An Expert Machine Quilter’ Blog
Seems recently I keep running across beautiful blogs of machine quilting experts who specialize in feathers.  Feathers appear simple and elegant. Most things that look simple to do are in fact challenging. Making complicated things appear easy is what the pros do.
Sally Bramald’s blog has a beautiful header which immediately draws [...]

a website review of The Quilt Index – quiltindex.org

The Quilt Index is a growing research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to information and images about quilts held in private and public hands.
It is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts and several several entities of Michigan State University. [...]

in the CQA Quilting News
from the Lansing City Pulse
MSU Museum Shows Off Quilt Scholar’s Collection through Sept. 5, 2010,
by Eric Gallippo
‘Unpacking Collections’
The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, African- American Quilt Scholar
Visitors to Michigan State University Museum’s “Unpacking Collections” exhibit will get a peek into the vast research and materials accumulated by pioneering quilt scholar Cuesta [...]

Color Palette + Design = Impact
These Creative Commons.org photos by Crystal Writer demonstrate that traditional quilt styles combined with stellar palette choices and ingenious layouts can result in stunning artistic art quilts. Enjoy Crystal’s computer created kaleidoscopes. More photos by Crystal Writer and her personal vision.
Why not try a new direction in the new year, [...]

In the CQA Quilting News
from the Idaho Statesman, 11/05/09, by BY DANA OLAND doland@idahostatesman.com
Artists from Gee’s Bend see life and history in every quilt they make
To Louisiana Pettway Bendolph, the beautiful quilts she makes are like her children.
“You have to love them first, and then you have to let them go,” she says softly, [...]

The person who “has everything” probably doesn’t have a hand made quilt.
Since it’s a one of a kind type of gift, a hand made quilt suggests that your loved one or friend also is special. When you give a hand made quilt, they receive a beautiful treasure.
It’s the beauty of the unexpected unique gift item, [...]

2009 Hoffman Challenge Winners Announced and

2010 Collection Announced

Fabrics for the 2010 Hoffman Challenge have been announced. The theme fabric is shown below.
Hoffman Challenge is the place to go for all the information you need to consider if you plan to enter next year’s contest. Apparently up to 1000 entries are received annually.
The Hoffman [...]

Stark, haunting and barren – let an American icon, the Ghost Town, inspire your art quilts
These photographs speak for themselves. The people who lived, worked, loved and died in these lost towns are silent.
Through the lens of talented photographers, the emotive, elegiac beauty is captured. Let youself be moved, then stirred to action by these [...]

in the CQA Quilting News, August 2009

July 14, 7:15 AM, by Jeanne Williamson
Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth is on exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA from July 17 through September 20, 2009. Gallery Talks are August 6-9, at 2pm.
“Since its establishment in 1994, the Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project (MassQuilts) has [...]

Website Review of Quilting Assistant.com
Discovering this website was like scoring 100 on an exam, (excellent), the Oxford English Dictionary, (exhaustive), a Monopoly board, (sensible layout) and Niagara Falls, (refreshing).
Quilting Assistant.com devotes itself to helping the reader/quilter learn and make informed quilting related decisions. This is an outstanding website. In their words, “One reason quilting has [...]

Quilts are social objects
“Americans have always known quilt makers, openly embraced their creations, and applauded their achievements. Quilt makers have always been seen as our peers, not our betters. These biases and attitudes have been a double edged sword for quilts, until recently keeping them from being taken seriously by historians and scholars and from [...]

windmill, a contemporary quilt

Isn’t contemporary a relative term?
Having described the standard explanation of the evolution of traditional quilt making into art quilts and the concept of quilts as art, I personally feel it is very important also to keep in mind

Art Quilts – a giant step forward
“While quilts that can be considered works of art have been made throughout the course of quilt history, the involvement of academically trained artists with the medium is a relatively new phenomenon.” Quilts a Living Tradition, 1995, Robert Shaw, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Beaus Arts Editions.
Starting in the late [...]