Karla loves her special quilt, Mooshka. But Mooshka is more than just a quilt. Karla's grandmother lovingly pieced Mooshka together using scraps of fabric from members of Karla's family. Each square, or "schnitz," shares a special memory of Karla's ancestors and their lives. Mooshka speaks, comforting Karla at bedtime with whispered stories. When new baby sister Hannah arrives, Karla's routine is disrupted and Mooshka falls silent. Only when Karla shares Mooshka with her sister does the quilt begin to speak again and tell Hannah the treasured stories of her family.

Japanese teacher and designer Yukari Takahara shares in beautiful quilts her own life story, inspiring everyone to recreate special events in their lives through the medium of quilting. Find a gallery of 37 different quilts and vignettes, along with 14 pages of pattern ideas and step-by-step directions for applique.

Literary works honoring the role of women and quilting in history—from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Sharyn McCrumb, and others. This collection of stories, plays, poems, and songs featuring the making of quilts—written from 1845 to the present, mainly by American women—documents women’s literary history. Featuring the work of Bobbie Ann Mason, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Sharyn McCrumb, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Marge Piercy, Adrienne Rich, and many others, Quilt Stories is a colorful literary album of stories, poems, and plays that celebrate quilting as a pattern in women’s history. These stories—grouped under the themes of memory, courtship, struggle, mystery, and wisdom—reflect the importance of quilting in the lives of American women, not only as a practical craft and a creative outlet, but also as an integral part of the social community. “The 28 works included in Quilt Stories restore to women a part of their history and their sense of community, an important service in a present time in which quilting has perhaps become a more private and individual art, though it still serves widely as a medium for social exchange and cooperative endeavor.” —Appalachian Quarterly “Macheski has pieced together a variety of literary fabrics into a unique design which represents women’s struggle for identity in a masculine world.” —Benton, Arkansas Courier “Each writing shares a glimpse of what quilting means to those people who practice the art and how it helps us to see, remember, learn, know and express our feelings.” —Quilt World “An innovative approach to writing the history of women.” —Northwest Ohio Quarterly

After a move to a new home, comfort comes from a surprising place. Long ago, a young girl named Abigail put her beloved patchwork quilt in the attic. Generations later, another young girl discovers the quilt and makes it her own, relying on its warmth to help her feel secure in a new home.

A mother stitches a few lines of prayer into a bedcover for her son serving in the Union army during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved African American woman creates a quilt populated by Biblical figures alongside celestial events. A Diné women weaves a blanket for a U.S. Army soldier stationed in the Southwest. A quilted Lady Liberty, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln mark the resignation of Richard Nixon. These are just a few of the diverse and sometimes hidden stories of the American experience told by quilts and bedcovers from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Spanning more than four hundred years, the fifty-six works of textile art in this book express the personal narratives of their makers and owners and connect to broader stories of global trade, immigration, industry, marginalization, and territorial and cultural expansion. Made by Americans of European, African, Native, and Hispanic heritage, these engaging works of art range from family heirlooms to acts of political protest, each with its own story to tell.

Every quilt tells a story. There is a universality in those stories as well as in the quilts themselves and the threads that hold them together. In the tradition of Erma Bombeck, Helen Kelley shares her tales of quilts and quiltmaking with trademark charm and wit. This gifted storyteller gathers the snippings, threads, and scraps of everyday life and effortlessly stitches them together to create a narrative to which every quilter can relate. Each piece--from the humorous to the heartwarming--touches your soul and makes you smile, reminding you of your own passion for quilts and the stories they tell. Helen Kelley is an author, instructor, and lecturer, but she is, first and foremost, a quiltmaker. For twenty years, this "Erma Bombeck" of the quilting world has parlayed her passion for all things quilt into her enormously popular "Loose Threads" column in "Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine."

·An accessible guide to creating sentimental memory quilts for quilters of any skill level that provides easy, how-to instruction ·Goes beyond t-shirt quilting and shows crafters how to use other special fabrics in their memory quilt projects, including service uniforms, baby clothes, hospital scrubs, and more ·Features seven bed-sized quilt projects, each with a companion project for a total of 14 quilt designs ·Projects include step-by-step instructions, coordinating illustrations and photography, and personal backstories behind each memory quilt ·Also contains overviews on basic quilt techniques, how to deconstruct and prep clothing, a gallery of other memory quilts, and more ·A fresh, contemporary guide that takes the memory quilt category farther than it's been done in the past

DIVThere are more than 20 million quilters in the United States, and 78 percent of dedicated quilters read for pleasure. To reach this vast group, we've expanded our line of quilting books by bringing back "A Patchwork of Pieces, previously published in 1993. "Love of Quilts features twenty-eight entertaining short stories about quilts and quilters collected from the pages of classic magazines such as "Godey's Lady's Book, Harper's Bazaar, and "Good Housekeeping, introducing readers to the captivating worlds of quilters in other times and places. From courtings that nearly go astray to husbands and wives brought together by quilts to quilters obsessed with securing scraps, "Love of Quilts has something for every quilter. Fascinating fiction, these stories also provide important social history. This book also includes a bibliography of quilt fiction and a time line that lists American quilt fiction, plays, poems, and patterns published from 1845 to 1940./div

Tell captivating stories in fabric and thread! Acclaimed quilting artist Jennifer Day invites you to create realistic portrait quilts with thread painting. Turn your own photos of people and animals into one-of-a-kind story quilts, as you learn to masterfully stitch in the details. This step-by-step visual guide takes you from photo selection to editing, printing on fabric, thread painting, and free-motion quilting. With just a home sewing machine, quilters of all experience levels can capture and quilt life’s precious memories.