"The Grid Design Workbook"

For all of us machine quilters who are looking for some new ideas for quilting designs, this is a wonderful new book by Cindy Seitz-Krug, an award winning quilter and teacher who uses her home machine for quilting, published by AQS.

What is great about this book and a bit different is how effortlessly the "workbook" idea leads you through all kinds of lovely designs, shows you how to break them down into simple do-able elements that are controlled by a marked grid.  Sometimes in the end you see the grid, others times only curvy lines and designs that make the viewer ask "how in the world was that done???"

Below, details of Cindy's quilting:

The designs are great, but all the options she shows us with size, color of thread, scale of design, where and how to use them really help when trying to figure out what design to use where in a quilt.  There are tons of illustrations, diagrams, quilted samples to help you achieve these designs.  The workbook idea insures you will be able to start at the beginning, follow along, and get a quilted design by yourself!

One of the first grid designs I tried years ago when I was looking for a simpler method for a design of overlapping circles was one I called "Diane-shiko" (below) as it was a new way to mark and quilt an old Sashiko design.  When the marked lines are removed the circles emerge so it looks as if you quilted circles.  This is the basic idea Cindy uses to create all sorts of designs with the grid to guide you.

Above you can see the 1/2" marked grid, and the stitching around the lines to form this timeless design.  Below, the design used in one of my quilts, "Shadows of Umbria," which Cindy also has featured in her new book.

A grid design will showcase curvy designs with its formality and regularity.  These designs look difficult but many are absolutely beginner level and with some practice you'll be adding many of Cindy's designs, methods, ideas to your own quilts.  

Visit Cindy at her website and blog to find out more:  www.quintessentialquilting.com  

Below, one more peek at her quilting:

If you were in some of my last classes I taught a design called "Ginkgo."  In Cindy's quilt above she uses it as fill around larger scale designs.  Below is one of my samples of this lovely design, and Cindy includes a much easier way to mark and quilt it called "Twisted Ginkgo" in this new book.  It's one of my favorite designs ever in the way it looks, and how much fun it is to quilt.

I experimented and tried Cindy's method to quilt this design, and it worked perfectly.  I'm thrilled she could explain it so well, and the diagrams and photos are exactly what you need so you too can add this design to your skills.

Congratulations to Cindy on a great book and for her recent award at Road to California for Excellence in Machine Quilting for her wholecloth quilt "Blush." 

Hope winter is giving you lots of time to quilt, and to play with ideas on your sewing machine.  

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day!

Diane