Create Your Own Dream Feathers
Peggy Holt
AQS Publishing; $26.95

Feathers. Everyone appreciates the elaborate look of feathers across their quilt. Peggy Holt’s take on feathers goes a step further than the standard feather and it did come to her in a dream. The dream feather builds upon itself or another shape and is independent of a spine. They are not as formal as the standard feather, but they are just as elegant. In her book, Peggy covers three concepts: the standard feather, the dream feather and using base shapes to help unify your quilting designs. Once you have all the concepts, she shows you how to embellish them with furls and flourishes, borders and swags, folded paper applications, medallions, and butterflies and hearts. While Peggy is a longarmer, the designs can be used for domestic machine and hand quilters.

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Fresh Fabric Treats
Moda Bake Shop Designers
Stash Books; $21.95

If you aren’t familiar with Moda Bake Shop, it’s an online bakery of sorts, filled with jelly rolls, honey buns and layer cakes. Of course, we’re talking about precuts. Moda has taken the reins on this idea with eight types of precuts, five named after baked goods. At the Bake Shop, you’ll encounter a number of chefs. These would be the Moda Fabrics designers. This book showcases a fun mix of 16 projects from those chefs. You’ll find a selection of seven quilts, several bags, a pillow, table runner and accessories. If you are looking for a project to use your precuts, you’ll find a recipe here.

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

The Civil War Sewing Circle
Kathleen Tracy
Martingale & Co.; $24.99

Perfect for reproduction fabric lovers, The Civil War Sewing Circle offers 16 projects ranging from cot-sized quilts to small wall hangings and doll quilts to pincushions, aka “Tokens of Affection.” I particularly liked the wool appliqué sewing box. What sets the book apart is the inclusion of historical photos and excerpts from letters written to and from soldiers during the Civil War. It was so easy to get lost in the letters.

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Beautiful Botanicals
Deborah Kemball
C&T Publishing; $29.95

Are you looking for a way to add more beautiful flowers into your life this time of year? I know for many of us the only place we see fresh flowers this time of year is at the florist. Deborah Kemball offers a wonderful way to bring more beauty into your life. Her book offers 14 sophisticated floral appliqué projects, varying in size from pillows to quilts. She includes templates for 45 different appliqué flowers, two butterflies and five borders. The book is also filed with wonderful tips to make your work a success, e.g., fussy-cutting fabrics for some of the flowers. You’ll enjoy mixing the various flowers to create your own individual project.

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Book of Days
Maggie Bonanomi
Kansas City Star Quilts; $14.95

Since we are starting a new year, I thought Book of Days: Create Your Own Primitive Book Full of Days would be a fun suggestion to capture activities, insights or gratitude notes. Maggie Bonanomi teaches you how to create a basic 6″ by 9″ book using wool and chipboard for the covers and card stock for the pages. Each month uses four pages and you can add photos and appliqué. Once you have five pages done, you stitch them together into signatures. When you’ve finished five signatures, you stitch them together and add a wool binding. While Maggie’s book has a primitive look, yours can reflect your individual style.

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Your Best Year Yet!

Jenny Ditzler

Grand Central Publishing; $13.95

One of my favorite planning resources is Your Best Year Yet! by Jinny S. Ditzler. I’ve been using this little book for years and recommend it widely. It offers a framework to define your personal values, identify the various roles you play and create goals for those roles. Here are some of Jinny’s questions plus a couple of my own:

1.    What did I accomplish?

2.    What were my biggest disappointments?

3.    What did I learn?

4.    How do I limit myself and how can I stop?

5.    What are my goals for next year?

6.    Where do I need to find education or support to get there?

7.    How can I make sure I achieve my top goals?

I find one of the most empowering aspects of Jinny’s system is the look at the successes of the year. It let’s you focus on your successes and not get weighed down by what didn’t work. It also lets you get off the treadmill of working on your business to see if you really are on course.

Here’s a quote from the book I particularly like: “We must prepare our soil before we’re ready to plant the seeds we want to grow in the new year.”

Twelve by Twelve
Deborah Boschert et al
Lark Books; $22.95

What happens when 12 international quilt artists challenge each other to create a 12- x 12-inch quilt every two months for two years based on a specific theme? You get a lot more than 144 quilts. I was really entranced by this book and its personality. It is so much more than covering a challenge project. Each of the 12 chapters covers one of the challenges, the theme of which was suggested by one artist. Themes ranged from Dandelion to Mathematics to Twelve. The chapters feature a full-page sized quilt by one of the 12 members (the theme suggester) along with that artist’s narrative about how she approaches her work, where she finds her inspiration, and her journey in the art. We also get a glimpse into her studio. Each chapter includes smaller photos of the other 11 artists work on that particular theme with an artist’s statement about her work. Each artist additionally contributes a sidebar to her chapter. Topics included Finding Inspiration Online, Demystifying the Thermofax, Creating Time and Space for Art and Twelve Reasons to Blog. The twelve artists are diverse in age, locale, and style, and their unique personalities shine in this book. It was a treat to learn more about these artists and I came away richer for knowing them and the community they created. If you are looking for a holiday gift for yourself, or someone else, I’d put this high on the list.

Look for the book at your favorite quilt shop or book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

America’s Quilted Garden Blocks
Fay Labanaris
American Quilter’s Society; $24.95

I’ve always liked the books that linked quilt blocks to states. Having lived in close to a dozen states, I’ve thought about creating a sampler style quilt to include each. That still unstarted project got another push when I looked at Fay’s newest book. She designed 55 unique flower blocks, one for each of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and four territories. The bordered blocks range in size from 20-24 inches and incorporate a variety of basic appliqué, embroidery and ribbon work. The patterns are included on a CD, which also includes additional information on each state or territory. I did look at the blocks for each of the states where I’ve lived and was partial to the wreath of black-eyed Susans on the Maryland block.

Look for the book at your favorite quilt shop or book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

The Printed Pattern
Rebecca Drury and Yvonne Drury
Interweave Press, $24.95

Do you want a more personal touch to your fabrics? Mother-daughter team Yvonne and Rebecca Drury specialize in hand-printed fabric at their East London studio. This book is your guide to designing and creating handprinted patterns for any surface – not just fabric. You’ll find step-by-step for relief printing, using potatoes, linoleum blocks, erasers and woodblocks; stencil printing; and four methods of screen printing. In addition to the how-tos, you’ll also find information on how to create and develop your own designs and the basics about your supplies. An added bonus is the collection of seven playful stencil designs that you can use. I was inspired to go look for the linoleum block prints from my college art classes.

Look for the book at your favorite quilt shop or book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Buttonwood Farm

Maggie Bonanomi Kansas City Star Quilts; $24.95

Look for the book at your favorite quilt shop or book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.