Theresa Tyner
Theresa Tyner is the Director of the Crawfordsville District Public Library.
The exhibits in the Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery at CDPL can be lovely to view, move us to explore new ideas, and enhance our knowledge of the arts in general, but when the Sugar Creek Quilters hold their quilt shows at the library – as they recently did through the month of April – their colorful creations also inspire me to take action, pull out carefully-stored fabric, and start piecing.
Since I haven’t quilted in a couple of decades and only for non-judgmental babies related to me, I looked to the library’s collections for inspiration (and a little retraining) and found titles with lots of ideas and quilting instruction to get me or anyone else started, including A Beginner’s Guide to Quilting: You’ve Always Wanted to Quilt – Now You Can! by Christine Mann (746.46 Man); Quilt as You Go: A Practical Guide to 14 Inspiring Techniques & Projects, by Carolyn Forster (746.46 For), and Oh, Scrap!: Fabulous Quilts that Make the Most of Your Stash, by Lissa Alexander (746.46 Ale).
Quilters with more projects under their belts may wish to expand their skills by trying different, more advanced techniques: Stack, Shuffle, and Slide: A New Technique for Stack the Deck Quilts, by Karla Alexander (746.46 Ale); Artful Improv: Explore Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free-motion Quilting, by Cindy Grisdela (746.46 Gri); and Row Quilts: Longitudes & Latitudes (746.46 Row).
Creative endeavors, including quilting, help us feel connected to those who came before us. Titles that can provide links for us to our artful ancestors are A Change of Seasons: Folk-art Quilts and Cozy Home Accessories, by Bonnie Sullivan (746.46 Sul); The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks that Honor Them, by Laurie Aaron Hird (746.46 Hir); and The Quilter’s Applique Workshop: Timeless Techniques for Modern Designs, by Karla Alexander (746.46 Ale).
Holidays can inspire fun projects and gifts. Take a look at Spooktacular Halloween Quilting: A Project for Every Room (746.46 Spo) and Simply Modern Christmas: Fresh Quilting Patterns for the Holidays, by Cindy Lammon (746.46 Lam).
CDPL has quilting and other crafting titles in the e-content resources on the CDPL website (cdpl.lib.in.us/econtent/). If you’re a crafter, have you tried Creativebug? Creativebug is a database of thousands of classes and creative prompts. Over 100 of the classes are on quilt-making topics, including watercolor quilting, piecing large-scale patchwork quilts, free-motion quilting, applique quilting, how to stitch in the ditch, and small projects such as potholders and oven mitts.
OverDrive (Libby) and Hoopla also have books and magazines on quilting and other crafting activities. In a brief glance through OverDrive, I spotted Quilting Arts Magazine; 1,2,3 Quilt: Shape Up Your Skills with 24 Stylish Projects, by Ellen Luckett Baker; Improv Quilting, by Irene Roderick; A Beginner’s Guide to Rag Quilting, by Christine Mann; and Pocket Guide Quilting Tips & Tricks, by Penny Haren.
A plethora of quilting-related fiction titles – mainly romance and cozy mystery – can also be found at the library for your non-crafting reading pleasure, including Ann Hazelwood’s Door County Quilts series (Fic Haz); Wanda Brunstetter’s Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club series (FIC Bru); Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series (FIC Chi); and Earlene Fowler’s Benny Harper Mysteries series (FIC Fow).
Whether you prefer to make them or read about them, quilts and quilting titles can be found in abundance at CDPL. The library has books, media, and digital titles and resources for all types of creative and crafting endeavors. If you have trouble finding something, please ask for assistance from one of our helpful staff.
