Mary Meigs Atwater (1878–1956)

The Shuttle-Craft bulletin was a monthly newsletter sent out to
weavers by subscription, starting in 1924. The first editor of this newsletter was Mary Meigs Atwater who is generally credited with reviving the art of handweaving in the U.S. Out of the numerous newsletters came a collection of weaving drafts and information from the bulletin that was published separately and was called the Mary Meigs Atwater Recipe Book: Patterns for Handweavers. This book was published in 1957 and the copyright eventually passed on by Ms. Atwater's daughter to the Mary Meigs Atwater Guild in Salt Lake, UT.

The “Recipe” book is aptly named because it is much like an old cookbook inherited from a dear relative. The pages are handwritten, with hand drawn renditions of the cloth. In some of the recipes, there are explicit instructions about how to make a purse, a tie, or maybe a chair seat cover.
As I looked through the book, I could see that some of the recipes are clear and relatively easy to understand. Other recipes refer the reader/weaver to the Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-weaving
(another publication by Atwater) for more complete instructions on how
to weave a particular piece. Many drafts are in profile format with suggestions on weaving them in several different structures.

This new edition contains some color photos of actual woven samples of
drafts from the book. It's amazing just how much more appealing a book becomes with a little color and weaving inspiration.… (mehr)