Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide by Meg Cox

Published 2008

It’s not your grandmother’s quilt world anymore. Quilting today is a phenomenally popular hobby, artform, and business, often rolled into one, that attracts 21 million avid quilters who spend $2.27 billion annually on their passion. There are 2,500 quilt shops around the country, popular television series, guilds, Web sites, and national fairs—one in Houston draws 50,000 visitors each year.

Meg Cox, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is one of the obsessive new quilters, and in The Quilter's Catalog, she draws on all her skills as a journalist to write the essential resource for contemporary quilters. Here’s the low-down on tools: computer-driven sewing machines, innovative rotary cutters, longarms. New and old techniques, from how to dye your own fabric to cutting-edge digital photo-transfer. Profiles of the twenty top quilting teachers— television’s Alex Anderson, Esterita Austin and her award-winning landscape quilts, Ruth McDowell, known for her bravura technique. Who makes the best fabrics and how to find them. A complete resource guide to the best Web sites, online groups, books, patterns, stores, shows, challenges. And a look at the new world of quiltaholics: its sense of community, its opportunities for business, its controversies (hand-sewn vs. machine-sewn), its attractions—quilting is easy, portable, friendly, therapeutic, often profitable, and the perfect way to mark a milestone.

The book includes 12 step-by-step projects from key teachers—a crib quilt, bed quilts, quilted ornaments—and instructions on how to hang, store, or ship a quilt.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is an amazingly exhaustive compendium of nearly everything a quiltmaker in today's quilting community would want to know. From a nearly sociological examination of why people quilt, covering who is who in the quilting world, to technical details about tools, fabric, sewing machines, etc, (enabling one to create one's own work of quilt art), this book is a fascinating look at quiltmaking, quiltmakers and quilt shows today. The wealth of stories makes this entirely readable, and the enthusiastic tone makes me want to get out the fabric and sew! This is an excellent book for collectors, quiltmakers and anyone who loves quilts.