eBurst from the AAQ

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Documenting, Preserving and Sharing the History of Quilts and Quiltmakers.

eBurst from the Quilt Alliance May 31, 2012

The Plot Thickens: Jennifer Chiaverini Joins Quilters Take Manhattan Line-up

The mission of the nonprofit Alliance for American Quilts is to preserve and share the stories of quilts and their makers, and who better to help us than a master storyteller whose popular characters are quiltmakers?

Jennifer Chiaverini is the author of the New York Times Bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series, as well as five collections of quilt patterns inspirerd by her novels. Her devoted readers have followed the adventures of Sylvia, Sarah, Gwen, Bonnie and the others at the fictional quilting retreat Elm Creek Manor for years. The author is a quilter herself, and her novels mirror the trends happening in quilting today and demonstrate clearly the ways in which quilting enriches the lives of those who practice the craft.

During a lively lecture at QTM, Chiaverini will give our audience a sneak peek into her 20th Elm Creek novel, The Giving Quilt, which will be published October 30. Her newest book is about quilters giving back, and we're delighted to be the object of Chiaverini's generosity ourselves.
Read the full press release here.

Tickets for the FIT program, plus Quilters Take Manhattan: After Dark, a cocktail party limited to 100 people, are on sale now.

And don't miss these other Quilters Take... events:

One day left! Plenty of time, right quilters? The postmark deadline for our 2012 quilt contest, "Home Is Where the Quilt Is," is tomorrow-June 1st!
Full contest details and a downloadable entry form can be found on our website along with a downloadable entry form.

The Grand Prize winner (to be chosen by a panel of three professional quilters/designers) will choose from any of Handi Quilter machine quilting systems.

And for those of you who may not finish in time to make the judging deadline of June 1--please consider donating your quilt to us anyway. It will be a valuable contribution to our auction in November, will be included in part of the exhibition tour and will be archived in The Quilt Index.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Today I posted the stunning silk dupioni quilt pictured above, made by Sonya Lee Barrington, on the Quilt Index's Facebook page to commemorate Clint Eastwood's birthday. Puzzled about the connection? In my On this Day in History Quilt Series of posts I pair an event in history that occurred on that particular day with a quilt documented in The Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org). Sometimes the connection is the era, sometimes a pun makes the linkage, and in this case the relationship is about place. Clint "Dirty Harry" Eastwood was born in San Francisco and so was this quilt (Sonya Lee's entry for our 2008 contest, "My Quilts/ Our History").

From this Quilt Index record:
Then + Now expresses 30 years of personal quilt design. The checkerboards are from the 1980s; the square format of small strips of surrounding color comes from the early 2000s and the Dupioni Silk combined with the "Macintosh Rose" is from my latest work: Silk Banners. I have always done and enjoyed curved seam piecing and this Macintosh Rose design is one that will be incorporated into a future Banner. See my website for other Banners: www.sonyaleebarrington.com.

With love and gratitude,
Amy

Amy E. Milne, Executive Director

The Alliance for American Quilts

information@quiltalliance.org

PS. Facebook users, don't forget to "Like" the AAQ page and the Quilt Index page. We're posting new photos and links every day.

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