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Paula Nadelstern's Workroom
Paula's Life Story
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PAULA NADELSTERN'S LIFE STORY
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Paula Nadelstern, author of Kaleidoscopes & Quilts and Quilting
Together!
In her upcoming book, Snowflakes & Quilts (C&T Publishing, spring 2001), Paula Nadelstern tells it this way:
"Back in the early 1970s, I left the meandering path that stopped at every needlework option and headed straight into quiltdom. My baggage arrived filled with a penchant for combining colors, limited technical skills, and a definition of socially accepted quilts based on the available literature. This definition caused me to brand my inclination to make color-filled quilts as the untutored symptom of an amateur. Hopefully, once I'd sewn my wild quilts, a maturation process would kick in and I'd narrow my palette. Eventually I, too, would make quilts that were both simple and pure: I would make a blue-and-white quilt.
"In 1993 I made my first blue-and-white quilt. It had at least 53 fabrics and 35 colors.
"Because, in spite of these original intentions, it turns out that committing random acts of color is what I do best. Working in a single design genre—kaleidoscope quilts—has taught me to trust my instincts, value serendipity, and accept what I am good at. The longer I continue to stretch one idea, the more the answers to my questions get simple and pure. It's just the product that looks more and more complex."
Paula's quilts do, indeed, look complex. She is the creator of the now-famous kaleidoscopic piecing technique (not to be confused with the traditional Kaleidoscope quilt block) and the author of Kaleidoscopes & Quilts (C&T Publishing) and Quilting Together (Crown Publishing, now out of print). Paula's quilts are extraordinary. It's hard to believe they have been cut and pieced by human hands.
Here's what Paula says about kaleidoscope quilts:
"Kaleidoscope—the very word promises surprise and magic, change and chance. Exploding with visual excitement, a kaleidoscopic design organizes an abundance of light and color, form and motion into a complex and coherent image. My goal is to harmoniously integrate the idea of a kaleidoscope with the techniques and materials of quiltmaking. I try to free myself from a conventional sense of fabric orderliness, seeking a random quality in order to imitate the succession of chance interlinkings and endless possibilities synonymous with kaleidoscopes.
"There are two kinds of surprises: the meticulously planned kind and the happy coincidence. Making kaleidoscope quilts allows me to synthesize elements of both, to merge control and spontaneity to spark something unexpected. There is an air of 'Abracadabra!' as the last seam is stitched, because the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Often effects more wonderful than I imagined occur, making me both the one who makes the magic and the one who is surprised.
"I make quilts on the same block in the Bronx where I grew up. Historians have suggested that the block-style method of quiltmaking evolved in response to the cramped quarters of early American life. My family's living arrangement in an urban environment created similar considerations, which I unwittingly resolved in much the same way. My workspace in our two-bedroom apartment is the 40-inch round kitchen table. A long-distance view, alternate space, and not making quilts are not options. I believe this reality merged with my personality and passion for fabric in shaping the direction of my kaleidoscope piecework, causing me to rely on intricate detail and inherent symmetry, and to invent a shape that makes the most of limited space. My block-style method is based on a pie-slice section.
"Until I met quilts, I thought I was creative but not talented. To find something you love to do is a gift. To achieve recognition for it is a miracle! When I am overwhelmed by a longing for functional space, complete with a door I can close, I try to remember this."
Paula teaches her unique kaleidoscopic quiltmaking techniques in two- and three-day workshops throughout the United States. Her award-winning quilts have been featured in international exhibits, television shows, books, and magazines. One of her quilts, "Kaleidoscopic XVI: More is More," was chosen for the prestigious 1999 exhibit and book The Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts (Primedia Special Interest Publications). She also designs the Serendipity and Symmetry fabric lines for Benartex.
Paula received artists' fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1995 and from the Bronx Council on the Arts in 1996.
Continue on to:
Learn Paula Nadelstern's Designer Secrets
See Paula Nadelstern's Quilt Show
Purchase Paula Nadelstern's Products