"Seed Bank" Miniature Quilts
Protective care and hope for future growing seasons
I’ve been going through a lot of emotions lately. Thinking about climate change, species loss, and something else I think is very connected— the way humans will treat each other as pressure and stress increases— all of this weighs so heavy on me as I watch the news. More than anything, I fear a collective loss of humanity and compassion, regression toward tribalism, and “might-makes-right” thinking. We must hold onto the truth that every human life is equally precious and war is a social and environmental injustice.
I try to take a much larger view and seek comfort in the predictable cycles of nature— birth, growth, death, gestation, and rebirth.
The garden I’ve been working on for two years now is going fallow. The seeds from all the flowers enjoyed by so many insects and birds all summer will fall to the ground, to be covered by fall leaves. There they will sleep until next year when all of this will start over again.
My latest series of mini-quilts is a love letter to this cycle and the human hand that has helped it along for thousands of years in the practice of saving seeds for next year’s crop.
I’ve collected seeds and nuts from the native plants and trees in my yard and I’m making a quilted “seed bank.” Each miniature quilt in this series has the seeds preserved in a tulle capsule. These pieces speak to regeneration of life and how nothing in nature really ends but continues in an endless cycle.
I also like the idea of quilts having this warm, protective connotation. These are makeshift and improvisational. They could easily be pulled apart to plant the seeds or be buried in the ground so that the natural fibers could feed the plant as it grows.
I’ve decided to leave the edges raw and I have incorporated upcycled cloth from old clothing and scraps from other projects. In this way, I hope that these pieces embrace both the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi (embracing imperfection) and Mottainai (nothing going to waste.)
This is a practice of mindfully turning toward tenderness and protection of life in the face of so much violence and destruction in the world. I honestly believe that if we could awaken in every heart care for the smallest threads of life, this world would be a much gentler place.