North Carolina Quilts - Tapa dura

This magnificent volume features color photographs of more than 100 quilts crafted in North Carolina between the early nineteenth century and 1976. Included are chintz applique quilts, intricately pieced and appliqued quilts, crazy quilts, and examples of ingenious thrift in quilting with found and salvaged materials. The quilts were chosen from more than 10,000 that owners brought to be recorded by the North Carolina Quilt Project during a series of statewide Quilt Documentation Days in 1985-86. Because the quilts are privately owned, many have never been seen publicly. The text presents the lives and times of the quiltmakers, accompanied by many vintage photographs from family collections. Whether these women made quilts to pass the time, warm their families, beautify their lives, or serve as symbols of love and togetherness, they used their fabric with uncommon artistry and craftsmanship.

Ruth Haislip Roberson is director of the North Carolina Quilt Project, a quiltmaker, and quilt historian.