Modern Quilt Perspectives (my favorite page)…

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This is my favorite page in the entire book: the dedication…

There are actually two stories to this page: the words and the design. First the words…

Whenever I finish a quilt, Bee asks me who the quilt is for, and more often than not it is for her, or for someone else in our family, which means that she will at least be able to share it. And in the early days of my quilting nearly all of the quilts I made were indeed for her, so as the quilts kept being for her, it sort of became a routine: she would ask and I just had to look at her and she would say that all of the quilts are for her. Hence the dedication…

The thing is that it is also true figuratively; everything I make (especially in this book) is about a worldview, a way of seeing and living, and it is that worldview that I want to share with her (and now Babbit). Through the quilts (and now teaching Bee to quilt) I am showing her the world as I see it and as I hope it can be. In this way all of the quilts, even the ones that are not physically for her, are indeed for her…

But the thing is I also love how this page turned out; I love that post-it note. You see, it came from this photo in the materials section of the book:

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I always have post-its around the studio to leave myself notes and reminders, on which to scribble some detail of a design or a tangental thought. I consider them to be an essential part of making quilts, so they went into the book. And as we were setting up this photo someone (either Christine or Julie, my editor and the designer) told me to write something on the top post-it. They just wanted anything there, but I just couldn’t write something that didn’t have any real meaning; even it it couldn’t be read in the photo I would know what it said, and those details matter to me. (Yep, my neuroses know no bounds…)

So, after delaying things for far too long I wrote the dedication I had planned; I loved the idea of that slipping into the photo. And after the shot, Julie snatched up the post-it to keep it; I am pretty sure she saw the dedication page in her head at that moment. And as she was holding the post-it I walked over and asked if it could be used for the dedication page; I saw the same page in my head at the same time. And I am pretty sure Christine saw it too…

And it was actually at that moment that my fears about how the book would turn out (the designer in me has trouble letting things go). I knew that Julie and Christine would lovingly shepherd my book into the form it needed…

I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of great pages in this book. I mean there are all those great words. Oh, and the quilts. But this page kind of stands in for the whole project for me; it cuts to the essence of everything that came before the book, everything that went into it, and everything I hope it will be…

And it also makes Bee smile every time she sees it or thinks of it. She knows this book is yet another love letter from me to her…

Now to start writing one for Babbit…

-t

PS: Five days until the official release date. You can pre-order it from Amazon and have it delivered on the release date so you don’t have to wait. Just saying, ’cause I know how much waiting hurts…

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