Unlock the secrets to gorgeous, expressive, unforgettable color! Finding color combinations that not only work but excite the eye is one of the greatest challenges artists face. This updated and expanded 30th anniversary edition of the North Light classic Exploring Color teaches artists of all mediums and skill levels how to use and control color in their artwork and shows how exhilarating and enjoyable the ride can be. Popular art instructor and best-selling author Nita Leland will help you take any artwork you make to new color heights. Memorable paintings from more than 30 contributing artists are inside towill inspire you, along with 75+ hands-on exercises, 8 step-by-step demonstrations and countless nuggets of color knowledge--all in your own private workshop! Learn how to master color mixing, assemble the perfect palette for your artistic goals, select just the right color scheme, and communicate color in a way that elevates your designs way beyond the ordinary. Start a handy journal to keep track of your discoveries, with customized mixtures, color wheels, reference charts and other tools designed to uncover your color personality and help you work with color more efficiently. Nita knows that the quest for perfect color can be fun, and it can be yours. So stop guessing, and start exploring! "Beautiful color is no happy accident. Color can be learned." --Nita Leland

From two pioneers of today's modern quilting movement, Quilting Modern teaches quilters how to use improvisational techniques to make graphic, contemporary quilts and quilted projects. Explore seven core techniques and multiple projects using each technique--all presented with detailed instructions. Also included is step-by-step direction from Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen on tools, materials, and quilting basics, as well as expert advice on color and design. New and seasoned quilting artists will love making stunning bed, wall hanging, pillowcase, and table accessory quilts with this must-have resource. Quilting Modern is a field guide for quilters who strive to break free from tradition and yearn to explore improvisational work. Quilters can make the 21 projects in the book, but will also come away with the new knowledge and skills to apply to their own unique designs. In Quilting Modern, quilters will find the support, structure, and encouragement they need to explore their own creativity and artistic vision.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quiltingprovides step-by-step instructions for the different quilting styles-from applique to patchwork. It also includes- The updated edition of an already popular book, now in the over-sized Illustrated format. Includes more than 200 photographs and helpful line drawings. All new patterns, plus a new 16-page color insert (20-25 color photos). Step-by-step directions help even beginners learn to quilt more easily.

You’ve got something unique to tell the world. What better way to get your message across than sewing your words into a quilt? Fiber artist and quilt designer Sam Hunter teaches you to say it all with 12 new projects featuring modern, paper-pieced text blocks. The book includes patterns of an easy-to-read font that includes lower- and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Sam covers everything you need to know about paper piecing, choosing fabrics, and designing your own quilted words. Use Sam’s designs to get started, and then stitch up your own words to give any occasion the ultimate personal touch.

Be Inspired by the Stories The 1922, The Farmer's Wife magazine posed this question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" The magazine at the time had 750,000 subscribers, and received over 7,000 letters. The best answers to this question are included in this book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired. Laurie Aaron Hird provides everything you need to be inspired and create your own sampler quilt: • 111 six-inch quilt blocks, with assembly diagrams for piecing the blocks and template cutting directions • Complete instruction for making a sampler quilt in any traditional size: lap, twin, queen or king • Download access to easy-to-print, full-sized templates for all 111 blocks, and printable quilt construction diagrams • 42 letters from the 1922 Farmer's Wife contest to give you a priceless glimpse into our country's past

"Printing your own fabric opens up an entire new world of design, especially for quilters, sewists, and other textile artists. Until now, the process of printing with dyes could seem difficult to learn and even harder to implement. But Carol Soderlund and Melanie Testa have taken all the stumbling blocks out of the way of would-be fabric dyers and printers. With step by step advice, instruction, and photographs, this book is a master class in using dyes and low-tech equipment to print your own fabric, and it begins at the beginning. If you've never handled dyes before, never designed your own print motifs, aren't even sure what supplies or space you might need, everything you want to know is here. More advanced students will value the in-depth presentation of techniques, tools, and insights into approaching fabric printing as an art and taking your work to the next level. The opportunities for fun creative expression and producing your most original and exciting fabric work ever are unlimited with Carol and Melanie's friendly help. It's time to try playful fabric printing!" -- Provided by publisher

Master the precision and attention to detail needed for quilts—in sizes small, smaller, and smallest! In this book, author Donna Lynn Thomas teaches you the skills you need to create accurately pieced quilts in miniature. Choosing fabrics (with emphasis on print size), cutting (with emphasis on accuracy), sewing (with techniques for how to sew small pieces and tiny half-square triangles), pressing, and finishing are all covered in depth. Build your confidence and skills at your own pace with easy-to-follow instructions and a progression of twelve main projects, from easier to more challenging. Plus, each project comes in up to three sizes, so you can choose how small you want to go!

More than 28,000 quilters have sewn along with the Splendid Sampler community online. Now Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson return with 100 all-new block patterns to inspire quilters all over the world, all over again! Choose blocks designed by Pat and Jane plus superstar quilters Lissa Alexander, Carrie Nelson, Jenny Doan, Susan Ache, Betsy Chutchian, and many more. Blocks made with patchwork, applique, embroidery, and paper piecing provide plenty of opportunities to try new techniques. You'll discover fun ideas for arranging your blocks in a gallery of sampler quilts. Share your progress online and experience the joys of quilting with this "Splendid" community of quilters!

Featuring real-life letters from The Farmer's Wife magazine, Laurie Aaron Hird's new book commemorates the strength and hope of the farm women of the Great Depression. The 99-block queen-size sampler quilt inspired by these letters uses reproduction 1930s fabrics. For each block, instructions are provided for template piecing, and--where applicable--rotary cutting, so readers can piece the blocks based on their preferred technique. Now updated with links to ready-to-print pdfs of the patterns featured in the book

Men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks-the ancestors of Google and blogging. From Abraham Lincoln to Susan B. Anthony, African American janitors to farmwomen, abolitionists to Confederates, people cut out and pasted down their reading. Writing with Scissors opens a new window into the feelings and thoughts of ordinary and extraordinary Americans. Like us, nineteenth-century readers spoke back to the media, and treasured what mattered to them. In this groundbreaking book, Ellen Gruber Garvey reveals a previously unexplored layer of American popular culture, where the proliferating cheap press touched the lives of activists and mourning parents, and all who yearned for a place in history. Scrapbook makers documented their feelings about momentous public events such as living through the Civil War, mediated through the newspapers. African Americans and women's rights activists collected, concentrated, and critiqued accounts from a press that they did not control to create "unwritten histories" in books they wrote with scissors. Whether scrapbook makers pasted their clippings into blank books, sermon collections, or the pre-gummed scrapbook that Mark Twain invented, they claimed ownership of their reading. They created their own democratic archives. Writing with Scissors argues that people have long had a strong personal relationship to media. Like newspaper editors who enthusiastically "scissorized" and reprinted attractive items from other newspapers, scrapbook makers passed their reading along to family and community. This book explains how their scrapbooks underlie our present-day ways of thinking about information, news, and what we do with it.