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.
Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 & Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts Giveaway
When I first started working on our books focusing on inkjet printing on fabric, I found out about this really great software called Kaleidoscope Kreator*. Over the years they have come out with new and improved versions. It’s great for printing on fabric or paper, and there are template packs, and project CDs as well. I started using it to make clocks.
I’m really impressed with their latest release, and have been having a great time with it. They have very (Continue Reading...)
Collage + Cloth = Quilt
Earlier this year I had a chance to sit in on one of Judi Warren Blaydon’s workshops while I was in the process of editing her new book Collage + Cloth = Quilt. The book (and her workshop) features a unique way for you to use your own photos to create a collage which is then translated into fabric. The book is just luscious to look at, and the process is clearly explained with lots of photos. And there is (Continue Reading...)
Greening the Office with Ready-to-Go Petal Pots
A while back, I decorated some Ready-to-Go!® Blank Board Decor Petal Pots. While looking around the office for something to put a new spider plant in, I remembered the pots. The outside of the pot is covered with tissue paper adhered with Liquitex® Matte Gel Medium and highlighted with gold Paintstik. The decoration is lace that has been painted with several colors of Liquitex soft body acrylic paint.
With a plastic liner, it’s perfect.
Prairie Dogging
In some offices, when heads start popping up in cubicles it’s called prairie dogging—you know, those cute little critters that are known for poking their little heads up from their burrows to see what’s going on.
At C&T it’s called Show & Tell. A while back, Editor Liz Aneloski was admiring some items she had received from a manufacturer to photograph for an upcoming book, so of course our heads went poking up from our desks to see what she was (Continue Reading...)
Felted Happy Healthy Cells Project
A while back, the quilting community received news that Yvonne Porcella was being treated for ovarian cancer. Many quilters have sent and are continuing to send Yvonne their best wishes. Several local (to C&T) organizations, the Women’s Cancer Resource Center and East Bay Heritage Quilters (EBHQ) got together to make “Happy Healthy Cells” for Yvonne. Most of the cells were made of felt and featured colorful felt and stitched embellishments. Instead of stitching the cells together, these were left unattached (Continue Reading...)
More Cool Knit Socks
Not mine this time ( I can’t do such fancy socks), but they do use yarn that I dyed. They were knit by Nanette Zeller, the whole story is on her blog. It’s a great story about her ingenious solution to not having enough yarn.
Embellishing a Sketchbook with Felted Wool
I sign up for guild workshops because (a) when I was the workshop co-chair I arranged for workshops with people I wanted to take a class from, and (b) the workshops are always a great deal. When Mary Stori came to the quild, I signed up for the workshop, not knowing what I wanted to make in the class.
Mary’s book Embellishing with Felted Wool had recently come out, and that was the subject of the workshop. I decided to make (Continue Reading...)
C&T Authors at Local Quilt Show
One of the things I really like about the guild that I’m in (EBHQ – East Bay Heritage Quilters), is that the membership is very diverse—from beginning quilters to those who have been quilting for decades. The membership also includes a number of authors, including some who publish with C&T.
The guild recently held its every-other-year quilt show. There were several hundred quilts made by members, a special exhibit of award winning quilts made by members, vendors, a special kids exhibit, (Continue Reading...)
Fabric Leftover Notebook Cover
Okay, here’s today’s question–What is the item pictured at left? Give up? It’s a notebook cover made from leftover strips of fabric and rug weaving canvas.
A few years ago we published a book called Fabric Leftovers by D’Arcy-Jean Milne. It’s all about creative ways to use up scraps and this is one of my favorite techniques.
My cover is woven using fabric and leftover bits of decorative yarn. I cut the rug canvas about 1″ bigger that the height of the (Continue Reading...)
My Unnamed Triptych
A few months ago, I took a workshop from Laura Cater-Woods called Off the Wall and Onto the Page. The idea is to create a set of panels that can sit on a tabletop, rather than hang on the wall.
Even though my creation is still hanging on the wall, I had a great time making it. Each panel is about 6” x 8” and is made of 2 layers of fast2fuse. I started by ironing a piece of hand-painted fabric (Continue Reading...)
