Art Steps by Nicole Barakat

Marhaba, my name is Nicole Barakat. I am a Lebanese artist living on the lands of the Gadigal People. My art practice is all about textiles. From the luscious tactile materials to the careful, time consuming and labour-intensive techniques I have inherited from my grandmothers, my love for textiles is the centre of my world.

One of the many things I make in my practice are hand stitched hexagon quilts that I gift to the children in my family. I use fabric scraps from my own sewing projects and those of my sisters and mother. Each hexagon and piece of fabric tells a story of our family. Although I made these alone, quilts are sometimes made collaboratively, with many hands and storytellers involved.

1. Gather some materials that you have around, including paper (which could be reused from magazines or old books), drawing materials like markers or paints, scissors and a glue stick.
2. You might like to work alone or with your family or friends to make your quilt.
3. Take a moment to think about a story or stories you would like to tell in your quilt. These might be stories about the place where you live, your family, culture and the things that make you happy.
4. Make a list of words or simple drawings that help describe the different parts of your stories. They don’t have to tell the whole story, but rather represent one aspect of your story in some way. They can also be abstract symbols or marks that mean something to you.
5. Use your paper materials to cut out a collection of shapes. These might be all the same, like a hexagon, or you might like to use a collection of various shapes that fit together.
6. Use your drawing materials to record your stories onto your paper shapes through drawing, words or a combination of both.
7. Bring your paper shapes together by gluing the edges and arranging them into a large paper quilt.
8. Hang your quilt up as a memory of your stories. What story will this quilt tell about you in the future?