This magnificent volume features color photographs of more than 100 quilts crafted in North Carolina between the early nineteenth century and 1976. Included are chintz applique quilts, intricately pieced and appliqued quilts, crazy quilts, and examples of ingenious thrift in quilting with found and salvaged materials. The quilts were chosen from more than 10,000 that owners brought to be recorded by the North Carolina Quilt Project during a series of statewide Quilt Documentation Days in 1985-86. Because the quilts are privately owned, many have never been seen publicly. The text presents the lives and times of the quiltmakers, accompanied by many vintage photographs from family collections. Whether these women made quilts to pass the time, warm their families, beautify their lives, or serve as symbols of love and togetherness, they used their fabric with uncommon artistry and craftsmanship.

This richly illustrated book offers a glimpse into the lives and creativity of African American quilters during the era of slavery. Originally published in 1989, Stitched from the Soul was the first book to examine the history of quilting in the enslaved community and to place slave-made quilts into historical and cultural context. It remains a beautiful and moving tribute to an African American tradition. Undertaking a national search to locate slave-crafted textiles, Gladys-Marie Fry uncovered a treasure trove of pieces. The 123 color and black and white photographs featured here highlight many of the finest and most interesting examples of the quilts, woven coverlets, counterpanes, rag rugs, and crocheted artifacts attributed to slave women and men. In a new preface, Fry reflects on the inspiration behind her original research--the desire to learn more about her enslaved great-great-grandmother, a skilled seamstress--and on the deep and often emotional chords the book has struck among readers bonded by an interest in African American artistry.

Mary Black's Family Quilts includes a foreword by Michael Owen Jones, Professor of Culture and Performance, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition and Creativity.

Infuse your quilts with love--how to add your personal story and more meaning to your handmade quilts. In Wise Craft Quilts, celebrated quilt designer and crafter Blair Stocker shares ways to use cherished fabrics to make quilts with more meaning. Each of the twenty-one quilts featured here gathers a special collection of fabric, outlines a new technique, and spins a story. By using special fabrics as the starting point for each project—from a wedding dress to baby’s first clothes, worn denim, Tyvek race numbers, and more—the finished quilt is made even more special. Create quilts that have a story to tell and you’ll find a whole new level of appreciation for what they represent in your life and the lives of the ones you love.

The story of the American Quilt Trail, featuring the colorful patterns of quilt squares painted large on barns throughout North America, is the story of one of the fastest-growing grassroots public arts movements in the United States and Canada. In Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement Suzi Parron takes us to twenty-five states as well as Canada to visit the people and places that have put this movement on America’s tourist and folk art map. Through dozens of interviews with barn quilt artists, committee members, and barn owners, Parron documents a journey that began in 2001 with the founder of the movement, Donna Sue Groves. Groves’s desire to honor her mother with a quilt square painted on their barn became a group effort that eventually grew into a county-wide project. Today, quilt squares form a long imaginary clothesline, appearing on more than three thousand barns scattered along one hundred and twenty driving trails. With more than eighty full-color photographs, Parron documents here a movement that combines rural economic development with an American folk art phenomenon.

Learn how to piece perfectly: every seam, every quilt, every time. No more wonky squares, blunted triangles, or mismatched seams! Stitch It Up a Notch: How to Piece Perfect Quilts goes beyond the basics and shows you all the steps to piece flawless quilts. With meticulous written instructions and over 300 photos, Leah Day shares all her secrets to piecing perfect quilts. Learn how to improve your cutting and piecing and why common mistakes happen. Follow Leah's step-by-step guide to piecing perfection: Learn how to cut with absolute precision. Consistently sew perfect quarter-inch seams. Eliminate the frustration of blocks that are too big or too small. Piece with confidence - tackle hexagons and curved shapes with ease. Discover how and when to use time-saving techniques like strip piecing. Within this piecing guidebook you will find: Expert advice on preparing and cutting fabric. Patterns for five skill-building practice quilts. Full color photos illustrating each step. Full size patterns for two paper pieced blocks Plus: Leah's picks for the best machine, thread, needles, rotary cutters, starch, and much more! End the frustration of piecing your quilts imperfectly Discover the steps, build the habits, and learn for yourself how to piece every seam, every block, every quilt perfectly, every time.

The leaders of a quilting group that has been active for twenty years talk about the quilts they have helped make and offer ideas for starting quilting groups.

Piece dazzling diamond and gorgeous gemstone quilts Add dimension and luminosity to your quilts with gorgeous gemstone piecing! Learn the basics of abstraction and color theory as you piece stunning works of art with gem quilt expert MJ Kinman. After years of perfecting her technique, Kinman explains freezer paper piecing in brilliant detail with jewel quilting ideas to help you express your own creativity. Get helpful advice on fabric selection and quilting patterns to illuminate each cut. A sample gem quilt pattern helps you practice as you follow along step by step. Then find your own muse and bring any gemstone to life in exquisite detail. Just as gems can sparkle and glow in a million different ways, you’ll be inspired by the author’s work and a gallery of student quilts to help you let go of perfection and embrace the chaos of color and light. Shine on! Learn to create freezer-paper patterns for your own gemstone quilts Build skills as you sew a sample diamond quilt top, with step-by-step instructions See a gallery of ground-breaking jewel quilts from the author and her students

Bring Renaissance Italy Home with Paper-Pieced Mosaics. Quilt designs based on beautiful Italian mosaics bring the Italian Renaissance into your home. Familiar quilting shapes in new combinations and settings yield exquisite, intricate-looking designs. 8 stunning quilt projects in a variety of sizes, or create your own variations. Full-sized paper-piecing patterns for most quilts. Photos of Italy and its architecture - a great coffee table book!

In more than 270 color images, hundreds of quilts, juxtaposed for the first time, celebrate and explore the South's rich quilting history. Quilt expert Mary W. Kerr joins 13 other textile historians to show why Southern quilts have a distinctiveness setting them apart, including factors like their patterns, use of tiny pieces, and specific color choices. Learn how the South's quilting traditions developed among all socioeconomic levels, and in communities such as African American, Scots Irish, and German. The use of cotton, the prominence of making-do aesthetics, and other characteristics are discussed, with in-depth looks at topics like feed sack use and tri-color quilts. Explore the classic patterns of Crown of Thorns, Whigs' Defeat, and Double Wedding Ring. Enjoy regional treasures like Texas Rattlesnake, the Shenandoah Valley Farmers Fancy, and many more. This compilation includes quilts from every Deep South state, offering commentary, examples, and insights.