Simple Stained Glass Quilts
Daphne Greig and Susan Purney Mark
Krause; $24.95

Daphne Greig and Susan Purney Mark began creating their Too Easy Stained Glass patterns in 2003, and they wrote this book as a result of customers wanting more of the duo’s stained glass quilts. Their concept is “too easy,” since you create the leading from a single piece of fabric and fusible web rather than creating yards of bias. The book includes 20 projects ranging from pillows to wall hangings to full-size bed quilts and includes full-size patterns for the leading. I was intrigued by many of the designs, particularly one that leaded half a tree and the Hillside House projects where the leading was the framing of a house.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

Quilted One Block Marvels
Carolyn Sullivan
American Quilters’ Society; $22.95

The book’s title does not do justice to the actual marvels inside. Australian Carolyn Sullivan teaches you how to design your own block from elements in architecture or nature and then turn repeats of that block into quilts. She focuses on three types of symmetry – repetitions, rotations and reflections – to create the seemingly endless quilt design variations. Once you understand the concepts, you are free to make your own quilt or make one of the 12 that the book includes.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

Pat Sloan
Leisure Arts; $14.95

Are you looking for a project to celebrate the change of seasons in a couple of weeks? Look no further. Pat Sloan has 14 joyful table runners, wall hangings, lap quilts and bed quilts to inspire you. She shares her inspiration for each design and includes both appliqué and pieced quilts. For June she offers her “Scrappy Heart Quilt” and for July her “Ocean Waves Quilt.” And I love that the July project is done in Independence Day colors. Since I’m off to the ocean in a few weeks, I might have to take along one of the these to do.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

Cynthia Tomaszewski
Martingale & Co.; $24.95

Are you looking for a whimsical quilt to make for the child in your life? Cynthia Tomaszewski offers patterns for seven pieced and/or appliqued quilts. The bright quilts with their fun motifs will delight you. I loved the mermaids swimming amidst the seaweed and the rabbit popping out of a top hat surrounded by stars. Let’s Pretend includes basic quiltmaking instructions and an introduction to appliqué as well as tips for fine hand appliqué.

If you’d like to add this book to you quilt library, here’s a link.

Ann Hazelwood
American Quilters Society; $12.95

This terrific little collection of tips is broken into sections for the quilter as a student, tools, designing and working styles, stash savvy, techniques, quilting, finishing touches and show etiquette. You’ll find something to use or pass along. But the best advice, as Zena Thorp says, is “remember that it is YOUR quilt.”  Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

StrataVarious Quilts

 Barbara Persing and Mary Hoover
C&T Publishing; 21.95

Longarm quilter Barbara Persing and her sister Mary Hoover, a shop owner, found that making strata (panels of various width fabric strips sewn together in a random manner) was the solution to designing with the large collection of fabric they wanted to use. The unique blended strata they create are then cut into squares and half-square triangles and reassembled into a dynamic quilt. The book includes directions for nine quilts, three of which incorporate appliqué. It’s a fun addition to your tecnhnique toolbox.

I heard from a number of readers after they viewed Elizabeth Gilbert’s lecture from the 2009 TED Conference entitled “A diferent way to think about creative genius.” I like the concept that we all “have” genius in us. I loved that when she was having a difficult time writing, she took time and just spoke out to the corner, to let genius come to her; and if it didn’t, well, she showed up for her part of the job.

I’m sure you’ve had times where you’ve showed up for the job but been blocked creatively, whether it’s from pressures, fears, uncertainties or something else. Here are six ideas to jump start your creative juices:

1. Fill the well. Look at other art, either surfing the Internet or visiting galleries. Go on an artist’s date, a la Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. And, be sure to step outside the quilt realm. Sometimes looking at other art is allit takes to get a new idea.
2. Set a challenge or goal for yourself. I think the journal quilt idea is a great one here. Challenge yourself to create something small each day or week. Pick a theme. When I did the monthly journals, mine were all pears. Or focus on a particular bit of nature in your yard and follow it through the year. And, move outside your comfort zone. If traditional piecework is your thing, grab some paint sticks and let lose. If you are an art quilter, try a pieced block for a change.
3. Create a daily ritual. Twyla Tharp writes about this idea in The Creative Habit. The daily ritual becomes so ingrained that it sets the pace for your day. She says, “It’s Pavlovian: follow the routine, get a creative payoff.” I liked her example of the chef who starts each day by tending the garden on the terrace of his Brooklyn home. This creative environment lets him putter, pick veggies or herbs, think about flavors. At this point, he heads off to the restaurant to begin creating. For me, I have a ritual of walking each weekday. The fresh air gets me going. What is your ritual?
4. Take a class to learn a new skill. This could be a photography class, a water color painting class, a cooking class, acomputer class. Just being creative in some other area will translate into your quilt work.
5. Keep an idea journal, if you don’t already. Fill it with things that inspire you from in and outside the quilt world. When you’re blocked, leave your studio and pull out your idea journal. Ideas will surface.
6. Act as if you don’t have any blocks and then just jump in. One idea will lead to another. Remember that every piece of art you create doesn’t have to be perfect. One of the quotes I have tacked on my wall is “progress, not perfection.” If I waited for everything to be perfect, I’d still be waiting.

Here are two favorite quotes on creativity:

“In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass blade’s no easier to make than an oak.” James Russell Lowell

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Rather ask, What makes you come alive? Then go and do it! Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” Howard Thurman

So, get creating. Allah, Olé, Bravo!

The Winter issue of The Professional Quilter includes articles to help you grow your quilt business. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page.

Join us in the PQ Café on Thursday, March 12, when I talk to Jake Finch about writing to expand what she calls your “Quilt-fluence.” Jake birthed a new addiction when she began quilting 20 years ago. Five years later she plunged into teaching. Since then she’s written two books, Fast, Fun & Easy® Book Cover Art and Comfort Quilts From the Heart. She’s also a development editor for C&T Publishing and the managing editor for Mark Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home. Daily she finds herself answering questions on how the individual quilter can get her name known. Jake’s first response: Write something.

Join us when we’ll cover how to get started writing magazine articles or books, how to write a query, where to pitch your idea and more. And don’t be surprised if your quilting career really takes off as a result.

The teleclass is scheduled for Thursday, March 12 at 8 pm, Eastern Standard Time. Registration includes both the teleclass and the MP3 downloadable recording, so if you can’t come to the class, you’ll get the recording to listen to at a time that works for you. Here are details.

Hope to see you then. And, if you have questions you want me to be sure to ask Jake, just drop me an e-mail or post a comment, and I’ll try to fit them in.

Crossroads: Construction, Markings, and Structure
Nancy Crows
Breckling Press; $22.95

Fans of Nancy Crow will want to devour this showcase of her recent work created during 2003-2007. The collection of 25 improvisational quilts represents work from three distinct series of quilts and marks a turning point in her work. Constructions began in 1995 and features quilts that are improvised with strong architectural elements. The series now numbers 90 quilts. Markings explores calligraphic mark making applied to quiltmaking. This series grows into Structures, which features silk-screened wholecloth work with little or no piecing. The works in this catalog debuted in a solo exhibit at The Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia in the fall of 2007, and David Hornung, painter, former quiltmaker and chairman of the department of art and art history at Adelphi University, wrote the forward. The quilts are complimented by copies of Nancy’s sketchbooks and photos of work in progress. Here’s a link to Amazon. if you’re interested in adding this book to your library.