Book Giveaway - Picture This by Marcia Stein

This fabulous book "Picture This" by Marcia Stein (published by C&T 2010) shows you how to make applique pictorial quilts from your favorite photos. If you are a visual learner, you'll love all the "how-to" photos.

Marcia gives lots of inspiration to help you get a photo that will make a stunning quilt. She shows examples of how she has added or deleted elements to make a design better. The process of enlarging the image and creating the quilt is made simple. Lots of fabric ideas too. At first I was just curious about how they make these cool quilts, but after casually reading this book, I'm thinking it would be fun to make one. I think I would like Marcia too. :)

Enter a comment for a random drawing and this book may soon be in your mailbox. Tell us how your new year is going so far.

Book Giveaway - Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts

I'm really excited about Ricky Tims' new book "Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts" published by C&T. First, he shows you the basic method summarized on two pages. Then each step is presented in detail. Basically, you sew fabric strips into strata, then cut triangles and kite shapes to create your big wedges. Take a look at the photos on the back cover, shown below.

Ricky has taught this method many times so the directions are clear as a bell. There are also many photos of inspirational quilts made by his students. He says he doesn't plan the quilt in advance; he just chooses fabrics he likes and lets the design develop. That's my kind of quilt! This looks like so much fun, and the quilts are gorgeous.

One thing though, this fellow chops up his selvages! What is he thinking? Somebody tell Ricky to trim off his selvages before cutting his fabric into strips, in case he wants to try selvage quilting. Some even have his own name on them! Haha.

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If you get the chance to see Ricky's performance at a quilt show, don't miss it! It's wonderful.

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Leave your comment to enter a random drawing for a copy of this fabulous book. As usual, you must live on Earth to qualify. Happy quilting!

Log Cabin Quilts With Depth

Here's a new quilt book that caught my eye: Folded Log Cabin Quilts by Sarah Kaufman from Bend, Oregon. She shows how to foundation-piece folded strips (arranged with the folded edge facing the center of the block) to make a log cabin block with depth. She doesn't use batting since the top already has 5 layers of fabric. Sarah says that folded log cabin quilts are better on the wall (or as pillow tops or table runners) than on the bed so they get less wear and tear. And stunning wall quilts they are! The excellent illustrations show some very creative uses of the courthouse steps, concentric squares, and traditional log cabin arrangements. I especially like her house quilts.

I'm thinking about using this method to make a quilt out of silk neckties. And you can easily apply Sarah's method to create pineappple blocks. This book gives you a method and lots of inspiring quilts so you can make the quilts in the book, or take off in your own direction with confidence. So if you live too far away from Oregon where Sarah teaches at the Stitchin' Post, take a look at this book.

Folded Log Cabin Quilts is published by C & T Publishing, 2010.

Book Give-Away Today

When I told Megan at C&T that we were following the Blog Tour on the Selvage Blog, I asked if they'd like to provide a copy of The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman for a give-away here. She said, "Great idea!" So leave a comment today to enter the drawing. Winner announced tomorrow. The quilts shown above are from this book.

Day three of the Blog Tour brings us to Rashida Coleman-Hale's blog: i heart linen.

Blog Tour Starts Today - Follow it Here

C&T is coming out with a new book: The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman, and they're sponsoring a Blog Tour which starts today and runs until Nov. 6. There will be lots of give-aways, interviews with the author, and some surprises. You can follow the whole thing right here by clicking on the Blog Tour link each day.

This book presents a relaxed intro to quilting for new and intermediate quilters. The quilts are fresh and modern. Click on the title above to see some of the quilts.

The first stop on the Blog Tour is Kristin Link's blog: Sew, Mama, Sew.