Dear Friends-- 

         

       As I get ready to  deliver  8 lectures (three different topics) in 3 states on a road trip, I'm very excited for the chance to meet new quilters and see exciting quilts, starting at  International  Quilt  Market in Houston. I hope I meet some of you guys on my journey.

       For this issue I did some reporting about the phenomenal popularity of the Big Dream panels made by Hoffman Fabrics and the way they're being used. Including an interview with the designer. 

       I almost didn't have time to write this newsletter because I dove headfirst into two new books, and I didn't want to come up for air. 

       Finally, I'm delighted to introduce our new sponsor Sheila Frampton Cooper. Her vivid abstract quilts are crowd-pleasers and award-winners and Sheila has agreed to add one of the backpacks inspired by her work to this month's giveaway. ( I'll reveal now that she is giving away something in November as well.) 

       And I can't resist sharing something that has left me cackling hysterically at my desk this morning. I haven't Googled my 2008 book The Quilter's Catalog in ages so I was startled to discover that some PBS show in Indiana called "Dinner & A Book" taped an episode last year in which they cooked food while discussing my book, in the Wellfield Botanic Gardens of Elkhart, which sometimes features flower plantings arranged to mimic quilt block patterns. The show's concept is clever (I wonder what they ate while discussing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe?), but it would have been more helpful when the book was still in print. 

       Quilt on!!!!

Two New Books About WHY We Do It

     About 15 years ago, after I'd become a passionate quilter and had begun applying my journalistic skills to the craft, I approached Peter Workman, founder of Workman Publishing. I told him that hundreds of quilters all over the country had responded to my Why I Quilt survey and I wanted to put together a small, beautiful book titled Why We Quilt: A Book of Inspiration for 21st Century Quilters. 

       Peter, a publisher so good at predicting what book-buyers craved that I had profiled him in the Wall Street Journal, gave me an indulgent smile and said, "I love to golf, but I don't want to read about why other people love it." It took me two more years of reporting to convince him to publish The Quilter's Catalog, my 600-page resource guide, which was a far cry from my original impulse. 

       Thank goodness there are publishers who think differently from PW, because my favorite two books of the season tackle this question. I'm pretty confident there is an army of quilters out there who will agree with me. 

      Thomas Knauer's Why We Quilt: Contemporary Makers Speak Out and Melanie Falick's Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You are Meant to Live approach this topic in very different ways. 

       Thomas's book is compact, square and stunningly designed. There are thoughtful essays by about 40 quilters, mixing big names in modern quilting like Victoria Findlay Wolfe and Sherri Lynn Wood with lesser known quilt makers. Mini-essays called Statements are sometimes just a paragraph, while longer pieces by established makers like Heather Jones and Denyse Schmidt are labeled Voices of Quilting. The essays have been divided into sections such as "We Quilt to Create a Connection With Loved Ones" and "We Quilt to Change the World." I love the way TK has mixed in short history lessons, like "The Role of Signature Quilts in Reform Movements." He's picked a wide range of really appealing quilt makers and the whole package is irresistible to me.

        In his epilogue, TK writes, "Now that I have begun quilting, I cannot imagine not quilting." Yes!!!!

      

       Melanie Falick's book is a far bigger, broader and more ambitious affair and I just want to burrow into it and live among the amazing creative souls she visits. Less than half of the dozens of people celebrated make quilts, but they're all deeply compelling, with quirky back stories and drool-worthy workshops. The rest work with wool or metal or willow branches or clay. They make art out of knots or block print textiles or fashion leather into simple, stunning bags. 

       A knitter, writer and esteemed book editor who formerly ran her own craft imprint at Abrams, MF was overwhelmed at first when she thought about how to cover the topic of "why we make and why it matters." She said in an interview, "People have been making things by hand from the beginning of time and every corner of the Earth: how could I cover that?"

       She covered it by spending several years seeking out people whose work and stories spoke to her and going to meet with them -- and often craft with them -- in India, Mexico, France, Finland, England and all over the U.S. In the picture above, Melanie is at left, sitting with Tif Fussell in her Sammamish, Washington house: TF is new to me, and I'm in complete thrall to her Boho charms. (For a peek, check out the website she runs with her younger son:  www.curious.and.coe.com. )  

       This book sucked me right in with an introductory Q & A with Ellen Dissanayake, a scholar on the topic of art and evolution who was also new to me. ED says that making things with our hands goes back to our roots as hunter-gatherers: making things well was a survival skill and a source of emotional sustenance for humans to this day. 

      If you love to make things with your hands, you will LOVE this book: it feels like a manifesto and I believe it will affect what I make next --and how. If you know anyone who really wants to start making things with her/his hands but hasn't quite been able to take those first steps, buy your friend this book as a gift. They will love you forever.