Book Review, Quilting Update

Sally Palmer Field may not have been a nationally known quilter, but she was certainly a local celebrity.  Nearly every quilter in New England has heard of Sally or experienced her influence.  Judy Buswick's latest book, Sally Palmer Field, New England Quilter, is a biography of Sally detailing her life from visiting the textile mills in Lowell where her father worked to her quilt store, the quilts she made, the classes she taught, the creation of the New England Quilt Guild and her influence in creating the New England Quilt Museum.  Sally had a passion for quilting that was contagious.

Judy's book details the quilting life of this energy-filled woman who insisted everybody learn the basics of quilting using cardboard templates and hand sewing, but also encouraged creativity as she urged quilters to explore their own designs and color schemes.  It is an interesting read of how one woman helped the resurgence of quilting as a craft and art form.

 Sally Palmer Field, New England Quilter is available on Amazon.com or local quilt shops.

Other than finishing this book, I continue to work on the hand quilting on the Florabunda quilt.  I've completed the center and 5 of the 12 surrounding blocks. I didn't expect the quilting to take this long, but I guess since I'm doing a 1" grid, it's pretty densely quilted.  So far, I'm quilting around all the applique shapes and doing the grid on the background and checkerboard sashing.  The only additional quilting I did was more grid quilting on the center basket since that was a large area to leave unquilted.  I'm toying with adding embroidery to some of the leaves and flowers as an accent.  I'm waiting until all the quilting is done.  I'm afraid that I'll get started on the embroidery not like it, or like it a lot and have to do a lot on the quilt.  First, I have to finish the quilting!