I will always love craft books. No matter how much time I spend online watching YouTube videos and reading blogs, there’s nothing like holding a really beautiful craft book in your hands.
Books are a great value. For $15-25 you get over a dozen patterns. Think about that! Plus, a book is a peek into an artist’s entire approach to their craft. They introduce you to their tools, their methodology, and give you tips and techniques to help you learn new skills.
The books I keep on my studio shelves for years and years have that magical combination of inspirational photography and five-star sewing instructions. Here are five fantastic craft books published in 2017.
(All links in this post are Amazon affiliate links.)
Animal Quilts: 12 Paper Piecing Patterns for Stunning Animal Quilt Designs by Juliet van der Heijden
Juliet blogs at The Tartankiwi and this is her first book. It’s full of striking quilts with big animal designs including a rhino, polar bear, peacock, horse, and more. Juliet also shared lots of paper piecing tips that make paper piecing approachable.
Making Faces in Fabric: Workshop with Melissa Averinos by Melissa Averinos
Melissa has been teaching her signature face quilts workshop to guilds and groups all over the country for a few years now. She uses basic drawing lessons to help you overcome any fear you may have of drawing faces and the freedom of raw edge applique to create a quilt that’s like nothing you’ve made before. Now you can get her workshop wrapped up into a book to study and play with to your heart’s content.
Southwest Modern: From Marfa to New Mexico, 18 Travel Inspired Quilts by Kristi Schroeder
Kristi is a graphic designer by training and her quilts are sublimely simple and sophisticated. In her first book, published by Lucky Spool, she’s created modern quilts inspired by the aesthetic of the Southwest. Part travel guide, part sewing book, Kristi also includes her favorite places to shop, eat and explore in her journeys. Watch the trailer for this book to get a sense of the feeling the quilts convey.
Tula Pink Coloring with Thread: Stitching a Whimsical World with Hand Embroidery by Tula Pink
This book will be released next month and its generated lots of excitement. Here we have 17 of Tula’s drawings rendered as embroidery designs for hand embroidery complete with her color suggestions. The book also includes stitch diagrams for 20 different stitches and a CD with all the designs so you can resize and print for various projects.
Fancy Tiger Crafts: Constellations by Amber Corcoran and Jaime Jennings
This book is a set of 20″ constellation quilt blocks that you can use together to make a quilt, or separately for specific projects. Take a peek at each of the blocks separately here to get a sense of how they come together and see what the whole quilt looks like here. So lovely!
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Did you add any newly released books to your library this year? I love recommendations! Please let me know what you’re enjoying.
I’m currently devouring Maria Shell’s Improv Patchwork. Specifically a quilting book, it’s encouraging me in the exploration of some new techniques.
I love what I’ve seen from Southwest Modern, and am looking forward to adding that one to my own collection.
I picked up yours! Super excited for all the faux taxidermy that is about to commence!
Yay!