I have loved quilting books, been inspired by them, been enamored by the photographs...still, I haven't made a quilt in quite a while. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't stopped me from buying books for the projects. I simply have not found a book that has left me itching to start sewing. Until now...
I am going to back up and start at the beginning. At Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City last month, Thursday was "SchoolHouse". Since I was with the team at Generation Q, we divied up each of the schoolhouse classes as best we could and tried to spread ourselves as best we could to support friends of the magazine, see good stuff and get ideas. When I was assigned Sunday Morning Quilts, I didn't really think much of it other than the fact that I had to hightail it to the other side of the convention center to get there. When I arrived at the room, it was packed! I noticed that there were still a few seats in the front row, so I tried to discretely head to the front and sit. I quickly sat down only to find, I was sitting in front of the projection machine and my giant head was flashed up on the screen. I tried to scrunch down, but you saw and enormous head trying to scrunch. People were staring... it was embarrassing...
So, I slipped down to the floor and gathered my composure and my belongings. I decided this was a great vantage point as I was right in front of Cheryl and Amanda Jean, the authors. They started talking about the book, what set it apart from other scrap quilting books and started showing their lovely quilts. I quickly realized that I follow Amanda Jeans blog "Crazy Mom Quilts" and I am aware (in awe!) of how prolific a quilter this woman is!
See those quilty boxes on the table? The pattern is in the book for making those to house your scraps. Pretty and fun, no?
( I promise when I go to Houston, I will bring a better camera! I thought I was a terrible photographer until I used my son's Nikon digital SLR!)
During these sessions, they usually give out prizes. So I grabbed a card and Cheryl was kind enough to grab it and add it to the basket... and then pull it right back out! WooHoo! I had been sitting there saying "Pick me! Pick me!" in my head!
Later, they stopped by the booth and I grabbed a photo because I already knew I would be writing up a review for the blog - I was so impressed with their schoolhouse.
Cheryl flattered me by letting me know that she had read my blog. Little old me??? But I only just started blogging? Zoinks!
Well, anyway back to the review of the book. I learned to quilt back in 1990 from the book Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. That book was a resource for me for many, many years. As a matter of fact, when my sister wanted to learn to quilt, I loaned her my copy. It was probably the best learning book I could have ever found.
When I started reading Sunday Morning Quilts, it felt to me like a modern version of Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!. Truly. It is fresh and fun and it explains how to make a quilt, gives great tips and tricks and shares beautiful designs. They even give you a way to organize your scraps, which is really helpful. Because even if you are a quilting newbie, you are going to make scraps. It's just the nature of the craft.
I for one, am completely obsessed with these two designs:
So colorful and fun! And they show you how to improvise as you go along to make the "slabs" you need for these designs. I love this book! I strongly suggest that you check it out! And check out their blogs while you are at it...
Cheryl can be found at http://naptimequilter.blogspot.com/ And Amanda Jean can be found at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/.
Have a Scrappy Sunday!
I enjoyed your post, went on Amazon to look up the book.
ReplyDeleteI visit crazymomquilts...she does wonderful work.
Have a wonderful Sunday!