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.
Cynthia Bix
Great quilting upgrades a “Super Simple” quilt
This little baby quilt shows how you can use imaginative quilting to add interest and life to even the simplest quilt!
I wanted to make a really fast, really easy crib quilt for my niece’s new baby—a quilt that she would receive in the first six months of her life instead of one that would arrive two years later, as her big brother’s did! (I’m such a dawdler. . . )
Anyway, I used one of my go-to sources, a book in (Continue Reading...)
Special Delivery Quilts #2 with Patrick Lose — and a giveaway!
Attention, Patrick Lose fans—Patrick has written another wonderful new book, and this time it’s all about baby quilts! Longtime Lose fans will remember his first baby quilt book, Special Delivery Quilts, which featured the phenomenally popular teddy bear quilt pattern called “I Love You This Much.” In this new book, you’ll find 10 adorable new quilt patterns PLUS that old favorite, brought back as a bonus.
As the Developmental Editor for three of Patrick’s books, I’ve had the pleasure of chatting (Continue Reading...)
The quilt that crossed (and re-crossed) the Atlantic
This little quilted wallhanging is quite the world traveler. Believe it or not, it’s been across the Atlantic Ocean FIVE times!
Its peregrinations began back in the ‘80s, when my mother, a quilter, saw a kit—“Field of Flowers” #9020 from Four Corners Designs in a catalog. She knew that the sweet traditional pattern and soft pastel fabrics would delight my sister, who was living in England with her husband and sons. My sister was an accomplished sewer of garments and (Continue Reading...)
“The Greatest Sewing Machine Ever Built”
Behold! My mother’s Singer Slant-O-Matic 401—the 1958 model. I inherited this dear old machine a few years ago when my mother passed away, and with it, wonderful memories. (Not to mention an assortment of machine attachments that look like tiny instruments of torture—more on that later.)
Mother had it set up in her “sewing closet,” a hall closet that my Dad outfitted for her with shelves and a piece of plywood on top of an old desk. The tabletop fitted the (Continue Reading...)
M’Liss-Inspired Fat Quarter Baby Quilt
Look what I made! It’s a quilt for my niece’s little son, Sammy. His parents are dyed-in-the-wool Yankee fans, so I knew it had to have a baseball theme.
As a busy Developmental Editor at C&T, I don’t have lots of spare time, and when I do, I want to work on a project that’s relatively small, simple, and achievable. As luck would have it, I was editing the latest book by M’Liss Rae Hawley—Fast, Fat Quarter Quilts with M’Liss Rae (Continue Reading...)
Long Live Liberty of London!
On a recent trip to London, I stopped into the grand old West End department store, Liberty of London. It’s a lovely building—founded and built by Sir Arthur Liberty in 1875, in the Tudor Revival style with a classic half-timbered front. Inside, it features ornate woodwork, old-fashioned staircases, and open galleries with decorative wooden railings around a 4-story skylit atrium.
But I really went for the fabrics—those charming prints that just say “England” to me and to lots of other fabric (Continue Reading...)
An English idyll . . . plus quilts!
The Manor sits comfortably in a gracious garden on the edge of the River Ouse, in the tiny hamlet of Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, England. It’s a place of pure enchantment, as much because of its history and literary associations as its inherent beauty. On my recent visit I was completely caught in its spell. I wanted to see two things: the gardens, and the patchwork quilts.
Quick and easy journal cover
I wanted to cover a plain black stationery-store journal to give as a gift: Could I make it pretty but not spend hours (and dollars) on it? I consulted Fabric Leftovers by D’Arcy-Jean Milne and found a method that was just right.
It’s basically the pillowcase method. You measure the book’s height and add 3/4 inch, then measure around it and add 5 inches. This is the size to cut your book cover. I used a piece of pink batik from (Continue Reading...)
Quilter’s Chocolates Tins Redux
After sampling some of our scrumptious Quilter’s Chocolates, I was left with a little round tin to recycle. I thought, why not reuse it instead? It’s a perfect size for holding pins or rotary blades. Or small buttons, or needles—the list could be nearly endless.
Then I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if the tin was decorative as well as useful? And what could be more decorative then a mini-quilt? I tried two different versions.
First, I traced around the lid rim to (Continue Reading...)
Amazing Optical Illusions
One side of the image below is a 15th century Venetian tile floor, and the other side is. . . a quilt!
I know! Isn’t it amazing? When I first saw Christine Porter’s stunning quilts, I could hardly believe that they were made of fabric. They look like soft-hued, aged stone, and many of the designs really fool the eye in other ways, too. As she says in her new book, Viva Venezia! . . . “because of the placement of (Continue Reading...)
