Quilting Resources

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Books

Quilting How-To | Quilt Patterns | African-American Quilting | Michigan Quilts

Quilting How-To

All About Quilting from A to Z
[746.46 Al]
Includes everything a quilter needs to know about designing, creating, and living with quilts in one comprehensive reference volume from the editors of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine and its sister publication, Quiltmaker magazine.

Best All-Time Tips for Quilters
[746.46 Be]
This highly visual, action-oriented guide offers a new perspective on tried-and-true tips, a wealth of information on the latest tools and gadgets, and some contemporary spins on traditional techniques. Many experienced instructors and professional quilters contributed their own stitches of wisdom to this unique manual making it a reliable resource for quilt-makers of all skill levels.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quilting: Illustrated by Laura Ehrlich
[746.46 Eh]
If you are clueless when it comes to quilting, look no further than this easy-to-understand guide. Step-by-step instructions for different quilting styles will help you create beautiful quilts that can be passed down for generations to come. Included are a list of materials and equipment needed, tips on fabric selection, ways to create templates to mark patterns, and projects to begin immediately.

Loving Stitches: A Guide to Fine Handquilting
by Jeana Kimball [746.46 Ki]
You'll never ask "how do I quilt it?" again! Create a quilted masterpiece with the art of hand quilting. This newly revised version of a quiltmaking classic is packed with information to last a quilter's lifetime.

The Magic of Quiltmaking: A Beginner’s Guide to Patchwork and Appliqué
by Margaret Rolfe [746.46 Ro]
This book walks beginners through every phase of quiltmaking, from choosing fabric and measuring seam allowances to understanding basic patchwork Also included are techniques for piecing or appliqué and a collection of classic block designs.

The Quilt Encyclopedia Illustrated
by Carter Houck [746.46 Ho]
Contains information on over 200 quilting topics, including quilting techniques and quilting history, arranged alphabetically, and accompanied by full-color illustrations. A perfect resource for the beginning quilter or quilt enthusiast.

The Quilter’s Quick Reference Guide
by Candace Eisner Strick [746.46 St]
From basic techniques to clever shortcuts and cheat sheets, this book will help any quilter discover how to make quilting faster, easier, and more fun every step of the way.

Quilter’s Ultimate Visual Guide
by Ellen Pahl [746.46 Pa]
This comprehensive guide brings you quilting tips from 60 of the most well known names in quilting. Presented in an A-to-Z format, it covers foundation piecing, machine quilting, rotary shortcuts, and much more.

Show Me How to Machine Quilt: A Fun, No Mark Approach
by Kathy Sandbach [746.46 Sa]
Long the object of derision by traditional hand-quilters, machine quilting has finally come into its own as an opportunity for expressing creativity in quilting. Freehand quilting involves quilting by machine, using the needle like a pencil to sketch designs as one quilts. Here, Sandbach emphasizes the importance of working with the right tools and uses five simple quilted projects to illustrate the types of free machine quilting appropriate for different types of quilts.

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Quilt Patterns

Appliqué with Folded Cutwork
by Anita Shackelford [746.44 Sh]
A definitive resource on a unique aspect of quiltmaking, this book showcases appliqué designs ranging in difficulty from simple symmetry for folk art, silhouettes and filigree to multiple mathematical repeats.

Asian Elegance: Quilting with Japanese Fabrics and More
by Kitty and Sylvia Pippen [746.46 Pi]
Got a passion for exotic fabrics? Feature the fabrics of Japan, Polynesia, and Hawaii in your next quilt! This talented mother-daughter team shares their love of unusual fabrics in one-of-a-kind designs.

Celebrations: Quilts for Cherished Family Moments
by Mary M. Covey [746.46 Co]
Commemorate life's little triumphs by making a quilt for the occasion! The projects in this book will inspire you to capture special times and keep them close with beautiful quilts.

Fat Quarter Quilts
by M’Liss Rae Hawley [746.46 Ha]
Contains step-by-step instructions for rotary-cutting fat quarters easily and efficiently, ideas for enlarging your quilts with additional fat quarters, quilt plans and quick-to-stitch patterns, including broken bricks, houndstooth, roman stripes, and woven ribbons.

Quilted Memories: Celebrations of Life
by Mary Lou Weidman [746.46 We]
Turn your life's stories into a quilted journal that you, your children, and your grandchildren will cherish forever. Mary Lou Weidman's story quilts are beloved by quilters everywhere, and now she shows you how to do it yourself.

Quilting: 20 Fresh and Fabulous Projects
by Karol Kavaya [746.46 Ka]
Showcase your skills on 20 fabulous quilts--such as celestial potpourri bags, a tangy table runner, reversible vest--and several different techniques. Projects increase in difficulty as the book progresses, but detailed instructions, illustrations, and photographs keep it simple.

Quilting Your Memories: Inspirations for Designing with Image Transfers
by Sandy Bonsib [746.46 Bo]
Rescue your photos from those tired, sterile photo-album pages -feature them in a precious heirloom, a whimsical storybook scene, or an extraordinary work of art instead! Learn to transfer photographs, children's drawings, and more onto fabric. Then gather inspiration from more than 50 spectacular quilts and stitch up a personal tribute to the meaningful people in your life.

Rich Traditions: Scrap Quilts to Paper Piece
by Nancy Mahoney [746.46 Ma]
This all-new approach to scrap quilts guarantees fast construction and flawless results! The classic look of scrap quilts is joined with today’s most popular construction technique. Traditional quilt blocks, from scrappy Spools to simplified Pickle Dish and Pineapple, become a snap to stitch with paper piecing.

Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles
by Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe [746.46 Tu]
Create dazzling scrap quilts with a whole new set of block designs based on one simple shape--the rectangle! Two stars of the quilting world share their expert tips for turning a so-so scrap quilt into a smashing success.

A World of Quilts: 10 Projects Using Ethnic Fabrics
by Beth Ann Williams [746.46 Wi]
Transform exotic fabrics into gorgeous quilts! These special tips, techniques, and patterns feature fabrics from all over the globe, from Africa to Asia, India to Indonesia.

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African American Quilting

Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook
by Kyra Hicks [746.46 Hi]
The first comprehensive guide to African American quilt history and contemporary practices. It offers over 1,700 bibliographic references, many of them annotated, including everything from books and exhibition catalogs to patterns and greeting cards. Also included are a listing of museums with African American-made quilts in their permanent collections, a directory of African American quilting groups, and a detailed timeline covering 200 years of African American quilting and needle arts events.

The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
[746.46 Qu]
Since the 19th century, the women of Gee's Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. Beautifully illustrated with color illustrations, this book includes a historical overview of the two hundred years of extraordinary quilt-making in this African-American community, its people, and their art-making tradition.

Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts
by Maude Southwell Wahlman [Black Life 746.46 Wa]
Introduces readers to a third powerful force in African-American quilts: their African-derived meanings, patterns, and iconography. She explores the religious, ritual, philosophical, and aesthetic beliefs that have been retained by descendants of Africans in the New World and demonstrates how these beliefs are represented in their textiles.

Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Ante-Bellum South
by Gladys-Marie Fry [746.46 Fr]
An interesting study showing how African culture influenced American quilting as well as commenting on the life of the slave. Includes many illustrations of surviving slave-made quilts, some utilitarian and others wonderful examples of the seamstress's art.

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Michigan Quilts

Michigan Quilts: 150 Years of a Textile Tradition
[746.46 Mi]
Celebrates the 150th year of Michigan's statehood by focusing attention on quiltmaking, quilts, and quilters. The quilts represent prized family possessions, important family and community documents, and the strength and breadth of quilting as an art activity in the state.

Great Lakes, Great Quilts
[746.46 Gr]
This publication describes the development of the quilt collections and the Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan State University Museum and profiles certain collections. It also includes patterns and instructions for reproducing 12 quilts in the museum's collections.

Videos

American Quilts
[Videotapes 746.46 Am]
From the days of the earliest settlers to modern times, quilts and their kaleidoscopic colors have adorned U.S. homes. Follow the phases of quilting history and learn more about their unique symbolism in both the family and the arts.

A Century of Quilts: America in Cloth
[746.46 Ce]
This documentary celebrates the art of quilting by featuring selections from the best 100 American quilts of the 20th century, the stories behind their creation and the quilters as they work. The program travels across America to capture the artists at work in their studios and homes and tells the stories behind the creation of these treasures.

The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
[Videotapes 746.46 Qu]
Presents the genius of a group of exceptional women who, for well over a century, have created distinctive works of art for their homes and families. Historical photographs and images of the quilts are accompanied by a gospel soundtrack in this documentary film.

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Websites

African-American Quilts | Michigan Quilts | General Quilting Sites

African-American Quilts

African American Quilt Quest
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/ljackson2/wquest.htm
Designed for students, this site concentrates on African American quilts and the important part they have played in American history. Includes activities, a book list and a lesson plan on quilts for teachers.

African-American Quilts
http://www.quiltethnic.com/afam.html
Find information on African-American historical, traditional and folk-art quilts, along with a bibliography and list of links.

African-American Quilts and Quilters
http://www.straw.com/quilting/articles/africamer.html
Information on African-American quilts and quilting by Susan C. Druding.

Great Lakes African American Quilter’s Network
http://greatlakesaaquilters.tripod.com/
Visit this site to find information about local African-American quilting events and groups in your area.

Michigan’s African American Quilters
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17451_18670_18793-52931--,00.html
In 1983, as part of the Michigan Quilt Project, the staff of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program at the Michigan State University Museum began collecting information on African-American quiltmaking in the state. Originally pubished in Michigan History Magazine, this article discusses African-American quilting throughout Michigan history and features photos from a 1991 quilt exhibit at the Michigan State University Museum.

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Michigan Quilts

Great Lakes Quilt Center
http://www.museum.msu.edu/glqc/
The Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan State University Museum is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and presentation of quilting history, with a particular focus on Michigan and the Great Lakes.

Michigan Quilt Network
http://www.michiganquiltnetwork.org/
This statewide organization is devoted to advancing the art of quilting and its history
through communication, education, and preservation.

General Quilting Sites

The Alliance for American Quilts
http://www.quiltalliance.org/
The Alliance links the world of quilts, scholarship, and the general public. It develops projects and carries them out in partnership with museums, universities, and grassroots quilt guilds around the country.

America’s Quilting History
http://www.womenfolk.com/historyofquilts/
Quilting history articles from Colonial America to Sunbonnet Sue along with old
time quilt patterns and myths about quilts.

The Quilt Index
http://www.quiltindex.org/
An online research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to contextual information and images of quilts held in private and public collections. The index presents quilts inventoried over the past 20 years by quilt documentation projects in Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and Illinois.

Quilting
http://quilting.about.com/
Features include free patterns, clip art, techniques, reviews, humor, many links, and a glossary. Subjects covered include computer design, appliqué, foundation piecing, equipment, related media, software, fabric, communities and personalities, and international quilting, and collecting, history, care, conservation, and appraisal of quilts.

Quilts and Quiltmaking in America 1978-1996
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/qlthtml/
This site "showcases materials from two American Folklife Center collections, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (1978) and the All-American Quilt Contest." The collection includes nearly 200 segments from recorded interviews with quiltmakers and over 400 images. Also provides a glossary and selected bibliography.

World Wide Quilting Page
http://www.quilt.com/
Features free patterns and instructions, a beginner's guide to quilting, a newsletter, information on where to buy quilting supplies, a pattern and fabric "exchange," a glossary, and discussion lists.

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