Quilting Magazine's Unsolicited DVD Review

I subscribe to two print quilting magazines at this moment; Quilt and Quilting (probably because I got them confused when filling out the cards). I have been pretty happy with both of them (The latest Quilt contained a bag pattern that I'm modifying for a commissioned bag I'm working on, and was a very timely arrival).

What I didn't expect to get in the mail last week was an unsolicited DVD from them - the first DVD in a series called Inspire - Design - Create - Quilting DVD Collection. I get annoyed with stuff like this - if I don't return the DVD, I'll get billed 12.95 for it and they'll ship me MORE DVDs that I didn't ask for. I suppose that I could keep it and not pay, utilizing the same legal strategy that almost bankrupted the Musical Heritage Society (and caused them to re-think their scheme of sending out vinyl records and hoping people are honest enough to pay for them), but I am a grown up now, and I'm not going to do that.

I did pop it in the DVD player in my sewing room today and watched it as I was ripping seams, hemming pants and skirts and resetting zippers (I'm still in costume mode  for a high school production of Arsenic & Old Lace - I have 4 more skirts to make, but they will have to wait till tomorrow after a trip to the fabric store, since my stash doesn't include navy wool suiting any more). The DVD contained 8 segments, and 3 free PDF patterns.

Segment 1, Color Inspirations: Introduction to the Color Wheel - This was a very basic lesson in color, with one interesting tip: using a kaleidoscope viewer (without any color chips in it) as a way to audition fabrics together. I'll have to try that (yes, I own a small collection of kaleidoscopes - I think they are fabulous).

Segment 2, Reaching Out: Organizing and Participating in Exchanges was a nice introduction to various swaps from charm square to block-of-the-month, and good for people who don't have active and experienced guilds in their locality.

Segment 3, Tool Center: Using Your Rotary Tools to Create Templates presented some nice ideas for how to cut both symmetric and asymmetrical shapes, and this segment was actually useful to me, and showed me something I hadn't seen or thought of before.

Segment 4: Try Something New: English Paper Piecing explained in detail how to go about doing this, and maybe someday in the fullness of time, I might.

Segment 5: Fun & Fanciful: Fussy Cutting explained about various things to be fussy about and showed some lovely quilts as examples. I did figure out striped bindings on my own, though, and I learned about the kaleidoscope effect of cutting identical pieces from a striped fabric from an episode of Simply Quilts a while back (and I even bought the hinged mirrors from Marti Mitchell to preview the cuts).

Segment 6: Techniques Revealed: Stenciling with Shiva Paintsticks had a demonstration of stencil making and using the paint sticks on fabric to make a block, and also some stunning examples of finished quilts. I found this segment most intriguing because I had seen the sticks at the last show I attended but I was dubious about using paint that is in paste form. I'm not convinced yet, but I feel a lot more informed about this method of surface embellishment. Personally, I still have a lot of Tsukeniko ink to work with, and I'm not ready to move on to oil paint just yet. The inks are more forgiving - you can completely wash them out until you heat set them, so you can fix mistakes (a big plus with me!), and they act like watercolors rather than oil paints, which permit you to use a lot of watercolor painting techniques on fabric.

Segment 7: Design Workshop: Free Motion Quilting was a good beginner introduction to free motion quilting with some nice examples. I would have really loved this segment if I hadn't taken a workshop in free motion quilting at a quilt show last summer.

Segment 8: Shop Talk Thread Tension Troubleshooting: this might have been my favorite segment in the entire DVD. I was amused that the only man on the DVD was the sewing machine repair person, but I was fascinated with his explanation of how a sewing machine works, and the fact that he used a Singer Featherweight to illustrate the thread pathways was also really interesting to a technology geek like me.

I forgot to check out the free pattern PDF files before I packaged the DVD up for return. The patterns are cute, from the photos I saw on the menu.

I am not keeping the DVD for myself, for budget reasons - I already bought a quilt book online this week, and things are generally tight - and I don't want to get into a subscription thing with a 13.00/month price tag on it. The DVDs are very good for people starting out and who don't have access to live workshops or guilds where there are quilters who are willing to share their knowledge, but for advanced quilters, I don't think it's really worth it. I'd rather take the 156 dollars a year's worth of these DVDs would cost me and pay for a few workshops.

If you haven't seen the Cats on Quilts blog, please do - and if you have a photo of your pet helping you with a quilt project, please send it in!

Till next week, keep on quilting!

The Quilter's Library

I will admit that I love to collect things. Fabric, books, music, action figures,  beach rocks, shells, and other things that pique my interest. Today, one of the latest two quilting books that I ordered was waiting for me when I got home from work today: Ruth B McDowell's Piecing Workshop. This book was recommended to me by Elettaria, a member of the Quilting group over at LiveJournal, and I'm really looking forward to reading it at learning the piecing techniques she explains.

I also thought it would be interesting to list the other quilting books I've acquired over the years. My library is segregated into 2 rooms and a garage (my fiction library is still in storage). My home office contains my non-fiction and "research" library, and my sewing room contains my fine art and crafts books.

One of my favorite books is Gordon's 1000 Great Quilt Blocks. It's a small, square volume, but very thick. It's incredibly useful for looking up blocks and for getting desgin ideas. I picked this book up at The Quilt Patch in Fairfax, Virginia many years ago, and it's been an indespensible part of my library. I also like to sit and thumb through it, just to see the designs.

Dover Books makes up a big part of my library in many categories (their costuming books are indispensable for the re-creationist), and I have a few of their quilting books: Quick and Easy Giant Dahlia Quilt by Murwin and Payne helped me with constructing my Giant Dahlia quilt (that you can see in the quilt gallery slide show in my quilting website) - but I used the Marti Mitchell templates to cut the fabric. And I also have been inspired by the Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork in some of my designs that are still only on paper or in EQ6 projects and that are on my "to do" list.

Other inspirational books include 20th Century Best American Quilts, America's Heritage Quilts, Pictorial Quilting (also by Gordon), and Mandala Quilt Designs. These four books are not instructional, but they challenge me to "up my game." It's one of my dreams to be good enough that my work might be included in books such as these.

The quilting itself is where I have the largest room for improvement at this time - I think my piecing skills are getting good, as long as I am careful and not rushing. To help me with quilting, I picked up 60 Machine Quilting Patterns, Add-A-Line Continuous Quilting Patterns and Continuous Line Quilting Designs. These books have all been reviewed on my vox blog a little while ago.

I would love to hear your list of essential quilting books.