American Heroes Quilts Past & Present

American Heroes Quilts Past & Present is full of history and quilts.
400 color and black and white images included along with in depth stories of quilts patterns named for, or associated with, famous Americans.  55 American heroes in all including Benjamin Franklin, Davy Crocket, George Custer, Carrie Nation, Charles Lindbergh, and Rosa Parks.   Four chapters that begin with the year 1776 and end with the year 2000.  Famous Americans from every year in between.

This is another quilt book that would have made a great addition to our history while I was homeschooling.  So much interesting history including some heroes who are all but forgotten today such as Isaac Hull, Tad Lincoln, Jacob Coxey, and Allen B. Dumont.

Did you know that the Scottie Dog quilt block is believed to have been named for Franklin D Roosevelt's Scottie, Fala?  However, the pattern became popular in the 1930's and Fala wasn't born until 1940.  Fala's popularity certainly helped the Scottie Dog block become a staple in the quilting lexicon.

Included in the back of the book is a Sampler Quilt Projects Supplement.  This includes 4 sampler quilts and the templates for making 25 blocks.  They will need to be enlarged to make 10 inch squares as they are in the sampler quilts shown.

I'm up to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in my reading and can't wait to read through the entire book.  I love the rich history, but even more with quilting involved with it.  I see lots of blocks throughout the book that I have fallen in love with and want to give a try at making. There are over 100 quilts pictured in the book and close-up photography of all 112 patterns.

About the author:
Don Beld had a passion for history, which led him to explore all facets of commemorative quilt making. He co-authored Civil War Quilts. He is the curator of the New England Quilt Museum, and founded the Home of the Brave Quilt Project. He also curated a quilt collection commemorating the events of September 11, 2001, and other terrorist attacks. His lectures have helped many people realize that quilters are the folk-art-historians of their time.

So, again, this is a book that anyone who loves history will like, and if you are a quilter, or love quilts, even more so.  I give it an A++ for sure!



Disclosure:  I rec'd this book in exchange for my honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way, however, this post contains affiliate links.

Quilts Patriotic and Presidential Book Review

Quilts Patriotic and Presidential is the perfect addition to your library.  With this being an election year, even more so.
If you love history, if you love quilting, or both, you will really enjoy reading and looking through this book.

Inside you will find more than 330 images of quilts made for the Presidents of the United States....every president starting with George Washington all the way to Barack Obama.

Before you get to the Presidents you will find a section called "What a History! What a People!"  This section has presidential related quilts, excerpts from newspapers and magazines about the quilt and quilt makers, and lots of images.

For each president you find a brief history.  For example, did you know that William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in office?  He was only president for 31 days.  After giving his 2 hour inaugural address on a cold day, he caught pneumonia.
There are quilt related comments from newspapers of the times.

Also featured for each president is a newly made quilt.  These quilts are 24 inches square and are all made by quilt historians and enthusiasts affiliated with the American Quilt Study Group.  This also includes information from the quilt maker with some history as to why they chose the materials or design.

Close up photos of blocks with details, photos throughout history, the history itself, and the quilts themselves make this the perfect book to add to your own library.

If my children were not all grown now and I was still homeschooling, I would have loved to have added this book to our study of United States history!

The author, Sue Reich, began her love of quilting as a child with her grandmother at her farmhouse in Pennsylvania.  She expanded her interests to the historical documentation of Connecticut's quilts.  She became a certified AQS appraiser and a NQA trained quilt judge.  She lectures nationally on quilt history topics.  She is a nationally recognized author of 7 quilt history books and travels to share her quilt research and knowledge.

Again, this is truly a book for history buffs, quilters, and quilt lovers.  Highly recommended!  I showed the book to lots of my quilting friends and none of them wanted to put it down.  They wanted to keep reading, learning, and looking at all of the images.




Disclosure: I rec'd a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links.