Permission

I give myself permission to allow the story to change.

I have an idea. I gather my fabrics, I cut a large number of pieces (a “parts department of fabric”), and I play. I push the colors around, I find elements I like, and I give myself permission to look and change my original idea. I don’t want to make the same quilt I made before, so I’m looking for elements I can add or use in a different way than before. I ponder where I am going with an idea. I remove something that does not quite work properly, does not fit well, or is not constructed precisely. I give myself permission to make mistakes. I learn by cutting fabric that can give me an interesting effect. I may abandon the original idea, use the newly found idea, and incorporate it into my current stage of the build. I give myself permission to see all the options.

I do not want to know what the quilt will look like when I start building a quilt. I do not want to know that it contains 556 half-square triangles. I want to cut, make, add, throw out, remake, take something from another project, and let the story change as I go.

All the while I am looking to see what I can do next. Is it telling the story I want to tell? Does the scale fit? Is it balanced? What lines am I creating? Where am I telling people to look? All these questions are answered as I add color and shapes to my design wall. I am looking and watching my own process as I work. Is it ebbing and flowing? Will it surprise me in the end and make the hair rise on my arms? Am I getting that intuitive physical feeling while I am working on it? If not, I have not worked it hard enough.

I ask myself more questions. I look to see what is working or not. I take photos to double-check what I am seeing, because our brains like to take over and fill in the visual without actually seeing. I ask others for what they see, but I only take it as their account and not actual fact for my process. I make what I want and need to make. I make to please myself and no one else. I give myself permission to be selfish in my creative process.

As I work, the story could veer into an entirely different conversation. I can accept that or not. I decide very quickly which way it needs to be driven. I hear the questions. I ask the questions. And I move on. I do not dillydally on making choices. I find that the right answer is the one I am faced with at that moment. There will be time to come up with more ideas, more conversations, but at that very moment, my instinct is the only one that is correct. The more I make, the more questions I ask, the more I am driven to finish and create another idea. Once I have made a complete thought—the quilt—I’m over it, and I move on to start the next project.

20 Things I Like About You  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2013, 20˝ × 20˝, hand quilted, from the collection of Kathy J. Havelka

Staying stagnant in the skill set and idea will not help me grow creatively. I must start the cycle again, allow the process to change again, add new elements, add new skills, and continue to look. Once looking stops, ideas stop. Looking is the adventure and the challenge. You must risk something of your process to grow artistically. Give yourself permission to take those risks.

Marriage of Scraps  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2012–2018, 63˝ × 75˝

Mary, Mary Ann, and China  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2012–2018, 72˝ × 76˝

People bring what I call “color baggage” to their creative path—colors that they may have unfavorable feelings about. I organized a challenge BOM quilt where participants had to use these colors. They would be forced to look at the color, let go of what they disliked about it, and find a way to mix colors they do like with it, to make something they are satisfied with. When I make a quilt, I want all colors at the design party. This is one more step in the process of keeping an open mind. I want all the options, colors, and techniques available to me to make the best quilt I can. Let go of color baggage. All colors can play nicely with each other.

Color Baggage  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2012, 66˝ × 76˝

Goodnight My Fancy  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2012, 72˝ × 75˝

ZigZag  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Jackie Kunkel, 2009, 74˝ × 87˝

This was a quilt top that went unfinished for many years. I liked it, but I always thought it had the potential to be much better. After digging through a bunch of leftover quilt blocks, I came across the vintage stars and thought the colors looked a lot like this old quilt top I had started. I found the top, played with options for placement of the stars, and finished the quilt! Sometimes the stars need to align for success, and this time, it literally happened! Go back and visit your old quilt tops and blocks and see if any new connections can be made to complete the creative conversation with the project.

POW!  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Frank Palmer, 2010–2016, 84˝ × 88˝

Flowers in Elda’s Garden  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shannon Baker, 2010, 46˝ × 64˝; from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2016.009.0003

Block instructions can be found in my book 15 Minutes of Play—Improvisational Quilts.

True North  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe with 15 Minute Scrap Bee Block contributors: LeeAnn Decker, Glenda Parks, Sujata Shaw, Margaret Cibulsky, Shelly Pagliai, Charlotte Pountney, Mary Ramsey Keasler, Helen Beall, Brenda Suderman, Lynn O’Brien, and Beth Shibley; quilted by Shannon Baker; 2010; 73˝ × 75˝

Lost and Found in Translation  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2014, 88˝ × 76˝; from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2016.008.0007

Photo by Thomas L. Hauder

My purpose to always seek the joy in what I do never wavers, but my process does ebb and flow. Sometimes I am working so hard at the construction of something that once I finish, I need to loosen my creative reigns. Building an improvisational quilt is a great way for me to refocus. I can work constrained, but afterwards I need to build without a concise plan. Here, techniques, skills, and improvisation are like old friends having a conversation.… Think. See. Feel. Make. Joy.

Conversations Among Friends  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2017, 71˝ × 94˝

Be aware of what you do and don’t do in your creative process. Think you are already “outside the box”? What quilt skill do you avoid or have you not tried? This quilt is me pushing my own creative comfort zone. What other joys do I have that I can incorporate into a quilt? Using photography, taking photos in my Times Square “hood” to make my own fabric shows how small you can feel in a mass of people, yet the next moment, have a spotlight on you. NYC is very much like a small town, in many neighborhood-y ways. It can swallow you up, or you can join in the chaos. Using several techniques—“Made-Fabric,” double wedding ring, hand and machine quilting, painting on fabrics, and an “NYC” color palette—I played with more techniques in one quilt than I normally do. What “trick” can you add to your next quilt that pushes you outside your comfort zone?

You Are Here  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2012, 38˝ × 48˝, hand and machine quilted

Complete quilt instructions can be found in my book Double Wedding Ring Quilts—Traditions Made Modern.

Making the personal connection.… What if my grandmother and I had gotten to make a quilt together? What might it look like? This quilt tells the story of my roots, traditionally based, with modern twists: where I came from—the country—and where I live now—in the city. This quilt fuses as much of my story and techniques that relate to both my grandmother and me. I hope Grandma Elda approves!

Greatest Possible Trust  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2013, 47˝ × 57½˝, hand and machine quilted and embroidered; from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2016.009.0001

Complete quilt instructions can be found in my book Double Wedding Ring Quilts—Traditions Made Modern.

I wanted to make a piece of art for a public art display in NYC, inspired by my renovated bank building. I had to have the art piece to submit it for acceptance, so as I was finishing this quilt, I received a call from Simplicity Pattern Company, saying they were moving their offices and they were wanting quilts to hang in the new offices.… Their dilemma was they had a 40-foot wall.… I said, “Well, I have a 30-foot quilt.” It hung on display in their offices, and best part was, I did not have to do the paperwork! Did I mention that their new offices were in my bank building that inspired me to make it in the first place? Crazy, right?

A Garden for All Seasons  /  Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2017, 9´ × 30´

Photo by Charley Lynch