The Top Twenty for quilt books etc.

Turns out that Amazon has a top ranking system for quilt books. "Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags" was at no. 13 when I looked tonight! Wow - anyone remember Top of the Pops? LOL

I was a bit more amazed to read the number of reviews they had collected for "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" - most I haven't seen before - and nice to read that I'm "recognised as one of the best in the business"!

Karenplatt.co.uk: This is a very compact 160-page book brimful of advice, instructions and photographs of everything you need to know about Quilting. The book is divided into eleven chapters. Each chapter deals thoroughly with an aspect of quilting such as materials, patchwork, applique, cutting, designs and patterns. There are four hundred tips and techniques including trade secrets. Discover all about this fascinating and varied craft. The step-by-step diagrams and instructions will guide you through every process whether you are a beginner of an experienced quilter wishing to find that special technique that will make your quilts look more professional. There are troubleshooting tips too, to rescue you when things go wrong. Susan Briscoe is a respected author on the subject of quilting and is recognised as one of the best in the business.

An indispensable compendium of technical know-how and troubleshooting tips. If you're one of the many machine knitters who also enjoy quilting, this is a 'must have' book. It includes tips and techniques you need to make special quilting projects as well as trade secrets. Step-by-step diagrams and instructions guide you through every stage of making a quilt, whether you are new to the craft or an improver. All the most popular techniques are explained in detail, with a host of troubleshooting ideas which show how to put them into practice.-Machine Knitting Monthly

An invaluable guide to all aspects of quilt making, from choosing the basic equipment to entering a competitive quilt show. There is an equal emphasis on hand and machine stitching, patchwork and quilting. It is set out well, with numbered panels and colourful diagrams and photos. The comprehensive patchwork techniques teach how to work logically and avoid mistakes, from easy triangles to curved stitching, applique and much more. The pages on hand quilting are a good example of the style. They cover the technique, the correct needles and thread and the pros and cons of using a hoop, a frame (with measurements to make one) and lap quilting. I cannot possible cover the wide range of subjects in this book. I recommend it strongly to all quilters, new and experienced, as my choice this month.-Patchwork & Quilting

Contains step-by-step instructions on all types of quilting. Beginning with the tools and equipment you need, choosing your fabrics and designing your quilt and other items. A range of patchwork 'tips' and 'fix it' advice on all techniques, various styles of design including American, English, Siminole, Sashiko, Trapunto and many, many more. There are sections on choosing your wadding and finishing your work. Information on the care, the cleaning and storage of your quilt. Also advice on showing your work and organising an exhibition. This is an interesting and informative book and should encourage all quilters, whether you are new or an established quilter.-West Country Embroiderers

This super compendium will prove a useful reference title to keep on the shelf as it contains some 400 tips, techniques and trade secrets for all styles of patchwork and quilting. Aimed at stitchers of all levels of expertise - it covers every aspect of quilting and is arranged by topic making it a really easy guide to use. Beautifully illustrated throughout with colourful photos and clear diagrams, each section includes techniques, new ideas and troubleshooting 'fixes' for when things don't quite go to plan. New quilters will find useful information on the essential equipment to get started plus ideas for selecting fabrics, planning a design, accurate cutting and stitching methods. Those with more experience will enjoy the multitude of advanced techniques for freehand curves, mitred seams and interesting weaves along with ideas for adding a 'wow' factor and tips for entering competitive shows. Embellishment and finishing techniques are not forgotten either with beautiful ideas for all styles of quilt including Sashiko, Trapunto, cording and applique.-Sewing World

As an ex-bookseller, I have mixed feelings about Amazon and other big discounters of books. The Net Book Agreement used to fix the price of book (in the UK) and it couldn't be sold under that price, the only exceptions being books that were remaindered into the National Book Sale (used to start on December 26th). While stores like Amazon undoubtedly help sell lots of copies of the books, they will also be getting much bigger discounts than even the authors get when they buy in their stock from the publishers and, of course, where authors get a royalty, it is based on publisher's receipts, not the actual cover price of the book - so the royalty works out less. Most quilt book authors sell their own books at shows or via their websites, as the bookseller's discount actually works out as a higher income per copy sold than the royalties do (and not all books have royalties attached - they are written for a flat fee, then it is up to the author to buy and sell copies to make any further income out of them). Self publishing of course works differently, with the author handling the production costs and distribution themselves. Quilt book authors aren't in the J K Rowling league - yet!

Denman Kannon - DONE!

Borders finished and quilt bound!

Today has been wet all day, so it is not possible to take the quilt outside for a photo. At six and a half feet long (just under 2 metres), I can't hang it anywhere in the house where I can stand back far enough to get the whole quilt in one photo, but there are some details of the borders already in the camera, so I'll add those after dinner.

I must weigh this quilt. At the end of September, I'm going to Denmark to teach and would like to include this quilt in my talk - most of my 23kg baggage allowance is going to be a selection of the "Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles" talk, including some of the old furoshiki and items from the two sashiko books. It would be nice to be able to take a couple of sashiko quilts, perhaps even the sampler from "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations" and the Kasuri Sampler from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match" too. I am back at Denman College teaching another sashiko course at the beginning of October, so of course I want to be able to show it there too, as that's where it all began, last September. It would also be great to be able to send it to Peaceful Heart Quilt Group for their sashiko exhibition in October, but it might be difficult to get it back for a while...

The binding is the dark blue Olympus tsumugi cotton sold by Euro Japan Links Limited. It makes a perfect binding fabric to go with the narrow width striped tsumugi cotton I use for borders. I have used a double binding, good for wallhangings as the double layer of fabric makes the binding firmer, plus it is easier than single layer binding for doing the mitred corners - the technique is shown in my "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" (with the same fabric on another quilt).

Top border section -


Increasing the stitch density on either side has worked - follow a line from the top of the lighter border sections across the quilt and you should pass (more or less) through the eyes of the goddess.

Top border right and left hand details - the first photo shows part of the quilt border from the back (left) - the blue and white jacquard backing fabric looked like a miniature version of the hishizashi (diamond sashiko) pattern. There are three versions of kikkou (hexagons), which are made by weaving extra thread through the yokogushi base stitches - vertical on the left side, and two horizontal versions on the right (one has an extra stitch in the centre of the hexagon, while the other has open centres but slightly thicker thread used for the weaving).


Bottom right border detail - variations on kakinohanazashi and yama patterns merging into each other.

Tomorrow's quilting - finishing the block centres for my Swedish quilt (simple shippo-style four petalled "flowers") and continuing with the spiral quilting on the rest of the random Log Cabin blocks. After the dense stitching on the Denman Kannon, I hope this quilt will go more quickly. While sewing the border on Kannon today, I realised that the Swedish quilt is almost twice the size - the edges of the quilt are approx. 90in and 7oin, wheras the Kannon edges are 77in and 45in.

Getting ready for Quilts UK, Malvern

I was woken up by Parcelforce early this morning - my yukata cotton pieces have arrived from Japan, just in time for the quilt show at Malvern! So as well as the fantastic new silks that came in March, a selection of wearable wool kimono & silk haori, my new books ("Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags" and "Compendium of Quilting Techniqes"), I will also have a box of these lovely stencil dyed cottons. The size of them varies as they are yukata sample pieces and, like the recycled Japanese cottons (perfect for a vintage sashiko look), I'll be selling them by weight. Most are one offs, so be sure to check them out early. I'll have a new set of the "99 Treasures" 4in squares packs too.

I drove down to Malvern yesterday, with my quilts and a couple of friends' entries. I got "Butterfly Dance" finished, but I was sewing on the hanging sleeve yesterday morning...

More info about Quilts UK is available at http://www.grosvenorexhibitions.co.uk - just click the link to go straight to the page with the Quilts UK info.

See you in the marquee!

May Feature Book in British Patchwork & Quilting magazine

"Compendium of Quilting Techniques" has been featured by "British Patchwork & Quilting" in their May 2009 book reviews section. Here's what they wrote -

An invaluable guide to all aspects of quilt making, from chosing the basic equipment to entering a competitive quilt show. There is equal emphasis on hand and machine stitching, patchwork and quilting. It is set out well, with numbered panels and colourful diagrams and photos.

The comprehensive patchwork techniques teach how to work logically and avoid mistakes, from easy triangles to curved stitching, applique and much more.

The pages on hand quilting are a good example of the style. They cover the techniques, the correct needles and thread and the pros and cons of using a hoop, a frame (with measurements to make one) and lap quilting.

I cannot possibly cover the wide range of subects in this book. I recommend it strongly to all quilters, new and experiences, as my choice this month.

I'll have copies for sale at the Wealden Quilt Show of course!

The May issue also includes a review of our World Textile Day at Llanidloes last month and a review of Quiltfest, plus plenty more. Don't miss it!

"Compendium..." reviewed in Popular Patchwork

Jane Rae, editor of "Popular Patchwork" magazine, has written a great review of "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" in the May issue. The same review is also featured in the magazine's "Patchwork Made Easy", which is available at WHSmith.

Many thanks to Jane for allowing me to include a scan of the review here - just click the scan to see it full size (and legible).

Barbara Howell's review of Quiltfest is also in the May issue, plus a selection of great projects and articles, and the all important diary with all the forthcoming quilting events around the country.

Exeter Spring Quilt Festival

I'm repacking the car today and deciding what I'm taking to Exeter. I think I'll go geometric with the quilts - with "Irori" (above - there's a pattern for this), the Kasuri sampler (see last but one post) and "Roman Perdu", a quilt which is featured in "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" (although it doesn't include the pattern). "Roman Perdu" was in Popular Patchwork magazine quite a few years ago, so I probably ought to add it to my pattern selection in the near future. It is a great design for loads of plaids plus some crazy novelty fabrics. Sorry the photo looks a bit dull - I scanned it from the magazine. The photo in the book is much brighter and sharper!

There are extra fabric colour choices for the sashiko workshop too, with brick red, burgundy and blues added.

But the bags from "Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags" arrived home today... I'll see if I can fit a few in, although the book won't be out until next month.

Nantwich fabric sale - report!

The fabric sale this year seemed even busier than in previous years. There was so much demand for the new book, "Compendium of Quilting Techniques", that I didn't have time to leave the demo stand from 10a.m. till 3p.m.! I think the photo was taken late in the afternoon, when I was feeling a bit worn out.

I was also demoing sashiko, stitching the halo on the Denman Kannon. We were in front of the bar, where the lighting didn't really show up the various shades of white and cream I am using on the halo - the glowing effect I'm aiming for will be more obvious, though still subtle, when the halo is finished.

Here's a Rice Sack Bag Mk 2!


This splendid version of my "Roman Perdu" quilt (below) is being raffled to raise funds for a South African children's charity. The raffle will be drawn early in Feburary. If you would like tickets, please contact me asap via my website, and I'll forward your message to the raffle organisers. Tickets are £1.

Compendium of Quilting Techniques

.... has arrived! See my website for more info.

200 or 400 tips?

A few friends have already asked me about this - why are there over 400 tips in the "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" and "only" 200 in "200 Quilting Tips, Techniques and Trade Secrets"?

Well... there are actually a whopping 405 tips in each book!

The book was commissioned by St Martin's Griffin of New York, via Quarto in London. As St Martin's have a series of craft books on the "200 Tips..." theme, this book's title and format needed to follow the others. Quarto have already done several other books in the series, including the crochet title.

When we had the planning meeting, I pointed out that 200 tips wouldn't work out very well over 160 pages - those "tips" would have to cover almost a whole two page spread each time so, in quilting terms, they'd be very big tips! I knew I'd want to put much more in the book. My editors said not to worry, the "200" bit was somewhat nominal, and the other books in the series had a lot more too.

I planned the book by breaking it down into main themes, such as patchwork, applique, quilting etc. (the main "chapters"), then subdivided each of these by topic, which mostly run to two face-to-face pages each, i.e. one "spread". The topics are based on the Monday patchwork/quilting course I ran for four years, and some of the spreads are almost individual lessons. Then I aimed for an average of one "try it" and "fix it" point for each spread, and worked backwards from there. The actual tip numbers were added towards the end of editing, so we didn't get confused with temporary numbers.

The USA edition advance copy has just arrived. IMHO, it is a very nice book . Just the right size for reading in bed, lots of great illustrations, lively page design etc. The quilt pictures are large enough to see what you need to and photo details from many of the quilts are used to illustrate particular points throughout the text (lots of the quilts are in print for the first time too). Quarto have done it again - designing a very appealing book to dip in and out of. My original text ran to over 60,000 words.... so there was a bit of editing to do to fit everything in!

"Compendium of Quilting Techniques" cover preview

"Compendium..." will be out in January, price £12.99. The book has a different title and cover in the USA (photo below - plus the text is in American English, there's more American shops in the Suppliers' List etc.) Otherwise, they are the same book.


I'll have copies in time for a book signing here -

Quilters and Fabrics

January Sale

Sunday 18th January 2009

10am - 4pm

Nantwich Civic Hall

Cheshire CW5 5DG (Market Street - Parking Available)

with Exhibitions and Demsonstrations including Wrexham Quilting Circle, Alsager Patchwork & Quilters, Sew & Sews, Pinfold Group, Beartown Quilters

Plus many stalls with fabrics and related items

Admission £2.00 (Partners and children free)

Enquiries at Homecraft Quilted Designs

tel: 020-8742 3685 or mcg@enmarcon.demon.co.uk

Some more dates for your diary -

Quiltfest

Absolutely not to be missed....!