Excerpt Introduction Amid the rush and haste of life at the close of the 20th century, many of us seek rest and quiet in community life. We look for community in churches, in neighborhoods, in places of work and in common goals and activities. Quilters find community in common goals and activities. We talk of needles and thread, fabric and stitches, and bedcovers and pieces of art. We gather in homes, in fabric shops, in quilt guilds, and in large convention centers to share our ideas and projects. Many of us are also homemakers. We approach cooking with many shades of intensity. Some of us treat cooking and quilting both as high art forms. Some of us work hard to prepare varied and healthful meals for our busy families and only quilt occasionally. Others experience ongoing disasters because we become engrossed in quilting and forget the carrots or potatoes or beans. This amazing collection of recipes from a community best known for its gifts with cloth and design includes submissions from Irvine, California, to New York's Upper West Side; from Fruitland Park, Florida, to Honolulu; and from Williams Lake, British Columbia, to Florence, South Carolina. The recipes reflect a diverse group of people whose primary common thread is quilting. It is, in fact, a passion for threads and fabric, for templates and patterns, and for sewing machines and quilt frames that draws quilters into community. We know the best fabric stores. We share patterns. We generally piece by machine and quilt by hand. While we attend guild meetings and quilting bees, many of us also spend long hours at home stitching alone. We are first and foremost quilters. Each of the recipes has been identified with the submitter's name and place of residence. In addition, most submitters also listed the name of the quilt pattern which they were working with at the time they submitted recipes. Those patterns are listed under their names and provide a kaleidoscope of original patterns and homemade names along with many familiar and frequently used pattern names and designs. To the quilting community I extend warm thanks for your gracious sharing of recipes and stories. I also thank you for your willingness to serve as recipe testers when other pursuits and interests must surely have kept you busy. This book truly belongs to you -- the quilting community. --Louise Stoltzfus Excerpted from Favorite Recipes from Quilters: More Than 900 Delectable Dishes by Louise Stoltzfus All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
