We are beginning a blog series about machine quilting and last week I told you about some of the machine quilting books in my library. I explained how they each represented various aspects of this vast subject and offered insight into machine quilting technique, and then I promised to reveal my favorite book of them all.

Quilting Makes the Quilt by Lee Cleland
This book is a marvel and, understandably, a best-seller. Imagine: Lee Cleland chose twelve traditional quilt patterns and made each one five times using the same fabric and batting. Then, she quilted the quilts in a variety of designs so that we could see in an instant what a difference the quilting makes.

I never tire of looking through this book. It is simply amazing to see the transformations of the quilts based on the way they are quilted. Just by turning the page, you can see the impact of straight-lines versus curved; matching thread versus contrasting; all-over versus custom fit. It is inspirational and educational.

While the quilts certainly steal the show, the book also includes an excellent chapter called “Making Designs Fit”. There are patterns for all twelve quilts and a pull-out section contains many of the quilting designs used on the quilts.

“Something special, even magical, happens when you begin to quilt. Smooth fabrics take on intriguing texture, motifs stand out in crisp relief, and graceful patterns swirl across blocks with no regard for piecing boundaries. Quilting is a process, a stitch-by-stitch transformation of fabric and batting into something difficult to describe and pleasing to behold.”  ~ Lee Cleland

Before Quilting

After Quilting

 Quilting makes the quilt!

Easy Machine Quilting  Jane Townswick (editor)
This book is a compilation of twelve lessons from well-known and talented machine quilters such as Caryl Bryer Fallert, Sue Nickels, Debra Wagner and Hari Walner. It also includes twelve projects designed to feature the techniques from each lesson: not only can we read about it, we can practice it.

Lesson 1 is called “Getting Ready” and presents the basics of understanding your sewing machine, setting up a space for machine quilting and choosing needles, threads, and batting. Other lessons include starting and stopping, machine guided and free-motion quilting techniques, quilting in-the-ditch, cross-hatching, echo quilting, stippling and meander quilting, machine trapunto, and more.

Every machine quilter should have a solid reference book on the subject in their library and this book served that purpose for me. Even though it was published in 1996, the concepts and practices still hold true today. But a lot has happened in the quilting industry over the past 16 years so this was not my last machine quilting book!

Guide to Machine Quilting by Diane Gaudynski
The machine quilting of Diane Gaudynski rocked my world and has been a huge influence on my work. Diane’s quilts have such beautiful texture, they appear to be embossed. I longed to be able to create that same effect and jumped at the chance to learn from this master as soon as her book was published in 2002.

Guide to Machine Quilting covers many of the same topics as Easy Machine Quilting, although it is always interesting to discover the tools and products favored by our heroes. It is the chapter on “Free-Motion Quilting” that I have pored over the longest. Her description of stippling is excellent and her strategy of working away from yourself (as opposed to toward yourself) has helped me enormously.

Diane machine quilts just like everyone else quilts on a home sewing machine, but how does she get those results? I have concluded the answer lies in the density of the background quilting and have worked to achieve the same effect. The photographs in this book are sure to inspire you – and if you’re a cat-lover, bring a few smiles to your face as well.

Mastering the Art of McTavishing by Karen McTavish
Karen McTavish is an award-winning longarm machine quilter whose signature style of background quilting has become known as “McTavishing”. In my quest to produce that embossed look in my quilts, I was curious to investigate this unique look and to develop some other options besides stippling.

The book includes a 90-minute DVD which parallels and demonstrates the chapters in the book. Karen discusses how to create “McTavishing” using a domestic sewing machine, so we don’t have to have a longarm to produce this look! But we do have to practice (are you sensing a theme here?) and so after a few trial runs, I attempted to use “McTavishing” in the background of my Butterfly Mosaic.

Machine Quilting by Sue Nickels
Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques is a relatively recent addition to my library, even though it was published in 2003. I had the privilege to serve as the classroom volunteer during Sue’s classes at Quilt Canada 2010 and the book was her gift to me. Sue does beautiful machine quilting and I was eager to see what tips I could learn from her approach.

There are two aspects of this book that I particularly like. The sections called “Trace and Practice” provide an opportunity to try out many of the machine quilting techniques. As Sue says: “It is helpful to do the practice samples as you would if you were taking a class”. This book is like taking Sue’s class.

Another great aspect of this book is the chapter on “The Actual Quilt”. Here, Sue talks about choosing quilting designs, marking them, selecting backing fabric and basting. She also clearly explains how to “package” the quilt so it will fit within the boundaries of a home machine and includes a number of very helpful diagrams. We can exercise all we like on practice sandwiches but eventually we have to move on to a real quilt!

These are not all of the machine quilting books in my library but they each represent various aspects of this vast subject and offer insight into machine quilting technique. Next week, I’ll share my favorite of them all and tell you why.

Fearless Design for Every Quilter

The exercises are grouped according to the three levels of Lorraine’s classes.  The first five exercises focus on the principles and elements of design; the next five tackle sources and inspiration for design; the final section pertains to working in a series to explore a theme or visual direction.

Jean B. Mills, the co-author of the book, was a student in one of Lorraine’s classes.  She is an art therapist and found the class dynamic to be fascinating.  She observed that “exposure to others’ ideas created a kind of synergy from which original ideas seemed to spring freely”.

The goals of the class – and the book – are to develop growth in the areas of design, critique, and creativity.  Each exercise in the book has three parts:  the assignment, the critique session, and continuing education.  Samples of actual student work is presented, along with their self-evaluation and the group critique.

There are many ways you can learn from this book.  It offers great insight into both the creative process as well as the critique process.  But the greatest benefit would seem to come from working through the exercises with a group, just like the original class.  And that is exactly what I intend to do.

Over the next year, a group of fellow quilters will be completing an assignment from this book, preparing a self-evaluation, and then critiquing each other’s work.  Our group members are also working on becoming certified quilt judges through the Canadian Quilters Association, so our interest is two-fold.  Not only do we want to develop our design skills as quilt makers, we desire to hone our ability to observe, articulate, and respond objectively.

We won’t, however, be meeting in person to do this.  We are spread apart geographically so we will be exchanging photos and critiques electronically.  This means that I can also share our progress with you.  I invite you to follow along or, better yet, start your own group of fearless designers.  It will be exciting to see what we learn along the way!

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!