Paradise Stitched
Sylvia Pippen
C&T Publishing; $29.95

Sylvia Pippen was introduced to Sashiko, the art form practiced in Japan for centuries, by her mother, who was raised in China. Shasiko, which means “little stabs” in Japanese is a running stitch done in white thread on indigo fabric. Today Sylvia uses Shasiko and adds appliqué designs to complement the traditional designs. In this book she suggests using a variety of applique techniques, including her favorite, which is the press-over heat-resistant Mylar method that allows her to form crisp intricate pieces. Once you’ve learned both the appliqué and Sashiko technique, Sylvia offers six projects that combine the two plus embroidery.The book includes a nice gallery of work and full-size pull-out patterns. A plus is Sylvia’s discussion on choosing fabric; she includes photos of a variety of fabrics and shows you exactly where to cut to get the right shading and light for your pieces.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

By Kim Schaefer
C&T Publishing; $19.95

This collection of 23 easy, pieced contemporary quilts, table runners and placemats is designed to make a dent in your stash. The blocks, all squares and strips, feature quick rotary cutting and straight-line piecing, perfect for the beginning quilter. While the blocks are really simple, the results do look more complicated and have a wonderful visual impact. The color palettes used also would be great if you are looking for a project for a man. I plan to hit my stash and piece a couple of tops.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Quilt This!
Lynda Smith
American Quilter’s Society; $24.95

We’ve come a long way since the days of “quilt as desired” with no idea for patterns. In this wide format book, Lynda Smith offers more than 80 quilting motifs suitable for both machine and hand quilting. The designs are sorted into four categories: gardens and woods; swirls and curls, motifs and other stuff; and children and playtime. You’ll find patterns that range from elegant swirls to whimsical ducks in waves. The designs can be used as is or as a starting point to enlarge or reduce, combine and adapt.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Pretty Little Mini Quilts
ed. Ray Hemachandra
Lark Books; $17.95

Part of Lark’s Pretty Little series, Pretty Little Mini Quilts features 31 projects made by 25 artists. (You’ll recognize lots of the names, including Sarah Ann Smith, Jamie Fingal and Andi Stern.) The projects range from machine and hand quilting to embroidery and trapunto to fusing and embellishment to piecing and painted surfaces. You’ll find traditional and contemporary pieces, none larger than three feet. I like books that introduce a variety of techniques, and you’re sure to find a new technique to add to your toolbox.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Beautiful Alphabet Appliqué
Zena Thorpe
American Quilter’s Society; $22.95

If you’ve seen any of Zena Thorpe’s quilts, you know what a master with the needle she is. Her quilts have won numerous top awards and she was inducted in the Master Quilters Guild, part of the National Quilting Association. Zena has long been fascinated with illuminated letters originally produced by monastic scribes and the letters began to find their way into her work. In 2008 she began showing “Illuminated Alphabet,” which features the 26 letters of the alphabet plus four corner appliqué blocks. You can recreate her quilt or use the letters to create individual wall hangings words of your choosing.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Intuitive Color & Design
Jean Wells
C&T Publishing; $27.95

After quilting, teaching and running a shop for more than 33 years, Jean Wells decided she wanted to work more intuitively and create abstract designs. Her initial work with Nancy Crow started her on a wonderful path of exploration that she now shares with others. If you’ve not a class from Jean, this book is your chance to learn from her. To start with she suggests you really learn to see what’s around you and keep a journal. She includes a variety of exercises to help you develop your use of color, design and piecing with such assignments as intuitive angle piecing, proportion, and color and value. Doing the exercises will make you a better quilter, whether you stick with traditional quilts or make art quilts.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Skinny Quilts and Table Runners II
Eleanor Levie
Martingale & Co.; $26.99

If you liked Skinny Quilts and Table Runners, you’ll love Skinny Quilts and Table Runners II. This collection of 15 designs lets you try out a signature style from a collection of celebrated quilters. You’ll tackle “tops” and “tails,” Judy Hooworth’s method of creating two blocks from the same strip set; Sue Benner’s circular petal designs; Melinda Bula’s raw-edge appliqué; and Sue Spargo’s folk art inspired by an Asian rug, colors of the African bushveld and the rolling hills of England. The skinny quilts are a great way to do a test run of a new technique.

If you’d like to add this to your library or purchase it as a gift, here’s a link.

The Fall issue of The Professional Quilter includes a profile of Shelly Stokes, owner of Cedar Canyon Textiles, distributor of Shiva Paintstiks and related products. Here’s an excerpt from the profile in Shelly’s own words:

The Shiva paint company attempted to bring the paintstiks into the quilting world in the 1980s. However, the rotary cutter hit the market at the same time, and everyone wanted to strip-piece quilts rather than paint fabric, at least here in the United States; the fiber artists in the United Kingdom started working with paintstiks around that time and so have more years of experience with them.

After working with paintstiks for a while, I decided to write a book – the right product at the right time. I think it’s fair to say that I have done much of the work to make the product visible in the quilting market in the last few years, particularly here in the United States, but I am certainly not the first one to “discover” the product and its wonderful application on fabric.

Before I started working on the book in earnest, I went to visit Jack Richeson and Company to make sure that their wonderful paintstiks would be readily available to my customers. The Richesons supported my idea, and in 2004, Cedar Canyon Textiles became an official distributor for the paintstik products.

It took almost nine months of hard work, but my book was ready in May of 2005. Once a good set of instructions was available, the market for paint expanded dramatically. As it became clear that the paint was going to dominate our business, I had a hard choice to make: grow a business or continue to teach and create art. Because I had been away from the day-to-day job market for ten years, the business was very appealing. I’ll get back to more of my own quilting in my next round of “retirement.” We did the last of our retail shows in 2005 and made the transition to our new identity as the Paintstik Place.

In life and in business, one thing leads to another. As the fiber art and quilting world embraced the paintstiks, we saw the opportunity to venture into accessory products. In 2006, we manufactured four sets of rubbing plates for use with the paintstiks and started a pattern line in 2007.

To read more of Shelly’s story along with her business tips in Issue 109 of The Professional Quilter, your subscription or membership in the IAPQ must be current. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here