The Quilting Experience

The Quilting Experience: A Celebration of Community and Patchwork Patterns

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Schiffer Publishing

Introducing this book via my own experiance

I took this title to review, knowing that I am not someone who usually connects with quilting as a method. Yes I have learned the skills, but never pressed its meaning and matter - what really is behind the puffs and carefully planned and shaped lines.

Oh how wrong I have been; its taken this long within my career in the arts but because of Wolfe, I may just be a future quilter.

As an artist, I work for the narrative, using this in my everyday - naturally connecting it to my art. I always saw quilting as more of a maths thing. All measured blocks, counted threads etc. Within this ‘experience’ of quilting, I have learned so much - really. I sound like I m here drawing attention to myself - instead of the author in question. However I tell you this, because I believe that there will be many in a simular position, who feel that quilting in not for them.

The books content

Since the lockdown time period, so many of us appreciate the human as just that, a fellow human. When we are in a state of threat - losing connections and all that social aspects of our lives provide - suddenly they matter more. This book connects that community aspect - which of course is natural. As artists we are not entirely solo beings - we learn from others - how would one quilt if one had not been taught to do so? No, we could say we learned from a online source, from a tutorial. But that is still a person - do you see?

Stories and human connection must be important to us

In The Quilting Experience, so many stories are told. Not by the author alone, others too. Its a narrative of warmth, the cosy. The grandmothers who passed down their ideas to their “flock”, the moments and mementoes of matter - whatever they are to us. Having lost my own grandmother who was a key body part in my own human form - I personally value the chapter on ‘Grief’ and ‘Remembering’. Personal stories are told, not hidden. Sometimes we need to unearth more that the polite outer “coat” and delve into each others underwear as it were. This can happen quite naturally within a shared artistic practice. For example, are you a part of a embroidery group? If you have been a member for a while, you WILL have some come and go on more than a cold level. You sit, say on a Saturday morning, all making something, either together as a project or apart. If you have lost your mum, battling cancer or some other life war, do not tell me you leave it at the door - it WILL come and sit with you. It will come into the heart and someone in the room will at least know it. We as humans want to feel like someone else has gone through what we are, so we feel less lonely.

It is divided, not in method name, but in “life matters”. They are things which we my be able to deal with only in our art, ones maybe too close to home or emotional to talk about - grief, ageing….this artist covers it all.

Not just a book of tales, we are taught

Twelve original designs, many patterns pasted in visually…..how to…suddenly quilting seems as important as a visit to a therapist.

Another highlight for me was the chosen imagery - we do not see one age, we see the wider community, sitting together, sharing together….becoming closer, via the time spent not alone, but with company.

A life lesson for me which made me appreciate this book more

When exhibiting my own art today, I came across a little “old” lady - quiet and not willing to tell me much. I stopped her and instead of talking about my own work, I asked her if she herself had any artistic experience. Her face lit up - I learned of all the previous courses she had been on and all the textile artists she had met who had since died - now only their books reside on my shelf, coming out to educate me as an artist, a teacher. Art has a funny way of creating a conversation - making even the shy speak. I think that is why I loved this title so much - Art is not for arts sake, that is one of the key messages within this book.

What is a quilt?

So take a moment, where do we see quilts? At least a few years ago…We saw them on walls, as cushions, clothing us in warmth within our intimate rooms. They share our story more than many other art forms. They reside with us, they know us, they hear us and probably know more secrets about us than our families and best friends. They will have soothed us to sleep, cosseted us when we are broken, the weight of their body may have lulled us to sleep on wakened moments.

So when you go to bed tonight, thank your quilt. It will not look like the arty type of course and it will in general be unseen, held and covered by a protective case.

Final touches

Honestly this book has so much to consider and review that I will be definitely forgetting something. But it is the overall sense and perception of this book which counts. I look up from reading it, knowing that unlike many of the titles I review…this will not be taken or gifted to anyone. Do not read it in one sitting…savour it. Take it out and read the part of it you need the most on that given day. Leave it on the shelf long enough and sadly you will in time experience one of the chapter titles, be is loss, identity….you get the idea.

I give this book universal reccomendation - so please, at least give it a chance?

Purchase this title today.