🪡Restoring a Quilt, Re-imagining an Heirloom

This project centres on a quilt handmade by my late maternal grandmother, Audrey.

The quilt is a small pink patchwork twin that has lived with me since childhood. Over time it has faded, frayed, and worn thin in places, revealing the disintegrating batting beneath. What was once an ordinary object of daily life now feels like a fragile record of time, a material trace of care, labour, and family history.

Rather than simply repairing the quilt, this project asks what it might mean to restore and reinterpret it as a new artwork, building upon the original vision of my grandmother.

Through techniques like visible mending, embroidery, appliqué, and patchwork, I will carefully repair the quilt while introducing subtle new interventions of my own. The process will treat wear not as damage to be erased, but as an invitation for creativity. It begins a layered conversation between my grandmother’s original work and my contemporary textile practice; enabling an inter-generational collaboration from the beyond.

🪡The Project

During my month-long artist residency at Fool’s Paradise, the former Scarborough cottage and studio of Canadian painter Doris McCarthy, I will restore and creatively transform the quilt while documenting the process on 16mm film.

The project will result in two interconnected works:

1. A restored and re-imagined quilt that blends preservation with contemporary embellishment;
2. A short film documenting the process and reflecting on themes of memory, care, and inheritance.

🪡About Me

I am a filmmaker and textile artist working across narrative film, digital media, and textile-based animation.

I hold a BFA in Film Production and Screenwriting from York University, where my thesis film combined live-action filmmaking with stop-motion embroidery (seen below). That project marked the beginning of my interdisciplinary practice.

My film/tv work includes the Streamy Award–winning digital series I created, Cold, as well as Quibi's Don’t Look Deeper, a sci-fi series I executive produced. My films have screened internationally at festivals including the London Short Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and the BFI.

While my film projects have reached global audiences, my textile work has largely existed in personal spaces. Many quilted pieces have been made as gifts and shared within my community. This project brings these two strands of my practice together again and gives my textile work a chance to be seen in the realm of "art".

🪡The Artist Residency

The residency will unfold over four weeks this spring at Fool's Paradise, the late Doris McCarthy's cottage on the Scarborough Bluffs.

Week 1: Preparation and Deconstruction
Setting up the studio, carefully taking apart the quilt, stabilizing fragile sections, and preparing materials.

Week 2: Structural Restoration
Reassembling and reinforcing the quilt’s original structure while preserving my grandmother’s design.

Week 3: Creative Interventions
Introducing new stitched elements through embroidery, appliqué, and visible mending.

Week 4: Completion and Filming
Finishing the quilt and documenting the completed work within the landscape surrounding the cottage.

Throughout this time I will also be filming the process for the accompanying short documentary on 16mm film with a Bolex camera. 

🪡Why I’m Crowdfunding

Due to the short space of time between finding out my application was successful and the month I was given for my residency, the art grants I have applied to (Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council) will not have a verdict until after my residency and principal photography is complete. These funds will hold the project over until my Artist Residency is complete and we enter post production. This money will go toward:

• 16mm film ($115 per 100ft = 2.47 minutes)
• Honorariums for the Cinematographers and Sound Recordist
• Equipment rental (Bolex Camera, Lenses, Light Meter)
• Quilting materials (Fabric, batting, thread, notions)

Any funds raised over the initial ask will be used to purchase additional 16mm film and to increase the amount of the honorariums to my crew members.

🪡Why This Work Matters

Quilts, mended garments, and handmade textiles often exist at the intersection of art, function, and "women's work". They carry traces of the people who made them and the lives they moved through.

By restoring this quilt rather than letting it continue to wear out, I am interested in what can emerge when repair becomes a creative act. The process honours the past while allowing something new to take shape.

Concurrently by shooting on 16mm at a time where it is increasingly difficult and expensive to do so, I am honouring the tactility and timelessness of quilting by capturing it in a medium of equal value. 

Thank you for considering contributing to my project!

Emily