Portable Patchwork

The only illustrated history of 19th-century potholder quilts, their origins, and the women who made these quilts.

Want to make your quilting easier to carry with you? Try the quilt-as-you-go methods that women of the 1800s invented so they could work on small blocks in stolen snatches of time. This quilting approach has many other benefits:

• It allows shorter sessions for tasks that some find tedious—no more weeklong cutting or piecing marathons.
• It makes sewing-machine work less cumbersome.
• It makes use of small batting scraps.
• It doesn't require a frame.

Based on research ranging from the women's diaries, to finds at quilt auctions, to clues shared by worldwide quilter chat groups, Portable Patchwork tells stories about the origins of this technique and the creative women who made or owned the quilts. Included are four projects demonstrating different quilt-as-you-go methods, allowing you to master this technique and add your own unlimited variations—just as your foremothers did.