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Archive for the category “Books”

26 Sep 2012

Quilts and the iPad

Like almost every quilter I have a phone and a computer. I read a lot of books as well, though mostly fiction. Until recently I had a Nook from Barnes & Noble that I used for the bulk of my electronic reading, but a friend of mine was upgrading his iPad 1 to and iPad 3 and made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. If you’ve ever held an iPad, you’ll notice a huge difference in weight between it and an e-reader.

As great as it was, it was just too heavy to use for reading and it languished on a shelf for a while. One day while flipping through a favorite quilting magazine I noticed on the back an advertisement showing that you could put a subscription of the magazine on the iPad. Color me intrigued!! Though for me, the iPad is much too heavy to use for normal reading… the larger screen and size is actually ideal for walking around with quilting patterns and instructions.

You may be saying that a magazine is just as easy, but I’ll make two points about ease of use. One, the most distracting thing is to have a magazine open while reading cutting instructions and have the pages flip on me while I’m reading it. This invariably leads to some not so nice verbiage from me. Secondly, I can carry around 12 issues… or 32 quilt patterns chock full of pictures, measurements, and ideas that can inspire my creativity wherever I am.

Send me a note on what you do to inspire your creativity!

Posted in Books, Daily, Reviews and tagged beginner, blogging, books, crafts, Fabric, gadgets, learning, manage, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sew, sewing, technology

08 Jun 2012

1 Comment

Sage Garden Patch Quilt or Two day quilt

As a teaser for the book, I’m posting some pictures of a quilt from a book Quilting a Patchwork Garden that I did a review of. I completed this quilt in two days, although it could have been done in one day. I changed up the borders from what the book called for because I wanted it to be a little larger and liked the added flair as well.

The block above is as hard as this quilt will throw at you. It is important however that you pin all the panels when sewing them together!! When I was telling my wife about this quilt and sending pictures to her as it was coming together

She thought it was really nice and had a clean look to it. In my earlier post of the review for this book I mentioned that it had a garden theme, and as the first quilt you come to in the book the Sage Garden patch quilt didn’t disappoint.

And this is the point when I decided to change-up the borders and add my own bit of flair.

And not satisfied with just a white border on the outside, I added a green square to all four corners.

In closing I’ll say that it was a blast to put this together. The funnest part was when my wife came home to see this sitting on the couch and said “WOW! We need to go to the fabric store so I make this quilt this weekend.” The pictures that I took do not do this quilt justice. If you’re looking for a beautiful quilt to make for a loved one or friend that won’t take forever, then this pattern is for you.

For the serious quilting I will mention two facts that we had discussed while I was making this. This can easily be pieced together in one day. Kay had asked me if I was working on it all in one sitting for both days and I have to confess that I goofed off for a large portion of both days, rather than keeping at it. Second, there is some minor changes in a couple of the measurements that I would suggest.

It is already at the long arm quilter (trying someone new) and I’ll post another picture after its bound, but before it goes off to its lucky new owner.

Contact me if you are making this and would like to hear about the changes I would suggest. Until next time… quilt on!!

Posted in Books, Daily, Reviews and tagged beginner, books, crafts, Fabric, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sapphire, Sew, sewing

28 May 2012

1 Comment

Book Review Quilting a Patchwork Garden

Product Details One of the books that I recently received was Quilting a Patchwork Garden. As I found time to open it up and review its pages, I came across the first quilt Sage Garden Patch. Wonderfully inspired I would highly recommend this pattern for a beautiful and easy project that will win over a beginner or an advanced quilter.

But quilt aren’t the only thing this book has instructions for, pillows, table runners, wall hangings, napkins, and more. The last 17 pages of this book have helpful hints and suggestions, it even has quilting designs. I recommend this book with 4 out of 5 stars.

Quilting a Patchwork Garden

Posted in Books, Reviews and tagged amazon, beginner, crafts, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, sewing

23 May 2012

Book Review for 101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts

101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts

Before I went out to purchase this book, I had read a few reviews on it. “If you can’t find a dozen quilts to make from this book right away, you just haven’t opened the cover” was the review that made the decision for me.

At 272 pages this book goes into enough depth that a beginner can crack it open and start quilting and an experienced quilter can find new designs and ideas as well. A section of the book goes over finishing quilts. I couldn’t go over everything this book covers without rewriting it. Color wheel, paper piecing, rotary techniques.. it has something to say about all of that.

The quilts are well detailed and illustrated with a grade by skill level. The real test came after the book arrived and my daughter came down to visit. We were able to talk about which one she should try based upon what she liked and the skill level it gave. The quilt I posted about earlier that she is working on and almost finished came out of this book. Of course there were some questions she needed answers to about the best way to do something, but I was impressed by how far she was able to get with her first quilt from following the simple-to-use directions from the book.

That is the best review I could give a book, 5 stars out of 5.

Posted in Books, Reviews, Uncategorized and tagged beginner, books, Fabric, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sew, sewing | Leave a comment

23 May 2012

3 Comments

Great Book

I originally got this link from http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/ and it’s about a book that she suggested and I did end up ordering. If you’re interested in Amish quilts and the history behind them then this book is fantastic.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0058M82KA/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books