Gilleland Diane - Quilting happiness: projects, inspiration, and ideas to make quilting more joyful

Copyright 2013 by Christina Lane and Diane Gilleland
Project photography copyright 2013 by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.pottercraft.com

POTTER CRAFT and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lane, Christina, 1980
Quilting happiness : projects, inspiration, and ideas to make quilting more joyful / by Christina Lane and Diane Gilleland.First Edition.
pages cm
1. QuiltingPatterns. I. Gilleland, Diane. II. Title.
TT835.L329 2013
746.46dc23

2012047886

ISBN 978-0-7704-3409-0
eISBN 978-0-7704-3410-6

Illustrations by Christina Lane

Tools and Techniques photography by Sarah Costa

Project photographs by Heather Weston

: Sarah Costa, Sarah Costa Photography

: Pam and Kirby Harris, Harris & Harris Photographics

: Carol Porter

Cover photographs by Heather Weston except back cover, top, by Sarah Costa

Cover design by Laura Palese

v3.1_r1

Let us introduce ourselves: Christina has been quilting since her high school years. Diane is a writer who only recently began dabbling in quilts. And our answer to the question above is: both the finished piece and the enjoyment of making it are equally valuable.

When we set out to write this book, we wanted to share a collection of beautiful quilt designs from Christina, but we also wanted to delve more deeply into why, exactly, quilting makes quilters so happy. When we make things, were generally happywhether were creating with paints, plants, food, fabric, or any other medium. A creative state of mind is, after all, a positive state of mind. We get to delight in the colors and textures of our materials, and we get excited knowing that our hands are manifesting something that didnt exist before.

Quilting holds such rich possibilities for exploring the many joys of creativity. How, for example, can you add more meaning to your fabric choices? How does it feel to pour your heart into a quilt for a beloved friend? Do you find more joy in a curved seam sewn perfectly, or in a slightly wonky seam that nonetheless is uniquely your own? And what about sharing your passion with others? Would teaching friends to quilt give you a sense of satisfaction? What if you made projects for people in need in your hometown? And what about the worldwide community of quiltersmight you find wonderful kindred spirits there?

Whats interesting to both of us is that, while every quilter might derive happiness from quilting, the exact nature of that happiness will be different from person to person. For some, its a welcome bit of solitude, while others use this craft to forge connection and community. Some find it in their design process. Some find it in curling up under the finished quilt, cup of tea in hand.

We hope this book will serve as a workbook of sorts to help you explore what makes you happiest in your quiltingand, just maybe, provide you with some fresh ideas to make your quilting hours even happier. We also hope this is a book youll return to again and again, because it will spark different ideas on each rereading. You can use the creative exercises, practices, and journaling questions here throughout your quilting life, and you can reinterpret these projects in endless ways. We hope all of this boosts your love of quilting and brings you many hours of creative happiness.

Now, lets all go make something!

We love traditional quilt block designs and were intrigued by the modern quilt movement, so youll find that these quilts adapt nicely to both traditional and modern fabrics.

This isnt quite a beginners quilting book, although many of the projects in it are simple to make. Were assuming that you have a basic working knowledge of quilting, and that you know how to operate your sewing machine. Ideally, youll already have some experience with handling and cutting fabrics.

If you need a refresher on a technique or are unfamiliar with a particular process, turn to Tools and Techniques (). This is also where youll find instructions for the finishing steps that are common to every quilt project: making a backing, building a quilt sandwich, quilting, and binding. If youre pretty new to quilting, be sure to check out the Before You Begin page that follows for some helpful tips.

The projects in this book are broken into three skill levels:

Advanced Beginner: These projects involve straight seams and simple construction.

Intermediate: These projects involve some curved seams, or require a bit of careful seam matching and pinning.

Experienced: These projects involve a lot of seam matching and precise construction.

That said, please dont feel too intimidated to try a project that seems to be at a higher skill level than you are. Try making one test block, or part of one row. You may find youre ready to take on more than you realize!

If the cutting instructions for these projects seem a little detailed to you, theres a good reason behind this. Weve designed them so you dont have to figure out how youre supposed to get twenty-four pieces from that fat quarter; instead well explain how to cut your yardage into strips and then cut those strips down into pieces. (Well use the term subcut as shorthand for this process; you can learn more about it in .)

Throughout this book, youll find happiness-related goodies: creative exercises, useful tools you can make, inspiring stories, questions to get you journaling, and practices to increase your enjoyment of quilting. Feel free to meander through these as you like, trying anything that appeals to you. Our guess is that each time you pull this book from your shelf, a different one of these happiness bits will catch your eye.