C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
Carolyn Aune
Isak’s Zoo Quilt
When my youngest grandson was born, I had just finished working as the technical editor for Kim Schaefer‘s Quilts, Bibs, Blankies…Oh my! I knew I wanted to make the “Zoo Parade” quilt for him but I wanted to make a smaller size than the one shown in the book.
I did a little calculation and figured that making the quilt at 3/4 size would give me the size I needed. The finished blocks are given at 12″ x 12″ so I (Continue Reading...)
Staff Pick: Crazy with Cotton by Diana Leone
What on earth do you do with a collection of Hawaiian shirts? My small quilting group had promised a young man we had known for years to make a quilt using his beloved Hawaiian shirts. He had lost a lot of weight, but he couldn’t bear to part with the shirts that were now way too big for him.
Like most non-quilters, he thought that his quilting friends could easily make a quilt from the shirts. In his mind all quilters (Continue Reading...)
Piecing Made Easy with Piece O’ Cake
Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins’ Piecing the Piece O’ Cake Way is a great reference book that all quilters should have in their library.
The book is especially valuable for inexperienced quilters, but I have been quilting for 20 years, and I found a lot of information that can improve my quiltmaking skills. The book is divided into chapters that teach all the basics from sewing strips and squares to dealing with curves and diamonds. The best part for me is (Continue Reading...)
Crazy quilt block: a 110 year-old beauty
I come from a long line of seamstresses, needle workers and quilters. For as many generations as anyone can remember, the women in my family have been known for their fine needle working skills. Recently, I inherited this wonderful masterpiece from my mother. I know little about it, but given the embroidered date on the piece, I am fairly sure it was sewn by my great-grandmother, Olia Erickson. It has beautiful stitching and lovely fabrics that are for the most (Continue Reading...)
A Family Treasure
Old family quilts don’t have to be valuable or even beautiful to be treasured. I recently inherited a 19″ x 24″ doll quilt made by my grandmother when she was young girl about 8 or 9 years old. She was born in the early 1880′s so the quilt is at least 115 years old.
The quilt is neither beautiful nor finely sewn (she developed those skills later) but it is wonderful to me. She was born in a sod hut on (Continue Reading...)
Ways to keep your studio neat and organized
No doubt about it—quilters are creative people. In addition to making wonderful quilts, they are very creative in finding common household items that can help keep them organized in their quilting studio. Here are some of my favorites:
I keep a plastic desk drawer divider next to my sewing machine. It contains scissors, sewing feet, threads, seam rippers, needles and anything else I might need while sewing. It keeps things handy and organized, and can easily be moved next to my comfy (Continue Reading...)
Never too young to sew!
We are expecting a new baby in the family and I thought it would be fun for the older sister and older cousin to make something special for him, so we made a baby quilt. Here is the result of our efforts:
The girls are 4 1/2 and 6, so I had to think of ways they could be involved without expecting too much for their ages. To avoid any worries about rotary cutters, I cut an assortment of bright 5″squares (Continue Reading...)
Quick no-sew fast2fuse coasters
If you are having a summer barbecue or just want some informal coasters, here is a quick no-sew project for you.
All you need are some scraps of fabric, paperback fusible web, and fast2fuse.
For each coaster:
cut two 4 1/2″ fabric squares of fabric
cut one 3 1/2″ circle of fast2fuse
cut one 4″ square of paperback fusible web
Fuse the paperback fusible web to the wrong side of one fabric square.
Using a piece of paper backing from the fusible web or a Teflon sheet (Continue Reading...)
An idea for storing your stuff
We quilters have too much stuff!! We love it all and can’t resist when we see wonderful fabric or great embellishments or a handy gadget, but it SO adds up, and the problem becomes where to put it?
I am lucky because when my children grew up and left home, I inherited the family room as my sewing studio. However, the room does not have a lot of storage, so I had to create some by using inexpensive bookshelves I already (Continue Reading...)
Grandma love
Ask anyone at C&T, and they will tell you I love my grandkids. I am sure my coworkers are getting tired of my talking about them, but the kids are just so cute and so much fun to be with.
As someone who sews and quilts and knits, I make things for them—I just can’t stop myself. They have quilts, teddy bear clothes, sock monkeys, and sweaters all made by Grandma. The best part is they aren’t old enough yet to (Continue Reading...)
