Joyeux Qiran

Joyeux Qiran is a wedding quilt, made as a gift. Five techniques share the same surface: traditional piecing, double wedding ring, wholecloth, kawandi, and appliqué. Fabrics were gathered from places the couple has lived and travelled. Family members sent handprints on fabric from their homes around the world. Wedding guests signed the quilt on the day; their signatures were embroidered in. Fabric from one of the couple's childhood bedrooms is stitched into the cloth.

The title joins two languages: joyeux is French for joyful; qiran is Arabic for union. I started with the families it was made for: different nationalities, residences, religions, and generations, all meeting at one celebration.

Five quilting techniques run across the same surface: traditional piecing blocks, a double wedding ring, wholecloth sections, kawandi patchwork, and appliqué. I didn't want to resolve them into a single aesthetic; I wanted to hold the multiplicity. I gathered fabrics from the countries and cities the couple has lived in and travelled to. Childhood bedroom fabric from one of them is stitched in. Family members from around the world sent handprints on fabric from their homes. On the day, guests signed the quilt; I embroidered those signatures in afterwards.

The composition reflects the couple. A considered black and white grid runs through one part: discreet, precise. Against it, something more intuitive and vivacious, colour, pattern, movement gathered from everywhere. The two aesthetics sit alongside each other.

I made this as a gift. It records not a single moment but the accumulated geography of two lives, and the many people who helped form them.