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.
“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...)
Home Shopping: Part II
Back in December I blogged about Home Shopping, in which I confessed to having leftover sewing and crafting materials of every description all over my house and not knowing what to do with all of it.
Inspired by Rebekah Meier’s new book, Fabric Art Collage, I decided to try my hand at repurposing some of my fabric and crafty odds and ends to make my own collage.
Well, I can report that, first of all, my hat’s off to Rebekah. She is (Continue Reading...)
Home Shopping and Fabric Art Collage
I just discovered a fabulous new crafts and fiber arts store. And guess what? It’s right in my own house! So convenient. No parking problems, no crowds.
I discovered it when I decided to move the guest bed out of our spare bedroom and into our downstairs storage area. (Which I did because my husband and I finally got around to cleaning out the storage area—another story.)
Of course, the empty space in the guest room just begged to (Continue Reading...)
Creating an Heirloom Quilt
This story is about a three-generation quilt that got created over time in a pretty unintentional way—it just happened. But there’s no time like the present to intentionally start an heirloom quilt. Perhaps after you read this piece, you’ll feel inspired to start making quilt blocks that will eventually become your own family’s heirloom. (Article originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle)
Three pairs of hands made my quilt—my grandmother’s, my mother’s, and mine. The quilt, a Dresden Plate, began (Continue Reading...)
