Making The Heartland Quilt

In Making the Heartland Quilt, Douglas K. Meyer reconstructs the settlement patterns of thirty-three immigrant groups and confirms the emergence of discrete culture regions and regional way stations. Meyer argues that midcontinental Illinois symbolizes a historic test strip of the diverse population origins that unfolded during the Great Migration. Basing his research on the 1850 U.S. manuscript schedules, Meyer dissects the geographical configurations of twenty-three native and ten foreign-born adult male immigrant groups who peopled Illinois. His historical geographical approach leads to the comprehension of a new and clearer map of settlement and migration history in the state. Meyer finds that both cohesive and mixed immigrant settlements were established. Balkan-like immigrant enclaves or islands were interwoven into evolving local, regional, and national settlement networks. The midcontinental location of Illinois, its water and land linkages, and its lengthy north-south axis enhanced cultural diversity. The barrier effect of Lake Michigan contributed to the convergence and mixing of immigrants. Thus, Meyer demonstrates, Illinois epitomizes midwestern dichotomies: northern versus southern; native-born versus foreign-born; rural versus urban; and agricultural versus manufacturing.

It’s murder before marriage in book five of the Someday Quilts series Nell’s future is on her mind, and it looks as though the pieces are coming together like a perfectly made quilt. Her relationship with police chief Jesse Dewalt is heating up, she’s thinking of starting her own business, and Grandma Eleanor, is about to get hitched. But just the future seems sewn up, Jesse’s former NYPD partner turns up—dead. Nell has to scramble to keep the wedding on track, her relationship from falling apart, and herself from being the target of a stranger with a secret. The Double Wedding Ring has romance, murder and a modern cozy feel… everything fans of the Someday Quilts series have come to love.

Designer Kathleen Tracy is back with more delightful little quilts! This time she's gathered a treasury of 4" blocks reminiscent of those sewn by schoolgirls during the nineteenth century. Make all 72 timeless blocks and combine them in a sampler quilt or select a few favorites to use in any of six other charming quilts. Quick to stitch and perfect for reproduction-fabric scraps, the blocks are easy to make and you can complete several in one sitting or complete a small quilt in a weekend. Kathy includes plenty of tips for sewing small blocks, and her simple cutting instructions and clear piecing diagrams will help you succeed as you stitch each pint-sized treat.

Use traditional piecing skills to create tomorrow's heirloom quilts. You'll discover how to give your favorite blocks a scrappy, modern look with elegant and up-to-date versions of time-tested quilt designs from popular designer Amy Ellis. Learn a bit about the history behind each block as Amy reimagines them as new classics. Build your confidence to "go modern" with Amy's bright and appealing designs that begin with traditional blocks Tips for using color and negative space ensure a modern look with the fabric from your stash Get handy hints, from Amy and other top designers, that will help you better understand what makes a scrap quilt successful

Provides patterns and instructions for making a variety of Midwestern quilts, including nine patch, blue and white, star, flower, scrap, and other designs

This workbook takes you through John Flynn's revolutionary method for making the Double Wedding Ring quilt pattern. Easy to follow, step-by-step instructions make machine piecing faster, simpler and more accurate.

The story of the American Quilt Trail, featuring the colorful patterns of quilt squares painted large on barns throughout North America, is the story of one of the fastest-growing grassroots public arts movements in the United States and Canada. In Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement Suzi Parron takes us to twenty-five states as well as Canada to visit the people and places that have put this movement on America’s tourist and folk art map. Through dozens of interviews with barn quilt artists, committee members, and barn owners, Parron documents a journey that began in 2001 with the founder of the movement, Donna Sue Groves. Groves’s desire to honor her mother with a quilt square painted on their barn became a group effort that eventually grew into a county-wide project. Today, quilt squares form a long imaginary clothesline, appearing on more than three thousand barns scattered along one hundred and twenty driving trails. With more than eighty full-color photographs, Parron documents here a movement that combines rural economic development with an American folk art phenomenon.