Quilted Visions

Quilted Visions: Reflections on a Magical Life is a collection of 33 autobiographical art quilts. The book also depicts the spiritual journey that MacEachren has been on as a quilt artist. The quilts presented were made between 1985 and 2023 and span her career as a fiber artist. Each quilt is accompanied by a reflection about places, events, and/or situations that inspired its design. These include descriptions of MacEachren's pets, her parental upbringing, and growth through study of varied philosophies. Together, the quilts and prose produce a visually illuminated memoir. 

As MacEachren's style of quilt changes and matures through the years so does her grasp of living in a complex world. Her personal style is illustrated using high contrast and saturated color in her images. MacEachren's memoir contains a reference to a spiritual experience that changed her view of living in a meaningful way, an experience reflected in several of the quilts included in the book. 

The first seven chapters of the book present the quilts together with the motivation for each quilt's creation. These chapters roughly follow a sequential timeline of MacEachren's creation of the quilts, which also coincides with the events in her life highlighted in the narrative paired with each quilt. Chapter eight then presents the visual inspiration for several of the quilts included in the book and sketches the thought process from idea to end result. 

The quilts included in the book range in size from small wall pieces to queen size bed quilts. The techniques used to construct the work include machine piecing, hand and machine applique, hand and machine quilting, stenciling and painting with fabric paints, thread painting, and overlays with lace and sheer fabrics. Two quilts are embellished with buttons and two with seed beads. Metallic thread is used to quilt much of the artwork.

The quilts in this memoir reflect MacEachren's life, a life she considers to be nothing less than magical.