Wise Craft Quilts

Infuse your quilts with love--how to add your personal story and more meaning to your handmade quilts. In Wise Craft Quilts, celebrated quilt designer and crafter Blair Stocker shares ways to use cherished fabrics to make quilts with more meaning. Each of the twenty-one quilts featured here gathers a special collection of fabric, outlines a new technique, and spins a story. By using special fabrics as the starting point for each project—from a wedding dress to baby’s first clothes, worn denim, Tyvek race numbers, and more—the finished quilt is made even more special. Create quilts that have a story to tell and you’ll find a whole new level of appreciation for what they represent in your life and the lives of the ones you love.

Twenty sewing projects for home décor and accessories inspired by the Japanese aesthetic that appreciates the beauty of imperfection. Capture the essence of Japanese style in your sewing with this collection of projects inspired by the wabi-sabi concept of “perfect imperfection.” This collection of twenty sewing projects for home decor and accessories is based on the popular Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi which celebrates the beauty in the ordinary and imperfect. The projects are grouped according to how we live, for example: living; sleeping; eating and exploring. Sewing and quilting expert and fabric designer, Karen Lewis, has used a limited palette of earthy tones and the best quality natural fabrics including linen, cotton, denim and wool to create a stunning collection of simple, sewn projects. Try out some simple wabi-sabi style sewing techniques such as hand piecing, sashiko embroidery, big stitch quilting, and visible mending to create unique items for your home whether it’s a full-sized bed quilt, simple coasters for your favorite mug or a stunning scarf to wrap up in.

From two pioneers of today's modern quilting movement, Quilting Modern teaches quilters how to use improvisational techniques to make graphic, contemporary quilts and quilted projects. Explore seven core techniques and multiple projects using each technique--all presented with detailed instructions. Also included is step-by-step direction from Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen on tools, materials, and quilting basics, as well as expert advice on color and design. New and seasoned quilting artists will love making stunning bed, wall hanging, pillowcase, and table accessory quilts with this must-have resource. Quilting Modern is a field guide for quilters who strive to break free from tradition and yearn to explore improvisational work. Quilters can make the 21 projects in the book, but will also come away with the new knowledge and skills to apply to their own unique designs. In Quilting Modern, quilters will find the support, structure, and encouragement they need to explore their own creativity and artistic vision.

"Farm girl vintage 2, brings even more quilt blocks and projects for all Farm Girl Vintage fans to enjoy. Lori has rounded up 45 unique 6" and 12" quilt blocks inspired by her rural roots. She has also designed 13 new projects in this book, including quilts, pillows, a pincushion, and of course a fantastic new sampler quilt! As always, quilters can mix and match quilt blocks from Lori’s previous books, so they can piece together endless possibilities." -- Amazon.com

Best-selling authors Marci Baker and Sara Nephew are back with a new slant on the classic Log Cabin. This updated second edition includes 6 amazing new patterns, for a total of 40 projects! Use the 10" Clearview Triangle ruler, also sold by C&T Publishing for fast and easy cutting. A robust "design your own" section with setting shapes, alternate blocks, and border options will help you uncover infinite possibilities. This fully illustrated guide includes easy-to-use troubleshooting tips and detailed material lists for all the quilts.

An exciting new approach for beginning to advanced quilters who want to improvise on their own, with a friend, or with a community of fellow makers. Forget step-by-step instructions and copycat designs. In The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, Sherri Lynn Wood presents a flexible approach to quilting that breaks free of old paradigms. Instead of traditional instructions, she presents 10 frameworks (or scores) that create a guiding, but not limiting, structure. To help quilters gain confidence, Wood also offers detailed lessons for stitching techniques key to improvisation, design and spontaneity exercises, and lessons on color. Every quilt made from one of Wood’s scores will have common threads, but each one will look different because it reflects the maker’s unique interpretation. Featured throughout the book are Wood’s own quilts and a gallery of contributor works chosen from among the hundreds submitted when she invited volunteers to test her scores during the making of this groundbreaking work. “Wood offers a series of techniques, guidelines and lessons on color choice for those ready to explore improvisational quilting. Her book is loaded with full-color photos and examples to inspire.” —Dallas Morning News “Despite how it may “seam,” quilting isn’t all about rules! Quilting can be an exhilarating way to channel your creativity and express yourself. This book is focused more on exploration than explanation—a perfect mindset for beginners!” —Powell’s Books Staff Pick

Quilting has existed for thousands of years, spanning the globe, practiced by women as well as men, and bringing together communities and generations. F is for Friendship: A Quilt Alphabet examines the subject of quilting, as an art form as well as an item of utility, tracing its early history from a cave in Mongolia to patchwork bedcoverings transported in overland wagon trains to present-day exhibits at renowned museums. Topics include patterns, inventions, and fabric choices, as well as quilts as vehicles of American history. Helen L. Wilbur also authored Lily's Victory Garden and Z is for Zeus: A Greek Mythology Alphabet. A former librarian who now works on the electronic side of the publishing world, she lives in New York City. Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen has illustrated more than 20 books with Sleeping Bear Press, including the best-selling The Legend of Sleeping Bear and The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell. He and his wife, Robbyn, live in Bath, Michigan.

Explore the patchwork style and scrappy flair of 58 history-rich quilts inspired by patterns and fabrics from the 1800s. Showcase the traditional color combinations of reproduction fabrics and popular Civil War-era blocks that quilters love in patterns for mini-quilts, lap quilts, and large bed-size projects. Use your favorite reproduction fabrics--including scraps and precuts--in quilts ranging from simple to intricate, all created by expert designers.