QUILTS 2004, a desk calendar of antique quilts, Barnes
& Noble, New York, NY, available by July or August, 2003 (for
further information, see NEWS section)
HOME SWEET HOME: THE HOUSE IN AMERICAN FOLK ART; Deborah
Harding and Laura Fisher, Rizzoli International Publications,
New York, NY, 2001. 160 pages, 150 full color illustrations, $50
hardcover.
Available through amazon.com; at Borders and selected booksellers,
and from Laura Fisher/Antique Quilts & Americana.
The charming ways that buildings have been depicted in American
folk art are captured in Home Sweet Home. Quilts, coverlets,
shirred, yarn-sewn and hooked rugs, paintings and drawings, samplers
and needlework, furniture, furnishings, toys and accessories are
discussed by the authors based on extensive research and interviews
with folk art experts. The homes and buildings shown in each medium
include icons of American folk art along with images that have
never before been published. Writing in Antiques and the Arts
Weekly, Laura Beach reported, "…the images in Home Sweet
Home cleave into groups…in the first, the depictions of home
are essentially records…like portraiture. In the second group,
home is a semi-abstract motif symbolizing security, stability,
and belonging, values that transcend architectural specifics and
that are fundamental to traditional vernacular art."
QUILTS OF ILLUSION, Laura Fisher, Sterling/Main Street
Press, New York, NY, 1989; Blandford Villiers House, London, 1990.
Optical illusion design in antique quilts is explored in depth
in this breakthrough work published in the U.S. and England. Whether
an unanticipated consequence or a planned design, each illusionary
quilt is intriguing. The graphics found in the nearly 200 examples
have mystery, depth and movement. Many look remarkably modern
yet most are 100 to 175 years old. Instructions with templates
to create four quilts are included.
Out of print; a few signed soft cover American version and hard
cover English version copies are still available from Laura Fisher;
can sometimes be found through used book dealers.
AMERICA'S GLORIOUS QUILTS, Duke and Harding, Editors, Hugh
Lauter Levin, New York, NY, 1988. The first "coffee table"
book showing antique quilts as the works of art and history they
are, in glorious color and in significantly large scale. Fisher
wrote the introductory chapter that discusses the variety to be
found in antique quilts, and contributed to essays throughout.
Out of print; copies sometimes available through used book dealers.
Always check these periodicals: MARTHA STEWART LIVING (the
television show too); COUNTRY LIVING, COUNTRY HOME, ARCHITECTURAL
DIGEST, and other home furnishing, shelter, and lifestyle
magazines for props that Fisher has loaned to accentuate photo
layouts, and for her occassional articles on textile collecting.
