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.
Ruthmary Schauer
Kim Schaefer’s Skinny Quilts—with a giveaway!
I’m always excited when we have a new Kim Schaefer book released, because her designs just make me happy. They look more complicated than they really are, since Kim knows how to design with multiples of the same image and she uses standard shapes, but in interesting configurations. I especially love the color and fabric combinations she uses in her latest book, Kim Schaefer’s Skinny Quilts.
Like a lot of quilters, I have many warm, wonderful quilts for all the beds (Continue Reading...)
Evolution of a quilt
In 2006, my sister Paula (who lives in Colorado and knows what a Francophile I am) made a beautiful over-sized lap quilt for me. Well, she made the top. I have a Nolting longarm machine, so she makes finished quilts for everyone else in the family, but she send me TOPS which I then have to finish myself! I’m NOT complaining though. Paula had used a variety of star patterns, in sizes that were multiples of 3″ and (Continue Reading...)
Nothing gets wasted!
I have bags of strips from old projects that I think I’ll use for scrap log cabin blocks, and sacks with batting pieces I’m convinced I can use for hot pads, and bins full of 2-1/2″ squares I can’t bear to toss. I even have a jar with rolled up selvages.
Then I found that my coworker Mary also likes selvage edges, so I used some to upcycle an old canvas tote for her (which has since become Mary’s young daughter’s (Continue Reading...)
Giveaway—Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers
My friend Patty had recently sorted, folded and stacked most of my fabric, and I was able to see what a lot of rich, jewel-toned yardage I have. So I was looking for a project that would use some of my large stash of colors, in a somewhat monochromatic theme.
I found more than one gorgeous quilt to make in our new book, Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers by Amy Walsh and Janine Burke.
This book showcases ten new colorful quilt projects that are (Continue Reading...)
Squares with charm
I realized I had a pretty big assortment of charm squares, from numerous packets I’ve accumulated at fabric trades and give-aways here at C&T or bought at quilt shops and shows. These 5” squares are a great way to sample fabric lines.
Sorting out squares with similar colors or designs, and finding I had 220 of them, I tried to think of a creative way to combine them with something in my over-the-top stash.
I remembered a wonderful quilt on (Continue Reading...)
Soft tile trivets inspired by Tile Quilt Revival
During our last series of Craft Camps here at C&T (whereby we take turns teaching and making wonderful things using new products and books, or playing with new twists on older titles) I taught a version of a soft trivet that won’t scratch or burn your table, using the fabulous designs in Tile Quilt Revival by Carol Gillham Jones & Bobbi Finley, and our fantastic Insul-Fleece®.
We took over the conference room to make some resized Birds in the Branches and All (Continue Reading...)
Orphan Blocks
My studio space seems to have become a repository for orphan blocks. You know, the five extra blocks you had from making a quilt that needed 40 blocks, but somehow made 45. Or the myriad ones you end up with after practicing a new technique and then deciding to focus your efforts elsewhere.
My sister in Colorado (Paula, the one who quilts) recently sent me 12 wonderful, 4 1/2″ batik block leftovers from a wall-hanging and a table runner she made. The (Continue Reading...)
Valentine’s Day Lavender Sachets
Armida, a friend, member of the Creative Troupe, and a member of a quilt group I have been meeting with since 1996, made all of us in the quilt group these lovely homegrown lavender sachets for Valentine’s Day. She used a pattern by Carol Doak.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
A tool for all trades?
When developing a new product, we are sometimes left with trial pieces that didn’t pass muster.
Alex Anderson’s 4-in-1 Essential Sewing Tool was a good example of this, because it had to be shaped and glued and pieced and capped just right. Wood parts can change with humidity and other factors.
But waste not, want not…so I offered some of the not-so-perfect tools to a ceramics class that is held in Bolinas, California.
In some cases, the caps were stuck too tightly to (Continue Reading...)
Our warehouse – always on the move!
After all the excitement of starting a new book—working though all the projects with an author, getting the instructions and design just right, figuring out how and where to promote and sell it—I bet you think the job of “publishing” is all done right there.
Not so fast! Come rain or shine, in very hot weather or extreme cold, our warehouse crew is the key element for finally getting the books and other products C&T makes into the hands of quilters, (Continue Reading...)
