Three New Books Are Available!

It's always a great day when a new book comes back from the printer, so imagine how grand it is to have three new releases at once! Get your reading glasses on:

Beyond the Block by the Crafty Ol' Broads (wonderfully fun sisters Linda K. Johnson and Jane K. Wells) lets you let go of block "block." Instead of being trapped by size restrictions or shape limitations, the C.O.B.s show you how to improvise in a controlled way. The results are wild, colorful yet still traditional. Show your flair for color and thinking "outside the block" with this bright, inspiring book.

If you love beads but hate hand work, All Beaded Up by Machine is the book for you. Terry White, author of Thread Painting Made Easy (AQS, 2008), once again shows how the sewing machine can be a terrific artistic asset. Her super simple techniques yield amazing results; no one will ever know how easy all that beading really was. A must-have for embellishment addicts.

If you spend your days in a cubicle dreaming about the quilting you'll do that night, Quilts in My Cubicle will hit the spot. Barb Holtzman, herself a cubicle dweller, has created 12 quilts that are small enough to actually finish and delightful enough to cheer up any cubicle anywhere. Smart tips and hanging suggestions round out this happy little book that will keep you stitching and have your colleagues glad you did.

Talented people work at AQS (if I may say so) and graphic designer Lynda Smith proves it with her first-ever author effort, Quilt This! Practical Patterns for Everyday Quilting. Her original designs are shown as motifs and borders and are suitable for hand quilters or those using any type of machine. No more dreaded "quilt as desired." Instead, Quilt This!

It's been a busy autumn for AQS; stay tuned for three more books coming soon!

What a Great Show

Des Moines Quilt Expo was a wonderful show! Everyone raved about how beautiful ALL of the quilts were, AQS Contest Quilts and those from the Greater Des Moines Quilters Guild as well as the special exhibits from Nancy Kirk, Sandi McMillan, Judy Martin, and The National Quilt Museum.

The Iowa Events Center is a new facility, so spacious that we never had that "sardine" feeling even though attendance was tremendous. And plenty of restrooms!

My week was spent meeting authors old, new and wanna-be, and every single one was delightful. We received interesting proposals and scoured the vendors for what's hot and what will be The Next Big Thing. Too much fun to call it work!

If you can, put the Des Moines show on your calendar for next year: October 28 - 31, 2009. It's a lovely city at a beautiful time of year and now that we've been there, we know the quilts will be spectacular! Join us!