From the Back Cover
Techniques and Inspirations for Creating the Quilting Design
The hours of effort and creative energy you have devoted piecing a gorgeous quilt top have paid off and the quilt is almost finished. Yet instead of taking the last steps to completion, you hesitate. For you, like many quilters, the big question "What do I quilt where?" is a stumbling block--one that may relegate a potential heirloom to a dusty closet shelf with other unfinished projects. It needn't be so. With the expert guidance in A Fine Line, you will discover that creating a quilting design and stitching the layers of the quilt together are every bit as rich and enjoyable a process as piecing the top.
Whether you quilt by hand or by machine, in these pages you will learn how to choose a quilting design that is both achievable according to your skill level and appropriate in style to the quilt top you're making. Through clear text and dozens of examples, you will learn how to implement the principles of design--shape, line, color, and proportion--as they apply to the quilting stitch. Then, step-by-step instructions and illustrations explain how to execute the design. You will select and prepare batting, backing, and threads; mark and baste the top; and--whether you are working by hand or by machine--create fine lines of stitches that add beauty, dimension, and texture to your quilt.
To help train your eye to find patterns in the world around you, A Fine Line includes sensational color photographs by noted nature photographer Charles Crust. By studying the lines in flowers, leaves, sand dunes, and landscapes, you will have endless inspiration for new quilting designs that will come to life on your quilt.
A Fine Line also includes:
- "Let's Play Quilt" features that demonstrate multiple ways of quilting the same top to achieve different effects
- Hundreds of rich visual examples--quilts and stitched fabrics--all photographed in fine detail
- Complete chapter on finishing the quilt--adding bindings, labels, and sleeves
A Fine Line will help you quilt any design with confidence. With expert guidance on both hand- and machine-quilting techniques, you will soon stitch any design with ease, from a simple crosshatch to curves, intricate shapes, and elaborate feathers.
About the Author
A lifelong fascination with fabric and color led Melody Crust to a career in quilt making. An award-winning quilter, she has exhibited her quilts in major national shows. She has also juried and curated regional and national exhibitions. A seasoned teacher, she has led workshops on all aspects of quilt making for beginning and advanced quilters alike. Melody quilts as comfortably by hand as by machine, and her classes on creating the quilting design have encouraged hundreds of quilters to quilt their unfinished tops. Melody's quilts and writing have been featured in books as well as in several specialty magazines, including Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, Art/Quilt Magazine, Patchwork Quilts, and Fiber Arts International. Melody and her husband, photographer Charles Crust, live in Kent, Washington.
Creativity and mastery of technique have been the foundation for Heather Waldron Tewell's success as a quilt artist. Her quilts have been juried into such prestigious shows as Quilt National 2001 (Athens, Ohio) and VISIONS (San Diego, California) and have won national awards. Heather has taught workshops in hand quilting and appliqué throughout western Washington and in British Columbia and has developed a unique class to help students understand how to apply principles of art to their hand- or machine- quilting designs. Heather's articles on quilt-making topics have appeared in Art/Quilt Magazine, American Quilter, Quilter's Newsletter, Quilt World, and Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts. Her quilts have been featured in several books. Heather lives with her family in Anacortes, Washington.
