Quilts on the quick

Artists who subjected themselves to mind-numbing deadlines have been attracting notice for the fruits of their labors. Now, theater companies across the country are presenting works by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks , who wrote a play a day for a year . Last month , nearly 13,000 people around the world wrote a novel in 30 days, as part of National Novel Writing Month, launched seven years ago in Oakland, Calif., by Chris Baty .

Along comes Jeanne Williamson of Natick, who created an 8-by-10-inch quilt every week for seven years. "It felt like a switch in my head was turned on, and ideas came bubbling out," she writes.

Following her lead, 900 quilters around the world signed up to create a quilt a month, each no bigger than a piece of typing paper. Four hundred of their 6,000 quilts have been collected in the new book "Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project," published by Quilting Arts magazine in Stow.

Each colorful image is accompanied by the quilter's explanation of the techniques used to tell a story.

As Williamson found, the small size encouraged experimentation with techniques and materials, such as Scrabble letters (above right) and tin can lids. A quilt depicting a family's new health regimen has a border made of labels from now-forbidden foods. Another artist memorialized her sister's escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11 with a quilt of fallen belongings, including her sister's first pair of Manolo Blahniks (above left).

Friends and colleagues of William Styron, who died this fall, will pay tribute to him at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Boston Public Library. In his works, Styron tackled such subjects as slavery, the Holocaust, and his own depression. The expected participants include Norman Mailer and Geraldine Brooks.

The evening of readings, reminiscences, and discussion will be hosted by PEN New England.

Two holiday gift ideas for Boston bibliophiles:

A re-creation of the canvas book bag the Boston Public Library has used for more than 100 years to ferry books between branches.

A reproduction of the steel bookends -- patented in 1878 and decorated with the original Gilded Age art -- still in use at the Boston Athenaeum.

Each item is $48 at Levenger.com , with a portion of the sale going to the originating library.

"Mistral's Kiss," by Laurell K. Hamilton (Ballantine)

"True Evil," by Greg Iles (Scribner)

"The Few: The American 'Knights of the Air' Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain," by Alex Kershaw (Da Capo)

Don Lee, novelist and editor of Ploughshares, recommends "The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories," by Valerie Martin (paperback, Vintage): "In a novella and five short stories, Martin gloriously skewers the ego and vanity of artists and writers. Roaming from New Orleans, New York, and Italy, these stories operate with an acerbic comic irony, as well as an undercurrent of heartbreak, particularly when delving into the points of view of those who have the misfortune of becoming these artists' lovers."

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.