Quilting Resources for Rochester and Upstate New York
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Online Discussion
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Rochester Quilters discussion Yahoo group. "Rochester, NY
Quilters invites quilters from all of Upstate, New York to share
their ideas, post photos of their quilts, announce exhibitions,
promote quilting bees, post links to their Web sites, share quilting
resources, and tell stories. This is a supportive community with
good natured intent."
Recommended Books
Novels that incorporate quilting into their stories.
The following group of novels are by
Jennifer Chiaverini and
should be read in order to fully appreciate the continuing
narrative.
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Quilters Apprentice,
1999
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Round Robin, 2000
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The Cross-Country
Quilters, 2001
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The Runaway Quilt,
2002
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The Quilter’s Legacy,
2003
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The Master Quilter,
2004
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The Sugar Camp Quilt,
2005
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The Christmas Quilt,
2005
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Circle of Quilters,
2006
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The Quilter's Homecoming, 2007
Compilations of the Elm Creek Quilters Novels
Mysteries
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Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler. "Young, recently
widowed Benni Harper, the foolhardy heroine in this predictable
debut, leaves her ranch after her husband's accidental death and
becomes the curator of the folk-art museum in the coastal
California town of San Celina. Benni is frantically trying to
assemble a quilt show when she discovers a local potter stabbed
to death in the museum studio. Benni's flaky 21-year-old cousin
Rita, whom Benni had seen driving away from the museum,
disappears and becomes a prime suspect. When Rita calls asking
for money, Benni determines not to tell the police, whose new
chief, Gabe Ortiz, has warned her not to interfere in the
investigation, and decides to clear Rita by finding the real
murderer. The day that the quilt show opens, Benni finds a
plastic bag filled with money in the attic of the museum but
waits to tell Ortiz until after the opening party. When he goes
to the attic to investigate, he finds, instead, the body of the
museum handyman. Fowler connects all the deaths in her plot,
leaving no threads hanging, but Benni's reckless actions and her
love-hate relationship with the enigmatic Ortiz yield an
unconvincing narrative. Mystery Guild alternate."
Other Novelists
History
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Hidden In Plain View by Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Jobard
PhD. "When quiltmaker Ozella McDaniels told Jacqueline
Tobin of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, it sparked Tobin
to place the tale within the history of the Underground
Railroad. Hidden in Plain View documents Tobin and Raymond
Dobard's journey of discovery, linking Ozella's stories to other
forms of hidden communication from history books, codes, and
songs. Each quilt, which could be laid out to air without
arousing suspicion, gave slaves directions for their escape.
Ozella tells Tobin how quilt patterns like the wagon wheel, log
cabin, and shoofly signaled slaves how and when to prepare for
their journey. Stitching and knots created maps, showing slaves
the way to safety.
The authors construct history around Ozella's story, finding
evidence in cultural artifacts like slave narratives, folk
songs, spirituals, documented slave codes, and children's'
stories. Tobin and Dobard write that "from the time of slavery
until today, secrecy was one way the black community could
protect itself. If the white man didn't know what was going on,
he couldn't seek reprisals." Hidden in Plain View is a
multilayered and unique piece of scholarship, oral history, and
cultural exploration that reveals slaves as deliberate agents in
their own quest for freedom even as it shows that history can
sometimes be found where you least expect it."
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