KAITLYN McMahon's painstakingly crafted quilt has ties to her family's experience of the drought and her relationship with her grandmother.
It's also been selected as one of the best Textiles and Design major works from last year's Higher School Certificate and included in the Shape 2020 exhibit, which is showing at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
The exhibit features outstanding works from the HSC Textiles and Design, Industrial Technology and Design and Technology courses.
"It was quite strange because I haven't seen it in months," said Kaitlyn, 18, who attended Merewether High but is now living in Sydney and studying science.
"To see it ironed and pressed it was very exciting."
Kaitlyn said her quilt was inspired by a drought-torn landscape.
"A lot of my family is out near Dunedoo and they were having to seriously consider buying water for the first time," she said.
"My aunt was texting my Mum photos of their property and it was pretty bleak. Those photos were what I modelled my project off."
She said her quilt featured machine sewing, machine embroidery and hand sewing and was made from cotton grown in NSW.
"To make the textures I used corn that was grown on NSW farms and I rolled it in paint and used it as a printing block to create patterns on my fabric," she said. "I used rusty pieces of metal and I wrapped it up in white cotton and let the rust stains be the orange dirt colours."
Kaitlyn said she poured hundreds of hours into the work.
Before COVID-19, students would have worked on their projects on the school's sewing machines in allotted periods, but she said remote learning meant she could spend every spare minute on the machine at home, which was a "release and really helped me get through COVID".
She said she learned how to sew from and grew up sewing with her grandmother.
"She could point me in the right direction when I was getting really stuck."
Shape also features former Toronto High student Nicholas White's Industrial Technology electronics major work, a remote controlled and battery-powered tank with a Nerf gun.
He designed and built it using new and recycled components, laser cutting and 3D printing and also built the 10 circuits inside.
Former Warners Bay High student Méabh Nash's Textiles and Design major work is a transparent PVC raincoat with grids of vintage milk and beverage caps, plus pinwale corduroy straight-legged pants.
