One of my Inchie Quilts called Where the Inchies Are appeared in Irish Quilting Magazine! Cool, right? Now take a look at the picture of the quilt in the magazine:(...)
Read the rest of A Touch o’ the Irish–Quilting, that is! (302 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post categories: Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Patterns, Quilting
Tags: Inchie Quilts, Inchies, Irish Quilting

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Early in the Inchie development process, I thought the whole concept would make a great book. It was new, it was different, and nobody was out there doing it already (that I knew of). The development process then was naturally geared toward writing a book, and therefore, I took photos of almost everything I did or made, knowing that if the book deal came through, I would need those photos for the technique portions of the book. Note taking was also profuse, so that I could write instructions for individual quilts without having to figure out measurements and such from finished quilts later.

When it came time to write the proposal, I downloaded the Book Proposal Guidelines from the AQS site. I read them dozens of times, and constructed my proposal to include exactly what they asked for plus a few extras that I thought were pertinent to the Inchies subject material. For example, I included the chapter called Basic Inchie Instructions in my proposal, with color photos and laid out exactly as I envisioned it would be in the book, because I wanted to be sure that the book committee would understand how easy it is to make Inchies.(...)
Read the rest of Want to Write a Quilt Book? (Part 2) (649 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post categories: Creativity, Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Quilting
Tags: AQS, Inchie Quilts, Inchies, publishing

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I love the AQS Publishing blog, and for more reasons than the above. For example, the post just after the one about Inchie Quilts says that Anita Shackelford’s book, Infinite Feathers has been reprinted, which is fantastic news since it’s the best book out there on feather quilting. Truly, the best book. I use mine all the time when I’m designing quilting designs like those I used on Material Marquetry, and it’s been one of the most used books in my library since I bought it.

Speaking of my library, I do still have The Library page on the site, even though it’s not really “findable” from anywhere but the sitemap. The Library pulls my quilting book titles from LibraryThing, a totally awesome and fun site where you can catalog your books, whether quilting titles or not. When I found LibraryThing, I cataloged all my quilting books (as well as the rest of the books in the house), tagged them by subject, and then life got in the way and I sort of forgot it was there most of the time.(...)
Read the rest of Bookish Things (368 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post categories: Favorite Things, Off the Bookshelf
Tags: Amazon AuthorCentral, Inchie Quilts, LibraryThing

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Of course, no story is complete around here unless it’s a long one, so you have to have the back story: I started dreaming about writing a quilt book way back in the late 1990s. I actually submitted a proposal to That Patchwork Place/Martingale Publishing in 1998, for a book about my Bargello Blocks technique. I waited a really long time to hear back from them (I didn’t have a clue, and I didn’t want to seem pushy), and finally learned by calling their offices that they had lost my proposal. They eventually found the quilt I submitted with the proposal in their offices somewhere, but the proposal itself never turned up. Discouraging, to say the least, and by that time (months had gone by) I was off in another quilting direction entirely.

I did eventually publish the Inspiration pattern (see quilt at right) through Cafe Press. Another interesting note: Last year a book was released by Krause Publications that’s essentially the same technique (from what I can tell by the cover anyway, you be the judge)(...)
Read the rest of Want to Write a Quilt Book? (Part 1) (680 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post categories: Creativity, Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Quilting, Shows & Contests
Tags: AQS, Inchie Quilts, Inchies, Off the Bookshelf, publishing

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Yipee!! The book is back from the printer and in the AQS warehouse, and much earlier than originally expected! I can now officially say that I’m a published author. WOW! That’s pretty cool, though it still seems a little unreal. Maybe when I actually have my hands on a copy, it will really sink in.

Inchie Quilts is available to order directly from AQS, or you can order it from me in about two weeks. I just ordered copies to be shipped to me, and they’ll take a week or two to arrive. I’ll be offering an introductory special on the Inchie Quilts book and InchieSee & InchieDo Viewer Tool and Ruler Set for just $35, more than 20% off the combined regular prices!

Since I’m here anyway, I’ll also tell you that one of my Inchie Quilts will be in the next issue of Irish Quilting, which should be on newstands in the first part of June. This is a quilt that is not in the book and the article features the quilt pattern and includes instructions to make Inchies! I’ll be sure to share pics when my copy of the magazine arrives. Well, there will be pictures of the book when it arrives as well! For now, it’s back to work writing Inchie workshop supply lists and handouts!

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments
Post categories: Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Quilting
Tags: AQS, Inchie Quilts, Inchies, InchieSee InchieDo, Irish Quilting

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Even without the picture of the cover, it’s still a pretty awesome feeling to see your own book listed at Amazon.com! This caused quite a stir in our house on Saturday morning! The book is also listed at the AQS site, in the Upcoming Releases section and on it’s own page, and you can actually see a picture there as well as a short description.

Now that the book is listed at the AQS site and the mother of all book shopping sites, my editor has given the go ahead and I can share the actual cover art and subject material with you! So, without further ado, I give you Inchie Quilts:

(...)
Read the rest of Coming Soon! Inchie Quilts (310 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 23 comments
Post categories: Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Quilting, Shows & Contests
Tags: cool tools, creative spirit, embellishments, Inchies, InchieSee InchieDo, quilt shows, show quilts, The Book

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The big news of the day: Elemental Changes: Color Play placed 4th in the 2009 New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest sponsored by the Museum of the American Quilters Society. This is the super-secret project from last year that I wasn’t talking about much because of this other super-duper-secret project that’s going on now (that I just might be able to talk about in a day or two if you want to stick around for that; well, I don’t mean “stick around” as in never leave the site for two days, but you get what I’m saying, right?). (...)
Read the rest of Burgoyne Surrounded–New Quilts from an Old Favorite Contest (411 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments
Post categories: Creativity, Featured, Off the Bookshelf, Quilting, Shows & Contests
Tags: beads, Burgoyne Surrounded, embellishments, Inchies, Velcro Fabric Fusions

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I tackled QNM first, and looked through every magazine page by page, but pretty quickly, and tore out interesting articles or pictures of quilts that I liked or that I thought were inspirational in technique, design or color usage. The pile dwindled to nothing much faster than I thought it would, so I continued on with the IQA Journal, which is pretty thin and usually doesn’t have much in it that’s very interesting except pictures of the winners from the show in Houston. I went through this entire stack:

And kept out only this small bit of articles and quilt pictures:

Hoo Ah! Then I was sitting here thinking that this couldn’t be all of the issues of QNM that I had, since I’ve been a subscriber for years off and on, but mostly on. I started looking around further and guess what I found? Lots more:

It still wasn’t too bad going through all that, and then I just kept going through all the rest, because it didn’t take that long and it was kinda fun anyway. Nearly all of my many pounds of back issues have been reduced to a stack that’s about 2¼” high. A couple of days later, I tackled the old Martha Stewart Living mags from at least 10 years ago that were still sitting here as well. Hoo Ah Hoo Ah!(...)
Read the rest of A New System for Magazines and Much Hoo Ah! (625 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post categories: Off the Bookshelf, Quilting, Tips
Tags: magazines, moving, organizing, quilt magazines

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I can’t imagine why I was keeping some of those sewing books! Like I’m ever going to need to use The Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing again! Not. Even when I was sewing clothing, I didn’t use the books much, since I know perfectly well how to put in a zipper, make button holes, etc. There’s an 18″ tall stack of quilting books leaving the house as well, most of which are at least 8-10 years old and I haven’t looked at them in years. Most of my book usage is confined to design books as opposed to pattern books these days, so there are many pattern books are hitting the road. Anybody need some books?(...)
Read the rest of Quilting books for sale! (173 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post categories: Off the Bookshelf, Quilting
Tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I’m sure that I’m totally behind all of you quilters who live in the States, since your LQS probably had this book quite some time ago (like years, right?), but I finally got my hands on this book! Help! I Married a Quilter by Mark Hyland is a hilarious look at The Quilter’s life from the poor, put upon husband’s point of view. A friend from the quilt guild shared her (husband’s) copy with me last summer, and I thought I’d order it for my husband for Christmas, and then I forgot (my bad ). Hey, better late than never, right?

When my (husband’s) copy arrived in the mail, I put it on the table next to his place so he’d see it and he could read it. I mean, I was trying to help him out, see? There it sat, for days. I finally decided I’d read the dang thing myself, since the bits I’d seen last summer were roll-on-the-floor funny. Mark Hyland has been married to The Quilter for 17 years (at time of writing), so he’s had quite a bit of experience with things like The Stash, Block-of-the-Month quilts, monthly quilt meetings, hauling bolts of fabric to the cutting table at the quilt shop, visiting quilt shops while on “vacation,” etc. He exposes Quilters’ quirks and our secret language, and what it’s really like to live with a Quilter.

He thinks he’s got a lot of it all figured out, but I note that having it figured out hasn’t helped him much. He draws on his experience as The Quilter’s spouse to create this definitive reference guide for spouses of Quilters, imparting words of wisdom and tips and tricks for preventing quilting from completely taking over the house and life, and a quiz to determine if it’s already to late and the spouse is a “GONER.”

After I devoured the book and laughed myself silly, I decided that the reason ITMan hadn’t bothered to pick up the book and read it was that he could already tell (without taking the quiz and seeing the points add up and break the scale) that it’s much too late for prevention. In fact it’s been too late for years, and he’s already a GONER.

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment
Post categories: Off the Bookshelf, Quilting
Tags: fun, just life

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh