From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
Subject: Two Books on Quilts and Quilt Making
Date: 13 Nov 92 20:16:42 GMT
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.

GRAND ENDEAVORS: VINTAGE ARIZONA QUILTS AND THEIR MAKERS by Helen
Young Frost and Pam Knight Stevenson.  Northland Press, Box N,
Flagstaff, AZ  86002.  Illustrated, index, bibliography.  199 pp.,
$29.95 paper.  0-87358-547-X

COUNTRY QUILTS: INTERNATIONAL DESIGNS TO MAKE AND DISPLAY by Linda
Seward, photography by James Merrell.  Grove Press, 841 Broadway,
N.Y., NY  10003-4793.  Illustrated, index, bibliography, directory. 
168 pp., $30.00 cloth.  0-8021-1470-9

                             REVIEW

     At a national exhibition earlier this year in Phoenix,
Arizona, more than 100 quilters and suppliers gathered to celebrate
an increased interest in this needle craft, which was marked by new
fabrics and bold patterns.  And quilt-making isn't just for
grandmothers anymore.  These two quilting books are both
celebratory, but for slightly different audiences.
     "Grand Endeavors" is the creation of the Arizona Quilt
Project, and the commemorative book for their traveling exhibit of
the same name.  The Project, founded in 1986 by thirteen quilt
lovers, has held several Quilt Discovery Days in different Arizona
locations, looking for historic quilts made before 1940.  The most
historically significant quilt at each event received a $100 award. 
Each historic quilt was documented.
     The book begins with a short history of the documentation
process and an explanation of the tradition that the quilts uphold,
then begins a pictorial display of over 110 quilts in color, with
close-ups of some of the intricacies and short biographies of the
quilters.  
     Also included are historical photographs and analysis of the
style of each quilt.  There are several traditional and just as
many individual styles.  One quilt is a genealogy of the family of
the quilter while another shows several desert scenes which border
a poem called "Out Where the West Begins."
     Arizona quilts are definitely representative of the state, a
place where the climate causes them to be more decorative than
utilitarian, and "Grand Endeavors" is representative of Northland's
fine publishing of books by crafty authors.
     The Arizona Quilt Project has also produced a video.
     Rather than a commemoration of an exhibit, "Country Quilts" is
a manual on how to create, display, and care for quilts.  Linda
Seward says that quilts epitomize country style like no other
single object, and she encourages decorating with them in not only
the bedroom, but the living room, the dining room, and even the
kitchen (maybe as oversized potholders).
     In the living room, quilted material can be used for uphol-
stery, and quilts can be draped over small tables or over the back
of couches.  In the dining room or kitchen, a quilt can be used as
a tablecloth over the kitchen or dining room table.  In any of
these rooms, a quilt can make a statement as a wallhanging or the
material can be made into accent pillows.
     The bulk of the book, though, is instructional.  Seward
details twelve projects, for those of intermediate to very
experienced ability, with color photographs of the finished quilt. 
The quilt projects have great names like "Whig's Defeat," "Heavenly
Stars," or "Love Apple."  In separate sections, she outlines basic
quilting techniques, the care of quilts, and there are fourteen
pages of templates.
     This is the book to give this year, with the hope that you
will receive something to "give a featureless room a feeling of
focus and warmth," in the future.
Xref: sparky alt.books.reviews:91 rec.arts.books:20077