gift guide | Zippy Quilts

You probably know that I have loved getting to review quilt books for C&T this past year. What you may not know is that C&T has so much more than quilt books. Here are 10 of my favorites:

10. Diamond Star Quilts by Barbara H. Cline. It may look like a quilt book, but it’s actually a whole method for making those extremely elaborate-looking star quilts that most of us drool over. If you’ve been wanting to make one of those, this may be the tool for you.

9. Zakka Wool Applique by Minki Kim is full of very cute projects including baskets, bags, and home dec. If you want to craft with “woolies” as my friends call them, this book has a number of cute and useful projects.

8. Kim Schaefer’s Calendar Candle Mats is a packet with full-size patterns for cute little mats made with fusible applique and embroidery. She calls them candle mats, but I think they would be good mug rugs, too. Presents for school teachers come to mind, and teachers certainly deserve gifts this year!

7. Who knew there was a puzzle book for quilters?!? Yep, More Happy Quilter Variety Puzzles, Volume 3, is just such a book. There are crosswords, logic puzzles, and more.

6. Everyday Embroidery for Modern Stitchers makes me want to take up embroidery again. The book has iron-on transfer patterns included (I remember those from back in the day!). The designs are intended to appeal to young people, but some of us “older” folks like them, too!

5.Botanical Embroidery, by Brian Haggard, is a packet with instructions and iron-on transfers for more traditional motifs. The designs are gorgeous and would go especially well with heirloom projects.

4. Bags! C&T makes bags! There’s everything from pouches to this large tote, all made from recycled water bottles. They are water resistant and suitable for carrying things like pens and knitting needles that might poke through other bags. Here’s the large holiday tote:

3. The perfect hand applique paper, at last! Oh, yes, it has every feature I want! It is fusible on one side and, best of all, it is water soluble! Yes! Just iron it on, applique as usual, and the paper goes away when you wash your item. This is some of the best news of the year for those of us who don’t like picking paper out of projects!

2. The Foolproof Color Workbook is mostly a coloring book for adults with beautiful mandala-like designs to use for experimenting with color combinations. It’s nice, but my very favorite color tool is the #1 item on this list.

And my #1: The Foolproof Color Wheel Set created by Katie Fowler is the best single tool I’ve seen for working with color. There are 10 disks demonstrating the various ways in which colors can be combined (analogous, complementary, etc). I like this because it simply cuts through all the color-related vocabulary that bogs people down (tints, shades, color triad, blah, blah) and provides concrete, visible examples. It is my favorite tool of the year. If you struggle with choosing colors, I recommend it.