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Memento Mori 1 - Stepping Off The Edge. Click image to read about this quilt.
Abstract art with a black figure, vintage clock face, and striped fabric

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Memento Mori 2  - Throw Your Soul Open To The Sun (Be Happy) Click image to read more.
Memento Mori 3 by Annabel Rainbow. A work in progress: mixed media artwork featuring six rectangular sections with blue hues and silver accents, surrounded by handwritten text on a background with various black-and-white patterns.
Artistic quilt featuring a half-face portrait of a person with glasses, surrounded by butterflies, birds, and foliage on a dark textured background. A note among the plants reads 'have wandered into a wild winter garden to enjoy unity.' The border is decorated with a gold geometric pattern.

These two quilts, Memento Mori 1 – Stepping Off The Edge and Memento Mori 2 – Be Happy (Throw Your Soul Open To The Sun), were inspired by a Victorian sampler in the museum’s collection. The original sampler was stitched by a young girl and included a prayer. This led me to think about the idea of memento mori, a Latin phrase meaning “remember you must die.” In medieval and Renaissance art, it was common to include symbols such as skulls, clocks, and fading flowers as a reminder to live a good life because time is short.

In Memento Mori 1, I brought together a number of visual references to that idea. These include a small bronze figure stepping off the edge, a raven, a child’s balancing toy, an honesty seed head in a pot, and stitched quotes from Shakespeare and Omar Khayyám. The quilt is about the passage of time and the idea of stepping into the unknown. Even the clock hands are made from words, based on a phrase I saw on a clock at Snowshill Manor.

Memento Mori 2 continues the theme, but with a slightly different feel. It still reflects on life and death, but the message is more focused on enjoying the time we do have. On one side there is a stitched self-portrait that hints at the skull beneath the skin, and on the other side there are golden crosses and a more celebratory tone. “Be Happy” is stitched into the quilt as a reminder to enjoy the world while we can. The stitching is based on cross-stitch, like the ones found on historic samplers, but I have also used gold leaf and freehand sewing.

Both quilts combine imagery from the museum’s collection with personal and symbolic elements. I have exhibited work in the UK, USA, and Australia, and I am proud these two quilts are now part of the Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum collection. It feels fitting that they began with inspiration from the collection and now belong to it.

Both pieces were purchased by and are now in the collections of Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum.

There is a 3rd quilt in the series which is under construction, but has come to a halt to allow for more thinking time around construction and journey!