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.
Category Archives: Inspiration
Meet Allie Aller!
Let’s get to know the author of Allie Aller’s Crazy Quilting a bit better, shall we?
What was your career prior to being an artist?
This sounds weird, but my husband and I were commercial dairy farmers. After 10 years, we sold the farm and he went on to become an airline pilot while I became a stay-at-home mom. The long years when he was away for four days of each week gave me a huge amount of time to devote to quilting. (Continue Reading...)
Painting on Lutradur
Last week I taught a class on working with Lutradur® Mixed Media Sheets at Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster, CA. Everyone had a great time painting on Lutradur with Liquitex® Professional Acrylic inks!™ and Derwent Inktense Blocks. I just wanted to share some of their work with you.
What do I love most about using these particular mediums on this particular surface? The beautiful, intense colors you can get with water-based techniques, and how the colors can bleed and blend along Lutradur’s (Continue Reading...)
New life for orphan quilt blocks
Quite a few years ago, I took a design/improvisational piecing workshop presented by my guild. I made these three blocks, which have been sitting in my “I don’t know what to do with these” drawer since I made them. While editing Rayna Gillman’s book, Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, I started thinking about applying her process to these blocks. I sliced them up and started adding in other fabrics, following her “don’t think, just sew” advice. All of the piecing was improvisational, (Continue Reading...)
Getting our craft on at CHA!
I’m visiting the Craft & Hobby Association’s Winter Conference and Trade Show this week and there’s so much to see and do! Connecting in person with so many designers, resellers, and manufacturing colleagues is always such a treat. This show just oozes creativity and inspiration—from sewing to quilting to knitting to papercrafts to scrapbooking to mixed media to kids’ crafts—there is something here for everyone.
Rebekah Meier and I demo-ed at the R&M Distributors booth, showing off a very cool new art (Continue Reading...)
Quilt for a friend
We had an occasion to commemorate—Carolyn was retiring from C&T! Well, not retiring exactly; more like transitioning into retirement. She went from being a very-valued full-time employee to a very-valued freelancer. But we were going to miss seeing her in the office every day. She’d worked for C&T for 13 years and was a great resource as she knew everything a technical editor needed to know, plus some. Carolyn is the type of person who is (Continue Reading...)
A chat with Lynda and Nancy from Possibilities
Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan began their business together in 1981. Their venture began with a successful retail store, The Great American Quilt Factory, then branched out to online sales, to book and pattern publishing under the Possibilities name, to designing fabrics, to making television appearances…they are two busy women! Their new pattern pack with C&T was released last fall, Heartwarming Possibilities—4 Quilt Projects to Celebrate Family & Friends. Let’s get to know them each a little better, shall we?
When was (Continue Reading...)
Fabric give away and a little blog hop
Fantastic fat quarters up for grabs! We’re giving away one of these Artisan Batiks fat quarter bundles from our friends at Robert Kaufman Fabrics to two lucky winners. To get you inspired, here’s a fun blog hop filled with fat-quarter-friendly project ideas from lots of great designers!
To Wear…
A new apron - you’d look great in this, you know you would.
How about a headband - quite stylish and easy to match to your wardrobe.
Don’t you just love this handbag by Jennifer Ladd?
To organize…
This trim (Continue Reading...)
A chat with Mickey Lawler
Let’s get to know Mickey, author of Mickey Lawler’s SkyQuilts!
What was your career prior to being an artist?
Wow, that’s going back a long way! I have been an artist/designer for the past 38 years. At one point in my young life, I was a high school English teacher and enjoyed it very much at the time.
Tell us about your first experience as an artist.
I was 8 years old. My mother asked me to “go upstairs and draw” my bath – (Continue Reading...)
My new favorite pens—plus a giveaway!
We just released a really cool new product – the Faber-Castell Quilter’s Pen Set, inspired by Paula Nadelstern. This is the ultimate set of three essential marking pens with quilters’ needs in mind!
Paula uses these pens for marking her kaleidoscope designs onto templates and fabric. You’ll see how she does this in Kaleidoscope Quilts—The Workbook.
The perfect pen really does help make the process of designing quilt blocks, appliqué elements, and fussy cutting so much easier!
The Quilter’s Pen Set comes (Continue Reading...)
An interview with Peggy Martin
We’d love for you to get to know Peggy Martin, author of Paper Piece the Quick-Strip Way. Peggy’s strip paper-piecing technique turns out gorgeous stars, circles, and borders. Click here to watch a video clip of her demonstration in one of our spring 2011 webcasts.
What inspired you to start a career as a quilter?
I have a true obsession with quilting, and I greatly enjoy teaching other people and making that connection with students. It’s wonderful to be able to travel (Continue Reading...)
