Uncommon Quilting

Before I forget, I wanted to share this inspiring book by Jeanne Williamson that I recently came across. It would make an ideal gift for someone who loves to quilt, collage, paint or all of the above. The concept behind the book in itself is a very inspiring thing for a designer. Jeanne set out to make a quilt every week for one year. 52 quilts! That dedication alone is so inspiring. And she continued this from 1999 to 2005 until she had 365 quilts. Not quilts in the sense that most people think of them, but smaller scale "art" quilts, for lack of a better description. The materials she uses in many of them are uncommon to say the least...cupcake wrappers, potato bags, newspaper .... along with more traditional things like paint, fabric, stitching.

I love her choice of consistently making them about the same size of about 8x10" so that the resulting collection has a stunning flow but such variety. In the end they seem to be a mental landscape of sorts and record the time, moods and happenings in her life over the course of a year. In looking through the book you can't help but notice how personal the collection is. It leaves the quilter in me thinking differently and the painter in me also a bit changed. While it specifically goes over how to make some of the quilts in the book (see some more images here) the overall urge that I get is to make any one item over and over again. Also to let some things be failures and some things be successes but let all the work speak for the dedication that I have to my craft. Inspiring, no?

Okay-thought you'd wanna see. Back to work. My feet are freezing! Where are those kids' soccer socks.....
xo,AM