Some favorite resources

Penny Gold, January 2006

First of all, here's where to go to find out more about the Design Camp offered by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of FunQuilts: http://www.funquilts.com

From this web site, you'll easily find description of the week-long Design Camp (June 16-22, 2006), as well as the shorter 3-day "Form and Fabric" workshop (August 11-13, 2006). Check it out!

Books

Inspirational: the Big Picture

Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use it for Life: A Practical Guide (NY: Simon & Schuster). I highly recommend this book. For me it's like having the design workshop on my bookshelf. Though Tharp is a dancer, she takes examples from many of the arts, and the basic design principles are the same.

Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity (NY: Ballantine Books, 2005). I found this book helpful for encouraging me to go forward with a new kind of quilting, doing it for personal satisfaction and meaning, without concern for what other people might think.

American Craft magazine; for subscription information go to www.craftcouncil.org. Weeks and Bill talked about how important it is to look for inspiration all around, not just in other quilts. This magazine puts right at hand a variety of stunning objects from all kinds of crafts.

Basic quilting: what I used to get started and continue to rely on

Jessie MacDonald and Marian Shafer, Let's Make a Patchwork Quilt (Farm Journal, 1980). This book gives instructions for a large variety of basic types of blocks and has great examples of sampler quilts. I ignored the instructions for using templates and substituted rotary-cut pieces, but otherwise used this book for my first steps into pieced, strip-pieced, and appliquéd blocks.

Linda Seward, Successful Quilting: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Techniques of Piecing, Appliqué, and Quilting (Rodale Press, 1987). This is an excellent all-around guide.

The Quilters Ultimate Visual Guide, ed. Ellen Pahl (Rodale Press, 1997). This is like an encyclopedia, in alphabetical order, so more a reference book than something to read through and learn. I think the Seward book is better for learning from, but I like having this also.

Linda Causee, 101 Patchwork Potholders (American School of Needlework, 1997). This book gives easy-to-follow instructions for making an 8" potholder, with 101 block designs. (My favorite is #6, Color Wheel.)

Judy Hopkins, Around the Block; Around the Block Again; More Around the Block (Martingale Company). These are great books, an endless source for pieced blocks. Instructions are given for six block sizes from 4" to 12", and different colorways are suggested. I loved looking through these when I was making potholders and placemats.

Color and Quilting: All three of these books have good explanations of how color works, with lots of examples to demonstrates the points. The first two also include directions for a number of quilts.

Ann Seely and Joyce Stewart, Color Magic for Quilters (Rodale Press, 1997).

Christine Barnes, Color: The Quilter's Guide (That Patchwork Place, 1997)

Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr (the design camp teachers), Color Harmony for Quilts: A Quiltmaker's Guide to Exploring Color (Rockport Publishers, 2002)

Some other favorite books

Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr (the design camp teachers), The Modern Quilt Workshop: Patterns, Techniques, and Designs from the FunQuilts Studio (Quarry Books, 2005) This book explains the design process that Weeks and Bill teach in their design workshop, while also giving patterns and directions for 15 of their quilts.

Suzanne Marshall, Take-Away Applique (American Quilter's Society, 1998). The workshop Suzanne did for our guild is the source of my love of appliqué. Suzanne is an inspiring teacher. I encouage anyone interested in appliqué to seek out a class from her--or at least to read her book.

Anita Shackelford, Appliqué with Folded Cutwork (American Quilter's Society, 1999). A good source for one-piece appliqué of varying sizes, with easy-to-follow instructions. Most are designs that are put on fabric folded in quarters and then opened up, but there are also smaller bi-fold designs, including a number that I used in my folk art quilt.

"Taking the Math Out," a great series in Quilters Newsletter Magazine, an update of a 1981 book by Judy Martin. The first three articles in the series (March, April, and May, 2004) have charts on mattress and quilt sizes, along with charts for how many blocks with how wide a sashing and border will make what size quilt. You can order back issues of the magazine from www.villagequiltshoppe.com, and then click on "Magazine back issues."

Quilters' Travel Companion, now in an 8th edition (2004-2006). This book has descriptions of quilt shops across the U.S. and Canada--a great resource. Whenever I'm traveling, I look up the state I'm going to, to see what quilt shops might be nearby the city I'll be in.

Web sites

FunQuilts: http://www.funquilts.com (The Design Camp people, just in case you missed it at the top!)

Suzanne Marshall: http://www.suzannequilts.com/ My favorite appliqué teacher.

Anita Shackelford: http://www.thimbleworks.com/ More appliqué.

Jean Lohmar: http://www.heirloomsoftomorrow.net/index.htm. I love to look at Jean's quilts!

The Appliqué Society: http://www.theappliquesociety.org/ The biennial meeting of this group is a must for appliqué lovers--a big exhibit and lots of classes, all appliqué.

Denyse Schmidt (modern abstract quilts, similar to FunQuilts): http://www.dsquilts.com

Amish quilts: A fantastic private collection at http://www.pbase.com/brownsf/amish_quilts&page=1

And for an interesting comparison of Amish quilts with modern art: http://www.pbase.com/brownsf/amish_quilts_and_modern_art

ArtFabrik: http://www.artfabrik.com. Beautiful hand-dyed fabric and thread

International Quilt Study Center "Quilt of the Month" exhibit: You can sign up to receive one notice a month, each featuring one quilt.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/quilt_of_the_month.html

For looking at work by artists that might inspire for quiltmaking (e.g., Sonia Delaunay, Ellsworth Kelly, Morgan Russell, Paul Klee, Mondrian, etc.): Go to www.google.com; from the choices above the search box, click on "images"; then enter the artist's name and run the search.

DVDs

Hawaiian Quilting with Nancy Lee Chong, available from Pacific Rim Quilt Company (www.prqc.com). I took a class from Nancy Chong at last year's Appliqué Society meeting, and found her to be a great teacher. Besides covering how to cut and lay out Hawaiian patterns (another kind of one-piece cutwork pattern), the video includes excellent instructions on all aspects of appliqué and quilting. I love her method for doing points!

Masterclass: Hand Appliqué, by Gabrielle Swain, available from www.gabrielleswain.com. I enjoy watching a variety of people do appliqué--I find I pick up something from each teacher.

That Perfect Stitch, available from www.thatperfectstitch.com/: Deirdre McElroy explains all the elements that go into successful hand quilting, with segments on fabric, batting, hoops and frames, thread, thimbles, needles, quilting designs, marking utensils, and how to do a quilting stitch. McElroy has done a lot of testing of all these things, and goes through many brand names, explaining which are problematic and which are her favorites. I don't use her method of the actual stitching (the rocker stitch)--I prefer Suzanne Marshall's method, which you can do without a frame or hoop--but I think you could learn the rocker stitch from watching this video.

Some of my favorite quilting tools

Elan embroidery scissors: These are great scissors for appliqué! They're the only small scissors I've found where the fingerholes are large enough to accommodate two fingers. I bought my pair at the IQF show at Rosemont, but you can also find them on the web, e.g. www.suzannesquilts.com. My scissors are just under 5" long.

blunt-nosed scissors for air travel: just show them at security, and you'll get through with no problem. The type sold at Walgreens (in with manicure stuff) work fine on fabric.

3-in-1 Color Tool: an easily portable collection of narrow cards like paint sample sticks, with guidelines for color combinations on the back of every card.

Olfa cutting mat: I used another brand for a long while (gray color), often having problems with the rotary cutter not cutting through. Someone finally suggested the problem could be my mat rather than the cutter. I hated to shell out for another mat, but it was worth it--problem solved!

Olfa rotary cutter: I like the 45mm cutter where the blade comes out when you squeeze the shaft of the cutter and automatically retracts when you let go. (The shaft has a slight curve in it.) Takes only a very little (virtually unnoticeable) pressure to hold in the lever that controls the blade--really worth it for the automatic protection of the blade when the cutter is not in use.

Clover quilting pins: These are very fine, long pins (1-3/8") with blue and yellow glass heads. They're so fine that they tend to bend, but they slide so easily into the fabric that they're nice to use. I got mine as a gift; I think Quilters Corner in Morton carries them.