Judith Baker Montano's Embroidery & Craz: 180+ Stitches & Combinations Tips for Needles, Thread, Ribbon, Fabric Illustrations for Left-Handed & Right-

Published 2009

Compact guide to 180+ stitches and stitch combinations for hand embroidery, silk ribbon embroidery, and crazy quilting.

Make Your First Quilt with M'Liss Rae Hawley: Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide - Fabulous Blocks - Tips & Techniques by M'Liss Rae Hawley

Published 2008

Learning to quilt is easy with this handy pocket guide full of M'Liss's tips and time-saving techniques.

The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide by Meg Cox

Published 2008

It’s not your grandmother’s quilt world anymore. Quilting today is a phenomenally popular hobby, artform, and business, often rolled into one, that attracts 21 million avid quilters who spend $2.27 billion annually on their passion. There are 2,500 quilt shops around the country, popular television series, guilds, Web sites, and national fairs—one in Houston draws 50,000 visitors each year.

Meg Cox, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is one of the obsessive new quilters, and in The Quilter's Catalog, she draws on all her skills as a journalist to write the essential resource for contemporary quilters. Here’s the low-down on tools: computer-driven sewing machines, innovative rotary cutters, longarms. New and old techniques, from how to dye your own fabric to cutting-edge digital photo-transfer. Profiles of the twenty top quilting teachers— television’s Alex Anderson, Esterita Austin and her award-winning landscape quilts, Ruth McDowell, known for her bravura technique. Who makes the best fabrics and how to find them. A complete resource guide to the best Web sites, online groups, books, patterns, stores, shows, challenges. And a look at the new world of quiltaholics: its sense of community, its opportunities for business, its controversies (hand-sewn vs. machine-sewn), its attractions—quilting is easy, portable, friendly, therapeutic, often profitable, and the perfect way to mark a milestone.

The book includes 12 step-by-step projects from key teachers—a crib quilt, bed quilts, quilted ornaments—and instructions on how to hang, store, or ship a quilt.

Contemporary Quilts: Design, Surface and Stitch by Sandra Meech

Published 2008

Quilters yearning to extend their creativity and take their work to a higher level will find exactly what they're looking for in this unique guide. With more than 200 illustrations, plus the author's unique "Design Classes" and "Artist's Hints" in every chapter, it offers a fresh approach to the craft. The aim is to help those who know the basics to break away from the traditional block or prescribed pattern and build something original. A review of design and color principles shows how to find sources of inspiration and develop a theme, and quilters will also learn how to experiment on paper and cloth, use new stitching, and add embellishments. The templates and creative exercises will prove valuable again and again.

Art Quilt Workbook: Exercises and Techniques to Ignite Your Creativity by Jane Davila, Elin Waterston

Published 2008

Part quiltmaking workbook, part business guide, Art Quilt Workbook shows how to take quilting in a creative new direction through art--then sell the quilts at craft fairs and other venues. Lessons and homework teach the basics of good design with simple step-by-step exercises, then encourage the reader to add personal touches with fabric collage, thread painting, innovative piecing, and photo imagery. A bonus guide to exhibiting and selling quilts reveals how to join arts and crafts exhibits and how to market handmade quilts. Develop the inner artist (and the inner business tycoon) with Art Quilt Workbook!