Quilter and writer Meg Cox is guest writing today on the QuiltersBuzz.  Meg’s newest book is called “The Quilter’s Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide” will be published later this year by Workman Publishing.

 Meg Cox is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the author of several books on family traditions. This book is like six books in one, including a dozen projects, tons of resources and tips, quirky quilt history, and profiles of the top 20 quilt teachers in the U.S.

(See photo below of Meg interviewing designer/artist Kaffe Fassett)

You can read more about her book (even pre-order if you want -- the preorder price on Amazon is about $12!) and her background at her website, www.MegCox.com

 Meg shares with us her love and passion for quilts and preserving the history of quilts and their quilt makers.  She is involved in several programs—including creating a virtual “memory quilt”.

 Here is Meg:

         “The love of quilts and quilting is often passed from one passionate person to another. Who taught you? How would you like to thank your quilt mentor in a vivid, public and permanent way?

     That’s the kind of thinking that inspired me to buy the first square on a new “Memory Quilt” online at the website for The Alliance for American Quilts. My mother taught me how to quilt in the late 1980s but didn’t live to see how much quilting changed my life. Although she won blue ribbons for her stunning quilts, she’ll never win a prize at Paducah, have a quilt on the cover of Quilters News Magazine or get elected to the Quilter’s Hall of Fame.

     But at least my mother’s story and her picture are posted on the Internet, on a website that is visited by thousands of people every week, which makes me feel great. You can go see her, just by clicking on this Memory Quilt link .Click on the face in the upper left-hand corner of the quilt, and you can read about her life.

     Now you have a chance to do the same thing and show the world your favorite quilter and her work. Actually, there are two different virtual quilts at the Alliance website. The Star quilt is the one where my mother is, and it allows you to post a photo and a story about your quilt mentor.

     The second quilt, a Chinese Coins quilt, is for text messages only, but what’s cool is that you can leave so many types of messages. There is a tribute there to the late Hilary Fletcher, who ran the Quilt National art quilt show, but also birthday wishes and gratitude messages. I’m hoping that imaginative quilters will start using this space like the ultimate quilt world bulletin board, celebrating friends who won a quilt prize, or paid off their longarm machine or just deserve to be recognized.

 Posting a message on the site is $100 (just $75 if you join The Alliance for American Quilts. Members get a discount of $100 on the star quilt squares.)

 All the money goes straight to help the work of The Alliance. For those who don’t know it, The Alliance is a visionary non-profit that preserves the history of quilts and their makers. That includes the stories of people who make quilts now.

 The Alliance does all of this in a very un-boring, high-tech way, at the website www.centerforthequilt.org Go there right now and check out some of the thousands of historic quilts displayed at the Quilt Index, as well as the 500-plus interviews of contemporary quilters at Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories.

As you can see Meg is passionately involved in some wonderful quilting programs. She currently serves on the board of The Alliance for American Quilts.