Hot off the Press

Three new quilting books available in the shop on Monday. Each one is full of beautiful, color photos of stunning quilts. There is nothing I like better than a new quilt book, a cup of coffee and time to enjoy it. I love the inspiration I get from the pictures, in my mind I can see the quilt in my color choices - I can imagine where I'd use them, would it be a bed or on a wall.

I enjoy fusing, so the "Fast, fusible Flower Quilts" by Nancy Mahoney is one that I am sure I'll be working with. One of the funny things about this book, 2 years ago I did a 1930's Block of the Month. It was of vintage flowers, fused and appliqued. I got the pattern from a BOM I did 5 years ago at The Quilter's Basket in Maple Grove. I gave the pattern to Lola ( Quilt Company Patterns) to write up my finishing instructions and make a pattern. Guess what?? that same vintageflower is in Nancy's new book, the setting is different from ours but the flower is exactly the same.

Nice to know that alot of people liked that old flower and have made it into wonderful

new quilts.

There are alot of absolutely beautiful lines of fabric available to us. Most fabric designers are required to produce 4 lines (or more) per year. For some reason, even with all that is available to us, I prefer scrap quilts. It's not that I don't enjoy working with a fresh new line of fabric, I do, I just like the more random feel of combining hundreds of patterns, colors and styles. To me, a scrap quilt has personality. I enjoy the way the colors work together to make the pattern more interesting.

It's pretty well known that I like Civil War and 1930's fabrics. Both these types of fabric are designed to be used in a scrap fashion - like in the era they were made. Back then, not alot of people could afford yardage of any one fabric, so they made do with what they had. They shared between each other, if you were lucky enough to have several friends that quilted you could have a very scrappy quilt.

If you are like me, then you will love "The Big Book of Patchwork" by Judy Hopkins and "All Time Favorite Scrap Quilts" by That Patchwork Place.

If you collect books like I do, each one of these would be a wonderful addition to your collection.

Looks like I'll be adding them to mine...

Patti