Books that are ME

So I was reading today’s post from one of my favorite blogs, Craft Buds and since (as you can see) it’s Craft Book Month over there, of course the post was about a book. But seeing all these posts about books that people love and how to write a book, etc., has made me think about books that are just so ME that I get totally excited when I just see the cover! I thought I’d do a little summary of the books I love.

Just a note here that yes, I’m an Amazon affiliate and the images are links  to the Amazon link which will earn me a tiny commission if you happen to click and then buy the book. But know this, I’m not just promoting the book to get the tiny commission, I’m telling you about the book because I feel like it speaks to something about what I love about sewing and quilting and the type of aesthetic (LOVE that word!) I lean toward and that I love.

The first book I totally fell in love with this year and had a chance to review and give away a copy is called Block Party, A Modern Quilting Bee (C&T Publishing).

This book speaks to me because the colors are bold and modern, they use a mix of solid and print fabrics and several of the blocks have a “wonky” look to them. Now, wonky is not necessarily specific to just modern quilting but it certainly gives modern quilts a different feel that I love! (Also could be because of my deep down need for justification for NOT sewing on the straight and narrow.)

In addition to the modern feel of quilting I have a passion for the look of mixed media. Some people may call it Crafty A.D.D. because I hate to just pick one media to work in, should it be paint, should it be fabric, should it be stamping? Why not all of them!? Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered the term mixed media and that it goes hand in hand with sewing and quilting! Apparently this look is becoming so appealing to so many people that Interweave press has published a book called Sew Wild and it speaks to my inner mixed media goddess! Just the cover of this book gives me heart palpitations!

I was so excited when Interweave agreed to send me a copy to review. The inside is just as awesome as the cover, reviewing steps on how to print, dye and stamp your OWN fabric to create something completely unique and then if that isn’t enough, there are several projects at the end soyou can create something with that awesome fabric you just made! Oh and don’t forget that if you’re local to San Antonio and this sort of project makes you want to grab some paint and fabric, you’ll get exactly that chance with the Painted Collage Quilt workshop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer on October 17, here at my studio!

Now I’m sure I could go one with more books that describe my aesthetic and that give me goosebumps because they just LOOK fun, but here’s the one I’ll leave you with (that also inspired this post!)

I haven’t actually seen this book, Modern Mix, IRL (in real life) BUT from the cover (and in my experience that’s enough so far) I can tell I would just LOVE this book. This book expands outside of the quilting realm – just a little because there are still 7 quilt projects in the book, and adds in other projects for the home. Personally, I think that any book with the words Modern and Mix in the title in relation to sewing and quilting is MEANT FOR ME! Well, that is exactly the name of this book and of course it’s from C&T Publishing, and I’ve loved everything from them so far!

So do you see a pattern (ha no pun intended) forming here? I love solids, modern, funky, quilts and sewing projects for the home! I also love mixed media and tapping in to my creative side. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realize that but I’m glad I have and thanks to Craft Buds for that indirect inspiration to discover this!

Finally, how do you feel about these books? Do you have a recommendation for other titles to check out? And what is your sewing and quilting style?

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. I just hit 1000 fans on my Facebook page! I’m hosting a fabric giveaway OVER THERE and you can enter, just visit the page and leave a comment on the giveaway post.

Habitat Challenge – My Blocks

Trying to figure out how to best integrate all of these variety of fabrics into one block was a real challenge! I turned to my favorite resource for block ideas, Block Party: A Modern Quilting Bee. I decided to use one of the most commented about patterns, the one from February, it’s a square in a square, then sliced and turned around and sewn back together. Here’s the quilt from the book:

The instructions were really helpful and I love that this book has such great step by step pictures. Only thing is I neglected to actually read the instructions very closely and should have made my beginning square in a square block A LOT bigger than what I wanted my finished block to be. The first one I ended up with was about 10″ square, and our challenge blocks were supposed to be 12 1/2″ unfinished. Here’s the first one I made:

I really like how it came out, but unfortnately, it’s too small for the challenge, oh well. Here’s the second one, before I sewed the four pieces back to gether, I added a little more solid, on the inside!

That resulted in some interesting secondary patterns, completely by accident! I have a couple of other blocks that I made out of this fabric when I was just playing. I guess I get to figure out what to do with those now. I really enjoyed adding in some solid to this fabric group. Granted, it was difficult because I realized my shop is rather lacking in the purple family and that’s what this set of fabrics had a lot of. That’s alright, I immediately ordered some more Bella Solids for the shop, included a pretty Abergine purple which happens to match perfectly with the Anna Maria Horner Lou Louthi line (will be added to the shop this weekend!)

Don’t forget! Bella Solids are just $5.99 a yard for the rest of July! We’re almost half way through the month, better stock up now.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Block Party Book GIVEAWAY!

UPDATE: Winner of the book is Rebecca Porter!

Rebecca I’m going to attempt to e-mail you through Facebook, but since that’s a strange system, if you’re reading this please e-mail me anna@craftygirlsworkshop.com so I can get your address.

Comments are now closed for this giveaway.

I just heard back from C&T Publishing and they are willing to send a copy of Block Party to a lucky reader of my blog or a facebook fan! So just leave a comment on this post if you’d like to be entered to win. I’ll combine the comments from here over on my FB page to pull the winner’s name on Friday May 27.  Good luck!

Happy Stitches,

Anna