The Last Piece

Oakshott Fabrics

I've been a big fan of Oakshott fabrics for a long time now, ever since I stumbled across a blog post about them around 8 years ago. For ages I tried to get hold of the fabrics in Australia - which was not easy let me tell you! So having cadged little bits from places for years, imagine my thrill to go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in 2008 and see they had TWO WHOLE STANDS. Oh my heavens...... needless to say my budget was completely blown and my luggage was overweight :)

Two recent quilts I made using Oakshott both won prizes at the New South Wales Quilt Guild Show last year. They're also in my book! The Night Garden:

And a Wing and a Prayer:

Now of course Oakshott have their own marvellous website where you can buy all their wonderful fabrics and bundles right from the source. If you go over there and sign up for their newsletter they will give you a coupon for 10% off your first order. If you do sign up though, make sure you go and tell Lily at Lily's Quilts about it, because she is giving away one of their colourboxes, anywhere in the world. 

I tell you this only because I love you. The more of you that enter the less chance for me. Don' say I never give you anything. :)

You Sew Girl!

I was lucky enough recently to have Nicole Mallaieu send me a copy of her beautiful new book, You Sew Girl! just for me! And let me tell you, if you're looking for something lovely to put on your Christmas list, this book is it.

Nicole has always wanted to write a book about sewing. Having sewn since she was a small child, she then studied fashion and learned how to make a proper pattern and to sew quickly and professionally. She also learned all manner of short cuts, tips and tricks along the way, which she shares in the book.

The first third of the book is taken up with sewing tips, presented with great step by step photos. This section runs you through some fantastic quick tips like using a lint roller to pick up the remains of your unpicking from your sewing, how to use bias makers, how to make an accurate pattern, making handles and straps, inserting a zipper... the list goes on, and let me tell you there are PLENTY of things in there that made me think - aha! I am not a dressmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I think even I could put a zipper in with this tutorial. :)

The book contains all kinds of sewing projects from large to small, starting with this fantastic rose made from half a zipper. Hello, awesome Christmas present anyone??

WAY too cute! The book moves through other simple sewing ideas like belts and baby hats before going to the bags chapter, of course what Nicole has made herself known for. 

Up until recently Nicole has sold all the bag frames and kits for making her purses online - however she is closing the retail shop at the end of 2011 so if you want one of her purse kits get in QUICK!! She is going totally wholesale (shops, take note) so you will still be able to buy her products.

Chapter 3 in the book is entitles, "Pattern Free Clothing". As previously mentioned my dressmaking skill are woeful, so this made me sit right up.

There are fantastic patterns here for both childrens and ladies clothes, skirts, tops, you name it - AND with no pattern! Hip hip hooray. Now all I have to do is get my sewing machine a jersey needle and start sewing some of that stretch fabric I've been buying with good intentions for years. I do recall a rather lovely navy and white stripe jersey, now where did I put that...

You can buy You Sew Girl from Nicole's webshop and from other online bookstores, or your local bookstore of course. Thanks so much for the book Nicole - considering that everyone in my family (except the boys) is getting handmade gifts this Christmas, it is my next port of call for prezzies! More about that and what I'm getting up to Christmas-craft-wise tomorrow.

A few housekeeping announcements:

** Thank you to everyone who has purchased from my newly renovated webshop in the last few days! Due to children's Christmas concerts and end of Year 6 I will be posting everything everyone has ordered on Wednesday. Thank you for your patience.**

**I had an order for a PDf pattern from a lady in the USA last week. Your email address is incorrect and keeps bouncing back! If you have ordered a pattern and not recieved it from me please email me asap so I can get it to you.**

** Thank you to everyone who has emailed me about the quilts for Amy and Annabel. Due to Houston and a few scary deadlines, I haven't sewn the blocks up yet but they are all trimmed to size and ready to go and they are next on my sewing list at the end of this week. If anyone has any ideas for sourcing backing fabrics for the two quilts (one is king single, one Queen sized) or for having the machine quilting done reasonably in Australia, please let me know. Thanks, and thanks SO VERY MUCH to the hundreds and hundreds of you who sent blocks, fabric, and most especially kind notes and lovely words for both Amy and myself. Quilters are just awesome. **

 

Little Bits Quilting Bee Blog Tour

When Kathreen of Whip Up contacted me last year and asked me to provide a review for the back of her book I was so incredibly flattered! Kathreen's books are just wonderful and Little Bits Quilting Bee (published by Chronicle books) is no exception. 

The best thing about doing something like that for an author is that you get to have a sneak peek of the book before anyone else has seen it! So I have been perusing this lovely book for a while now, I'm a lucky girl :)

In case you haven't stumbled over Kathreen before, she is not only the author of the wildy popular Whip Up blog, she is the author of the gorgeous Whip Up Mini Quilts, and she also has a fabulous kids magazine called Action Pack, full of projects and crafts and stuff for kids to do. 

Little Bits Quilting Bee is essentially a book about how to use those oh so tempting pre-cut fabric packs - the jelly rolls, charm squares, fat quarters and layer cakes in  full ranges that look so tempting and then sit on your shelf while you ponder what to do with them. It begins with a chapter about online quilting bees, guilds and groups, and talks about the community aspect of quilting. It encourages you to get involved with the quilting community - heavens knows its out there, so dive in! There's a great basics section for beginners too. 

The quilts in the book range from bed size to smaller projects and use a range of techniques. What I usually don't like about pre-cut books is that they all use the same size squares, rectangles and triangles - but Kathreen manages to avoid that and has produced a book full of original, interesting and diverse designs that don't look like pre-cuts at all. 

Others before me have written in depth reviews of the book so I thought I would have a little fun and ask Kathreen to answer five quickies. 

What is the one colour you buy the least fabric in?

I had to actually look through my stash to see what colour was missing - I think its yellow - I am not a yellow person.

What is your favourite sewing gadget or notion?

I love my rulers and rotary cutter - but perhaps spray applique glue might be my most favourite!

What is your favourite treat or chocolate bar? Do you keep a stash of them in your sewing area?

I am cutting down on treats - but I do love Green and Blacks dark chocolate. I don't keep a stash as my kids would be sure to sniff it out.

What is your favourite band of all time? Do you listen to music or watch TV when you sew?

I actually don't listen to music while sewing - as the sewing machine noise competes and it gets too loud - however while designing and writing I do like listen to music - mostly its just the radio (Triple J) going in the background - but I do like the Indie band Little Red - and my fave band of all time might be the Eurythmics.

If you could only work with one designer's fabric for the rest of your quilting career, which would it be?

Oh goodness - that is way too limiting - I can't answer it - I dont' think I could do it! - I guess it would be Kona solids...  there are some luscious colours available in solids now ... or maybe Lecian fabrics because they always have a good range of dots and stripes and small florals with a retro feel. But my fave fabric designers right now are Anna Maria Horner because of her vibrant and rich colours, Ink and Spindle because of their natural tones and eco fabrics, and Echino because they are gorgeous and whimsical.

You can follow along with what's left of the tour and check out what everyone else has had to say below. US readers will also find that several of the blogs are giving away a copy of the book!

Monday, November 7 – The Long Thread 

Tuesday, November 8 – Craft Nectar & Comfort Stitching 

Wednesday, November 9 – luvinthemommyhood & Elsie Marley 

Thursday, November 10 – True Up 

Friday, November 11 – House on Hill Road & Craftypod 

Monday, November 14 – Handmade by Alissa & Hello My Name Is Heather

Tuesday, November 15 – West Coast Crafty & Foxy Art Studio

Wednesday, November 16 – PatchAndi & The Last Piece

Thursday, November 17 – In Color Order & Pink Chalk Studio

Friday, November 18 – Kristin La Flamme & Camp Follower Bags & Quilts

Monday, November 21 – Quilt Dad & JCasa *handmade

Tuesday, November 22 – Pat Sloan & Pleasant Home

 

An Adventure in Quilt Books

Happy Sunday everyone... Thanks everyone for the lovely response to my tour of the sewing room! I'm glad you enjoyed it - and so today, again by popular request, I'm going to take you on another tour in my house - this time of my quilt book collection. 

I will preface this post by saying that I read - a LOT. I love to read and I always have. I will read anything and everything, from novels to autobiographies, from history to reference. The only thing I'm really not into is crime. Just doesn't do it for me. 

Here's my general reading section. These shelves (again built by the hubby) are in the library of our house. It has all the books that aren't quilting, including the art folios and cook books. 

It's the room you walk into through the front door, which is a little unusual, but then, we do have a bright blue front door and piles of quilts on every surface. This is where I like to sit with a cup of tea in the morning or on a lazy Sunday and read. We drink a lot of wine here too :) When the reno is finished there will be a gas fire in place of that piece of sculpture.

But that's not where we're stopping, I just wanted you to know that our house kind of revolves around books. They're everywhere, including stacked on everyone's bedside tables and on big shelves in the boys rooms. We all like to read, a lot.

And so I treasure my quilt books. I read them all, cover to cover (even the patterns sometimes, if they are an interesting layout or an unusual method). 

This is the top left hand shelf, which has some of my absolute favourite books. I thought I would run you through two or three at a time and if you're all interested in seeing more I will carry on through some other shelves over the coming weeks and months! I know I'm always interested in what other people are reading and what they find great resources.

I'm going to give you a link to Amazon for these books because I know that's kind of a central place to get them - however I will just say that I REALLY encourage you to shop at your local bookshop and reduce your book's carbon footprint if you can!

The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort by Roderick Kirakofe

I'm starting on this shelf mainly because loads of my favourite quilt books are the historical books, and not ones by modern designers, although there are exceptions to that rule of course! This book is an absolute cracker for historical detail - the author talks about the fabrics, their manufacture and the role they play in how the quilts are dated, the social aspects of the eras and areas in which the quilts were made, and of course the quilts themselves. There are beautiful flat shots of the quilts as well as detail shots and some fantastic old pics of the women who made them. When you own a lot of books on historical quilting you do start to see the same quilts cropping up all over the place, but this book has a wider selection and they are all interesting and well represented.

Colour by Jane Packer

Ok, so this isn't a quilt book, I know! But I do use it when I make quilts, in fact I use it often. It's a book of floral arrangements. I actually bought this book while shopping with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably in Sydney - when Kaffe tells you to buy a book, I find it's best to listen. I have three now that he recommend I get and I haven't been sorry about any of them!

Colour is divided into sections by colours. The depth and texture in the photos always makes me think about shapes for applique and layers of shades. The unusual colour combinations Jane uses give me such inspiration and inevitably send me running for fabrics I hadn't considered pulling. The Amazon link has a flick through thingy on it - take the time to go and have a peek, you won't be disappointed.

Going West: Quilts and Community by Roderick Kiracofe and Sandi Fox

This book is actually a catalogue from an exhibition I saw at the Smithsonian Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington in 2007. Damian and I drove from New York City through Pennsylvania and on to Washington on our "way" to Houston for Fall Market. We went to Lancaster and the quilt museum to by absolute horror was SHUT FOR RENOVATION despite their website saying it had reopened! Tears.... on to the Smithsonian where the information desk told me that there were no exhibitions of textiles on display and they didn't know what I was talking about. Dejected, we walked to the White House and on the way stumbled on this exhibition in an annex gallery. 

It completely blew me away. I spent a few hours just standing in front of the quilts and smiling, then we went to the White House, and then we came back because I couldn't bear to not see them again. This was an amazing exhibition and it's a wonderful book filled with beautiful and unusual quilts, including lots with embroidery and signatures and fantastical applique.

So there's your first three books, I hope you enjoyed the mini tour - let me know what you think, and if you're interested in knowing more!

In other news, only a few weeks to go now until Naked Beds finishes - how's your quilt coming along? To see what people have been up to, you can check out the Flickr group here. If you haven't started yet, get your skates on! 

Also, I've had a few a computer funk ups over the last few weeks - if you have emailed me a sighting pic of my book and I either haven't published it OR I haven't sent you a piece of fabric, would you mind emailing me your pic and your address again? OR if you have emailed me pics for Naked Beds that need posting to Flickr (I offered to do that for peeps that don't use Flickr), please send them again with my apologies. Sorry to do that to you, the computer has eaten the folders I had them all in.

Ok everyone, happy reading and happy Sunday, I'm off to bake ANZAC bikkies for lunchboxes and hang school shirts on the line, then sew on a binding. Glamour....

 

Inspired to Sew With Bari J

Since designing my own fabric earlier this year, I have acquired several (as we call each other) Fabric Sisters. My Sisters and I all design for Lecien, and let me tell you those girls are a clever bunch of peeps. Today I'm featuring one of the newest members to the Lecien Gang, Bari J Ackerman, whose new book, Inspired to Sew, published by Stash Books, has just been released! (cue streamers and confetti cannon)

If you have been following Bari's book blog tour, you will know that she has asked a group of lucky bloggers to talk about her book and tell readers a two or three reasons why we are Inspired to Sew.

When I first read this I thought - only 3? Wow, there are so many reasons why I am inspired to sew, but here's just a few.

The biggest and also the first reason I was inspired to sew was because of my mother. She was always sewing or knitting something, although knitting is not a skill she managed to pass on. When I was very small she made me a quilt (her first), which I was so fascinated by I cut apart with scissors. My very first quilting experience. She always encouraged me to stitch and taught me so much about patience and technique. Mum died around 11 years ago, before I started the shop, and so she never got to see any of the work I do now, but everything I make has a little of her in it, and I still use many of her sewing notions and scissors nearly every day.

The second thing that inspired me to sew was my children - and I see that others along the blog tour have felt the same. When I emerged from my teenage/young adult years of not sewing and started having babies, I was looking for things to make a groovy nursery with, and finding pastel yellow lambs and mint green trim. I was not impressed, and decided I would do what I was given hands for and make everything. And I haven't stopped sewing again since. Thanks for being born Charlie!

I am inspired to sew every day and everyday. If I get cranky my boys send me in to the sewing room (for which they sometimes receive a smack over the head) but I always come out smiling. Its my job but it's also my love, for which I am grateful every day!

Bari's book just oozes what inspires her to sew. The beautiful photography and styling showcase the projects just beautifully, and Bari's gorgeous style and natural cheerfulness is in every page. The best part of this post is that you can leave a comment on this post and WIN a copy of Bari's beautiful book! Hurrah! Follow along with the rest of the tour for more chances to win:

Feb 5, Jenny Doh: Crescendoh

Feb 6, Cara Wilson: Cara Quilts

Feb 7, Deborah Moebes: Whipstitch Fabrics

Feb 8, Monica Solorio-Snow: The Happy Zombie

Feb 9, Susanne Woods: Stash Books (giving away a stack of Bari’s Full Bloom fabric!)

Don't forget to comment, and if you don't win you can order a signed copy of the book anyway from Bari J's blog. It's delicious peoples, make sure to enter! Thanks for the chance to be a part of your tour Bari J :)

 

Wee Wonderfuls Blog Stop

Lucky, lucky me! One of the things I love most about Sewn and my blog is getting to talk to people I think are just so clever and creative - and Hillary Lang is one of those people.

I started reading Hillary's blog about 4 years ago and was instantly hooked on her quirky style of crafting. So it was with much excitement I saw she had written a book, and even more excitement when I was asked to be on the blog tour!

Over at Sewn there is a review of the book and some of the delicious pics for you to have a look at, but here Hillary answers a few of my questions.

Tell us about how you started sewing? Did you sew as a child? Did you always make toys or was that something you started when you had your children?

I learned to sew in Home Ec in 7th grade and I've been at it off and on ever since. I sewed myself clothes in high school. I sewed my wedding dress. I made myself a (really shoddy) quilt when I was in grad school. And then yes, I started up again when I had my son Oscar and I've been at it steadily since.

What moved you to start Wee Wonderfuls?

I got sucked into the world of craft blogs when I was home with baby Oscar. I was doing a lot of knitting and loved all the knitting blogs. I started a typepad blog so I could show off some baby knitting I was doing and then it quickly morphed into sewing and toymaking. It was the perfect fit for me and about a year later we were selling sewing patterns in our shop.

Your book is SO cute and just what all we Wee Wonderfuls fans out there have been waiting for. What has been the most fun part of writing it? And the least fun?

Thank you! The most fun was the beginning, the brainstorming ideas and the designing. I also enjoyed the pattern writing and working with a technical editor. Such a luxury to have another pair of eyes! The least fun part was when the project was out of my hands. Not being involved in the photography or the book design and not having a say on many decisions was really difficult for me. I'm used to Tim and I being in total control of the finished product and that's not how books are made.

What can we expect next from the Wee Wonderfuls world?

More patterns! I'm working on some new embroidery patterns and am hoping to be able to design a quilt pattern around them as well. And probably a lot of posts about knitting. It's getting to be that time of year again!

The next stop on the blog tour is Betz White's blog on October 19, but in the meantime you can hop over to the STC blog and enter to win a copy of the book. Just tell the STC girls about your favourite childhood doll to enter - and if you're like me, you'll get sucked into reading some of the gorgeous entries already written!

As I already had a copy of the book I thought it wasn't fair for me to enter, so I will tell my favourite doll story here. I was born in Hong Kong, where my Dad was running an advertising agency. All of his clients and business associates made a big fuss about his first child and I was given a lot of gifts. One of them was a pair of baby dolls. As soon as I was old enough one of the dolls became my favourite. Her name was Ming. She was about 20" tall, with a cloth body and rubber arms, legs and head. She had brown eyes, beautiful soft black hair and wore silky Chinese pyjamas. I loved Ming until she completely fell apart, despite my Mum's patching of her body. Oddly enough I never took to her sister, Mimi, much at all - they were pretty much exactly the same, except that Ming's pyjamas were red and Mimi's were yellow... maybe that says something about my early colour preferences!

Ok I'm going to leave you with this little video Hillary and her hubby Tim made for the book which I have now watched about a million times! Have fun.....

 

 

 

Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts

 As mentioned yesterday, we are very lucky today to have Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy come for a cup of virtual tea and tell us a little about how they work when designing, using a design wall and a reducing glass. Thanks so much Liza and Kaffe!

 

It is inconceivable for us to design quilts without using both tools. Every quilt we make is first laid out on a large flannel design wall, then peered at through a reducing glass, the re-arranged, peered at again, over and over until we achieve a pleasing composition. 

When we did our first quilts for our first book, Glorious Patchwork, we would cut pieces of fabric, lay them out on the floor and stand on a chair to look down at the composition. Eventually, we bought a specially made "design wall" padded flannel but it was only about 3'x 4', just enough to do a few blocks. 

Over time, we came to develop our own design wall and it holds enough pieces so we can get almost a queen size quilt arranged on it before starting to sew. By using this wall, we can arrange and re-arrange fabrics for days. The cut pieces adhere to the flannel without pinning. 

The reducing glass is the opposite of a magnifying glass so it makes everything you look at, miniature.  By looking at the huge flannel wall through this glass, you see a complete "snapshot" of the composition.  

Our design wall is made from two sheets of insulation board (the pink or blue or foil stuff you see on new houses before the siding goes on) covered with taupe colored cotton flannel. The two boards are held together on the back with duct tape "hinges" so that the wall can stay standing open, like a book, when there is just a slight bend at the hinges.

Thanks so much Liza and Kaffe! I have to say I found this fascinating as I am an obsessive user of my design wall both for laying out quilts and for contemplating finished ones. I find it invaluable to be able to stand back from a quilt and look at it head on and balance colours and placement. I have to say I don't use a reducing glass - I usually take photos of my quilts and use the camera as a reducing glass, I must remember that tip for the future. I also would love one of those huge, movable design walls. Mine is attached to the wall in my studio and the thought of being able to bring it into the living room where it is light and stand well back from it is very tempting! There's a job for the husband on the weekend...

Kaffe and Liza I have loved having you on The Last Piece, good luck on the rest of your tour. If you want to know where Kaffe and Liza will be next (Where's Wally?), you can go to the STC blog to find out. 

 

Also don't forget to play along on the Quilt-A-Long with the gorgeous Kaffe and lovely Liza - you can make one of the quilts from the book, then post it to the Facebook group and Kaffe and Liza will comment on your quilt. There is all sorts of exciting chat going on over there, so go and have a look at what amazing things everyone has been up to. 

That's it from me, go and get busy!

PS. You can read my review of Kaffe and Liza's new book here at Sewn.

 

My Top Ten

Thinking over the year after my post yesterday, I thought I might share a few of my top ten things for 2009. Let's begin today with my Top Ten Good Reads of the year in no particular order- these are novels etc, not quilting books, that's a WHOLE other category, and narrowing down just ten will be a real challenge!! I would love to know what you loved reading this year - I'm always on the lookout for a new good book. Leave me a comment and let me know. 

1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Historical novel about the period of Henry VIII, as told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell. I am a total sucker for this kind of book, and in my humble opinion this is the best ever. As evidenced by the fact that it won the Booker Prize.

2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wrobleski

The story of a young boy and his family's dog breeding business. This is a wonderful, magical story in the epic traditions of something like The Pillars of the Earth or The Power of One. 

3. A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz

The history of America, but not as you know it. Tony is one of my favourite authors, plus I am lucky enough that he is my step-uncle! (my what?? does that ridiculous connection even exsist??) He writes true history, but twists the genre by visiting the places that the historical events happened and writes about what they are like now. He is also a very funny man. If you haven't read his other most wonderful book, Confederates in the Attic, you had better get that too.

4. Twilight (and the rest) by Stephanie Myer

Yes I succumbed. I hate fantasy novels, vampires, werewolves..... But my 12 year old wanted to read them, and I had heard they were inappropriate, and so I thought I should read them first. And now I am a tragic. Team Edward all the way!!

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  (and the other two in the trilogy!) by Stieg Larsson

And yes, I also succumbed here, although I also hate crime novels. But I LOVED these. LOVED. You can eat these with a spoon. The characters are suitably odd and yet endearing, the story line is impossible and yet believable and the writing easy and tinged with sarcasm. So much fun.

6. The Children's Book by A.S Byatt

This book tells the story of a charmed family living charmed lives in a charmed age. Set in the early 1900's in England, and spanning a time period through to the Second World War,  I loved this as much for the historical figures woven into the story and the detailed descriptions of artworks, the V&A, and World Fair and other events of the age as for the tale of the proper yet bohemian family and their close friends. The story begins in such a benign fashion it's a horrid shock when, inevitably, things begin to unravel and darken. This is not an easy book to read, but well worth the effort.

7. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I read Mr Zafon's first book in this series, The Shadow of the Wind, when it first came out in 2005. This book is not a sequel, however there are some of the same characters, and the setting of Barcelona and the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten books. These are dark stories but wonderfully told. Apparently the author has planned four books in the series, each a seperate story but connected through the city and the Cemetery. Can't wait for the next one!

8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

A little odd, and a little dark, and a little wordy, this is a tale of teenage twists illustrated with pen and ink drawings, along the lines of The Secret History 

9. What is the What by Dave Eggers

""God has a problem with me," complains Valentina Achak Deng, the subject of Dave Eggers extraordinary new novel, What is the What. Coming from almost any other person on the planet, this lament would appear hopelessly self-pitying. Cut coming from Valentina, a Sudanese refugee, it sounds almost like an understatement." So says the Washington Post. Get the hankies out for this one, this is a terrifying but amazing story of hope against adversity and all that jazz.

10. Red Leaves by Paullina Simons

Love Paullina Simons. Love, love, love. Of course nothing will ever top The Bronze Horseman. I mean, Alexander, how can you top that? Not even Edward Cullen comes close. This is a good book however, and you will love it. It's been out for a while, I've only just read it though. I have read all her others, including the latest, Road to Paradise, which I was not so keen on. But Red Leaves is great, and if you haven't read The Bronze Horseman, I - I just don't even have the words. 

That's it, let me know what you think - did you read any? Did I miss something crucial? Enquiring minds want to know :) 

Quilting for Peace

 We are so lucky today to be a stop on the blog tour for Katherine Bell's new book, Quilting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. This lovely book, full of stories of hope from people who quilt for charity and patterns for projects is published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang. You can pop on over to STC Craft Guru Melanie Fallick's blog right now and join the Quilting for Peace campaign, and have a chance to win a copy of quilting for Peace for yourself! Otherwise you will find Quilting for Peace at your local bookshop or Amazon.

I will be reviewing the book for Sewn's Christmas bonanza later in the week so make sure you go and have a look for an excerpt from the book, piccies and all the low down, (sign up for the newsletter so you don't forget!) but in the mean time, here are ten questions with Katherine herself!

When did you begin crafting, and who taught you?

My mom taught me the basics of piecing and tying quilts eight or nine years ago, so that I could make a baby quilt for a friend's newborn.

What is your favourite kind of crafting?

Definitely quilting. I used to knit but I never managed to finish anything. I do love letterpress printing and bookmaking too, but I've been focussing on fabric for the last few years. And I love to bake - I think of baking as a craft.

What gave you the idea for Quilting for Peace?

I was inspired by an exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum about nineteenth-century political quilts, which reminded me of the first time I saw the AIDS quilt, as well as a newspaper clipping my mom sent me about the Sleeping Bag Project, a grassroots organization that makes sleeping bags for homeless people.  And when I saw the book Knitting for Peace, I knew that Quilting for Peace should exist as well.

How did you find out about the groups you have profiled?

I found out about almost all of them online. Qulters have been going online to find each other almost since the beginning of the internet, so nearly all the groups I profiled have websites. Some, like the Heartstrings Quilt Project, organise themselves almost entirely online. One exception is the Sunshine Circle, a quilting group in rural Iowa that started in 1912. Most of the women in the group are now at least second-generation, and they're in their seventies and eighties. I lived in Iowa for a couple of years, and while I was there the University of Iowa Press published a book about Iowa quilts by Jacqueline Andre Schmeal. It's gorgeous, one of my very favourite quilting books. Ther's a chapter in it about the Sunshine Circle and I called Jacqueline and asked if she could put me in touch with them.

Tell us a little about the process of writing the book. You must have had an interesting time collecting the stories about all the different organisations.

I talked to a huge variety of quilters, old and young, conservative and liberal, people who live in cities and rural areas, who’ve been quilting for decades and who’ve only recently learned to sew.   What was incredible was how much they had in common - they're all such generous, resourceful, witty people.  

Do you have a favourite story about one of the organisations?

The two stories I found both most heartbreaking and most inspiring were Barbara O’Neill’s and Don Beld’s. Barbara’s son died in combat in Afghanistan when he was only 19 years old. “When there’s a tragedy,” she told me, “you do what you need to do, and then you recruit other people to help you.” Within days of her son’s death, Barbara and her best friend began an effort to make quilts for as many veterans as they could, with the help of quilters all over the world. After his son died of AIDS, Don made a panel in his memory for the AIDS quilt. A few years later, Don began another grassroots quilt memorial — the organization he founded, Home of the Brave, gives quilts to the families of soldiers and marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

What authors/ designers/ artists do you find inspiring?

I love Japanese artist Yoshiko Jinzenji's work.  And I'm often inspired by Japanese fabric designers like Naomi Ito.   And the Gee's Bend quilters.  Seeing those quilts in person really changed my approach to quilting.  I just went to the Bauhaus exhibition at MOMA in New York - it was absolutely invigorating. Many of the students' assignments, Paul Klee's paintings, and the furniture were just as relevant to patchwork as the textiles.  

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/303

What craft projects are you working on at the moment?

 I'm learning how to hand-piece and appliqué.  I'm hand-piecing little hexagons at the moment - I'm not sure exactly what they're going to turn into!  I'm also working on a couple of quilts for friends who don't have kids.  They've waited patiently while I've made quilts for all my other friends' babies!

Do you have any plans for another book?

I'd love to write another book, but I'm not sure what it will be yet.  

What is the one thing you hope people take away from Quilting for Peace?

Most of all I want crafters to know that by making things and giving them away, and by letting their opinions and worries into their quilts, they can make a real difference in their communites and in the world.  

Thanks so much Katherine, it was great talking to you! Don't forget that there will be more Katherine Bell at Sewn later in the week, look out for your newsletter and if you don't already get it, go sign up! Have fun..... :) 

Gasp

My publisher in New York, STC, set me something very precious on Friday. So precious I selfishly kept it all to myself for more than 24 hours before showing you. Now how mean is that. Now though, I have wiped off the drool and am willing to share.

 

Now, before you all go completely bonkers, this is only the blad (the promotional leaflet) for the book, NOT the actual book. For that you have to wait until next year. 

 

 

Can you believe I have a Boston Common quilt cut out on my design wall for MY book right now?? Back to the drawing board....

 

I actually saw some of the pages for this book when I was in the US earlier this year. The book is harking back to his really beautiful early classics, Patchwork and Passionate Patchwork. The photography as usual is stunning.

 

As are the quilts. All I can say really is I WANT ONE. Coming soon to a bookshop near you.

In the mean time, I am going back to this pile of little quilts, patterns and diagrams.....

 

Busy, busy, busy. Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

PS. Before any of you ask, the fabric I photographed the blad on is from Prints Charming. It's the backing for the oft mentioned quilt of teeny tiny diamonds. :)