Lint voor nationale feestrok 1945 - 1946

This apron, by Maria Visser-Weeda, is made from bits of fabric, stitched together like a patchwork quilt. Each square and rectangle is a different pattern, a different colour, so I can imagine Maria gathering scraps from here and there, holding them up, trying to see what might fit together, in the way that a painter mixes colours. I wonder, what was it like to make this? The slow work of sewing each patch, how each gesture, each stitch, might alter the final form, each one building upon the last. The artist seems to be in conversation with the material, allowing a dialogue between intention and accident. Look closely, and you can see the uneven seams, the slight asymmetry. It makes me think about how painting, like sewing, is not just about the final image, but about the process, the choices, and the conversation between the maker and the material. Maria’s apron reminds us that creativity and the process of making is a conversation between makers across time.