For Fabric-a-brac founder Josie Brennan, her dad’s hospice respites were “a breath of fresh, caring air” from harrowing hospitalisations. For the hospice table, we’ve a couple of bags from a retired Hawke’s Bay farmer whose hotwater tank blew, drenching sheets crimson courtesy of her bridge cloth. Old friendships are renewed, vintage fabric revisited. Textiles, as the late Aotearoa quilt artist Malcolm Harrison maintained, are loaded with emotion from the moment of their creation. “You stitch your feelings into your work.” And that’s even before the garment is put to use and memories begin to infuse the fabric.
