Beautiful New Quilt Books

Two new quilt books have been added to my library and between the two of them there is enough inspiration and information to become classics.  The first is American Quilts: The Democratic Art, 1780-2007, by well known quilt historian, Robert Shaw. Beginning with the cover, this book is a stunner from start to finish. Every chapter is illustrated with lovely color photographs and includes many historic quilts that I have never seen before.

 Mr. Shaw describes the history, diversity and continuity of four centuries of quilt making in America. Even though I am a contemporary art quilter, I begin every day by looking at old traditional quilts and Robert's knowledge puts it all in perspective.

The next book to arrive was the long anticipated 500 Art Quilts, curated by Karey Patterson Bresenhan and published by Lark Books. Ms. Bresenham was faced with the incredible task of encapsulizing the diverse art quilt world into 500 representative pieces. I am impressed with the results. Of course, you will have your favorites and unfavorites, but I think it is a fair representation of what is happening in the current art quilt community.

The layout of the book is very pleasing. Most quilts are featured on a single page and organized by color, technique and subject. The text is minimal, as it should be, with only the artist's name, the name and date of the quilt and the materials it was made with. The viewer gets to interpret each piece without
undue influence.

We have collected many of Lark's 500 Series for our home library... 500 Beaded Objects, 500 Bowls, 500 Brooches, etc. and never tire of the inspiration they provide. They are guarenteed to get the creative juices stirred up before you head into the studio.

I am pleased that both volumes have a Sassaman quilt within their pages. It is an honor to be recorded as a small part of the history of quilting!