We have four new books on order for the April meeting. They are:

Lines by Design Quilts: 17 Projects Featuring the Innovative Designs of Esch House Quilts
Author Debbie Grifka is a designer, teacher and blogger from Ann Arbor, Michigan. This book is full of modern, geometric quilts using lots of solids and some prints. The emphasis is (obviously) on lines, but not all straight. There are some great graphic curvy designs too. Techniques include piecing, machine appliqué and bias appliqué.

You Inspire Me to Quilt: Projects from Top Modern Designers Inspired by Everyday Life
This is Canadian quilter Cheryl Arkison’s most recent book. (We also have Sunday Morning Quilts (co-author with Amanda Jean Nyberg) and A Month of Sundays in the library.) She shows how to take ideas from people, places, and things to original design concepts. She includes quilt ideas from designers including Jen Carlton-Bailly, Cynthia Frenette (from Abbotsford!), Carolyn Friedlander, Andrea Harris, Rossie Hutchinson, Heather Jones, Amanda Jean Nyberg, and Blair Stocker.

I find that one of the hardest parts of quilting is the inspiration – I can stare at a sandwiched quilt for a looooonngg time, wondering where to start. Shape by Shape Free-Motion Quilting is a recent book by Angela Walters, full of ideas for quilting motifs. It is divided into three sections: Blocks, Negative Space, and Borders, and each section is broken down into block shapes with lots of ideas for filling them up with machine quilting. Lots of inspiration! If this one is good I’ll get the second volume (Shape by Shape, Collection 2).

T-shirt quilts are not my favourites. However, I have found that when non-quilters find out I am a quilter, the first thing they say is “I want to make my daughter’s baby clothes/teenager’s team t-shirts/brother’s Harley t-shirts into a quilt. Can you do that?” Some day I am going to be talked into it.  Terrific T-Shirt Quilts (Karen Burns) shows you how to deal with the challenging fabrics in tiny infant tees, sweatshirts, sports jerseys, and super-stretchy dancewear using interfacing and zigzag seaming. It also shows you how mix and match different sizes and shapes of t-shirt blocks for pleasing designs.

I’m will have the library questionnaire ready for you at this meeting. Are there any books you’d like to see in the library? Are there any topics related to quilting that we should cover? Please think about these questions and bring your input to the meeting.

Please keep sending your suggestions to librarian@lionsgatequilters.com. You can also email a request to reserve a book. (Browse our library listings at: https://lionsgatequiltersguild.com/library/.)

Don’t forget to bring back your overdue books! And remember, there is a $1 fine per book per month. All fines collected go into the budget to buy new.

Paula Bohan
Librarian