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Quilting to Soothe the Soul: Create Memories for Today, Tomorrow, & Forever
In Quilting to Soothe the Soul, you'll learn how quilters through the ages have turned to quilting and sewing to memorialize the significant moments of our the births, marriages, anniversaries, and deaths of our friends and loved ones. Author Linda Carlson shows you how quilting helps relieve the stress of our everyday lives, while it also serves as a means to record the historic events that shape our world. Besides a breathtaking gallery of gorgeous quilts, including pieces designed as a result of September 11, 2001, and the momentous stories behind them, you can choose from over 15 different quilting projects, so you can sew your own memories.When there is stress in your life, turn to your needle and let the labor of your hands work through the grief in your heart. When there is joy in your life, let your celebration sing in the fabric, threads, and colors of a commemorative quilt sewn with strands of love. Whether you stitch a quilt to be commemorative, mourning, or memorial, the simple act of sewing and quilting will bring you peace.
- GenresQuilting
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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August 16, 2017
This turns out to be less a book on quilting, and more a book about quilts. There are two distinct sections - the first talks about memorial quilts, and the second is a set of projects for people who might wish to make a memorial quilt, but need a starting point.
It starts with a rather personal introduction from the author, which bordered far to closely on TMI for my comfort. The section on memorial quilts alternates photo galleries and picture heavy essays on quilting, which give quite a wide range of perspectives on the idea of creating quilts as mourning and memorial. The first 'photo gallery' is nine pages of modern memorial quilts with personal stories. These stories were less confronting than the introduction, I think in part because the author mixes the first person statements by the creators (artists? mourners?) with her own more dispassionate commentary, keeping the tone quite light. The first essay is a historical perspective, starting with the earliest known buried quilts, working through multiple time points and places, to end with modern American quilters.
The second quilt gallery is titled 'The 9-11 Quilt Gallery' and shows some of the quilts (one place she lists 1152 as having been produced, although that may have been only one part of the project) created and/or donated in response to the World Trade Centre attacks. The final essay in this section is "A Comparison of 19th and 20th Century Quilting Motivations" which I was too overwhelmed to actually read.
The projects section focuses very strongly on creating the overall pictures, and other than one whole-cloth quilt where some details are given regarding thread, the details of how to go about quilting the pieces are almost completely missing. Instructions such as "Lightly mark the top with the suggested motif or quilt as desired" or "Quilt as desired and bind" were typical, and highly frustrating. The images, even when not explicitly Judeo-Christian in nature were reinterpreted that way, with names that indicated their religious associations ("Heavenly Harp") or with inclusion of a bible in the photograph. While this was more notable earlier in the book, I was a bit swamped by it towards the end, and was generally uncharitable about the whole thing. These two aspects, of the glossing over of quilting, and the overwhelming religious* nature of the section, meant that I wish I had not read this book.
* while for the author, this may have related to spirituality as well, I didn't read it that way. Being from a tradition where spirituality is private, ugh, so uncomfortable.
It starts with a rather personal introduction from the author, which bordered far to closely on TMI for my comfort. The section on memorial quilts alternates photo galleries and picture heavy essays on quilting, which give quite a wide range of perspectives on the idea of creating quilts as mourning and memorial. The first 'photo gallery' is nine pages of modern memorial quilts with personal stories. These stories were less confronting than the introduction, I think in part because the author mixes the first person statements by the creators (artists? mourners?) with her own more dispassionate commentary, keeping the tone quite light. The first essay is a historical perspective, starting with the earliest known buried quilts, working through multiple time points and places, to end with modern American quilters.
The second quilt gallery is titled 'The 9-11 Quilt Gallery' and shows some of the quilts (one place she lists 1152 as having been produced, although that may have been only one part of the project) created and/or donated in response to the World Trade Centre attacks. The final essay in this section is "A Comparison of 19th and 20th Century Quilting Motivations" which I was too overwhelmed to actually read.
The projects section focuses very strongly on creating the overall pictures, and other than one whole-cloth quilt where some details are given regarding thread, the details of how to go about quilting the pieces are almost completely missing. Instructions such as "Lightly mark the top with the suggested motif or quilt as desired" or "Quilt as desired and bind" were typical, and highly frustrating. The images, even when not explicitly Judeo-Christian in nature were reinterpreted that way, with names that indicated their religious associations ("Heavenly Harp") or with inclusion of a bible in the photograph. While this was more notable earlier in the book, I was a bit swamped by it towards the end, and was generally uncharitable about the whole thing. These two aspects, of the glossing over of quilting, and the overwhelming religious* nature of the section, meant that I wish I had not read this book.
* while for the author, this may have related to spirituality as well, I didn't read it that way. Being from a tradition where spirituality is private, ugh, so uncomfortable.
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