Practice Makes Perfect: My Other Books

The first time I self published a book was more than ten years ago, after watching a holiday gift segment on the Today Show. When I learned my iPhoto program also had a template for creating books, which could be printed on demand, I tried it out and made picture books as gifts for my family. By 2009, I discovered Blurb and liked the quality, so I continued to use it.

The first quilt book I created for sale did not include my own quilts. It was the 2011 exhibition catalogue for "Small Wonders, Doll Quilts by Andrea Balosky" and it is still available. The 120-page, full color, softcover catalogue includes more than 100 of Balosky's incredible doll quilts.

Between 2011 and the present, I published catalogues for my own exhibitions: "Beauty Secrets, 150 Years of History in One Quilt Pattern" (2011, Benton County Museum); "Changing the World, Quilts from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative" (2012, Anne Amie Vineyards); "Collecting New York Beauty Quilts" (2013, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles); "Masterpiece Quilts, Modernism in American Patchwork, 1810-1970" (Latimer Quilt & Textile Center); "Modern Materials, Quilts of the 1970s" (2015, Benton County Museum); and "Kalakoa, Discovering the Hawaiian Scrap Quilt" (2016, Latimer Quilt & Textile Center).

Three of those catalogues are now out of print, and others are available only for a limited time. You had to be there, or you had to be paying attention. Less than 100 copies of each out-of-print book exists, which ultimately means they will always be scarce and very hard to find. I like the idea of sending people on long quests to find scarce, out-of-print books long after I am gone. Call it a prank, but whenever someone finds a copy, it will be an event!

my "first" book was really more like my 30th or 40th

There were many other books, such as the small booklet I handed out at the American Quilt Study Group Seminar in 2012, and private books with travel and family photos, given as gifts during the Holidays. I probably published 30 or 40 books before publishing my "first book" - "New York Beauty, Quilts from the Volckening Collection" (Quiltmania/France) - available here.

My "second" book, "Modern Roots, Today's Quilts from Yesterday's Inspiration, 12 Projects Inspired by Patchwork from 1840 to 1970" (C&T/Stash) will arrive in Spring, 2016 and I am thrilled. To offer a group of quilts from my collection to today's quiltmakers for the first time is a dream come true. All of the experience self publishing books was helpful. Each one was like a dress rehearsal. Practice makes perfect.