At times, Bill made efforts to share quilts with local quilt guilds, women’s groups and in exhibits. But for years his collection was unknown to most people. He bought a lot of quilts online, and steadily built the collection despite having little involvement with the quilt community. He collected for 20 years and hardly anyone knew.
In 2009, Bill showed his collection of New York Beauties to a local quilt study group, and the quilt history enthusiasts gave him a new perspective on his collection. It was something more. He made an effort to share the quilts from that point forward, and it led to many opportunities; most notably, his new book “New York Beauty, Quilts from the Volckening Collection” published by Quiltmania in France (2015).