Quilts created during Covid pandemic to be celebrated in new exhibition

Quilts created during the Covid pandemic to show “beauty can be born from terrible circumstances” are to feature in a new exhibition.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, Richard Kenyon, an employment lawyer at Fieldfisher, thought up a plan to create a sense of community and reduce isolation through quilting, which he first grew to love in 2014 after suffering a major heart attack and having a quadruple heart bypass.

Initially hoping to bring together his work colleagues, the project grew to incorporate roughly 150 people from all over the UK and abroad, including Mr Kenyon’s neighbour, British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, who designed garments for Diana, Princess of Wales, and Freddie Mercury, among others.

The group collectively made seven quilts which are roughly 1.5m wide and 2.5m tall (5ft by 8ft).

“The project was a little bit like the virus itself, but in a beautiful way – it took a while to get going and then more and more people got involved,” the 58-year-old, who is based in Bermondsey, south-east London, told the PA news agency.

“There’s a big quilting community in Dulwich, south London, that took part and there was a teacher in Pudsey in Yorkshire whose nine-year-old class contributed to the quilts.

“I run a football team and we weren’t able to play during Covid and so arranged Zoom calls which turned into a sewing circle and they all created their own strips for the quilts, some of which were inspired by Newcastle and Manchester United.

“Every day the postman was arriving with more and more of these contributions, which was lovely.”

Speaking about the design of the quilts, Mr Kenyon said he hoped that, when viewed together, they highlight how the project provided a sense of community despite being born out of such isolation.

“Each quilt is made up a series of blocks and each one is A4,” he said.

“In the centre is a red square, which represents the home – so we’re all at home in isolation – and then there are four legs that come out from that which represent the electronic communications network that was keeping us together.

“When you put all the quilts together, the electronic arms link each other with the homes in isolation and when you see them all together, you can see this community.

“There’s so many materials and ideas and colours people have used for their blocks – it’s beautiful.”

Each quilt also features a verse from punk poet John Cooper Clarke’s poem Arts ‘n’ Crafts because Mr Kenyon felt it perfectly encapsulated what the project was about.

“The poem came into my head when I knew lockdown could be a possibility as there’s a line in the poem which goes ‘Time, time, time to slay’ which is about suddenly having time to spare,” he said.

“Everything just really flowed on from that.”

Many contributors also sent Mr Kenyon handwritten letters or emails conveying their happiness at being involved.

The seven quilts will be showcased together for the first time at Poulet, a restaurant and bar, at 37 Maltby Street in Bermondsey, south-east London.

Everyone who has contributed has been invited, and the general public will be able to see the quilts from 12pm-5pm on May 28 and 29.

“The five-year lockdown milestone felt like the right time to finally show them off,” said Mr Kenyon.

“Lockdown is something people have very mixed memories of and I think we’ve come to think of it negatively and forget there were some positives, like when we were clapping for the NHS and there was a general sense of ‘we’re all in this together’.

“I want to remind people that positives and beauty can be born from terrible circumstances.”

Following on from the exhibition, Mr Kenyon hopes the quilts find a “permanent home or permanent loan”.

“They are a piece of history and the amount of people, including cultural icons alongside experienced quilters and absolute beginners who ended up contributing, means (they’re) worthy of being kept and seen more widely,” he added.