Family Quilt
made with hand designed, block printed textiles
Sewing is a generational art in our family, so my mother and grandmother taught me the skill from a very young age. My mom put a needle in my hand at age five, sat me in front of a machine at age six, and helped me sew my first quilt at age nine. Quilting taught me the hard work, patience, precision, and intention that I believe must go into every design process. In crafting a quilt, the fabric has to be methodically selected, measured, and cut with precision, arranged into a balanced composition, and sewn together with accuracy. A quilt cannot be sewn in haste–one misaligned point can throw off an entire row of fabric pieces, and an 80-inch seam must be carefully ripped out and sewn again.
Quilting has also taught me a lot about love. Love, like quilting, takes hard work and intention. In this world, it is not perfect- sometimes crooked stitches need to be painfully torn out and resewn. Yet in the end, love unifies, and makes pieces that are broken and incomplete whole and beautiful.
Quilting has also taught me a lot about love. Love, like quilting, takes hard work and intention. In this world, it is not perfect- sometimes crooked stitches need to be painfully torn out and resewn. Yet in the end, love unifies, and makes pieces that are broken and incomplete whole and beautiful.
This brings me back to my family– one of the most tangible examples of unifying love in my life. My family’s love is unlike any other I have experienced. It is strong, unconditional, challenging, messy, sacrificial, and beautiful. Like Cicero paraphrases: “When each person loves the other as much as themselves, it makes one out of many.” My mom, dad, brother, and sister are some of the few people I know who, no matter how much I mess up, fail them, or fail myself, will never stop loving me. Our love is what ties us together when pride, arrogance, fear, selfishness and shame tries to tear us apart.
I chose to express this unifying love through the art of quilting that was passed down to me, and personalize it by incorporating a craft that I have been the first to pursue in my family's history- printmaking. Each pattern in this quilt was hand designed, carved, and block printed to represent a different member in my family. Block printing is an artform that–much like quilting–requires patience and a diligent eye for detail. After a block of linolium, wood, or rubber is carved, releif ink must be mixed and carefully rolled onto the carving. When printing patterns, each printing block must be carefully registered in order to keep the pattern consistent throughout the length of the material I am printing on.
Below are descriptions of these hand-printed patterns that represent each of my family member’s unique and beautiful qualities:
With his steady humility and unconditional love, my father provides a strong foundation for our family, like the deep roots of a tree. As rings form every year of a tree's life, he has stuck with my family through the good and bad, and kept us grounded through many storms.
Dad
My mom used to braid my sister’s and my hair every day when we were little. When we would ask her how she became so good at braiding, she would tell us stories of when she was a little girl, and would flee out to her family's stables to braid her horse's hair when her parents were fighting. My mom used the very skillset that she developed out of her family's brokenness to weave our family together through the comforting motherly act of braiding our hair.
Mom
My sister is an avid reader, so her pattern abstractly represents a bookshelf. She is driven, stands firmly in her beleifs, and is extremely loyal. Like closely-set parallel lines, I know that she will never leave my side nor cease to love and support me.
Elyssa
My brother is an Eagle Scout with a love for the outdoors. He has the greenest thumb out of everyone in our family, and a growth mindset like none other. He has a passion for learning that will never die, like an evergreen never loses its needles.
Jonah
Lastly, my pattern resembles a topographic map. I love adventure, but hate feeling lost. There have been several times in my life where I have felt very lost, yet every time, my family's love for me has been a constant that I can hold on to. Like a map, my family helps me navigate through life.