MennoLink Books and Music

Few antique Amish crib quilts remain because they were put to hard use in large families which typically averaged seven children. But Sarah Miller of Kalona, Iowa, herself a member of the Old Order Amish, began building a collection of lovely antique crib quilts which she learned about as the proprietor of a fabric and quilt shop. Thus began an unusual odyssey- Sarah, who once disparaged the quilting tradition of her heritage, thinking it dull and drab, began to see its graphic beauty when outsiders became intent on owning Amish quilts

The richly colorful quilts featured here come from Amish communities through the Midwestern United States. In addition to 90 full-color plates of the exquisite quilts is interpretive commentary and documentation, plus three essays elaborating on the significance of the collection. Author Janneken Smucker descends from a line of quilters in the Amish-Mennonite community of Goshen, IN; Dr Patricia Cox Crews is Director of the Interntaional Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE; Dr Linda Welters is Professor of Textiles at the University of Rhode Island. Amish Crib Quilts from the Midwest is an unusual feast visiually. The analyses that acoompnay the boldly beautiful images contribute scholarship to this intersection of art and the life of the Amish.

Copyright 2003.