Over the past 25 years Patricia Cox, a renowned quiltmaker, teacher and quilt collector, has gathered a wide-ranging collection of more than 300 classic quilts representing all the major strands of American quiltmaking heritage, from 1830s applique to 1930s kit quilts. Many of the quilts are of museum quality. More than sixty of these pieces were displayed at the prestigious International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, in 1997, but the collection has never been fully documented or shown in its entirety. In Classic American Quilts, Patricia Cox displays for the first time the highlights of her collection, and charts the history and development of the American quilt from the early 1800s to the present day. Included in the book are step-by-step recreations of blocks from some of the very best quilts in the collection, enabling readers to experience for themselves the joy of creating heirloom pieces to pass on to future generations.