June 12
With Ellen's expert guidance, learn to construct enchanted flowers by looking at their basic shapes, compositions and color makeup. She demonstrates how to bring these flowers alive with machine embroidery and thread painting. The color theory section shows how different threads interact to achieve shadows and balance, thereby producing shockers and shaders. By using Ellen's stabilizer sandwich technique as the foundation of each flower, applique motifs can be created without puckers or distortion. A gallery of fantasy flower quilts will pique your interest in trying this technique.
* Machine Quilting Unlimited *
June 12
Ellen's first book Thread Magic was just that, magic, so I am very interested to see what this new book has to offer. I am not disappointed becuase there is so much more information on techniques, colour decisions within design, intuititve applique and how to bind quilts with irregular edges just for starters. There are more than 20 exquisite floral studies that help you to see the simple shapes within flowers such as hearts, bells, teardrops and spirals and then guide you through the interpretation of these images through the painting by machine method. The photography and featured quilts are sumptuous and even if you don't want to design a quilt right now then just curl up with a coffee or tea and enjoy this inspirational read.
* Fabrications *
Sept 12
Award-winning quilter and 2012 Teacher-of-the-Year nominee Ellen Anne Eddy is well known for her free-motion thread work. In this book, she teaches you how to thread paint your own beautiful garden of flowers and some surprise creatures. At first glance, it's clear that Ellen is a teacher. Using simple step-by-step instructions, you'll learn basic skills that build upon each other, for example, special stitch techniques, building edge-to-edge color and progressive shading. Then she offers more than 20 floral studies to understand the shapes of the flowers. She notes that you cannot create a flower through fabric without first seeing and studying a real one, so she includes close-up photographs for this purpose. She also includes a good discussion on color theory. If you are interested in learning or expanding your skills at machine embroidery, you'll enjoy this book and appreciate Ellen's attention to detail.
* Professional Quilter *
