Explore the Quilt

The collection of UK AIDS Quilts were made between 1989 and 1996 to commemorate friends, lovers and family members who passed away from an AIDS related illness during this time. These individual panels were never sewn into quilts and often refer to a single person or message. You can zoom in to some of the specific details listed below.

A large blue panel, with the name Fiona Johnson and a picture of her beneath. Around the panel are various squares, some of sites like the Eiffel Tower, some of poetry and art. One contains a poem and a line drawing of a dove that reads:

‘Fiona / Such courage in such frail grace

Not every dove that leaves ‘ the protecting love of sheltered walls / will leap with joy into an unclouded blue. / Some too hasty, wings untried, will fall, /And others the bright eyed hawk will take.

You, my dear, my fair high dancer / Took strange, dark ways to find the stars, / and tangled in clouds were lost. / And yet, returned. And yet, were found. /Finding yourself at last / Forever Loved.’

Fiona, who was also known to friends at different times as Liz and Lily, was a junior school teacher who had grown up in Oxford before moving to London. She was warm, gentle and a wonderful listener, and those who knew her loved her. By around 1990 she had returned to Oxford, working for one of the colleges, and it was there that she disclosed her diagnosis. Her health declined and she died in early 1993, a few weeks before her fortieth birthday. Her panel was made with contributions from friends and family, organised by her mother Kay.