I was asked to recommend books for machine quilting. There are four books that have helped me tremendously (in no particular order). I’d like to preface my book recommendations by saying that I took a machine quilting class at a local quilt shop first. I had the best teacher; instead of coming out of class overwhelmed, I was so encouraged and inspired to tackle machine quilting. I’ll highlight the teacher I had in a later blog. I want to make the point that no book can replace a class with an expert!
Easy Machine Quilting
by Jane Townswick, Editor
This book follows a very logical sequence starting with suggestions on setting up your quilting space and product information relating to batting, thread, needles, etc.. From there, it covers the basics like starting and stopping lines of stitches, eases into lessons on free-motion quilting, and later covers specialty techniques like trapunto with lots of lessons in between. Each lesson is written by a different industry-leading quilter.
Guide To Machine Quilting
by Diane Gaudynski
Wow! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read through this book. I’ve picked it up countless times as a reference while I’m quilting, as well. Diane Gaudynski is amazing. Her God-given talent for quilting is so evident as you flip through the pictures of her work. She’s got an elegant – yet inventive – style to which I’m drawn. As the title suggests, it is a guide for quilting starting with set-up and basting and ending with blocking and binding. She has excellent tips along the way.
Quilt Savvy: Gaudynski’s Machine Quilting Guidebook
by Diane Gaudynski
I would call this guide a companion to Guide to Machine Quilting. It is a smaller in size and spiral bound. In-depth instructions for general machine quilting are not in this book. However, you will find lots of ideas and instructions for free-motion techniques including feathers, spirals, echo quilting, and many others. I pick this book up when I’ve got a space on a quilt that needs more quilting or I need a new fill idea.
Heirloom Machine Quilting
by Harriet Hargrave
Harriet Hargrave is credited with pioneering the current machine quilting craze. She was machine quilting when it was still considered an affront to hand quilting. I did not buy this book until after I had been quilting for over a year. If I had bought it first, I’m sure it would have been the authority for me. It has wonderful information; I’m sure if one was starting to quilt and could only buy one book, this alone would give fantastic results. For me, the one thing that stands out about this book is its wonderful quilt galleries. There are unbelievably beautiful quilts featured in this book. Sometimes when I need inspiration, I’ll just thumb through the galleries and drool.
One tip I would share about these or any other reference books, if it doesn’t already come spiral-bound, spend the few extra bucks at a printing shop to have it done. It’s worth it to be able to have it right next to the sewing machine and not lose your place.
I’d love to hear about other books you quilters enjoy. Comment with your suggestions!