Patchwork Exhibition by László Józsefné
Covid Memorial Quilt
"In the autumn of 2019, I was among the first people to contract the coronavirus.
I was admitted to the infectious diseases ward of Korányi Hospital in serious condition.
Fortunately, my condition soon began to improve. Once I no longer needed to be connected to oxygen, and my eyes became too tired even for reading, I asked my family to bring me fabric and sewing supplies.
I began sewing. The most obvious choice was the English patchwork technique, which soon covered the ward's only dining table, but no one seemed to mind. Even my fellow patients watched with interest to see what I was creating, and the nurse in her protective gear even encouraged me: someone with so much will to live, such diligence, and such talent is sure to make a full recovery.
After a few weeks, I was finally able to leave the hospital, and I have since made a full recovery.
So perhaps that is how quilting saved my life.
Later, at home, I assembled the blocks I had sewn in the hospital into a quilt. Only when I saw the finished quilt as a whole did I realize that - perhaps instinctively - I had framed the cheerful, colorful blocks with the colors of mourning.
The quilting, of course, was also done by hand. As I worked on the quilt, each time I picked it up, I felt that every stitch represented a held breath, a tear shed by those who mourned, and the sorrow in the eyes of children left orphaned by the pandemic. Perhaps that is why it took me so long to finish it.
This is how the world's sorrow, along with its will to go on living, was stitched into the blanket.
With love,
László Józsefné Éva"
1203 Budapest, Bíró Mihály utca 7.
Phone: 1/283-0872
Email: fszek2002@fszek.hu