Stories That Cover Us: Meditations and Fiber Art by the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters offers a luminous, evocative portrait of quilt making. Introduced with a spectacular foreward by noted quilter, folk artist and lecturer Rachel Clark, this coffee table-style art book uses the Pacific Northwest as the backdrop for lush imagery and poignant essays by the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters.



The women in these pages are guided by a love of craft and a sense of sisterhood. Photographs and stories bring alive the intense relationship between cloth and the quilt maker, one much like the connection between canvas and painter.



Some of the stories are laugh out loud funny, others will make one drool with hunger both artistically and gastronomically.



Stories That Cover Us traverses artistic borders, moving seamlessly from a traditional craft and art book to make its literary home among meditations on quilting and that of being an African American artist.



In exhibits, presentations and lectures around the region and nation, the women of PNWAAQ bravely give access to their lives - brimming with memories, hopes, joys, milestones, losses, passions and accomplishments. Though the quilts reflect the lives that these particular women have lived, their stories are as familiar and inviting as to convince us that they speak on our behalf as well.



The stories woven into these quilts tell of African American artists living at this particular time in history, in this particular place.



At the end, readers will have peered into the world of quilting in the Pacific Northwest. Vibrant art amid a gray climate makes for a startling backdrop.