I have been subscribing to quilt magazines for years now, but am to the point where I am letting my subscriptions expire. All the magazines are so full of ads and I think they try to out do each other to see who can print the most quilt patterns in a magazine. The main problem being they try to compress all the instructions into 2 or 3 pages, and I have found mistakes many times when I tried to follow these sparse instructions. The only current magazine I will continue is AQ Magazine and recently I have subscribed to Quiltfolk, which I thoroughly enjoy reading.
While in an antique shop recently I came across the April 1987 issue of Stitch 'N Sew Quilts. I am fascinated with this magazine which is full of stories about quilters, original block designs and very few ads.
Being an avid English Paper Piecer, I am always on the lookout for new blocks that I can EPP.
This block was titled Windblown Star. The description given in the magazine: "This wonderful design came to us from Jan Halgrimson and her book Great Scrap-Bag Quilts," the second in her series of 3 "Scrap Quilt" books." they go on to give the Publisher information of the books.
They have the pattern pieces for making the block, and I can hardly wait to try making it.
Other articles in the magazine included:
- Pieces and Patches - a poem written by a quilter
- Reverend Foster's Quilt - a quilter's story about a special quilt made for a pastor
- Unfinished Quilt
- Why Quilting? - I found this article so current to quilters in 2018 as in 1987
- Getting the Most Out of a Quilt Show - Should be a must read before going to a show - hey, its not all about the vendors!
- Immigrant Influences - this is an amazing Baltimore Album style quilt that has a different block depicting the impact on the various nationalities of immigrants. It described in detail the meaning behind the block - I found it fascinating.
- Sixty Per Cent Syndrome - this article gives a whole new meaning to the purposes for our UFO's
- Finished in Love - a very touching story of a quilter who purchased unfinished quilt objects at auctions and other places and finished them - turning them into beautiful gifts as an act of love the quilter that started the project
- Numerous block designs and quilt patterns - readers submitted their original design blocks as well as a couple "professional" designers
I haven't read all the articles yet, but I will. I enjoyed it so much, I got on line at ebay and found 10 more issues. This is what is missing in today's magazines - QUILTERS and their stories.
4 comments:
I totally agree with you. I make and give away quilt to chemo patients. Tomorrow is hubbys treatment so there will be a post on the quilt given.
I used to get a number of quilt magazines. My favorite was Quilter's Newsaetter which ended in October 2016. They sent me "Qiultong Arts" to fill out the subscription, but that seems to be aimed at machine-made wall art and I did not renew. I don't mind the ads if there is enough good articles, but these days, everything is geared to machines ... sewing strips and then cutting and re-sewing ... including lots of waste. Even applique designs are geared to fusible machine work. Your new find sounds like a good read..
A great many of these new quilt magazines come from the same publisher! No wonder they all sound alike, and many of them have the same articles/photos too. I don't buy many of them anymore, too. So glad to see that someone else likes the "old way".
This is so true. I only subscribe to one quilting magazine now, that is only so as to get Bonnie Hunters new quilt blocks. Quiltmaker. I do like to look at my older or I should say oldest ones every once in a while.
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