I love books. Both reading and collecting them. Hey, I come from a family of bookworms… what can I say? I have a large collection of contemporary fiction, and a very respectable assortment of glossaries and dictionaries. (Yes, I am one of those people who enjoys *reading* a dictionary). And, naturally, I have a pretty impressive number of crafting books. I haven’t counted them all, but I can tell at this point I have close to quilting books.
I guess there’s no doubt how much I love books. I am particularly happy with my last book purchases. You see, it’s taken me a couple of years, but I finally have completed my collection of the Rodale’s Successful Quilting Library. This is a set of 15 books published over a 5-year period (1997-2001) and now long out of print.
At the time they were published each book cost US$19.95. It’s taken me a couple of years to find and purchase them – all used. I think the one I paid the most for was around $5. Most of them I purchased for $1-2. Yet the wealth of information in these books is worth their weight in gold. I am especially happy because this is a wonderful resource for my students.
All of these books follow the same format: very clear instructions, with photographs for each step. So even for those among my students who don’t do too well with English, they are able to learn from the photographs alone. The material in each book is very well organized, with a section called the Quilter’s Problem Solver at the end of each chapter that round out the already in-depth information covered in the chapter itself.
The basics are all covered: piecing, foundation piecing, appliqué, drafting, hand and machine quilting, embellishments.. you name it. I thought I’d share a couple of pics of the covers… and if you are interested in knowing a little more about the contents of any particular book, just leave a comment and I will write up a little review for that book.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than a lazy afternoon browsing through my quilting books. Yet truth be told, if for any strange reason I were only allowed a handful of books, this would be the collection I would stay with.
I am a self-learner. I taught myself to sew and to quilt. And I taught myself how to draw. I am learning how to dye my own fabrics and am dabbling with mixed media. I am a quilt designer and teacher, and design and publish my own line of quilt patterns. With this blog I would like to share the bits and pieces of my life.
4 Comments
I agree with you, Angie. Those are fantastic, and very useful. I have two of them: Fantastic finishes and Flawless hand quilting. By now, I’m interested in learning how to dye my fabrics. Is one of the other books about that? If not, I would appreciate if you can recommend me some other.
Another book that have been a treasure for me, is The Quilting Bible, of Creative Publishing International. It’s wonderful too!
Warm hugs
Irene
I haven’t heard of those books, but what you have shown looks very interesting. I love my quilting books and magazines! I prefer books and magazines to the net… Lots of interesting stuff at the net of course, but nothing is like holding and read a book or magazine! 🙂
Angie
I am also a “bookaholic” and Amazon is my very best friend 😉
I was interested to know what the book Innovative Piecing would be about?
My first thought was that a “how-to”-book about innovative piecing must be a contradiction in terms, – if it has already been done, it is no longer innovative.
But then I thought maybe they are showing piecing methods that may have been considered innovative or unusual at one point.
Or are they actually teaching how to be innovative?
Maybe I am too square minded, but I am curious to know 🙂
I must also say that the whole series look interesting. You are sitting on a treasure.
I have this book collection aswell. lost count on the amount of times I have refered to the information contained in them for my quilting projects. When I hit a brick wall during construction or design, I make a cup of tea and flip through these books till I feel the creative juices run a riot. Its my most valuable asset in my quilting room. Apart from my sewing machine thats is. If you dont have them, start looking and adding them to your collection.