Quilting has a long and proud history, but there are many who believe we are currently living in the “Golden Age of Quilting,” says Carol Armstrong, who gave a presentation on “The Evolution of the Quilting World From 1970 to 2000,” as part of the Utah Quilt Guild’s recent Annual Quilt Festival. However, when you made a quilt out of polyester, “you couldn’t press crisp, open seams. Then came the huge celebration of the country’s bicentennial, and with it, a revival of interest in traditional handicrafts, including quilting. But because not much had gone on in the quilting world until then, “the quilting supplies of the 1970s actually compared to the quilting supplies of the 1930s,” said Armstrong. At this point, there were no quilting stores, just plain fabric stores with sewing notions. Quilting templates were made from shirt cardboard, cereal boxes, newspaper.

The makings of this exhibit started a few years ago, when members of the Russian Quilters Association purchased a heavy tome about quilts from around the world. The Houston exhibit — the first in the United States — features 33 quilts, along with several dresses and textile dolls. Project coordinator Rimma Bybina made a conscious effort to include quilts that would showcase the many differences among Russian quilts. Curator Yung-Sung Huang selected 50 indigo-dyed pieces — none of them actually quilts in the American sense — to highlight.

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In murder mystery world, a “cozy” is a mystery where you don’t see any gore, the characters are pleasantly eccentric and the setting is a safe little community where no one would ever expect so much homicide to take place. Set in the Massachusetts village of Sea Harbor, it features a former defense attorney, Isabel Chambers, now owner of a knitting shop; her aunt Nell Endicott; and a group of friends including a lobster fisherwoman and an outspoken octogenarian. Angelina Archer, the victim of this mystery, isn’t exactly killed by cashmere, but she is last seen wearing a gorgeous yellow cashmere sweater Izzy had knit and loaned her for an evening out. The Seaside Knitters endlessly dissect the case, running rings around the hapless local police, as they interview friends, family and likely suspects over brunch, lunch, dinner and their knitting needles.

Members of the Calhoun County Partners for Economic Development and Calhoun County artist Jill Rulon with one of the quilt blocks to be mounted on at least 34 county barns for the two-day, third annual Calhoun County Church Quilt Tour. Besides the annual church quilt tour, sponsored by the Calhoun County Partners for Economic Development, the organization is offering an additional treat for guests this year — a Barn Quilt Tour that will feature at least 34 county barns and businesses with a different quilt block pattern mounted on each of them. Robbie Strauch, the organization’s Church Quilt Tour co-chair, said the genesis of the Barn Quilt Tour project arose after she asked local artist Jill Rulon to paint a quilt block on a barn owned by her daughter and son-in-law in Missouri. Along with the Church Quilt Tour, guests can see or purchase quilt supplies, watch quilting demonstrations, and take the driving tour of the hand-painted quilt blocks on barns and businesses throughout Calhoun County.