Goodwin, an architect who teaches architectural design at Florida A&M, lives in a visual world that speaks "the language of lines, shapes, and colors." Maps, both metaphorical and geographical, matter to her, and so does sewing, which she learned at her grandmothers' knees. She braids these interests and skills into a book of quilt maps to follow, starting with her beginnings as a quilt artist and ending with galleries of her work and that of her students. She teaches readers how to use road maps, tourist maps, utility company maps, as well as imaginary maps in quilting. She works her quilts, such as "ArchiTEXTural cARTography" and "City Grid II," in layers of fabric, paint and thread: the opaque layer, the painted, and the translucent. Fusing is important. She spends time on the background ("music" she calls it) and energy on techniques, such as stamping and applique, for the actual quilt maps. At the end, she offers three treats: embellishing with haiku, des igning travel maps with stones and shadows, and mapping memories and landscapes of families and homes.
—Publishers Weekly; 6/17/13
Architect, author, and quilt artist Valerie S. Goodwin has used her combined skills to create this unique book. Working with paint, collage, and stitch, Valerie encourages readers to integrate poetry, memory, and personal experience into quilt maps that tell a story. Lines and shapes are at the heart of Valerie's aesthetic and are a constant companion throughout the book. Improvisation and planning are equally important in her work, and she inspires readers to use some of each. Valerie provides tips and lessons on design basics, the importance of background, working with sheers, and many useful techniques. Her maps are concurrently real and imaginary, abstract and linear, and she motivates readers to explore. The galleries throughout the book - of Valerie's work plus that of her students - provide additional inspiration to try her techniques.
—Quilting Arts Magazine; June/July 2013
Transform a place that you love into a fiber collage quilt. Valerie shows you how to make quilted maps with her easy techniques. Find inspiration in real and imaginary sites, old maps, poetry, and even in your memories. Transform a place's essential lines and shapes into quilt designs. Create texture with fabric layering, paints, stamps, stencils, drawing and applique. A large photo gallery is also featured in this new book.
—Quilter's Digest; September 2013
Award-winning artist Valerie Goodwin shows you how to make quilted maps with easy fabric collage techniques and innovative designs based on maps of your favorite places. This fully illustrated guide features a large photo gallery of quilt maps by Valerie and her students. The book will help you find inspiration in real and imaginary sites, in old maps, in poetry, and in memories. You will learn how to transform a place's essential lines and shapes into quilt designs. Using fabric layering, paints, stamps, stencils, drawing, and applique, you will be able to add texture to your work.
—Down Under Textiles Magazine; 9/19/13
Architect and award-winning quilt artist Valerie Goodwin shares her passion for maps and shows how to create fabric collages based on maps of your favourite places. Included in the book is an inspiring gallery of art quilt maps made by the author and by her students.
—Down Under Quilts Magazine; 11/1/13
Valerie's education and interest in architecture have led her to create complex and fascinating abstractions of places, maps, poetry and memories. Layers of opaque backgrounds, sheers, paints, stitching, stamping and more combine to draw the viewer in to experience the details of these unique pieces. Valerie explains and illustrates her designs, techniques and processes in this compelling book.
—Machine Quilting Unlimited; November/December 2013
Confession: We adore art quilts! And if you favor modern quilts, know that it's a small hop from modern to art, especially because many techniques and design approaches are shared by both q-camps. (Improv piecing, white space and applied color theory, to name a few.) In fact, we've been patiently waiting for some of the better-known mod quilters to dip their stitches into fiber art. (It'll happen. Give it time.) In the interim, we enjoy the work of phenomenal established fiber artists, such as Valerie. A successful architect, Valerie has made a second career out of her award-winning art quilts that are mostly inspired by her love of structures, cities and maps.
In this, her first book, she draws heavily on design principles honed from her life spent creatively exploring architecture. She passes this on through exercises, art quilt techniques and excellent photography. Her style here is collage - a blend of texture, material and manipulation - and her theme is the map. Each quilt in her collection reflects a broad range of approaches to the maps she was inspired by. (Bonus: Her students' gallery is total eye candy!) Delightful!
—Generation Q Magazine; November/December 2013
