This quilt started life one day several years ago, when I got a haircut, came home, and spent the rest of the afternoon constructing a suit of armor out of Dove bar boxes I had been saving for the purpose, giving myself paper cuts under my armpits, suffering for my art. I took these self portraits on my phone and then used them to make repeat pattern designs which I had printed onto fabric. When the quilt was in progress, I used parts of it for a drawing class assignment where I layered paper of varying transparencies over the patchwork (read more about that here). But I always knew it would eventually become a full quilt. And now it finally has. I’m making peace with myself, with my suboptimal coping mechanisms, with my body’s size and shape. And this busy quilt has been one step in that process.

The patchwork text says, “The last box” and “for real this time”, a sort of joke in our house after how many times I have said it about these treats that I tend to binge one after another when I’m sad or stressed. The text around the border says, “If you never kick this habit I love you No matter what I love you I love you you’re okay”. I wanted to use sort of circular phrases so it would make sense no matter where the viewer’s eyes started.

Radical Acceptance Quilt, Dove Bar Edition. 2021. 55”x75”. Photos by Mitch Hopper.