New Book

I was flattered, yet surprised, when Rayna Gillman asked for one of my quilts to be used in her new book. I had always thought that Rayna was all about surface design and I am mostly about piecing. Well, I received my copy of her book in the mail yesterday and, who knew, we are doing a lot of the same thing.

Her latest book is mostly about using strip piecing to make improvisational, free-form original quilts. She uses a lot of scraps and left-overs and puts them together in new and exciting ways.

She offers many suggestions with great photos and clear, concise directions. She works with "units", much as I do, although hers are more spontaneous looking than mine.

That's my quilt, Spring Thaw, on the left, with my skinny, wiggly piecing used with some of my snow dyes.

I was also amused by how serendipitous it was. I belong to FANE, an art quilt group led by Jane Davila. We have put on two shows at a local library gallery and have published books of each show. This year Jane thought it would be a great idea if we also had tutorials in the book of some technique used in our quilt. I chose skinny wiggly piecing and had just finished all the writing and making the step-outs. It was lot of work just for that one little tutorial and it gave me an even greater respect for those who write books. I had "Spring Thaw" spread out on my worktable to remind me of how I did those strips. So when Rayna's book arrived with a similar technique and my same quilt, I had to chuckle.

After reading her book, I have a lot new ideas and inspiration for using my strips in different ways and maybe loosening up a little in my approach. It's a great book that would be a welcome addition to any quilt book library and it's available at Amazon.

I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know that I have a lot for which to be grateful. I usually spend the day at my niece's home, but a wedding got in the way and I was delighted to receive an invite from a friend. I don't have to be there until 5PM, which gives me all day to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, make the one side that I am contributing to the feast, write my blog and now go off and sew some more wiggly skinny strips. Life is good!