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: Staff Pick
Christmas Cuteness on sale!!
Now’s the time to make some adorable holiday projects to decorate your home and give as gifts. And now is the time to get the how-to help on the cheap!
This book has plenty of easy fabric projects that you and your family will have tons of fun making – and this week it’s priced at half-off—only $8.78. The set of matching plastic templates for the gingerbread house and sleigh is also on sale—only $5.oo.
Order yours now – these special prices (Continue Reading...)
Fearless Design: Even for Me!
I was looking through some of our recent releases and my eyes fell upon Fearless Design for Every Quilter by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills. Every quilter, hmm, I’m a quilter. . . . So I picked the book up and began reading it.
Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs from Carol Armstrong
Have you seen the book Best in Show: 24 Appliqué Quilts for Dog Lovers by Carol Armstrong? The dogs in it are sooooo realistic. I can’t wait to make one. Here’s a picture of Carol’s appliquéd collie and my collie, Jade. They’re practically identical.
There are plenty of other dogs in the book: corgis and shih tzus and retrievers and . . . . 22 breeds in all. You’re sure to find your dog or a dog you love!
Piecing Made Easy with Piece O’ Cake
Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins’ Piecing the Piece O’ Cake Way is a great reference book that all quilters should have in their library.
The book is especially valuable for inexperienced quilters, but I have been quilting for 20 years, and I found a lot of information that can improve my quiltmaking skills. The book is divided into chapters that teach all the basics from sewing strips and squares to dealing with curves and diamonds. The best part for me is (Continue Reading...)
My First Encounter with Photo Editing Software
I have always wanted to learn how to use photo-editing software given that my picture-taking skills could use some help. Plus, I have some vintage photos of various loved relatives and it would mean a lot to me to clean them up and make copies for my kids and my brothers and sister. Well, one of the best things about working at C&T is the variety of artistic techniques in our books that I get to be involved with daily. (Continue Reading...)
Author Design Tip: Katie Pasquini Masopust
As a designer, reading about design in relation to quilting is interesting. I recently picked up Katie Pasquini Masopust’s book, Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter. There were a lot of great ideas for creative inspiration, composition and color themes. I found a technique that I learned in photography but used in a different way for quilting. I thought this was so cool.
These are her basic instructions: Start with a photo of a landscape, animals, buildings, plants. Use an empty (Continue Reading...)
Author Design Tip: Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills
Today I was looking at Fearless Design for Every Quilter by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills. This is a book that you’ll want to read cover to cover. This book teaches you how to improve your work by sharing insights in critique groups. Critiquing can be difficult both for the person critiquing and for the person receiving the feedback. The way the authors teach you about creativity and critiquing makes interesting reading. The authors set up 10 exercises or (Continue Reading...)
Ruler, Ruler, Who’s Got a Ruler?
There are so many rotary cutting rulers out there, it can be hard to choose. A while back, I received several rulers from OLFA, and I have to say they’ve become my go-to rulers.
They are called Frosted Advantage. And the frosted back does two things:
It makes them non-slip, but still easy to move and position on the fabric. It’s easy to see the markings on all types of fabric.I still have and use other rulers, but these OLFA Frosted Advantage are (Continue Reading...)
Charlotte Ziebarth’s Artistic Photo Quilts
I so admire the imagery in Charlotte Ziebarth’s new book Artistic Photo Quilts. She has a wonderful eye for color and composition. She says that “There are many useful design principles listed in art books: rhythm, balance, unity, and so on. I have found the three that were taught to me by my friend, mentor, and art professor, Helen B. Davis, to be very useful and simple to remember: Simplify, Exaggerate, and Repeat.” Charlotte uses those principles to stunning effect.
Loosening up with Piece O’ Cake Designs
I’ve been editing the Piece O’ Cake books ever since Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins became C&T authors so I know their work really well. I’m really excited about their new book Applique Outside the Lines.
It presents a new approach–more spontaneous and improvisational–and the quilts are fabulous. As Becky says in the book about making her first improvisational quilt:
In making this quilt I realized that I am so used to following my pattern that not doing that was hard. But (Continue Reading...)
