toni stone
wonder works studio
401 buck hollow road
fairfax, vermont 05454 July 16, 1996
patchwork quilt
a patchwork quilt and a book of writings are the same in many ways, things put together that were not together before……
squares of fabric sewed side by side that perhaps would not have been displayed otherwise that way. this book is like a patchwork of ideas, little ideas, big ideas, prayers, and lectures.
this book is a collection from many days and a few years.
people have called my quilts random design but these people who marvel at the no pre-described design of my quilts are the people who demand that a quilt be sewed together in some already design that has been done before. as for me, i am a random, that is, i can not tell ahead what it will turn out to be, only that it will turn out! when i look back on the work i will have a name for the design, but while i am doing it, the design is doing me.
i am amazed as we set more and more people up to quilt here, that so few of them trust an approach, not following someone else’s design. hardly anyone thinks they have what it takes to come out with a pleasing quilt, simply selecting what they like, having it fit together, life itself is a patchwork quilt of people have to copy a design for a quilt, how are they living their lives?
life gives and life takes away, blessed be the quilt, that symbolizes what did, and did not, get into the design. a quilt is a symbol.
i am a free quilter. making it up as i go along, looking back on how wonderful it all came together. i do purposefully select and reject fabrics. i do juxtaposition pieces in a conscious way as a variation of color tones. then its serendipity after that. i can admire a well thought out design but i feel more at home under something flowing. maybe i will change, i don’t think so.
