:) super post, Kate!! Can't wait for all the different opinions! .....here's a "Thumbs up" !!

My first quilting book was from Singer...Quilting by Machine. I think I picked this up back in the 80's. I tried one little dog quilt around 1992, it was not well done and I did not pick up that book again until a few years ago.

Now I have books and internet and source each regularly. I have become an avid blog follower with my favorite sites to include: Fresh Lemons, Freshly Pieced, Red Pepper Quilts, SwimBikeQuilt, Oh Fransson and Don't Call Me Betsy...these are just the ones I check every day to every other day. The total list I review is too long for this email...yeah I'm a crazy blog follower LOL ... My IPad makes all this so easy...we have become one with the quilt blogs ;-)!

On the up side, I've learned new techniques, received inspiration and generally just enjoy seeing what these pros are up to. I think Fresh Lemons is my favorite and I've made at least three of Faith Jones design quilts, Parisville, Geometric Slide and the Summer Solstice Stars.

As for books, I can't say there is one book that stands out...love my books...the most recent to my collection is Angela Waters In the Studio...with a focus on FMQ. That's got me started in a whole new direction... oh dear...easily distracted...

So much to learn, so much to sew and so little time..
Fun Question...what's eveyones else's favorite source???

V.

Since books and magazines are expensive, and I don't belong to a quilting group, I guess the Internet is number one. I do try to get the Better Homes and Gardens magazines but that is all I buy. But I do learn new things occasionally watching PBS shows on quilting. So many of them are re-runs though. I listen to Pat Sloan's radio show every week, but that is mostly hearing how the best designers do what they do and what their lives are like, it's so interesting. I have become a regular visitor at Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville. I love scrappy quilts and have adopted her method for using paper to foundation piece strips and use them in quilts. I am working on one now and except for the bolt of white muslin that I purchased, have not had to buy one yard of fabric for it - all scrap strips from the scrap bags! And I still have tons. I did go to my stash and strip up some of the small pieces but it was still stash. I also did a couple of projects from the Missouri Star quilt site. And I am a fan of Leah Day's FMQ videos but I've only used her method a couple of times, her quilting is very dense and time consuming, not what you would do to knock out a quilt quickly.

I've never visited the Don't Call Me Betsy blog! Just went there and fell in love with two patterns: Modern Halves & Mod 9 Patch. My 'To Do' list just got longer and I think one of those will be the quilt I make at Retreat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Don't Call Me Betsy's

I've been given, and have inherited some nice quilting books. The issue with books is that they seem to be geared toward more experienced quilters and can leave novices overwhelmed. I've never seen just a simply "Quilting for Dummies" type quilt books........dedicated to the mechanics of the craft and covering all the little tricks one seems to pick up from other quilters, trial and error or surfing the web. Most books I've seen delve into some aspect or style of quilting the author is fixated upon. Magazines to inspirations. The web has it all, but one really has to sort the wheat from the chaff. I used them all.

If anyone checks out the Don't Call me Betsy site, if you scroll down through her quilts you'll see a depression block quilt in the same colors or close as the May lotto...just beautiful! I like Kaleidoscope and Modern Halves on her site as well.

Rita...I like Leah Day as well, but you are so right. The quilting is so close together...dense. I used cucumber vine on a limited part of a quilt design...I thought I'd never finish, But...it's really very pretty! I find her site to be a great source of inspiration when stumped.
V.

I never thought about rules, I just started sewing and making quilts. My grand mothers just sewed pieces together and made quilts. One would see a picture in a newspaper and reproduce it in a quilt. It took me 14 years and the invention of the internet to realize there were rules, most of which I still break. But I have fun and enjoy my quilts, they stay together and get lots of use. So its all good.

beverly

I don't buy the 'rules' stuff either, Beverly......perhaps it comes in handy should you want to enter competitions. There are tricks to the craft, however and suggestions to make the work lay better or work better or produce blocks more quickly or easily. One pretty much learns them over the years through trial and error........sometimes LOTS of error. Those aren't rules by the quilt police, they are skills and the kind one would find helpful to know if they could be complied into some sort of compendium. I have picked up so many on this site by listening to others explain how they do things, and by watching videos on you tube.

I agree, Calliope. That's what I meant by 'rules' too. Not the dreaded quilt police, but the tricks, skills and math that make quilting easier and, for me, more fun. Like sewing a scant 1/4" seam, pressing (not ironing!) seams to the darker side, and different ways to make half square triangles. I cringe when I think how long it took me to learn to do a good binding!

It really would be nice to have all those tips & techniques gathered into *one* book!

I'm still picking up some good tips here and there, and honestly, mostly I find more useful ones -both basic and advanced- in books. Of course, my problem with blogs (and many on-line demos) is that I get distracted by all the other pretty stuff and end up admiring a neat design or striking use of color or sighing over an especially nice bit of stitching... and forgetting to note something like making multiples of transfer patterns by using an unthreaded needle in your sewing machine. *That* was a basic technique that I used long ago, and had completely forgotten until coming across a casual mention in a quilt-pattern book -- and just in time as I need to mark about 250 strips to quilt the sashing on my out-of-my-box quilt.

So: books are my first choice because they don't need batteries or electricity or any special equipment more than a scrap of paper or fabric; and once a bookmark is slid in between the paper pages, it will never disappear into the unknown vastness of dead/disappeared websites. I picked up a 20-year old book on machine quilting at the yard sale ($1) and it was like-new -- and all the info was just as valid, applicable, and available now as it was first printed. I don't think any of us have a 20-year old computer or e-book of which the same can be said.

I do think you can find all the tips in a book. The one I mentioned above (Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting) has enough to get a beginner started with confidence and enough to help a more experienced quilter get better. A quilting friend of mine suggested Fons and Porter's Quilter's Complete Guide too. That's her favorite book. One of those two would be a good investment for any quilter.

so many great ideas and suggestions...

Other than doing a few straight stitches by hand on a suspended quilt frame when I was in my late teens, and a few phone calls to my Aunt and Grandma I have pretty much been self-taught when it comes to quilting, especially hand-quilting, so thank you for sharing the names of the books that have helped you, hoping I can some of them through my local library - state library loan system. There is one quilt book though that I saw at Hobby Lobby that I want to get, it's Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting and it has some cool layouts for crazy quilt blocks in the back of it.

Best to you and thanks bunches,
Sandra

Kate I checked out from the library the Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting book you recommended and I am loving all the reference charts and square, triangle, and hexagon grids in it. Will be adding this book to my Christmas wishlist.

Best to you and thanks bunches,
Sandra

I seem to go to the "magic box" for everything these days. I have a few books, but they aren't as good enough as the internet, or as fast.

Robbi

Just ordered Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting via amazon.com for only 2.99 !!!!! (thanks to goodwill industries of Fl!!! LOL) Excited!

I am a book-a-holic. I once told my sister that I was going to make at least one quilt from each book. Hasn't happened yet. And I do learn from reading and following directions . Several years ago, I made a Stack and Whack. When I showed it at the guild, I was asked, " how did you make that". My answer was that I read the directions. Now on the flip side, I do like watching all the videos made and get lots of ideas there. Sometimes, someone's demo of a process makes things much clearer. So I am in both boats on this journey.
Theresa