1.6 Million African American Quilters: Survey, Sites, and a Half-Dozen Art Quilt Blocks

I'm excited to announce a new book - all about you! 1.6 Million African American Quilters is a handy, eye-opening booklet about today's Black quiltmakers:

- You'll find the latest quilt industry figures from the Quilting in America Survey, including the number of Black quilters nationally.

- The most comprehensive resource of websites, blogs, and YouTube videos featuring African American quilters and guilds - more than 270!

I was amazed by the variety and passion for quilting that you see online! There are 35 guilds listed. You'll find links to Sistah quilters in the US, the UK, Tanzania, Nigeria, and more! Can you name 10 African American male quilters? Find their websites in the booklet! Also included are selected textile artists, dollmakers, fabric designers, and quilters from the African diaspora.

- Six afro-centrically designed art quilt blocks by Washington, D.C. artist Francine Haskins, who is also a member of the Black Artists of DC organization. I hope you'll enjoy these blocks as quilt or redwork embroidery patterns. I'm happy to post your completed blocks here on the Black Threads blog! By the way, Francine also illustrated the book cover! Didn't you just want to pull up a chair and sew!?

- Bibliographic references, many annotated, for selected books, articles, exhibit catalogs, dissertations, papers, and films about Black quilters. I've also included the wonderful self-published books by guilds and quilters. And... in a new category... this booklet includes references to several Sistah quilters who have donated materials (papers, exhibit catalogs, photos, quilt patterns) about their quilt-making to different museums nationally. How cool and inspirational is that!?

1.6 Million African American Quilters is all about documenting and encouraging networking. I hope you enjoy it. I hope your personal copy becomes dog-eared and filled with scribbled notes indicating which sites you've visited, new quilter friends you've met. I hope the booklet's spine becomes bent from having photocopied the art quilt blocks. I hope you see yourself in the pages. It is truly an honor to declare - there are 1.6 Million African American Quilters today!

Black Threads Press, 62 pages, $9.95 - Available on Amazon.com. Enjoy!

John Sims labors with Amish Quilters

Are you familiar with the quilts of John Sims? In this photo from 2005, he and a few Amish quilters are sewing on the piece "Civil Pi Movement." John Sims specializes in math-based quilts. In 2008, he exhibited 13 quilts in the show Square Roots: A Quilted Manifesto. Read an interview with him by noted art curator A. M. Weaver on the BOMBlog. Enjoy!

Alliance of African American Art Quilters - new national organization

Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi recently announced the formation of the Alliance of African American Art Quilters, a group of professional studio artists and historians dedicated to exhibiting quilts and recording and preserving African American quilt history. If you are interested in joining, please contact Dr. Mazloomi directly at 5481 Oldgate Drive, West Chester, OH 45069 or DrMaz4WCQN@aol.com.