Quilting Lessons: Notes From The Scrap Bag Of A Writer And Quilter

In the middle of a successful academic career art historian Janet Catherine Berlo finds herself literally at a loss for words. A severe case of writer's block forces her to abandon a book manuscript mid-stream; she finds herself quilting instead. Scorning the logic, planning, and order of scholarship and writing, she immerses herself in free-wheeling patterns and vivid colors. For eighteen months she spends all day, every day, quilting. In the midst of what she calls her "quilt madness" Berlo questions why her successful career is momentarily halted at mid-life. This book penetrates to the very heart of women's lives, focusing on their relationships to family and friends, to work, to daily tasks. It is a search for meaning at mid-life, a search for an integration of career and creativity.

Editorial Reviews

This intriguing and unusual memoir deals with an 18-month period in the mid-1990s when Berlo, a professor of art history and of gender and women's studies at the University of Rochester, was afflicted by writer's block. A successful academic author (The Early Years of Native American Art History), Berlo abandoned a book she had nearly completed and began devoting a major portion of her time to quilt making. This art, practiced most often by women and hence, she says, undervalued, appealed to her sense of play, which had been overshadowed by the need for precision in her professional responsibilities. Berlo was drawn to create what she termed "Serendipity Quilts" that relied on intuitive craftsmanship and a thoughtful use of color rather than precise patterns. With her two sisters, both experienced quilters, she undertook an apprenticeship that not only drew the three of them closer but also tapped into childhood memories. Berlo's vivid account of historical quilting as well as descriptions of her own projects are so compelling, readers may be inspired to try quilting themselves. During her period of creative renewal, Berlo's father passed away, and she made mourning quilts to cope with and memorialize his death and that of a friend. The artistic flame that was sparked by quilting motivated her desire to play in the kitchen, where she concocted mouthwatering delights such as "Delectable Mountain" meringues based on a quilt pattern of the same name the recipes for which she includes in her book. Most of all, Berlo credits the art of quilt making with teaching her to take joy in the process rather than the finished product and to accept messiness and patience as valuable parts of creativity. Illus. not seen by PW. (Apr. 17) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.