The historical precedent for qilting together in America in the nineteenth century was recorded in the diaries and journals of the eighteenth century.

[Note to the Reader] The surfaces of these quilts and bedcovers are rich with written words, with inscriptions and verses, with signatures and dates, and with towns and villages occasionally no longer found on maps.

[Preface] American women have always quilted together, for purpose and for pleasure, and it is the purpose of this book and the pleasure of the author to present and discuss an important selection of those nineteenth-century quilts and bedcovers that were the result of their cooperative and creative labors.