BFSI Question #2 Review

This is the last of the BFSI questions. Question #2 had to do with things that Lark Crafts wants to know about their craft books and future craft books. The original question asked:

  • What type of quilting book would you like to see on the market that’s not already out there?
  • If you could publish your “dream” book on quilting, what would it cover? How would it be set up, etc? In other words, what would be most helpful to them?

If you do another kind of craft, you can answer the same question, just substitute your craft (knit, crochet, stuffies, etc) for quilt.

Question#2-1
What type of quilting book would you like to see on the market that’s not already out there?

Frankly, I would love to see a book called Very Hard Quilts and I would appreciate it being filled with difficult patterns, perhaps from some of the Kansas City Star quilt patterns that you never see even with the boldness of the modern quilters. A few years ago, Julie and I did a little test on a block called the Snowball Wreath. The pictures in the newspaper article show crazy templates. I have never seen a quilt made from this block, but it still haunts me. I want to do something with this block.

Kati R said “I’d like to see some more ideas on secondary patterns. I know there are some books out there, but most of them focus on beginners. Also I’d like to see one that teaches all the hand embroidery stitches which I’d love to learn.” I wonder if Kati has seen my book review of Stitched Blooms by Carina Envoldsen-Harris

Polly suggested “I’m a newer quilter, so there may be a book on this…but I haven’t found it yet. I need a book that tells how to DESIGN quilts. And it would need to include the elusive quilt math.   Yes, that is the type of book that I want now. A start to finish quilt designing book!”

Pam would like “… more on two-block quilts, which I think is in the same vein as Kati’s design book request. The Easy Street mystery that Bonnie Hunter did last year is a great example.”

Kelly wrote that she “… would love to see a book that lets me follow one quilter’s progress over several years. So I can see that what they are doing “now” (that is totally amazing to me) is achievable. Kind of like a five- to ten-year old blog in book form. lol

I think it would give me hope that I could make incredible quilts, and that it’s a journey. That the person I admire had some uh-oh moments, and maybe even an “ugly” quilt or two, before they really found their quilting voice.

Ohhhhh, or a quilt coloring book. Lots of pages of b/w line drawings that I could color in, cut out if I wanted, and just play. Maybe clear plastic/vinyl sheets in between pages so I could practice quilt designs, too!

Pretty sure my “dream” quilt book would be written by many authors and made up of several volumes — right now I’d love to be using the volume on ‘color and design’ — hmmmm. Maybe I’m describing the internet….lol”

Daisy Wreath had a great idea. She said “I definitely agree with the coloring book suggestion! I’d love to have an encyclopedia of blocks with a CD so I could print out scaled-down blocks and color them in.

I also wish there were more technique-focused books out there. It seems like there’s a much greater percentage of books out there that focus on entire quilt patterns. I’d love to find more books that teach a technique in detail and show different ways of applying it in a design…”

Diane (DDR Quilter) said “There are many new quilters coming into the quilting fold. I’d like to see a book of step by step photographic tutorials for quilt basics like making flying geese, etc. The internet is a wonderful resource full of many resources, but I think for many, a photographic resource book for certain basics could be a winner. My dream book would be one which discusses, depicts diversity of handwork. It would include such things as hand piecing, hand quilting with differentt threads, making and using hexagons , hand appliqué., embroidery., etc. Again, this would be a resource book with photographic or pictorial tutorials. Btw, I like all of the above comments. We all deserve to win. Whatever you bring to us, Lark Books, please keep on publishing books, real books!”

Question#2-2
If you could publish your “dream” book on quilting, what would it cover? How would it be set up, etc? In other words, what would be most helpful to them?

  • From me: spiral binding, index – a very detailed index, lots of photos or drawings
  • From Diane (DDR Quilter) – pictorial tutorials (pictorial or photographic)

What do you think? Has anything come to mind since I asked this question last Fall?