Good is curator of The People's Place Quilt Museum, located in the village of Intercourse (Lancaster County), Pennsylvania. The Museum specializes in exhibiting changing shows of antique Amish and Mennonite quilts, and has enjoyed critical acclaim from national publications.

Good is General Manager of the historic Old Country Store in the original part of the village of Intercourse. The Old Country Store has been chosen as one of the 10 best quilt shops in America by Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler.

Phyllis and Merle Good are also co-directors of The People's Place (also in Intercourse), an educational and heritage center dedicated to interpreting Amish and Mennonite beliefs and practices.

Two hidden valleys--the Big Valley in central Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia--held vibrant communities and quilting traditions during the closing years of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. These were the years when quilts made by the Amish and Mennonites were abundantly artistic. How did their quilts, made in these two tucked-away places, compare?

Making a quilt is usually a private undertaking. The quiltmaker chooses her own fabric and colors and piecing patterns; assembled into a quilt, they show her personal preferences, her cautions or derring-do. But in many cases that quilt also reflects the community in which the quiltmaker lives--the restrictions or encouragement of the local church, the influence of her neighbors, the visual vocabulary that she's learned from her family or the settlement from which they've emigrated. These forces certainly affected quiltmakers in both the Big and Shenandoah valleys.

Historic events also leave their mark on quiltmaking. For example, in central Pennsylvania and in western Virginia, the Industrial Revolution brought many new fabrics to the marketplace. Some quilted well; others didn't. The Civil War and Reconstruction interrupted life in many ways, including quilt production.

Although they are religious cousins, the Amish and Mennonites created quite different quilts during these years of peak quilt design. Who influenced their choice of patterns and fabrics and color combinations? What part did their churches play? How were these two particular communities affected by their separate histories, and by events in the larger world?

The Big Valley in Pennsylvania's Mifflin County was (and continues to be) home to three main Old Order Amish groups. While the three groups differ in their quilt traditions, most of the quilts made in the Valley share certain characteristics--they are made of solid-color fabric (without prints); they are graphically strong and bold with occasional flashes of powerful color.

Precisely pieced but somewhat more subdued quilts were made at the same time by the Mennonites of the Shenandoah Valley. Their quilts are distinguished by their plentiful quilting, their minute stitches.

The Amish and Mennonite quilts in this book have also had quite different histories since the mid-1970s. Many Amish quilts made between 1880 and 1940 have become prized as pieces of art. Many Amish families were ready to trade their family bedcovers for cash. Now many of those quilts are owned by collectors who value them for their artistic beauty.

By contrast, most of the Mennonite quilts in this book are still within the families where they were made. Sometimes stored in chests, sometimes used on a bed, sometimes hung on a wall, these quilts continue to be passed from one generation to the next.

This book holds parts of the stories of 61 quilts--and parts of the communities' stories where they were made.

© Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534