Tell me dear quilters; is there more than one Wednesday in the week? Where do they come from? It sure seems so to me!!! The good news about Wednesday’s is that’s the day I pop in to say hello and have a chat.

I’ve just returned from a week at the beach with my sister, Anthea. We’ve had a great time, even though the weather was a bit drizzly and damp. We have not spent a holiday with each other for a long time, so there was much to catch up on and chew over. Luckily, Anthea speaks the same “language” as me, and is developing into a very proficient quilter.

The week gave me a chance to catch up on some reading. I do read a lot – mainly quilting books and the like. I don’t buy too many how to books anymore – I especially like the inspirational books that show off quilts. I find that these books sate my hunger for quilting more than the how to do books (HTD) do. Sure, the HTD books are invaluable for the beginning and learning quilter, no matter what stage of their quilting journey they are at. I often write reviews for HTD books, because these books are a very important way for quilters to learn and improve – especially if they don’t have access to in-person quilting classes. In many cases a picture tells a thousand words and the HTD books provide just this. Lots of written instructions together with diagrams and photographs.

The books that inspire me are those that show a quilt in close up and in total, with information about the making of the quilt, and a small bio of the artist. You can sometimes learn lots from this information.

Another kind of book I like to have and read and am inspired by, are the gorgeous coffee books available these days. One such book is the book titled “In Praise of the Needlewoman” and I posted my review of this book just last week on the BellaOnline Quilting site. Here’s the link:http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2276.asp

I simply adore this book and only look at one picture at a time. It’s a little like the children with an ice cream. One child always tries to make theirs last longer than the others. I’m pacing myself with this visually delicious publication to make it last as long as possible. I hope you can get hold of a copy for yourselves; it’s simply breath taking to say the least.

Now for my gift to you for this week. I like to have a bookmark for my books, but some bookmarks can be very thick and damage the book (especially the delicate pages of a coffee table book). So here are my instructions for making a Soft Bookmark out of your favorite quilting fabric. Very simple, but very useful.

Judie’s Soft Bookmark
You will need: Fusible webbing or vliesofix; two different quilting fabrics; Rotary cutter, ruler and cutting board; Hot iron & and Teflon mat
Method:
Roughly cut two pieces of fusible webbing or vliesofix approx 3” x 6”; iron each piece of the webbing onto the wrong side of each of the quilting fabrics; using your rotary cutter and ruler, cut each fabric approx 2” x 5”; peel away the paper backing and gently place the two quilting fabrics together, matching as exactly as possible; using a hot iron, place the Teflon mat on top of the fabrics and iron them together; and finally as a decorative option you may use your wavy cutter to give the bookmark a pretty edge and you can attach a tassel of buttons for decoration. Have fun.

That’s all from me for this week, hope all’s well at your place, speak with you next Wednesday.
Cheerio for now

Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

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