Customer Reviews

Wild by Design: Two Hundred Years of Innovaton and Artistry in American Quilts

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Unlike other reviewers, I was really disappointed in this book. Because of the cover picture, I was expecting another book similar to Quilt National or Quilt Visions, but it's not like that at all. There are only a couple of quilts in the book similar to the cover quilt. The rest are variations on traditional quilts--very nice but not my cup of tea. The dialogue on each quilt was interesting, but I'd suggest taking a peek at this book in person to be sure you want to order it for your collection.

I am a huge fan of Janet Berlo and bought this book primarily because of her involvement. I wasn't disappointed. Her essay, which precedes the catalogue of quilts and the dialogues with the other editors, is first class. It challenges a lot of the "myths" of quilting - for example, that women used re-cycled fabric for a lot of their quiltmaking. Berlo contends that, from her study of these quilts, and letters exchanged between quilters, there is evidence that most of the fabrics used were new, and some bought in considerable amounts specifically for quiltmaking. She also does a lot to discredit the myth of quilts being used as complicated signals on the Underground Railroad.
I have always tended to think of traditional quilts being beautiful but utlitiarian, and art quilts being beautiful but artistic. This book has opened my eyes to the fact that traditional quilts can be art quilts too.
I would recommend this book to anyone who really loves and appreciates quilts.

Quilts used to be things that your grandmother made and either ended up on your bed keeping you warm at night, or were put away as family heirlooms. Some quilts, it turns out, are much more than that: works of art, either intentionally made as such, or defined as such after the fact, thanks to their daring and beauty. There are many books on quilts, and this is a welcome addition, focusing on a wide range of quilts from the historic to the modern. Authors Berlo and Crews give quilts careful academic study (Berlo is a professor of art history and Crews a professor of textiles and director of the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln). They provide useful context for the heart of this book: wonderful full-page reproductions of forty-eight quilts from the early 1800s to the present. The selection is breath-taking and inspiring. And the way the authors discuss each quilt is smart: it's in the form of a dialogue between them and three other cognoscenti in the field, which removes any potential for academic dryness. But Wild by Design isn't for academics: it's for all of us who can look at the wonderful range of art that women -- and a few men -- have made in the last 180 years and be astounded by the homespun beauty.

Wild By Design: Two Hundred Years Of Innovation And Artistry In American Quilts is an impressively informative exploration of American improvisational, asymmetrical quilting experiments provides a fine history of evolving designs, colors and motifs from the early 19th century to modern times. Of particular note here are insights on regional American and modern art quilts from local communities, as well as surveys of the collections and holdings of the International Quilt Study Center. A gorgeous analysis which includes a concurrent history of women and the textile arts in America, this is studded with color photos.