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.
