With the gardening season coming to a close for the year, gardeners can find many ways to bring the beauty of the garden indoors. One easy way to do that is with garden crafts and garden quilts. Here are some special garden quilt books that will appeal to gardeners.


America’s Quilted Garden Blocks

By Faye Labanaris, this was released by the American Quilter’s Society. This features 55 exquisite appliquéd quilt blocks that celebrate the nation’s beautiful flowers. There is one for each state as well as for Washington, D.C. and the various territories under the American flag. These blocks show the flower along with the state or territory name.

These original designs by the author measure 20 to 24 inches. They’re the perfect size for wall hangings. Choose your favorites and create a beautiful garden quilt. For each flower block, this has complete color illustrated step by step directions for doing the appliqué and ribbon work. The patterns with further instructions and additional information are found on the CD that comes with the book.

This book covers all of the basics on embroidery, embroidery stitches, and the appliqué techniques with complete instructions for each flower part. This
also explains what supplies will be needed and how to work with ribbon.


Urban Country Quilts

By Jeanne Large and Shelley Wicks, this was released by Martingale/That Patchwork Place. This must have title features 15 delightful projects for the home. The items include quilts in a range of sizes as well as pillows, table toppers, and pillow cases. Among the featured flowers are familiar ones such as the daisy and carnation. The pillowcases are made with gorgeous floral prints and are decorated with rick-rack. Nearly all of these projects feature flower themes that will have special appeal for gardeners. There are flower wall hangings and framed flower appliqué projects.

This presents the authors’ funky signature style of appliqué designs for which they are so well known. Each project features a list of fabrics and supplies, cutting charts, color layouts, and complete, color illustrated, step by step directions for making the blocks and quilt top and finishing the quilt. There are full size ready to use appliqué templates.

At the beginning of the book the authors’ explain how to choose fabrics along with the basic sewing and quilting techniques.


Slash Your Stash-Scrap Quilts from McCall’s Quilting

Turn those leftover scraps into beautiful quilts that you can use throughout the house. Released by Martingale, this will especially appeal to gardeners since most of the projects feature floral appliqué, floral themes, and floral prints. These 16 delightful projects are by leading designers, and cover a range of skill levels. The quilts are in a range of sizes. Some items, such as the pumpkin quilt, are of seasonal interest.

The projects include both pieced and appliquéd designs. Among the items are table runners and wall hangings. The designs include star quilts, baskets, Flying Geese, and Shadow Box blocks.

For each project this has a list of materials and supplies, cutting charts, and color illustrated, step by step illustrations for each quilt block, quilt top, and details on finishing the quilt. There are also color layouts. The appliqué templates are full size and ready to use. At the end of the book this title covers all of the quilting basics.