My name is Sabine Heinlein. I am a self-taught textile artist. Before I became a quilter in early 2018, I dedicated all of my time to writing. (I wrote two books and I have written about art, culture, mental illness and criminal justice for the New York Times, the Guardian, Psychology Today, the Observer and many more publications.) Over the past years, my quilts have been exhibited at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center in MD, in a show curated by the Smithsonian Institution; at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana University; at Silverwood Gallery in MN; at Pollak Gallery at Monmouth University in NJ; at Payne Gallery of Moravian University in PA; and at Departure Studios in New York. My work has also been featured in Art Quilting Studio and in Guernica Magazine.

I am so obsessed with animals that I, quite literally, want to cover myself with them. My quilts allow me to reflect on each animal’s perilous existence, its beauty, shape and vulnerability.

I often use an extra-long running stitch, sometimes a more elaborate feather or chain-link stitch. Because they are fully improvised my quilts have a folksy and free-spirited air. I am more interested in the animal’s spirit than in its exact form. To me, animals elicit a powerful sense of wonder, incomparable to anything else in the world. 

In my quilts proportions are wonky; dreamlike landscapes evolve. Here is the Garden of Eden, a lush jungle without predators; there is the deep of the ocean, the desert, the tropical sunset. My animals might fight, nap or get an erection; they aren’t cute exactly, but are lovable nevertheless.

I love the idea that quilts are functional and long-lasting and that each quilt may be handed down from one generation to the next becoming part of a large family of animal lovers. It is my hope that they also serve as an example of how to defy our environment-destroying tendency to constantly consume and discard.

My quilts are hand-made with Finca Perlé thread by Presencia, a 100 percent Egyptian cotton thread mercerized for strength and is color- and shrink-proof. Most of my quilts are made from recycled fabric from friends, neighbors and Goodwill. My first few quilts were made from Robert Kaufman’s Kona Cotton, which, with its OEKO-TEX® seal, has been tested for harmful substances. Batting is either 100 percent cotton or 100 percent wool. The quilts can be machine-washed and line-dried.

To address the injustices animals suffer at the hand of humans, 5 percent of the proceeds from my quilts will go to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.