There was once a handsome young man who came to be called Fanta. He was a surveyor who had a job making maps for the military during the Second World War. On five occasions his plane was shot down in the jungles of New Guinea.
After the war he became a bit of a clown and a problem drinker. His war experiences were rarely discussed. What is known is that he once sat with a dead friend for a day before making his way out of the jungle.
One day I started stitching a series of aeroplane shapes on a background of different patterns of bright green fabric. It took ages and when the squares were finished I felt dissatisfied and put them away for a year. I then cut these squares into strips. I still wasn’t sure what I was making.
I cut up lots different green fabric strips and randomly sewed in the sliced up plane shapes. Out of the sheet of fabric I had created I cut a big plane shape and tacked it into a three-layered quilt. Over many months I hand quilted small plane shapes over the whole quilt.
The finished aeroplane quilt is big, (2.1m x 2.1m) took three years to make and hangs on my ceiling. It shows scattered pieces of plane in the jungle. All these pieces are contained in a bigger plane that just keeps flying.
I think the quilt is a story about Fanta who just kept going in life. Back in the jungle the plane wreckage rusted. He went back to his job in an office; he paid bills, went camping and argued with his wife.
This quilt is about the extraordinary way ordinary people keep going. What takes the greatest courage for our soldiers? Is it the dangers of war or the challenge of fitting back into an everyday life when it’s all over?
You crash, you survive. That is what the quilt means to me. It is not practical, or useful, or even traditionally beautiful. The strange thing is that whenever I look at this quilt it gives me strength. Maybe you have had a mystery sewing project that evolved over time? I’d love to hear from you.
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