A PatchWork Life: The Hands-On Guide To Living Piece By Piece
Taken from A Patchwork Life: The Hands-On Guide To Living by Louise Silk
Available as an ebook: A Patchwork Life: The Hands-On Guide To Living
is a short herstory of my quilt making world. Beginning with this blog entry, I will post pieces of it. Enjoy!
EPILOGUE:
THE QUILTS THAT PIECE THIS TOGETHER
This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pasture of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.
John O’Donohue
I was in process on this project when the world was struck by COVID-19. Our altered daily lives encouraged my deep dive producing fourteen flags, a kimono, and a quilt that visually piece together this writing.
The textiles I gathered are the leftover silks on hand. Most, my parents brought me from travels, difficult to use, but significant in memories. The idea to use flags came from creating Tibetan flags for our garden and a flag installation on the High Line in NYC.
The chapters follow the letters of the title. For each letter/chapter, I pulled out its underlying theme, searching for a Hebrew word or expression that exemplifies it.
A. Emet/Truth: True Self is simple; ego makes it complex.
P. Gevorah/Strength: Sisterhood is powerful.
A. Yesod/Longing to connect: Every quilt tells/is the story.
T. Tiferet/Acceptance: Integration. Process over product.
C. Stetl-Community: If not now, when?
H. Shekinah/Feminine aspect of G-d: 4 worlds, 5 dimensions,10 attributes
W. Kine-Ahora/No Evil Eye: All change begins within.
R. Briah/Acceptance: Life is pure creative energy.
L. Besherit/Meant To Be: Wisdom plus understanding
I. Ayeh Hasher, Ayeh/I Am Who I Am: So above, so below.
BubbeWisdom 
Beautiful Louise.
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Louise, I have followed your work since we met. Your quilts, your writing, your inner growth along with your unique form of self-expression. My initial impressions of you have only grown stronger. I admire your creativity, your intelligence, your ability to constantly reinvent yourself- I admire you for it all. Just wanted to let you know. Keep up the great work! Fondly, Ellen
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