Catherine-Marie Longtin: Quilts, endlessly

French Canadian textile artist Catherine-Marie Longtin, based in South London, builds quilts and stretched fabric artworks from collected linens and solids, favouring analogous colour and hand-pieced geometry over pattern and print. A former academic, she left that career in 2008 and has just published a book exploring 100 variations of the traditional log cabin block. In this conversation, Catherine reflects on breaking quilting's unwritten rules, trusting colour instinct, and building a long project one block at a time.

Show Notes

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Trust your own voice over the "rules." Catherine spent years unlearning the idea that a quilt has to look a certain way. If a technique in your own practice comes loaded with unwritten rules, ask which ones are actually serving your work.

• Constraints can unlock originality. Working in solid linens rather than printed fabric forced Catherine to build her own colour and pattern decisions from scratch. Removing a familiar crutch can push your work toward something more distinctly yours.

• Big projects get built one small unit at a time. Her book of 100 log cabin blocks began with a single design principle, repeated and varied. Breaking a daunting goal into one small, resettable unit at a time can make it achievable.

• Colour instinct is trained, not fixed. Catherine describes leaning on "safe" analogous palettes early on, then gradually widening her range through decades of collecting fabric. Your comfort zone in colour, or any creative choice, is a starting point, not a limit.

• Rest is part of the process. Some ideas sit on her studio wall for weeks before she knows what to do with them. Giving a piece time to "feel right" can be as valuable as the making itself.
  shows how holes and stains can become playful features instead of something to hide, turning damage into a creative starting point.

During the live interview, we shared some images of Catherine’s artwork. Since you’re listening to the podcast version, we’ve made these images available for you below. 

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