The quilt world was fortunate to have Beth Gutcheon for a brief period of time. She has subsequently moved on to write several books of fiction and screenplays, also of merit. However, while she was in our clutches, she wrote one of the first intelligent books about quilting, a primer which did not "write down" to women who sewed. It is a book which assumed from the onset that quilters were more interested in exploring visual patterns and their impact, rather than making ducks-and-bunnies quilts (which, while perhaps appropriate for children, somehow became associated with female creativity in the 70's and 80's). This book was a welcome relief.