Let's See Your Quilts

I know it's a busy time of year, but today I started a Flickr group to allow some of you to show your photos of quilts you've made from my books. While I design the quilts and write the books, I often wonder if anyone really makes the quilts. Don't feel bad if you haven't - I myself have so many quilting books by so many talented quilt designers but have not made the quilts in them, although they are bookmarked for "someday."

You can access the Flickr group here - I'm calling it "Quilts Designed by Kathleen Tracy."

I added a few photos of my own quilts to get things rolling:

This little Signature or Friendship quilt is one of my favorite quilts from my book Prairie Children & Their Quilts. It's a perfect quilt to make for a friend or to celebrate an occasion. You can put names of friends or your own quote in the blocks or use the one I wrote that's on the quilt. Signature quilts were often given to friends who were leaving their lives and family behind as they traveled west during the 1800s.

It's sad to have to say it, but this book is now going out of print. : ( 

Prairie Children was published in 2006, sold very well at the time but, according to my publisher, the cost of reprinting more copies is too prohibitive, sigh. Another one bites the dust! Unfortunately, in the publishing world, it's rare for quilting books to stay in print for a very long time because most quilters don't want to buy "old" books or books that are more than several years old and so they stop reprinting them when demand is low. There are too many new, fresh books out there every month to compete with the older ones. So, if you see a copy, grab it because, like American Doll Quilts, my first book, soon it will no longer be available in hard copy. I bought some from my publisher before they ran out and so I still have plenty of copies available on my website.

Another little quilt from Prairie Children

Friendship Star quilt

But back to Flickr. For those of you who are not familiar with Flickr, it's a photo sharing application by Yahoo. Here's some general info about Flickr. Get your questions answered  here. You need a Yahoo account to join Flickr but it's very simple to sign up and if you're in one of  Yahoo's many groups (like mine), you already have a Yahoo ID. Anyone can go to the site and see photos. You do have to join the "Kathleen Tracy" group and become a member to add photos of your quilts, however.

I think this will be very inspiring - and a great way for all of  you to show off your quilts. Won't you join us?