Reviews for Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them/Illustrated

The average rating for Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them/Illustrated based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-17 00:00:00 Howard Suggs This was written in 1915, and is considered America's first quilt book. I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg, but I'd love to have a physical copy at some point. There was a general history of quilting, and she also detailed other cultures and ancient discoveries. The talk about other cultures towards the beginning was very...romanticized, as they often did back then. To the point where it would be offensive by today's standards. Once you got past that and into the rest of the book, I was far more interested. Some of the other reviews have pointed out the information is outdated. Except, when she wrote this it wasn't and you can learn so much from that alone. I am actually curious as to what information in particular is outdated. Is it the quilt names? There was a quilt revival in the 70s by New York elite that gave their own names to some patterns. Not particularly impressed with that, I'll just say. Is it the colonial nostalgia for quilting? Some of that still carries on to this day as well. I'd really like to know so I can trace back and see how things changed.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-03-26 00:00:00 John Como I loved this book! The amount of research she did without the Internet is astonishing! I listened to the audible version on LibreVox and then found the PDF so I could read side-by-side while I was working, and when I wanted to look at the illustrations. I would highly suggest doing this if you are not familiar with the Kentucky accent. My grandparents were from Kansas and Kentucky and I loved hearing it again, although to be honest, I don't think I could have read it and understood what she was saying. And oh how I loved the women's stories! Especially the one in chapter 4 where she compared quilting and calicos with predestination and free will. Here was an uneducated women, but what intelligence and insightfullness she had. Taking such a complex topic and making it clear and concise with a beautiful simplicity. It showcases the unsung heroic efforts of the under valued women of history who, out of nothing, created a warm, comfortable and beautiful home and hearth. Such ingenuity, creativity, industriousness and perseverance. I think we have lost so much of the community and quality of life, even in poverty, that was the norm back then. Our cheap and quick consumers mentality has robbed us of so many things. Our clothes, furnishings, food, and relationships are not the quality they once were. I love the current movement of reclaiming what our grandparents knew of gardening, sewing, cooking and craftsmanship. We have a window of opportunity here to turn it around and teach the coming generations these skills before they are lost and forgotten. All that being said, the ending was very disappointing. I literally said out loud "Wait, what, that's the ending?", stopped what I was doing and read the pdf trying to figure out what I had missed. Instead of a random story that did not really depict what was intended, I wished she had wrapped it up with some final encouraging words of her own.