Her Fine Hand: Art Quilts by Virginia McConnell

Virginia McConnell: Quilt Artist

​

I am a restless artist. I've made drawings, paintings, collages, clothes, costumes, jewelry, and a lot of other work along the way. My way of making art seems to shift every few years. But one theme emerges over and over: people. I am endlessly inspired by people and their stories. I am fascinated by their expressions and mannerisms, the way that time writes on their faces and bodies. I can’t resist trying to guess what stories people are carrying with them: what experiences have shaped them, what they are thinking about, what they will do next.

 

My current way of making art is through art quilts. Using hundreds of different fabrics, I hand-cut and applique each shape that makes up the final image. It’s an intuitive, demanding process that unfolds over weeks, requiring constant decisions about composition, value, color, and texture. Once the collage is complete, I turn it into a quilt—adding batting and backing, then stitching the layers together with free-motion quilting on my domestic sewing machine.

 

To me, making an art quilt is more like painting than like making a traditional quilt. Much as a painter uses individual pigments, I use the particular qualities of each fabric to produce a detailed, realistic portrait or picture. I like working in textiles both because the tactile quality of the materials is pleasing to me, and because I find the final piece of work possesses a richness and complexity born of the many individual components that go into producing it. Each completed quilt is not just a picture, but a record of the of the slow, deliberate process of seeing and interpreting its meaning.