Thomas Knauer

When a stranger learns that I make quilts I am told stories about grandmothers who made quilts. You can see in their eyes the warm memories they hold dear of sleeping under grandma's quilt, or draping a quilt over a table to build a sleeping tent, or carrying it to some shady park for a picnic. Quilts are made to be used. And they are often used up, like the one my mother-in-law gifted us in the 1980s, sun-bleached with one fabric completely decayed.

Some quilts are so precious they are folded away and stored in a closet or a cedar chest.

Every quilt is also the product of its creator's love of beauty and design, a tactile work of art, the quilter selecting colors and prints and designs.

Quilts can be born out of frugality, using up and preserving, fabrics, like the first quilt my mother-in-law made for my husband to take to college using fabric scraps from curtains and pajamas and clothing she had made. Quilts are no longer items of necessity as during the Depression, a need to repurpose precious fabrics for warmth. But we love fabrics that come with a memory.

Quilts symbolize values held by the maker, from love of family to love of country, from a symbol of healing to a symbol of protest. They represent a choice for the hand-made and the unique over the impersonal and factory manufactured.

Quilts tell a story. Quilts can change our perception. Quilts are comfort. Quilts connect us with each other even when separated by time and space.

Quilts are created for joy, and for protest. They are vehicles for self-expression, sharing what we love and what we fear. Quilts are personal and they are communal. They are to be used today and to be preserved for future generations.

No one description can explain a quilt.
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Thomas Knauer grew up in Amish country, an area associated with quilting, but his first personal encounter with quilts was the AIDS Memorial Quilt, opening his eyes to the many uses quilting can assume. A contract to design quilting fabric finally led him to make his first quilt. Knauer learned first hand of the power of quilts when he gave that quilt to his daughter, whose reaction of excitement and love impelled him to make more quilts.

Knauer's protest quilts make us uncomfortable. Like the Trayvon Martin quilt based on a shooting target, Tea and Skittles and the Sunbonnet Sues carting AK-47s in One Child is too Many. I personally respond to quilts of protest as much as respond to antique quilts or contemporary quilts made to be used.

Why We Quilt addresses the many motivations behind creativity in the quilt world. Artist Statements are illustrated with photographs of the quilter's work. Voice of Quilting offers insights into the most important quilters of today, from traditionalists to innovative art quilters, including Denyse Schmidt, Joe Cunningham, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Lynette Anderson, Mary Fons and Marianne Fons, and Chawne Kimber. Each chapter includes Quilting Vocab Explained, clarifying quilt concepts discussed in the chapter.

Knauer writes with love and emotion of the history of quilting, sharing antique and contemporary quilt photographs.

Each chapter offers a deeper look into the reasons why we quilt:

We Quilt to Connect with a Rich Tradition: The roots of American quilting
We Quilt to Explore and Express our Creativity: The maturation of quilting
We Quilt to Move Beyond Modern Consumer Culture: The Introduction of Standardization
We Quilt to Create a Connection with Loved Ones: Other voices in American quilting
We Quilt to Change the World: The role of signature quilts in reform movements
We Quilt Because We Can--and Because We Cannot Help but Do So: The American Bicentennial and Quilting's great revival

Why We Quilt is a beautiful book. There is a wonderful diversity and range of quilts and quilters. Quiltmakers will find kindred spirits. As a quiltmaker who loves both traditional and antique quilts and contemporary quilts, especially those that address contemporary issues of justice, I found much to enjoy. Each time I open the book I find something to inspire.

I received access to a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.… (mehr)

I admit I fell for the title first and when I read the book blurb, I knew I needed to request it. Yes coloring books are all the craze but that wasn’t why this title caught my eye, the two words Design and Workbook were. My art education ended in jr. high. Yes, I took an architecture history course in college, but other than spending time strolling through the Met and MoMA, that’s about as formal as my art education gets. It’s a challenge now working with artists and those special people who just “get” color. I am challenged greatly if asked to mix more than two to three, could this title be what I’ve looked for?

Yes. And it’s so much more.

Knauer has condensed modern art history, color theory, and quilting into 144 pages of an amazing book. It is helpful for those who have aspirations to quilt (such as I do) , those who want to understand the relationship of color and space, and for those who love to color!

After a clear introduction to Knauer and his philosophy to modern art and color, we jump into sections that cover seven aesthetics of modern art. They are organized beautifully and make the book really work.

Each section begins with an overview of the aesthetic. We then see a sample quilt followed by an example in modern art. Following this foundation, there are both design exercises and coloring exercises to cause the reader to test and stretch ideas.

It is the design exercises that set this workbook apart from all the coloring books proliferating on store shelves and provides useful education for all artists. For example, in the section Balance, the reader is asked to add a shape that balances the composition and then another to again throw it into imbalance. Repeating until the desired effect is reached. Wow, it’s not easy. It’s made me stop and think about how I use shape and color value and layout. For more on these experiments please read Quilt Design Coloring Workbook: Why Include Design Experiments???

The appendices includes a summary of modern art movements with selected artists and selected further readings.

I highly recommend this book!

I received an eARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The FTC wants you to know.… (mehr)