Diane Gilleland sent me a copy of her new book Quilting Happiness: Projects, Inspiration & Ideas to Make Quilting More Joyful, which she co-wrote with Christina Lane. The book is available now for pre-order and will be shipping next week.
A book that makes you happy? Yes! This book includes projects interspersed with creative exercises to help you explore your process, define your style, and reflect on meaning and inspiration. There are lovely projects for beginning to advanced quilters, combined with clear instructions and helpful diagrams. This book is useful both for quilters who want to explore their creativity as well as those who just want to make things.
I made the Haphazard Chevron Pillow from the book using my Folk Modern fabric collection, but I altered the size because I only had a 12″ x 16″ pillow form on hand. And I skipped the top quilting because there seems to be enough pattern here already. The instructions were well-written and easy to follow.
Overall, I really love the idea behind this book. I think many quilters are afraid of their own creativity, but making things is a creative process; from choosing the pattern and style to selecting fabric. Some of us love to cut and measure precisely while carefully following each step of a pattern , while others of us just like to cut and create as we sew. There’s a quiz in this book to help you get in touch with your “Inner Quilter”, which I think will help you realize that we all have our own unique style and approach to creativity. There is no right way!
To see projects from the book and the book trailer, visit the Quilting Happiness website.
I’d love to take a quiz to get to my inner quilter. Sounds like a great book!
What a gorgeous pillow…so many vibrant colours! ? I feel like creativity is squashed too often, parenting, in schools, our society (I am an Ayn Rand fan, and am specifically thinking of her book, The Fountainhead).
Great combination of colors and patterns on that pillow! I’m already a fan of Diane and her work on CraftyPod, that pillow you’ve created is just more reason for me to check out Quilting Happiness in detail.
Diane told me about your fantastic pillow yesterday at the book launch and I just had to pop over to see!!! I will be featuring the same project next week and I am loving just how completely different two pillows can be from the same pattern!!! I will definitely be linking to yours in the post!!
Love it love it love it!!!