Abigail Booth of Forest + Found

Louisa Goult talks to quilter and textile artist Abigail Booth, half of the crafts partnership Forest + Found.

- Louisa Goult

How and when did you get into quilting?

I started quilting about two years ago. Even though I had studied colour and sculptural art at college, I hadn’t really touched on textiles as such. When Max and I booked our first craft fair, I decided I needed to make a quilt to sell, even though I had never made one before and really had no idea about piecing or quilt construction. This first effort was somewhat bodged, there were no matching points, and certainly none of the accuracy that many quilters aspire to. My mum ended up buying it to keep it in the family – it still hangs on their wall at home. When Max bought me a book on American Patchwork, I did learn to piece and quilt accurately, but this didn’t interest me for long. I kept going back to the freedom of that first quilt, of not having a pre-set idea of the finished item. I feel this original naivety of knowledge that made me just get stuck in and have a go is what guides my work today, I have now regressed to that improvisational style and find the best results are when mistakes happen, or when materials react in an unexpected or strange way.

Where do you work from?