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Victoria Findlay Wolfe's Playing with Purpose: A Quilt Retrospective
Take a deep look inside the evolution of one of today's most important modern quilt artists. Always fascinated by color, pattern, and design, Victoria Findlay Wolfe found her life's true joy in quiltmaking. Her diverse and exciting body of work stirs quilters worldwide to dig deeper, take risks, and experiment with fabric. This beautifully photographed retrospective contains photos of more than one hundred of Wolfe's inspiring quilts and the stories behind them.
- GenresQuilting
162 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2023
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 20, 2019
I Am Not Perfect And That is OK is the title of a quilt by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. In her new book Playing With Purpose one of her first messages is that creativity and improvisation in art entails making mistakes. It is part of the process and one should not be dejected when things go awry.
Give yourself permission, she advises, to let your work evolve and change. Allowing your work to evolve organically means letting go of set expectations.
It is OK to set aside a project until you have a clear vision or new skill set to complete it. But don't expect to reach some fantasy of perfection. Worrying about perfection brings negativity and failure.
Your work should bring joy. Creating a quilt should be playful. Don't overthink it.
We worry too much about color matching and using a limited fabric palette. Wolfe's work breaks out of such self-imposed limitations. Forget the 'rules'. There are no rules. There is what works, what tells your story.
Few quilt artists are as creative with preprinted fabrics as Wolfe.
Learn new skills, Wolfe encourages. Break out of your comfort zone. As an artist, Wolfe is always evolving.
Tell the quilt police (in your head and outside) where to go. It's your fabric, your time, your memories, your joy. Just make!~from Playing with Purpose by Victoria Findlay Wolfe
It is wonderful to study these pages of Wolfe's inspiring quilts.
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Give yourself permission, she advises, to let your work evolve and change. Allowing your work to evolve organically means letting go of set expectations.
It is OK to set aside a project until you have a clear vision or new skill set to complete it. But don't expect to reach some fantasy of perfection. Worrying about perfection brings negativity and failure.
Your work should bring joy. Creating a quilt should be playful. Don't overthink it.
We worry too much about color matching and using a limited fabric palette. Wolfe's work breaks out of such self-imposed limitations. Forget the 'rules'. There are no rules. There is what works, what tells your story.
Few quilt artists are as creative with preprinted fabrics as Wolfe.
Learn new skills, Wolfe encourages. Break out of your comfort zone. As an artist, Wolfe is always evolving.
Tell the quilt police (in your head and outside) where to go. It's your fabric, your time, your memories, your joy. Just make!~from Playing with Purpose by Victoria Findlay Wolfe
It is wonderful to study these pages of Wolfe's inspiring quilts.
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
December 21, 2024
I am looking at some of Wolfe's books as she will be featured in a February workshop with Quiltfolk. This 2019 collection is a retrospective of her then-35 years of quiltmaking. All about process: play, purpose, no mistakes, permission, awareness, looking and seeing, joy, and what's next. No patterns, but many full-color pictures of quilts she has made. My favorites are page 49, "Double-edged love," one of her takes on a double wedding ring design with lots of negative space which made her work stick in my mind as I encountered it around my divorce; and page 12, "Beatrice's quilt," a take on Gee's Bends quilts (love the colors).
August 5, 2019
A gorgeous book! I loved hearing Victoria tell about her process.
When I looked at her photo next to those bolts of fabric, I just wondered what it would be like to have access to all that fabric!
My favorite part was where she shows you how the makes the exact same quilt, but changes the emphasis to different parts of the quilt block. How amazing to be able to think of these ideas and then to execute them.
When I looked at her photo next to those bolts of fabric, I just wondered what it would be like to have access to all that fabric!
My favorite part was where she shows you how the makes the exact same quilt, but changes the emphasis to different parts of the quilt block. How amazing to be able to think of these ideas and then to execute them.
September 17, 2019
I don't usually include the many quilt books I read on my list because frankly most of the don't involve much 'reading' being mostly collections of patterns. However this beautifully illustrated retrospective also gives you plenty to read and digest as Victoria reflects on her creative practise.
July 31, 2019
Impressive collection of quilts and ideas by an artist who did not plan to be a quilter.
March 5, 2023
Her retrospective on quilts she has made and impetus behind the designs. Only one quilt stood out as one I would like to make. Page 33, Summer of Stars, 2011.
March 27, 2023
Really good book on this famous modern quilter, her body of work, her process, and her approach.
May 3, 2025
Of all the bazillion quilting books that I have read, including Wolfe's others, this is the one that most makes me want to go make a quilt!
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews