Saturday, April 13, 2013

L is for LIBRARY

And when I say library I don't mean the public library - which I LOVE, but my own little quilt book library.

This post was the impetus for me cleaning up the bookcase holding my quilt books. It gets so easy to just shove things in there and it was looking a bit sad and messy. I even took 'before' pictures for you!



But now it's looking much happier...





The books in the picture below on the upper shelf are quilt books. The ones on the lower shelf are sewing related, gardening, home improvement and miscellaneous.

Considering that I've been quilting for 20 years now, I really don't have many quilt books, especially compared to other quilters I've seen! I used to buy them all the time, and use the patterns in them, but I've found over the last 5-8 years as I've been designing my own patterns, I buy books more for the inspiration. 

The ones I buy and look at the most are the Kaffe Fasset books, Gwen Marston/Freddy Moran, Ruth McDowell, Material Obsession, and Piece O' Cake.
Looking at the Piece O' Cake books today, I found one that I had got signed when Becky Goldsmith visited my quilt guild in Utah...


I had completely forgotten about that, and it made me smile :) I think I chose the right one to get signed as it's now out of print and worth a pretty penny! Maybe not with my name in it though! I'll be keeping it ;D

I found the first quilt book I ever bought...

I had just started quilting, was still in NZ, and this book cost me about $55. That was back in 1993, so it was very expensive. Everything quilting related in NZ is expensive! I poured over that book for hours at a time for months and months and definitely got my money's worth. It's pretty dog-eared!

Here is the first book I bought when I moved to America...

Love love LOVE Mary Lou Weidman! I wish I had more of her books. Her quilts make me so happy.

This is the latest book I've bought, or rather, my hubby bought it to surprise me with. It's a really great read as Kaffe talks about his life and upbringing. I'm not very far into it as I save it for when I have quiet time and can treat myself. That isn't too often lately!


So that is my quilting book library. What kind of books do you collect?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking great, I can see many books I have too :)

Angie in SoCal said...

LOL - I'm one of those with over 200 quilting books, most of them have some applique in them. And I've been weeding them and getting rid of some online as giveaways. I don't need so many books as I keep finding so many beautiful projects online. Some of my favorite authors are PieceOCake and Ruth McDowell also.

Vivian said...

From the looks of things I have a lot of the same books/influences you have: Piece 'O Cake, Gwen Marston, Kaffe Fassette and an "Art Quilts" book. I've got a long wish list of Ruth McDowell books waiting to be purchased as I like to read about others "design process" and the descriptions of her books seem to fit that.

But what excited me was seeing that you had both Nancy Martin "Decorate With Quilts" books. I just got those in the last six months (after being on my wish list for years) because I've always been(and am still) fascinated by that subject. That started years ago with a Quilters Newsletter series called "At Home With Quilts" showing how famous quilters displayed quilts in their homes.

JoJo said...

Beautifully organized!!! I have a lot of craft books too, many of which I've just rediscovered over the last few days! So many projects, so little time!

Katie said...

You can never have enough books! I am another one with more than 200 quilting, sewing, and doll books. Mine are all numbered and listed on my computer in Delicious Library. One of these days I'll get around to cataloging my gardening books…..maybe. :-)

Barb said...

what a great home library you have!
I love your milk glass collection.
nice re-organizing, bet you're enjoying it.

Liam said...

"Little library"? Odd use of the word "little" :-)