Take a journey with Valori Wells, traveling through her life with fabric. With her illuminating expertise, she’ll teach you inventive ways to combine fabrics with techniques such as silk screening, block printing, painting, and embroidery. Her fresh concepts and ideas are demonstrated through 14 modern projects for quilts, pillows, table runners, dresses, and more. Without a doubt, this book will redefine how you think about fabric and will inspire a journey of your own.
“With its diverse selection of fabrics and designs, A Quilting Life is a fine pick for any quilter looking to produce family-oriented keepsake results.” —The Needlecraft Shelf Bring the handmade tradition home with these charming quilts and home accessories. Inspired by a grandmother who loved to sew for her family, quilter and blogger Sherri McConnell gives traditional patterns like hexagons, stars, snowballs, and Dresden Plates a new look featuring fabrics by some of today’s most popular designers. Nineteen cozy projects include pillows, tote bags, table runners, and larger quilts—quick and easy designs that make great gifts. “Sherri’s book is a treasure! It’s full of fun and straight-forward patterns for quilts, table toppers, pillows, bags and more—all the goodies to make a cozy home.” —Thimbleanna “Would you like the opportunity to make tomorrow’s heirlooms in today’s vast selection of prints? . . . If so, this could be the reference book that will get you started. There are 19 projects, mainly focusing on handmade household items but including some larger quilts too.” —Fabrications Quilting for You “Beautiful inspiration if you are a seasoned quilter, but also a great resource with clear and in some cases, simple patterns for newbies as well.” —Diary of a Quilter “Color photos of finished needlework projects accompany step-by-step diagrams and assembly patterns, while at-a-glance sidebars covering materials and cutting allow needleworkers to gauge the complexity of each project.” —The Needlecraft Shelf
A magnificent work of original research that unravels history through textiles and cloth—how we make it, use it, and what it means to us. How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama - where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both her parents —and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. Fabric is not just a material history of our world, but Finlay's own journey through grief and recovery.
From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, explore the global history of textiles and the world they weave together in this enthralling and educational guide. The story of humanity is the story of textiles -- as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world. Textiles funded the Renaissance and the Mughal Empire; they gave us banks and bookkeeping, Michelangelo's David and the Taj Mahal. The cloth business spread the alphabet and arithmetic, propelled chemical research, and taught people to think in binary code. Assiduously researched and deftly narrated, The Fabric of Civilization tells the story of the world's most influential commodity.
Quilting, once regarded as a traditional craft, has broken through the barriers of history, art and commerce to become a global phenomenon, international multi-billion dollar industry and means of gendered cultural production. In Quilting, sociologist and quilter Marybeth C. Stalp explores how and why women quilt.This close ethnographic study illustrates that women's lives can be transformed in often surprising ways by the activity and art of quilting. Some women who quilt as a leisure pastime are too afraid to admit to being a quilter for fear of ridicule; others boldly identify themselves as quilters and regard it as part of their everyday lives.The place of quilting in women's lives affects core family and personal identity issues such as marriage, childcare, friendship and aging. The book's accessible and intimate portrayal of real quilters' lives provides a fabric for the sociology, anthropology and textile student to understand more about wider issues of cultural production and identity that stem from this very personal pastime.
For centuries, the people of Morocco have been producing magnificent embroideries, pile rugs, and flatweaves. The Fabric of Moroccan Life showcases rare embroideries, hangings, and rugs that reflect the broad range of traditions and cultural influences active in Morocco during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The book explores the artistic importance of these superb weavings as well as their central role in Moroccan culture.Approximately 150 pieces - and numerous details - are illustrated in colour, and additional photographs (including many that were taken in the 1930s) show how they were once used in everyday life in Morocco. The book includes essays on Moroccan embroidery and its origins, traditional costumes of the cities and rural areas, the weavings of the Berbers and other ethnic groups, and the distinctive characteristics of items made by particular ethnic sub-groups. The contributing writers are eminent scholars and experts in a variety of fields, including Moroccan history and culture; Moroccan rugs, textiles, and clothing; and natural dyes. A wealth of information is included that has never before been available in one volume.Niloo Imami Paydar is curator of textiles and costumes at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Ivo Grammet is coordinator of a new museum in Nador, northern Morocco. The contributors include Gérard Boëly, Gebhard Blazek, Katherine Dolk-Ellis, Narjys El Alaoui, Mustapha Hansali, Annette Korolnik-Andersch, Marcel Korolnik, Zineb Lehmam, Russell Pickering, Ahmed Skounti, Frieda Sorber, Wilfried Stanzer, and Marie-France Vivier.
Combine your love of crafting, fabric, and reading to create unique volumes for preserving your memories. The 24 projects feature a variety of binding methods as well as inventive techniques like transferring photos onto textiles.
Turn old uniforms into quilts, bags, and more: “Because the projects are so nicely designed, they manage to be casual and classy at the same time.” —Generation Q Magazine All members of the Armed Forces have to buy multiple uniforms, some of which become decommissioned. In this book, quilter and military spouse Jen Eskridge shows you how to recycle these uniforms and blend in some cheerful, contemporary fabrics to create useful, one-of-a-kind family treasures. Even if you don't have a service member in your life, you can make these cool projects using camouflage fabrics or uniforms purchased from surplus stores—and show your support in style!
Join and experience creativity and nostalgia through Grace, a master quilter, -as she shares her creative gifts with her young granddaughter, Audrey. Together their lives unfold around their family quilt. The love between grandmother and granddaughter keep a family's generations turning despite minor setbacks, disappointments and celebrations of life. As friends and family of this charming mountain town in Colorado come together for life's moments. Creating an inspirational, heartwarming story to share with those you love.Our Family Quilt immerses readers in:* Family Life* Contemporary Women* Quilting ideas* Creativity for everyday living* The secret world of Grandmothers and Granddaughters and the people they love...
