Indigo Quilts

This excellent mix of history and quilt projects is the Triplett sisters' third book based off the Poos Collections, a large, privately held gathering of quilts and textiles managed by the authors. The sisters chose to focus on indigo, because, they claim, blue is the most popular color, and indigo is "the king of that color." Through most research focuses on India's role in Indigo cultivation, the Tripletts instead pay honorablethought admittedly circumstantialattention to Africa's links to the dye. The first section addresses transfer of indigo dye to the Americas beginning in the late 15th century, carried by people whom the Portuguese enslaved for the their knowledge of growing indigo and weaving indigo textiles. The second section highlights antique quilts from the Poos Collection, an album including a gorgeous pieced quilt with intricate feather stitching and a LeMoyne Star block quilt with quilted flowers skillfully stitched with "ghost" blocks. The Tripletts' style is scholarly and readable; the pictures are stunning and seductive, and the book finishes off with five indigo design projects for the mid-level-to-expert quilter.

This book is a significant contribution to quilt history research. Fascinating, and every person who's ever worn denim should read it. I'm happy to have a quilt from my own collection in the book, pg. 36 & 38, and it's such an honor to be included in the book. I'm learning a lot from it. Highly recommended! Congratulations to Kay and Lori Lee, and kudos to C&T Publishing for an exceptional book!