Synopses & Reviews
Its not your grandmothers 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. Heres 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— televisions 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.
Review
I am so impressed with the depth of research that Meg has put into this project. She not only covers history but includes information on tools of the trade, projects to make, and places to visit. It is a comprehensive must for quilters.
—Jean Wells, owner of The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon & founder of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show
Review
Meg sent me a copy of her book the other day,
The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, and I'm here to tell you that it's absolutely, mind bogglingly, out of this world. The sheer volume of work that this former
Wall Street Journal reporter put into this guide is astonishing and I defy any quilter (or non-quilter for that matter) to diss it.
Along with more than several step-by-step projects, Meg goes into depth on the issues and products we want to know about - longarms, fabric dyeing, new vs. old techniques, up-to-the minute quilting tools, and interviews with the top quilting personalities known today (Well, not me but her book was written before we met. How's that for luck?). Honestly, if you have a quilt related question, it's answered in this book.
Listen to this. The book's retail price is an astonishing $17.95 ( www.amazon.com is selling it for $12.21!) making it the very best value of any current quilt related book on the market today. How could you possibly pass it up? Kids, this is huge and I assure you that The Quilter's Catalog will be my bedside and sewing room reading for years to come!
—Mark Lipinski, Quilter's Home Magazine
Review
Meg Cox's scrapbag of lessons and lore takes the mystery out of quilting while leaving the mystique.
The Quilt Catalog is an essential companion for quilters and quilt-lovers.
—Sandra Dallas, author of Tallgrass and The Quilt That Walked to Golden
Review
Meg has included information about quilters and their winning quilts; teachers and their techniques; manufacturers and companies who make sewing machines, fabric, thread, batting, and the revolutionary tools we can't live without; quilt shows and markets; quilt guilds; and so much more. The pages are loaded with information, from useful tips to valuable resources. This is a must-have book for every quilter's library, for quilt collectors, and for anyone who loves quilts!
—Bonnie Browning, Executive Show Director, American Quilter's Society, Paducah, KY
Synopsis
The Bee-All and End-All The complete quilter's companion and essential resource jam-packed with information, supplies, expert interviews, techniques, community, and inspiration.
- All the tools of the trade: rotary cutters, sewing machines, longarms, and design software; fabulous fabrics and where to find them; and if you're just starting out, everyting that belongs in a quilting basket.
- The online world made manageable with a guide to the most useful blogs, web sites, e-mail lists, free patterns, and podcasts.
- National and regional shows, guilds, and the best retreats and quilt museums.
- Batting parties, tutorials on fabric dyeing, and a breezy history of the quilt boom.
- Profiles of twenty top teachers—including television's Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, Esterita Austin and her award-winning landscape quilts, and Ruth B. McDowell, known for her bravura technique.
- This is a book to help every quilter deepen and grow—keep it as close as your stash of fat quarters.
About the Author
Meg Cox was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for seventeen years. She is the author of The Book of New Family Traditions and The Heart of a Family: Searching America for New Traditions. She is married, has one son, and lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where she belongs to the local quilting guild. Cox has been quilting for 20 years and is vice president of the nonprofit Alliance for American Quilts.