The Quilting Path: A Guide to Spiritual Discover through Fabric, Thread and Kabbalah - Hardcover

Silk, Louise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1683364163 ISBN 13: 9781683364160

Publisher: SkyLight Paths, 2006

Synopsis

Quilting is the miracle of giving new life and purpose to fabric scraps. It can rejuvenate your spiritual life too.

We affirm that life is here and now in our quilting and its ability to enable our journey. It is the vehicle for our continuing movement along our lifetime of efforts. Our quilts allow both the goal and the process in one magnificent creation after another. Our quilting generates the perfect combination of faith with action, hope with realism, and the universal with the particular, so that we are blissful and grateful in our co-creation experiences.
―from the Conclusion

What can you learn about yourself through quilt making? What deeper symbolism can you find in the act of cutting and piecing? How can this simple activity help you make your way down a spiritual path?

Delve into these questions and more in this imaginative book that will become your spiritual friend, your teacher and your sanctuary. Contemporary quilter Louise Silk takes you through her own quilting journey to discover how the process of making a quilt can be used to explore and strengthen your own spirituality. Each chapter introduces a universal human attribute organized according to the mystical tradition of Kabbalah, relates it to a personal life practice and then applies the attribute and the practice to an original quilt project.

Anyone from the novice to the needlework expert―and from any faith tradition―will be nourished and gratified by the patchwork and appliqué experiences offered in this creative, engaging book. These ten projects, carefully designed for you, include:

• One-Patch Utility Quilt
• Log Cabin Quilt
• String Pieced Pillows
• Straight Furrows Baby Blanket
• Quilting Carry-all Bag
• Patchwork Prayer Shawl
• Folk Art Appliqué Quilt
• Remembrance Crazy Quilt
• T-shirt Quilt
• Rail Fence Signature Tablecloth
• Plus dozens of variations ...

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Take up your quilt making in a whole new state of mind.

Whether it's the practical salvaging of fabric scraps, the comfort of repeating familiar steps over and over or the opportunity for colorful artistic expression, any quilter knows the satisfaction to be found in the simple act of designing a pattern, piecing fabric and assembling a quilt. But is there a way to develop this traditional craft into a deeper, more mindful practice?

Let this imaginative book take you on a journey deeper into your quilt making and your spiritual awareness. Follow the reflections and discoveries of contemporary quilter Louise Silk as she introduces the mystical tradition of Kabbalah as a contemplative system available to all of us, no matter our religious background or past spiritual experience. Your quilt making will become a tool to help you integrate the spiritual lessons of these mystical teachings into your life. And as you work through original project ideas, you will discover the many ways that quilt making can help you express not just your creativity, but also gratitude, hospitality, friendship and joy.

About the Author:

Louise Silk has been quilting professionally for over thirty years. In addition to commissions and exhibitions, she teaches quilting classes and workshops and is an artist member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and a life member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. One of her five solo quilt exhibits, called I Was There, Now I Am Here, traveled to four venues around the United States. Her website, www.silkquilt.com, contains a color gallery of this book's projects and many others.

Louise Silk is available to speak on the following topics:

• The Quilting Path: A Guide to Spiritual Discovery through Fabric, Thread and Kabbalah
• Pieces of Memory
• Transformation: Reuse of Materials for Meaning and Memory
• I Was There: Now I'm Here: Self Discovery through Quilting
• The Sound of a Needle: The Quilt Maker’s Voice

About this edition

• Publisher: SkyLight Paths
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1683364163
• ISBN 13: 9781683364160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192