Cloths of Heaven

This is a quickly pieced quilt based on my favourite city in the world – Damascus. I made it for an exhibition that was to open in Damascus. I have walked the streets of Damascus many times over the last twenty-six years. It is a wonderful and haunting place which slides back into my dreams while I am at home in Australia. The twisting lanes and overhanging houses of the old walled city lend themselves to gently curving piecing and dense quilting. 

The poetry written on the roadway is Aedh Wishes for Cloths of Heaven by WB Yeats. It has always been one of my most loved pieces and its words evoke both my love of textiles and the alleys and tunneled streets of Damascus

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams