C&T Publishing Blog | Susanne Woods

Susanne is our Acquisitions Editor. She seeks out new talent, reviews book proposals, and is the first contact a lot of authors have when publishing a book at C&T. You can check out her personal blog at: www.beyondthekids.com

I have the coolest job I can think of! You know you hit the jackpot when you are getting paid for what you would be doing if you had spare time—reading blogs, looking through magazines, browsing bookshops and Amazon, attending craft fairs and quilt shows, looking for trends in the worlds of retail and fashion. I am always keeping my eyes open for new ideas and content to figure out a way to translate and identify trends. I also spend a lot of time developing books with our existing authors so they continue to publish with us as their career grows.

Excerpt from her interview at Sew, Mama, Sew!

Introducing Stash

March 4th, 2010 in Industry & News
By Susanne Woods

Do you remember my Dr. Seuss post back in October of last year when I said that I was working on some exciting new projects that I couldn’t tell you about until the Spring?

Well, Spring is almost officially sprung and everyone at C&T Publishing is excited to introduce Stash, our new line of how-to books celebrating fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle. If you’re craving beautiful authenticity in a time of mass-production…Stash is for you.

Officially, Stash is an imprint of C&T Publishing. What is an imprint, you say? I’ll try not to be too much of a publishing geek when I say…in book publishing, it is a way for a company to respond to the needs of a new or growing group of readers.

This imprint concept is very common in publishing but more easily understood in the automobile industry. For example, Toyota has their main Toyota cars but in recent years has launched Lexus and Scion to accommodate a variety of aesthetics. Similarly, Stash is a line of books that compliments the C&T list by providing content that accommodates the craft sewer.

A Great Way to Spend 30 Minutes: Secret Life of the Sewing Machine

February 19th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

I can’t be sure how I stumbled across this this fantastic series of videos on YouTube, but I am so glad I did. It may be the British side of me that loves this Monty Python mix of serious and fall-of-your-seat-funny comedy, but this is so worth spending 30 minutes with. You’ll laugh (even when I am not completely sure they intended laughter….with the young lady’s outfit in Part two, for example) and you’ll probably learn something new about your sewing machine. And so, I share the fun with all of you. The Secret Life of Sewing Machines….

And because I know you will want to watch the entire series, here are the links to Part 2 and Part 3.

Alissa Haight Carlton’s Modern Quilt Guild

February 16th, 2010 in Industry & News
By Susanne Woods

Alissa Haight Carlton, a soon-to-be C&T Publishing author, is at it again. Not content with merely working on her first book (along with co-author Kristen Lejinks) while hosting a quilt-along, while holding membership in a variety of block-swaps, and having a full-time job, Alissa is doing what she can to help spread the word about modern quilting. And C&T thinks she is doing a bang-up job!

After successfully starting her own local guild for L.A. area residents interested in modern quilts, Alissa has inspired many other modern quilt guilds to spring up around the globe. If you are interested in joining one, check out this link to TheModernQuiltGuild.com.

If you visit the site and find there isn’t a modern quilt guild in your area, use this resource for starting one yourself. The term ‘modern quilting’ is a tricky one to explain, so the group is inviting guild members to express what modern quilting means to them personally, and describe how it differs from contemporary, traditional, and art quilting.

Here at C&T Publishing, we encourage any and every type of quilting and are excited to see this growing quilting niche attract sewers and quilters, both new and experienced. If Alissa’s modern quilt guild looks like the aesthetic you are interested in and want to learn more about, then join (or start) a modern quilting group today!

Valentines Day Project: Love Notes Door Hanger

January 27th, 2010 in Projects, Sewing
By Susanne Woods

DSC00436-225x300 I put together a tutorial for a “love notes” door hanger on my blog and thought C&T blog readers might be interested in this fun and quick little project just in time for Valentine’s Day.

I re-purposed some discontinued fabric sample swatches from the furniture store my husband and I own to create this little pocketed note holder. I leave for work before anyone else in my family is awake so love notes are a nice way to connect without being there. I know my two pre-schoolers just love it…and I think my husband does too, because I always write a little love note to him as well.

Click here to automatically download the tutorial instructions.

Advice and Inspiration from Kathy Mack

December 10th, 2009 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

I have been an admirer of Kathy Mack from Pink Chalk Studio for ages now and am so impressed by her recent post on laminated cottons.

Photo courtesy of Kathy Mack

I have been so excited to use these but have been a little intimidated. Kathy saves me, and you some time with her tips and tricks at her blog.

From Anna Maria Horner

from Annette Tatum

I’m feeling a lot more confident about trying some of the laminated cottons now and see a coloring/painting table cloth in my near future.

Block Party!

October 29th, 2009 in Industry & News
By Susanne Woods

So, have you heard the news yet?

C&T is excited to announce an upcoming book with the popular online quilting bee, Block Party. The book won’t be out until Spring of 2011, but in the meantime Alissa Haight Carlton and Kristen Lejnieks are reformatting their quilting bee as a quilt-along and all of you can join in!

Alissa and Kristen have taken the classic quilting bee format and created a fresh, modern, online version with 10 other talented quilters: Mr. Monkeysuit, Oh, Fransson, i heart linen, Tallgrass Prarie Studio, Looking In, A Quilt is Nice, Dogged, 100% Philistine Made, PinkLemonadeBoutique, and Film in the Fridge.

You really need to take a look at their blogs – their work is just beautiful:

I’ll leave it to the Block Party gals to tell you all the details, but I will say we at C&T are so excited to be working with this amazing group. They have not only contributed a unique voice to the quilting community, but are an inspiring example of how to create a sense of community in this increasingly digital world. And they are fun!

A fantastic way to get involved in an online quilting bee of your own or to increase participation in one you are involved in is through exploring the resources in the Quilting Bee Blocks Group on Flickr. I am looking forward to seeing all the blocks you make!

A Note from Acquisitions

October 22nd, 2009 in Behind the Scenes
By Susanne Woods

When was the last time you read The Cat in the Hat? I think that my 4 year old can recite this entire book by heart. It’s his favorite.

I have been working on some wonderfully exciting new ventures here at C&T that I can’t wait to share with you in the new year. That’s the good news…no, that’s the great news! But I admit that lately I have felt like this:

If you have read The Cat in the Hat, you’ll remember that the page following the “balancing act” page above shows the children watching as everything crashes to the ground. The not so great news is that I have watched the red fan and the fish in a pot, the cake and maybe even the…well, you get the point, fall from their well balanced perches. Some of my more fundamental tasks as Acquisitions Editor here at C&T have played second fiddle and it has taken longer than usual to get submissions through our routing process here at C&T.

In the past few weeks I think I have tied up some loose ends with sincere apologies and promises of accelerated timelines, but if one of our readers out there is still waiting for an answer from me, please email me at susannew (at) ctpub (dot) com. I hate keeping you waiting because I know how brave you potential authors are for sending your proposals out into the internet ether and holding your breath. If you, or someone you know, is still holding their breath waiting for a response on a submitted proposal, get in touch with me. I’ve created a few new systems to ensure that this lag time doesn’t happen again and I will be updating the Submissions page on our website to provide a more concrete timeline and the names and contact details of a few of my acquisitions colleagues so that you have more than one person to go to with questions and for updates.

Like the The Cat in the Hat, I always clean up my messes. So drop me a line, give me a nudge and I’ll be right there. Thanks.

Sewing Snack Bags and Sandwich Wraps

October 21st, 2009 in Projects, Sewing
By Susanne Woods

Like most of us, I am trying my best to reduce, reuse and recycle. I felt guilty every time I pulled yet another paper towel off the roll to wrap my toasted breakfast in to transport off to work. So this weekend, I felt enough was enough and during nap time I sewed up a bunch of these cinch top snack bags and some sandwich bags!

4 cinch top snack bags

Fussy cut around a different fruit for each sack to make the tab top

My husband recommended a design for the sandwich/morning toasty bag and I faithfully executed a sandwich bag that was amazingly easy and the perfect size for a fat quarter.

4 sandwich bags-2 for me and 2 for my pre-schooler!

Instructions:

1. cut two rectangles 7 1/2″ x 18″

2. taper in the top about 1/2″ and a slight angle to the 3″ down mark so that the top of the bag slides nicely under the strap

3. Place a piece of 7 1/2″ ribbon or bias tape and position about 2″ from the bottom of the bag and pin to the right side of one of the fabrics.

4. With right sides together, stitch around the entire bag using a 1/4″ seam allowance and leaving a 3″ gap in the top to turn it right-side out.

5. Before turning, reach in and remove the pins that were holding the ribbon/bias tape in place, and trim the corners off a bit so that you have nice neat corners.

6. Turn inside out and push in the corners to make them nice and neat.

7. Fold up the bottom of the bag with your featured fabric and ribbon/bias tape on the outside by 4 1/2″ and pin into place.

8. Tuck in and pin the opening you used to turn the bag inside out closed and stitch around three sides of the bag starting at one of the bottom corners going up the longest length to the top of the bag, along the top (making sure you are successfully stitching the opening closed) and back down the other long side of the bag.

9. This stitching should be as close to the edge as you feel confident (I used 1/8″). You will be leaving the bottom of the bag unsewn.

10. Stitch two horizontal rows about 7 1/2″ from the top of the bag to indicate where the top should be folded down and tucked under the strap. I’m not so sure these stitched rows are totally functional. It does keep the bag from getting too..*ahem*… baggy though.

And that is it!

I’ll post a tutorial next week for the cinch top bag that I used to morph these three tea towels I found at a garage sale for $1 each as I used the same directions for the snack bags photographed above.

The post was updated on 10/28/09 with a correction to step 4

Garage Sale Find: Wool Thread

September 26th, 2009 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

Hurrah! A big box of wool thread all for $1.

See more Garage Sale Finds

Garage Sale Find: Framed Needlepoint

September 19th, 2009 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

Could not resist this lovely needlepoint. I think I like the old frame just as much as the needlepoint inside.
Garage sale price-$2!

See more Garage Sale Finds

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.