patterns emerge when things are repeated

In quilts, if blocks are repeated, they can form patterns that are not apparent when the blocks are viewed separately. So too, in our lives, patterns begin to emerge as we travel our journeys and begin to connect like experiences together (both good and challenging).

Borrowing on some expertise can help

It is often useful to follow a pattern and to tap into quilting expertise when creating patchwork – some tips and techniques can guide the process and even make construction easier. We can turn to the support and learning of others to guide our life journeys too – and sometimes theories can aid our understanding.

The background

Most patchwork has a background that sets off the applique or decorations, or may form the general pattern of the quilt itself. What are the steady rhythms that make up the backgrounds of our lives? The events which stand out are enhanced by these and would not be the same without the supportive background.

Adding new and interesting patches

Quilts can grow with the addition of borders and/or more rows of patches, and thus change in character. The fabric of our lives can also change direction, sometimes intentionally and sometimes because our assumptive worlds have been shattered – but all of these add to the rich patchwork of our lives.

Some resources

Trish McKinnon, a Social Worker from Sacred Heart Hospice in Sydney presented this diagram on the rich tapestry of life in retrospect (used to guide end of life stories in palliative care):

Innovative Resources have produced “A Patchwork Life” – a set of cards for exploring women’s journeys, designed to inspire storytelling and creativity. The cards use “the metaphor of a patchwork quilt to explore how a person’s identity is made up of unique memories, experiences, dreams and relationships, all sewn together”. They can be obtained by following this link:

http://innovativeresources.org/resources/card-sets/patchwork-life/

Today this blog is celebrating its first birthday – and it has certainly gone in directions that I did not anticipate when I was at the point of new beginnings. It has certainly enriched my life.

Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to dip into it.