Embellishing Crazy Quilts: For Beginners (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781456516451)

Kathy Seaman Shaw has been quilting for over 30 years, and teaching quilt techniques for the past 15 years at local quilt shops, state fairs, and quilt guilds. She also teaches college adult education classes in traditional quilt techniques, jewelry making, and crazy quilt embellishment. As the mother of two and grandmother of three she is always looking for faster methods of stitching and quilting that still give quality results. Her civilian job with the United States Army for the past three decades ended in 2009 when she retired. Now, she spends her time in various needle-art endeavors. Her current passion is crazy quilt embellishment and embroidery. Sharing this passion resulted in numerous questions from beginner quilters on how to get the beautiful stitches she was creating. She developed an easy method to create stitch templates so all of her seams would be neat, straight, and precise...without a lot of work or time! Those quick techniques are included in her book, along with 150 charts for beautiful seams. Designs for 104 gorgeous monograms and 60 applique motifs are all easy to create with simple embroidery stitches. Her favorite stitches to use are the simple straight stitch, lazy daisy stitch, and French knot...and she uses these repeatedly in wonderful combinations to create stunning seam embellishments and motifs. She has created a reference book well worth adding to anyone's stitch library...and simple enough to be a treasured guidebook for beginners! She is also an avid blogger and has her own Yahoo Group that allows her to directly interact with her students and cyber friends. Her main motivation is to teach and share what she has learned. Her blog is at www.shawkl.com and her personal studio website is at www.shawkldesigns.com You can also talk to her directly at her Yahoo Group ShawklBlogFiles and get access to other tutorials and patterns.