Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish by Sue Bender

This book was given to me as a gift with the proviso that I return it to the giver when finished. I read it quickly and then read it again slowly, over a period of months. It has a simple, clear style: the short paragraphs remind one of a literally simple but intellectually dense Buddhist discussion on wakefulness and being. Author Bender makes a journey that many of us might make in a lifetime: from a cluttered, busy, “what am I missing?” lifestyle to one that is far less dense. “You are missing nothing important,” a Buddhist might say.

One day many years ago, Bender the artist saw some old Amish quilts used to showcase men’s tweed clothing in an artful display in a boutique on Long Island. She went back several times to view the quilts, and realized that there was something understated and truly unique in the style:

”Odd color combinations. Deep saturated solid colors: purple, mauve, green, brown, magenta, electric blue, red. Simple geometric forms: squares, diamonds, rectangles. A patina of use emanated from them…

The basic forms were tempered by tiny, intricate black quilting stitches. The patterns—tulips, feathers, wreaths, pineapples, and stars—softened and complemented the hard lines, and the contrast of simple pattern and complex stitchery gave the flat, austere surface an added dimension.

At first the colors looked somber, but then—looking closely at a large field of brown—I discovered that it was really made of small patches of many different shades and textures of color. Greys and shiny dark and dull light brown, dancing side by side, made the flat surface come alive. Lush greens lay beside vivid reds. An electric blue appeared as if from nowhere on the border.

The relationship of the individual parts to the whole, the proportion, the way the inner and outer borders reacted with each other was a balancing act between tension and harmony…How could a quilt be calm and intense at the same time?”

Bender the artist sought, and found, a way into the community that could produce such work. She lived with different groups of Amish for periods of weeks over a period of years in Iowa and Ohio. She learned that the larger group called “Amish” has different sects which live differently, but generally it is a group which focuses on living as a community, each producing what it can so that the whole functions harmoniously.

She did work on a quilt or two, but mostly she was involved in understanding the lifestyle in which one person might produce art but whose work is as prized as someone with lesser skills. This joy in the process, rather than the product or the glory, seemed profound to Bender. She developed an attachment for the nine-patch pattern, and in one of the last chapters, pulls her experiences together in nine observations that serve to calm and direct her when life threatens to subsume her once again.

1. Patch #1 VALUING THE PROCESS/VALUING THE PRODUCT
2. Patch #2 LIVING IN TIME
3. Patch #3 CELEBRATING THE ORDINARY
4. Patch #4 HOME
5. Patch #5 COMMUNITY
6. Patch #6 LIFE AS ART
7. Patch #7 LIMITS AS FREEDOM
8. Patch #8 POWER OF CONTRAST
9. Patch #9 CHOICE

Bender worked to eliminate the clutter from the book, so it is calming to read and has many one-liners that make good daily fare for musing and developing one’s spiritual muscle. One of my favorites: “I learned there is nothing simple about the ninepatch.”

The line drawings decorating the book are just the right touch, and the color plates chosen for the removable dust jacket also leave one looking and thinking deeper. All in all, Bender has succeeded in creating something lasting that can help us get through the bad “patches” in our own lives, and seek the serenity of being at home in our own skins. “Miracles come after a lot of hard work.” A joy, and a classic.


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The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

I am a quilter. I should state that at the outset. But I don't make quilts like many other people make quilts. I admire lots of tiny little pieces and stitches, but mine are...mine. They sometimes resemble something you've seen before, but sometimes they are something completely different. It depends on the fabric. Fabric is usually my starting point, not the pattern. Anyway…

I initially resisted this series but I was desperate one day for an audiobook and my library had this first in the series. What kept me listening was partly the story: it reminded me of anything by Maeve Binchy because so many of readers’ wildest desires are quilted in that we can't resist. The other reason was that the speech patterns and cadence of the reader was so similar to the speaking voice of a person I know that I listened simply to hear how she would react to situations and how she would pronounce words.

Chiaverini is really very good. I enjoyed imagining the world created here, and like every other quilter out there, would love to have opportunities like those described in this novel. It is an excellent beginning to a series which I am sure has inspired more than one quilt. Chiaverini generously shares terms, techniques, and quilt names, all of which are candy to those of us who attempt these things every day. Even describing such things to someone outside the circle is difficult, but Chiaverini manages very well. She is the teacher we all wish we had.

I love the voice of the reader for the Playaway audiobook, Christina Moore. I have tried to locate a copy of the Mp3 audio file for my friend whose voice Christina’s resembles, but have not been able to locate a digital copy outside of a library. I will continue to try to find a digital download for my friend, but encourage interested “readers” to listen to any of the series books that Christina narrrates, especially since, if you are working on a quilt, it is a wonderful story to keep you working far after you would have thought you were finished for the day.


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Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee by Alissa Haight Carlton & Kristen Lejnieks

Several of the quilts featured in this book stopped me in my tracks. The book also helped me remember that I have a bevy of sewing sisters who never feel they have the time to take on a big quilting project, but like the idea of having a quilt of their own. Sending around a pattern, plan, and scraps of fabric to a group of people and asking them to make two or three blocks takes the pain out of making a quilt top.

Many of the quilts featured in this book have large patches of solid fabric, which showcase the great choices of patterned fabric. I always knew simpler designs calm me and don't grow tiresome, but usually it is fabric, rather than design, that gets my creative juices flowing. Not in this case. You will also be able to use fabric scraps from your stash in many of the designs.

So, give this book a whirl--it will definitely spark some desire to be involved in a virtual quilting bee. Choose a design and specify a finished size for the blocks. Then the coordinator for a quilt sends fabric pieces out to the group, and your group sends back the blocks. The coordinator puts it all together creatively, quilts it up and voilà! You have a quilt with far less effort and with the individual creative sparks your group adds. Of course, then you help everyone else with their designs...so everyone learns as they go, without stress.

Many of the women participating in collating this book have websites which are sure to make your life interesting. Check out a few: Philistine Made; Film in the Fridge; Unraveled; Looking In. Who wants to start a quilting circle?


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Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match by Susan Briscoe

I bought this book years ago because I couldn't resist it. It has gorgeous ideas for making detailed and highly structured quilt blocks--something I don't usually do. There is something calming about structure. Somehow, underneath all the flow that is my usual style, I must be a highly formal, structured individual. Scratch that. Clearly delineated lines give me something to work within. It works with gardens. It works with food creation. It works with quilts. And already, looking over this book again with an eye to the new indigo-like shashiko-looking fabric I found while at a world quilt show last week, I have already begun to see how I would modify the structures to retain the sense, but not the look of the originals. This stuff is really gorgeous, don't get me wrong. But it is not me. That's probably a good thing.

Now, this book: It has detailed instructions on completing some real stumpers: inset seams, triangle squares, and special piecing techniques are all explained. Color pictures, and enlargeable diagrams are included. I don't think there is anything she missed. It is a spur to creativity, and an aid to completing one's vision. If it isn't exactly what I need, that is probably because she's written another book that probably covers what I think I need: Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks: The Calm, Neutral Collection. I'll have to get it and find out. Briscoe did a brilliant job on this series. If you haven't created something wonderful from these books, you probably haven't tried yet.


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