Like so many of us, I have been sheltering at home for months now, only leaving my neighborhood once a week to walk in the emptiest local greenways. The coronavirus epidemic combined with the recent birth of my son means I haven’t set foot in a national park since the fall of 2019. And so the reflections on parks, captured using the quilting art form, arrested my attention this week through Inspired by the National Parks: Their Landscapes and Wildlife in Fabric Perspectives.

The book collects quilts and musings from national parks across the country, portraying scenic vistas, flora, and fauna in wonderous pops of color, fabric, and thread. Some quilters have chosen to be more abstract in their park interpretations, while others are painstakingly intricate in their attempts to render famous views.

The joy these quilters found in their work is obvious, as is the fun they had selecting subjects that usually don’t translate to a fiber medium. In fact, Joyce Badanes, who quilted a Bryce Canyon prairie dog, writes: “Traveling and experiencing art in nature is my most potent inspiration. Translating these experiences to an art quilt is the greatest fun I have had in my life.”

My one critique of the collection probably stems from my own work in editing and communications. Each national park sections contains written pieces not only by the quilters, but by rangers and volunteers as well. Overall, the unevenness of the writing sometimes became distracting, and the articles could have used a stronger editing hand. Still, they provided valuable context for parks with which I was unfamiliar, as well as an inside-look into the minds of the crafters themselves.

This is not a book to read in one sitting. Rather, I kept the pages on my coffee table or by my bed, going through a few parks at a time. Later, I made a second pass just to look at the quilts once more. As a crafter myself (though not a quilter), gazing at the images relaxed me.

My two favorite quilts in the book stem from two different parks, one I have visited, one that remains on my “to-do” list.

“First Snow,” by Barbara Hollinger, depicts Rocky Mountain National Park, and sticks with me because the layers of overlapping greens and blues – with a creek at the base of the landscape – reminds me so much of a trip I took to the park in the summer of 2018.

“Kings Canyon/Zumwelt Meadow in Bloom,” by Laura C. Gilmartin, is just spectacular. With a variety of different fabrics, threads, and stitching techniques, the quilt itself is reminiscent of an impressionist painting. She put so much effort into the details that each time I look at her page I discover a new element within her design.

Overall, the quilts have inspired me to visit new parks – as soon as this coronavirus pandemic fades!