A Passion for Quilts

For those of you wondering what I have been up to all summer (and for many years before), I am very excited to announce that The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey has just published A Passion for Quilts: The Story of Florence Peto, which I wrote with co-authors Barbara Schaffer, Natalie Hart, and Rita Erickson. The four of us previously co-authored New Jersey Quilts: Contributions to an American Tradition, published in 1992, and once again teamed up to continue our quilt research to learn more about Florence Peto (1881-1970).

Florence Peto was a quilt collector, quilt historian, and quiltmaker. The quilts she collected and those she made were of such high quality that they became significant parts of museum collections. Florence's enthusiasm for life, thirst for knowledge, and love of quilts led her on a path she might not have expected as a young woman at the end of the nineteenth century. Through books, magazines, lectures, and exhibits, she shared the stories she found in quilts and created a legacy that endures from the twentieth century into the twenty-first century.

The book is 174 pages with more than 150 illustrations, including family photos and previously unpublished quilts. In addition, we are very lucky to have a foreword by Virginia Avery and contributions by Cuesta Benberry, Bets Ramsey, and Merikay Waldvogel.

If you'd like to order a copy, send a check payable to The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey in the amount of $32.95 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling to: The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, P.O. Box 341, Livingston, NJ 07039. Or you can go to the website http://www.newjerseyquilts.org/.