Dear Friends--

It seems like whatever time I have for quilting is spent making quilts for loved ones, class samples or contests. So I decided to spend my birthday last week quilting just for me. I took a sofa pillow to the quilt shop to match colors and bought 3 fabrics from the new Jane Sassaman "Sunshine and Shadows" collection, some of those bold floral prints she does so vividly. I rotary-cut 15-inch squares and made a sofa throw with no borders and no fancy stitching. The machine quilting merely traces the flowers, but in the alternating squares that feature calmer fabric, I've written words. The words flowing across the quilt are a list of simple things that make me happy, like birdsong and dancing.

Hey, now I remember why I love to quilt! And every time I curl up on the coach with this quilt, I'll be reminded of all the other things I love.

TODAY'S BUZZ: THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM QUILTS
I'm an Anglophile as well as a quiltaholic, so I would give a great deal to be able to attend the major exhibition that just opened in London featuring the spectacular but rarely seen quilt collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. It simply isn't in the cards for me to travel to England before July. Burt no matter. The show is getting raves, the British press calls it "a quirky hit," and you and I can actually get a pretty good look without leaving home. Here's how:

First, there is an excellent short slideshow, less than 3 minutes, with commentary on the BBC's website that walks you through the show. Go to tinyurl.com/yfo4j66.

Next, there is a wealth of information at the museum's website, including multiple videos. You can go behind the scenes of the exhibit at the blog of lead curator Sue Prichard. Or you can go to the V&A's online shop and buy 18 sumptuous printed fabrics reproduced from the vintage quilts. All of this and much more can be found at tinyurl.com/yh99xzj.

This exhibition covers 300 years of British quiltmaking and not all the best stuff comes from the V&A. It's clear they picked quilts for both artistry and story. Like a complex wool hexagon quilt made by a British solder during a 13-year stint in India. And the faded Grandmother's Flower Garden made from clothing scraps by 20 girls and women imprisoned in Singapore by the Japanese during WWII. There is a stunning crazy quilt from 1892, but also 21st century quilts made out of everything from Chinese money to steel wool. Curator Prichard has multiple points to make about the cultural and social uses of patchwork and she isn't afraid to provoke viewers in this ambitious show, as evidenced by the inclusion of "Right to Life," a 1993 quilt about abortion.

I highly recommend the companion book, also called Quilts 1700-2010: Hidden Histories, Untold Stories. It is so much more than a catalog, including gorgeous photographs of all 71 items in the show, but also a series of extremely thoughtful essays that put the vintage and modern quilts in context. The price on Amazon.com now is $60 and that's a lot for a 250-page book, but it's really excellent. Perhaps some guilds can buy it for their libraries and share it among members.

Far less expensive and also very satisfying if you like these vibrant vintage quilts, is the 2005 book Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts. Long before the current show, Kaffe was allowed to wander through the vaults and pick his favorite quilts in the V&A collection. With each project, he shows the old quilt that inspired him and presents how-tos for a simplified modern version.

NEW TV SHOW ON LONGARM QUILTING
That Jodie Davis is a very busy girl! In addition to working hard as president of QNNtv.com, making her own beer and growing cotton at her Georgia home, she co-hosts that outrageous online television show Quilt Out Loud with Mark Lipinski. Now, she's about to debut a new online show called "Quilt It!" about longarm quilting.

Not a master longarmer herself, Jodie will be teaching the audience as she learns from a variety of veteran longarm instructors. A series of guests join her at the well-equipped studios of Handi Quilter Inc. in Utah. Although Handi Quilter is the show's principal sponsor, the guests will include such longarm A-listers as Karen McTavish and Linda Taylor, who are associated with other brands of machines including APQS and Gammill.

Like Quilt Out Loud, you can watch a new segment of Quilt It! once a week (with new segments airing each Tuesday), or wait until the end of a month to see a whole episode. The first segment debuts April 6.

As with Quilt Out Loud, you must join QNN to watch. But the $24 subscription, about what you pay for a quilt magazine, gives you some extra bang for the buck, allowing you to also watch a huge archive of quilt shows whenever you want. These include complete seasons of shows by Eleanor Burns, Fons and Porter, and Linda Taylor the longarm guru. For more info, including a list of the first six guests, go to longarmquiltingshow.com.

HOW IS YOUR CONTEST QUILT COMING?
Just a gentle reminder that the deadline for the New From Old contest benefiting the Alliance for American Quilts is May 31. You can win great prizes and the contest quilts are only 16 inches square. Even if you don't win a prize, your quilt will travel the country to major shows and be archived permanently online before being auctioned off next fall. You can fit a whole lot of stunning into just 16 inches. For proof, check out the blog of crazy quilt guru Allison Aller to see her New From Old entry.

Download rules and entry forms at www.allianceforamericanquilts.org.

YOU ARE GONNA WANT THIS BOOK!
If you are an avid quilter, especially if you love piecing, there is one book that should be on your MUST list this year. That's Jinny Beyer's new book, The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. Yes, it costs $50. True, there are many block bibles on the market.

But this book goes way beyond the basics, showing more than 4,000 blocks in full color, and organizing them in truly useful ways. This is a great resource to flip through for inspiration, or study when designing a new quilt. It isn't just the value of seeing so many blocks shown in Beyer's trademark jewel-tone fabrics, but she combines these with great tutorials about design and construction, showing how to mark a block design on a grid and how to do tricky bits like create interlocking, or tessellating, patterns.

This is one of those special books that packs a career's worth of wisdom in one volume. Buy it!

NAME CHANGE
Nope, not changing my name but the name of this newsletter. Since it began in 2008 I've called it Meg Cox on Quilting Now, but that doesn't seem very descriptive.

Now I'm switching to "Quilt Journalist Tells All," which is also the title of my most popular guild lecture. It highlights what makes me different from most quilt teachers and lecturers: how many professional journalists are writing full-time about quilting, while also serving as president of a national quilt nonprofit?

Which provides a good segue for what I've been doing recently. The April/May issue of Quilter's Home magazine is just coming out now, including another issue of my Megabites gossip column. I've also got another piece in the new issue of the online magazine, Quiltposium: this one is on how to search the oral history project of the Alliance for American Quilts known as Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories. Go to www.quiltposium.com and check the table of contents.

If you'd rather hear me than read me, tune in next week when I appear on Pat Sloan's radio show. I'll be taking her questions live, starting at 4 pm EST on Monday, March 29 for about 30 minutes. Just click on this link to hear the show. If you can't listen then, come by later to listen to the podcast version. Also, Pat will be giving away two free books: a copy of my resource guide The Quilter's Catalog plus my popular previous work The Book of New Family Traditions. To win a book, just leave a message on Pat's blog anytime next week.

Have a creative and inspiring month, and feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you like.

love, Meg