Obsessed? Maybe just a little...

We have been swindled. Lied to. We, as people with stashes of fabric and fiber, have had the wool cotton pulled over our eyes.

A few weeks ago I was perusing the crafty wall at my favorite book store when I noticed what appeared to be a shiny new quilt book. Might I say a gorgeous quilt book. 

Now, I must say, I've actually been quilting longer than I've been knitting. If you made me choose I'd still say that knitting is my ultimate passion and I'll never trade in my wool for anything but I still like to give a quilt a go every now and then.

My problem is that when faced with fabric choices and rows and rows of color I just can't make heads or tails from it. I can deal with garment sewing and fiber stitching because its more... orderly. Now maybe that sounds weird because if anything is orderly, its quilting. But still there are so many decisions to make... quilt block, color (s), arrangement, sashing, borders, the actual quilting. I have a hard time getting what's "in my head" to translate to a big project like a quilt.

I am pretty well stuck on "classic" quilt designs. I like the formal pieced quilts and just can't wrap my head around "art" quilts and I don't like crazy quilting at all. I need the balance... the matchy, matchy at least on a minimal level.

That said... I'm not quilting anything in mauve or mint green. I want color. I want splash. That's why I let a 10 year old design the quilt I'm making now... he's not color-phobic. Actually... I'm not color-phobic either I'm just mot sure how to put it all together without it looking like Crayola had a bad, bad accident.

Well, let me tell ya. This book has set me free. Free, I say.

The 2 ladies who wrote this book and designed the quilts actually own a quilt shop in Australia. The quilts they design are spiffy versions of traditional quilts. They've been vamped up with color, some slightly rearranged, and perked up a bit. 

There's so much inspiration in here that I can't even put it into words. Full instructions for all the quilts and a section for the basics. Pages and pages of beautiful photographs, diagrams, techniques, and encouragement.

I was so impressed that I went online to scout out a website or blog for the book or the authors and managed to find the blog here.

So... what was I talking about being lied to and swindled? Well... as I found on the blog... this isn't a new book. Its only new here in the States. Its been available in Australia and the UK for over a year. Somebody has been hiding this book from us. And the worst part?

There's a second book. And you can't get it here at all!!!

Oh, the horror!!!

Well, geez lady. If it isn't available here how do you manage to have one sitting there on your sewing table?

Well, because I threw a big fit... emailed the ladies at the shop... converted my dollars to their dollars... and had one sent clear from Australia. 

(The world gets a little smaller everyday.)

Ya know how the sequel is never as good as the fist? Forget all that. 

The second book, IMHO, is even better than the first. The quilts are even more creative, colorful, and just soaked with depth. These girls really have it go'in on.

Truly... nothing short of phenomenal.

As with the first, the second book is full of instructions from the basics to foundation piecing and color theory. Full instructions for every quilt, diagrams, explanations, and helpful tid-bits.

One thing I've always struggled with when it comes to quilting is the demand to get the quilting stitches "just so". See... I like threads and strings, and the look of the stitching on fabric so trying to get my hand-stitches to a million per inch just never sat right with me.

Ya know what some of these quilts are quilted with?

Perle cotton.

How. Cool. Is. That.

Not only can you see the stitches on purpose but they are bold and colorful and add another layer (get it... layer) to the whole deal.

Holy wow.

We need this book here in the States. If you ever quilted, thought about quilting, tried quilting, what ever... we need this book. We need to raise up our fabric obsessed voices and demand for somebody to make this book available here. Maybe they plan to release it here in a year or so, sort of like it worked with the first, I dunno. But I felt it was my duty to make it known that there is a gem of a quilting book (actually 2) out there.

Even if you aren't too sure about quilting but love fabric and color you won't be disappointed in these books. The inspiration alone is worth every penny. I've read both of them from cover to cover and have been showing them to anybody that stops by. I even got my friend to buy a copy of the first one while we were out over the weekend. She read hers from cover to cover, too.

Phenomenal, I'm telling ya. 

Oh, and the perk of being so stubborn and having one sent clear from Australia... mine is signed!

Comments

[Marg]

Absotootly spiffing! You know Kaffe Fasset likes to make his stitching nice and big as he reckons if he's going to put that much work into it he wants you to see it.

[Anna]

I haven't quilted in....wow, a lotta years. But I may have to go find Book 1! (If a lot of Book 1 sells here...maybe the U.S. publisher/distributor will bring Book 2 over faster!) Thanks for telling us about them!

[bezzie]

Perle cotton huh? Hmmmmm......

Did you read my mother's reply on my blog post today (probably not, I never go back to look at peoples' comments on other blogs...) but it's kind of fitting. She mentioned how she likes being unable to see clearly w/out her glasses. She'll whip off her glasses at the fabric store when she's holding fabrics together to see how they go together. The blurriness helps her "see" the color coordination better.

[Jean Gerow]

Oh my! Now I have to add these books to my quilting library! They look wonderful and the color - oh, the color!

[Amy]

You're such a bad influence!!!!