WHY I QUILT

Why I make Quilts

I am a Bolivian craftswoman who fell in love with the art of patchwork and quilting when living in Pennsylvania, USA. 
Now I live in England where I design and sew quilts and bags.  I bring together inspiration from the vibrant, colourful textiles of Bolivia, the shapes and colours of England’s countryside and from my travels.

About the Quilts

Quilts have three parts – a decorative (patchwork) top, inner wadding/batting and a backing fabric (plain or decorative).  They are secured together by stitches over the whole quilt, often in intricate patterns.

Patchwork, applique and quilting have a long history together. Patchwork was a way of re-cycling saved up scraps of material, stitching them together to make covers. Applique is where scraps of fabric are sewn onto a backing to create pictures and designs.  For hundreds of years people have stitched scraps of fabric together to tell stories and make the covers of warm quilts as I do today.

Although making quilts from scraps came from necessity, care was taken to create attractive designs.  Some shapes and designs are so effective they have continued to be popular. I enjoy reworking these traditional patchwork motifs in colourful ways inspired by my surroundings. 

I also love creating contemporary designs, free to be completely individual, responding to whatever inspires me, however unexpected, such as this Pinball Table.
 
The quilts are made to be used, with cotton tops and backings, 50/50 wadding (50%cotton, 50% polyester) and machine washable. Lately I’ve used fleece as the backing which makes the quilt cosier.

Inspiration to Completion

Every quilt I make is unique, my mind is always full of new designs and colours.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, scenery, a textile, a book, a photo, anything I happen to see that day.
Once I have a picture in my head I get out fabric that might work and make different sets of what I think I want to do.  As I start cutting I realise I have to change things.  More often than not the palette of colours changes, when I mix the geometrical shapes, many times I’ve ended up with a different shape altogether.

Once I have all the pieces it is time to assemble them.  If it’s a traditional pattern it’s easier because I just choose the colours I fell in love with that day and put them in the pattern.
If it’s my own pattern then I leave the pieces arranged together on the floor for a day or two.  I just walk over and around it, look at it, change it about, take photos in case I want to go back.  Sometimes I do go back to the original design.  That’s how it grows, I keep adding things to it and make a big picture.  If I have a time when I keep changing and changing and not getting anywhere that is the time to walk away, leave it, come back another day.  Sometimes the next day it falls into place. When it’s right it just hits me.

Then I sew row by row.  Once the top part of the quilt is done I find a backing that will complement the patchwork, sometimes I make another patchwork for a two-sided quilt. 

The backing needs to be at least 2 inches bigger than the top with the wadding/batting the same size as the backing.  The backing has to be laid right side down, the wadding/batting on top, the patchwork on top with the right side facing up.  Once that’s done I machine quilt them together.

Trying ideas out leaves many discarded samples, I end up with lots of pot holders for the kitchen.  Ones I like I keep in clear plastic bags for future use or to take to our local sewing workshop.

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