Quilts From the Selvage Edge
Karen Griska
American Quilt Society; $19.95

Who would have thought all those selvages tossed in the trash could make such beautiful quilts? Karen Griska takes the selvages, sews them to muslin foundations and them cuts them to size as squares, strips or riangles and creates quilts. They are fun and folksy, andn I know I won’t look at selvages the same way again.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

A Quilter’s Diary
Mimi Dietrich
That Patchwork Place

Have you ever wanted to chronicle your life in a quilt? That’s exactly what Mimi Dietrich did in her 25-block sampler quilt. Mimi shows you how to use simple pieced and appliqué blocks to create a diary quilt. Break your life into 5- to 10-year segments and then select from more than 150 pieced and appliquéd blocks to tell the story. To guide you, Mimi has inspiring questions and themes to consider. To finish her quilt, Mimi created a label with a legend to the quilt, tracing each traditional block to the story on the quilt. This is a fun and creative way to savor parts of your or someone else’s life.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
Joshilyn Jackson
Grand Central Publishing; $23.99

If you are looking for a good summer read, look no further. The book’s protagonist, Laurel Gray Hawthorne, is an art quilter, wife and mother living in a quiet Florida suburb. At the beginning of the novel, her orderly life is upset when the ghost of her 14-year-old neighbor, Molly Defresne, visits her. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, who has drowned in Laurel’s family pool. What ensues is a good Southern mystery, full of quirky and endearing characters, dark family secrets and a life-altering journey as Laurel with the help of her sister, Thalia, try to uncover the reason for the drowning. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming was a “page-turner” and the characters stayed with me long after I finished it. This is the author’s third book (and I’ve picked up the other two to read this summer).
Why, you might wonder, did the author make her protagonist an art quilter? Joshilyn Jackson says that she felt a “fierce need to hand sew quilts” during her two pregnancies, but discovered she had “ZERO talent for quilt making.” But her desire to make art quilts led her to study them, and she discovered the work of art quilter Pamela Allen. She then spent seven years thinking about writing about an art quilter. In the course of the book, Laurel creates a quilt and last year the author commissioned Pamela to create that quilt.

Shifting Perspective
Lorraine Torrance
C&T Publishing; $27.95

For traditional block quilters interested in breaking away from tradition, Lorraine Torrence shares her concept sparked by the use of the Fresnel lens. Also known as the Multi-View lens, the lens multiplies your original block into many smaller blocks and each is shifted slightly, i.e., the perspective shifts. By using either a traditional block design or one you create, you will end up with an original quilt design. The book includes a Multi-View lens so you can get started right away.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.