Review   Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles - September 15, 2008
"In honor of complete disclosure, let me confess that I am an armchair quilter. Like an armchair quarterback I can sit on the sidelines and observe others successes, failures, near misses, and award winners. I'm much handier at looking through the books, watching videos and television programs, and mentally listing all of the quilts I'd like to make. It may be the perfectionist in me, knowing that once I cut the fabric, the quilt will never measure up to the one I envisioned. Most of the time I admire quilts with wonder, usually an "I wonder how they did that?"...Nothing would please me more than to combine my love of minutia, memoir, and computer with quilting. Krista Camacho Halligan's book Photo-Fabric Play gives me directions for a variety of projects from blocks and shadowboxes to the usual assortment of wall hangings and quilts. She takes time to explain required equipment and then how to use it to accomplish the required tasks. Her projects feature children or are for their use or their decor, but with imagination and creativity could easily be adapted to other members of the family or to display antique possessions or copies of them. Since I'm not a scrapbooker with a cache of rubber stamps and embellishments, I need to purchase the materials for each project. Scrapbookers might be better prepared. The wall hanging and quilt designs featured basic easy-to-accomplish layouts and patterns with the focus on how to use the photos and embellishments rather than design art quilts. Once one incorporates her directions into a quilt, the design can easily be altered to the makers taste."