Obtain Immediately Quilting To Soothe The Soul: Create Memories For Today, Tomorrow Forever Scripted By Linda Carlson Ready In Booklet

turns out to be less a book on quilting, and more a book about quilts, There are two distinct sections the first talks about memorial quilts, and the second is a set of projects for people who might wish to make a memorial quilt, but need a starting point.


It starts with a rather personal introduction from the author, which bordered far to closely on TMI for my comfort.
The section on memorial quilts alternates photo galleries and picture heavy essays on quilting, which give quite a wide range of perspectives on the idea of creating quilts as mourning and memorial.
The first 'photo gallery' is nine pages of modern memorial quilts with personal stories, These stories were less confronting than the introduction, I think in part because the author mixes the first person statements by the creators artists mourners with her own more dispassionate commentary, keeping the tone quite light.
The first essay is a historical perspective, starting with the earliest known buried quilts, working through multiple time points and places, to end with modern American quilters.


The second quilt gallery is titled 'TheQuilt Gallery' and shows some of the quilts one place she listsas having been produced, although that may have been only one part of the project created and/or donated in response to the World Trade Centre attacks.
The final essay in this section is "A Comparison ofth andth Century Quilting Motivations" which I was too overwhelmed to actually read.


The projects section focuses very strongly on creating the overall pictures, and other than one wholecloth quilt where some details are given regarding thread, the details of how to go about quilting the pieces are almost completely missing.
Instructions such as "Lightly mark the top with the suggested motif or quilt as desired" or "Quilt as desired and bind" were typical, and highly frustrating.
The images,

even when not explicitly JudeoChristian in nature were reinterpreted that way, with names that indicated their religious associations "Heavenly Harp" or with inclusion of a bible in the photograph.
While this was more notable earlier in the book, I was a bit swamped by it towards the end, and was generally uncharitable about the whole thing.
These two aspects, of the glossing over of quilting, and the overwhelming religious nature of the section, meant that I wish I had not read this book.


while for the author, this may have related to spirituality as well, I didn't read it that way.
Being from a tradition where spirituality is private, ugh, so uncomfortable,
Contemporary quiltmakers are renewing the tradition of preparing a commemorative, mourning or memorial quilt, This title features more thamprojects with patterns for quilters to preserve precious memories, mourn the loss of a loved one and celebrate life's high and low points.
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