Remembrance Day Quilt

Remembrance: A Tribute to Sacrifice

Size: 57” wide X  53.5” high. Perimeter:  221”

Techniques:  

Hand painted poppies, pieced poppies are a variation on the pinwheel design, and machine stitched.

Quilted by: Machine Quilted on a domestic sewing machine.

No other participants have contributed in the design and execution of this work, however, credits are to be given for the poetry and photos.

Credits:

Poetry:

In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae 

‘In Flanders fields, the poppies blow,

Short days ago…

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.’

The Question, by Rudyard Kipling

‘If it be found when the battle clears,

Their death has set me free,

Then how shall I live with myself through the years

Which they have bought for me?’

Death in the Mud, by R.W. Adie   (used with permission)

‘Know why, when wrong is wrong, and right is right, and how to play a noble part.’

Tipperary Blues, by R.W. Adie  (used with permission)

‘The days I treasure are shaped by….

The agony of brothers I’ve lost…and the sisters, oh so fair.’

Machine stitched drawings based on Photos:

Cpl. Andrew J. Eykelenboom, used with permission by the Eykelenboom family

Gunner Allan Adie, used with permission by the Adie family

Quilt Images taken by: Bill Jorgensen

Date completed: January 2008

Artist’s Statement:

For the ultimate sacrifices made on our behalf this innovative wall quilt is a tribute to Canada’s soldiers.  May they rest in peace.   

In his poem, The Question, Rudyard Kipling challenges us most profoundly: 

‘If it be found when the battle clears, their death has set me free,

Then how shall I live with myself through the years which they have bought for me?’

We will remember.

Hennie Aikman