over priced, over hyped
Customer Rating: 
this book bills itself as 'the most comprehensive history of american quilts ever published.'
hardly. although it does a better job of covering the 1920s-1950s than most quilt books, other eras are not all that well done. and there are several quilts that are beautiful, unusual, and inspiring that i have not seen in other books.
the back cover boasts that there are more than 200 color photos quilts. there may be, but there are sections of this 330+ page book where page and page after page after page is completely free of any photo or illustration, never mind quilt photos. ordinary quilts are given full page space, while several impressive quilts have less than half a page. _the american quilt_, by roderick kiracofe, has a third fewer pages and claims 250 photos of quilts. it's also much better written. and that's only one example of other, better, books that address quilt history.
a history should be chronological. this is not. a history should be accurate--there are glaring mistakes and unbelievable statements (marie antoinette is 'infamous.' what?? notorious, yes, libelled and slandered, provably--but 'infamous'? she wasn't eva braun. oh, and why is she mentioned?) nearly an entire page is devoted to mary, queen of scots, and an example of her needlework is included. why? it has absolutely nothing to do with quilts. one caption states that quilters in early- to mid-20th century america had to rely on mail order for their fabric. is the author totally ignorant? until the decline of home sewing, about the mid-70s, many department stores had yardage counters, there were shops devoted to yard goods, dry goods stores carried bolts of fabric. shops specializing in quilting alone may be a recent phenomenon, but fabric stores have existed for more than a century. (1/4/08: i was skimming through this book again, and, by chance, read in the text more accurate information about fabric availability--the text was not near the caption that annoyed me. sloppy production, but probably not the author's fault.)
the text seems to be aimed at the junior high school level. the grammar is appalling. to correct one caption: a word does not derive from something. a word is derived from something. just because the advertising profession thinks the passive voice is not exciting enough to manipulate consumers is no reason to degrade the language.
space is wasted in essays of varying degree of interest. one person's viewpoint of events can be interesting, but not necessarily accurate.
still, in all this dross there are a few items of interest. the stories of past quilters are moving, some even heartbreaking. the photos of people are interesting (the share croppers [sic] who put on their silk stockings for the photographer [nylon wasn't yet used then]).
do i like it? no, it makes me angry that such a little is priced at such a lot. am i going to return it? after several days' consideration, i decided to keep it--because i think it would be unethical to photocopy the quilts i like and then return the book.
do i recommned it? only to quilters who are already familiar with the better histories of quilts and quilting. and then i'd suggest waiting until they can buy it used.
Reviews Send to a Friend
