New Release! Doodle Quilting ~ Over 120 Continuous-Line Machine-Quilting Designs .. and a Giveaway!

Repeat C&T author Cheryl Malkowski, whose most recent title is Doodle Quilting, shares her thoughts about why her book is so USEFUL! It is useful, too—I especially like the part titled “How to USE this book!!”

” Eleven years ago, I started teaching domestic machine quilting at my local quilt shop. Over the years, the most common comments I heard from my students were, “I can’t draw!” or “I’m not artistic like you!” So I developed a class for those students called “Doodle Your Way to Better Quilting,” in which we pulled out big rolls of inexpensive, unintimidating paper and started doodling on purpose. We started with loops like lowercase Es because all of us know how to do that, and built from there.

My new book, Doodle Quilting, is a compilation from that class. My theory is that, besides the mechanics of machine quilting, the hardest part is knowing where to go next: how to get out of an area, how to fill specific shapes and how to get back to that space you forgot to quilt!

In order to do that, you need to understand how each shape is drawn and how it behaves in a design. You also need to know how to choose a combination of motifs that will be an effective overall design. All this is covered, with tips on what to think while you’re making a motif and a set of rules for putting together that overall design. I personally think it’s the most helpful book I’ve written so far because it breaks down all that artsy stuff into doable shapes and explains them.”

The giveaway – To enter to win a copy of Doodle Quilting, leave a comment here telling us if you are ready to doodle! Deadline to enter is 11/22/12.  The winner will be drawn at random from the comments section and will be notified by email. Our winner’s name will also be listed here as an update to this post. *Note: Only entrants with U.S addresses are eligible to win the actual book. Winners with addresses outside the U.S. will win the e-book version.

11/26/12 UPDATE: Margo is our winner – congratulations