I recently received the Fall 2010 catalog from C&T Publishing and ordered a few new books.  One of them was The Quilter’s Directory of Embellishments by Sally Holman.  This is my kind of book – a reference will all kinds of ideas and techniques.  Let’s take a look.

The first thing you’ll notice about this book is its size and shape.  Unlike the typical 8-½ x 11″ soft-cover quilting book, this one measures 8-¾” square.  Its 128 pages are packed with beautiful color photography and step-by-step instructions.

After introducing the core tools and basic techniques, the book is divided into six categories of embellishment techniques:

• embellishing with decorative stitching
• embellishing with ribbon and braid
• embellishing with surface decoration
• embellishing with appliqué
• embellishing with treasures
• embellishing with art media

Each category is introduced with a gallery section of whole quilts and detail photos featuring some of the techniques.  Then the techniques section presents a featured block for each technique, what you will need to make the block, explanatory notes about any unique materials or tools, step-by-step instructions and tips – all illustrated with detailed color photographs.  The book also includes templates, a list of resources and a handy index.

The Quilter’s Directory of Embellishments is well organized, thoughtfully presented and very inspiring.  I have experimented with a variety of quilt embellishments over the years and have used some of the techniques included in this book.  But there are some new ideas here, or new variations on an idea, that I would definitely like to try.  Next week, we’ll take a closer look at some of the quilt embellishments that I have used and, who knows, maybe I will try a couple new ones from the book by then!