Top 10 Must-Haves for Making your Best Quilt Ever from Start to Finish!
Dec 13th 2022
When looking for the best books, tools, and notions for quilting, it’s hard to know what to spend your money on. Is it really going to have enough information to be worth the price? Is it actually helpful or just a cute idea?
Who am I kidding? I work here, of course, they’re all worth it! Truthfully though, I was a quilter before I ever worked for C&T Publishing. Each item on this list was either already in my personal stash or something I’ve discovered I can’t live without. So read on, my friends, then send this wishlist to your holiday gift-givers for a guaranteed treat!
1. The All-in-One Quilters Reference Tool
If you buy nothing else on this list, well…that’s your loss, they’re all awesome. (ha!) Seriously though, I call this the best book we’ve ever made. I gift it to all my quilty friends. This book stays out by my cutting table for quick reference and I always take it with me to the quilt shop. We should’ve named it “Quilt Math for the Rest of Us” because this book has all the formulas and answers for just about every quilty question you’ve ever had. I could write an entire post dedicated to how many times this book has saved my quilty life or at least made it significantly less frustrating!
Check out this sample page on cutting half- and quarter-square triangles, and you'll see why I love this tool so much. The information is so easily accessible!
2. The Quilt Builder Card Deck vol 1& 2
If you ever get stuck in a creative rut, these cards will help! Use them to design your own quilt with ease. Dump them out and pick a few at random to design your own sampler. Put the cards together and create your own custom layout. Better yet, grab one card decide what size you want to make, turn it over for the cutting instructions and then grab your All-in-One Quilters reference tool to figure out how much fabric yardage you need for 12 of the same block. It’s that easy! Did I blow your mind yet? It also makes a great activity for groups, quilting bees, and guilds- distribute a card to each person and have them make the block!
3. The Sewing Edge by Marci Baker
I’ll admit, when I first arrived at C&T almost a year ago, I thought this was probably unnecessary for me. Washi tape works fine, thank you very much. Then they sent me some…and I can’t sew without it. Unlike washi tape, the sewing edge has never once lost its stickiness, causing a seam emergency during my project. The repositionable adhesive sticks when you need it and comes up with no mess when you don’t. The thickness of the vinyl also helps guide my fabric along, so I don’t accidentally blow over the seamline.
4. Bonnie K Hunters Bonus Buddy Ruler
This tool is indispensable in helping me place my sewing edge strips. Position this bad baby under the needle and slowly lower the needle into the hole for the corresponding seam allowance. Follow that straight ruler line with your sewing edge for perfect seams every time. If you’re like me and tend to sew a little of everything, the ⅛” increases from ¼ inch up to ⅝ of an inch and covers just about any seam allowance you’ll ever need. Easily mark diagonal stitch lines, sew, and cut, and you get a bonus HST unit from your leftover corner cut-offs. No wasted fabric!
5. Alex Anderson's 4in1 Essential Sewing Tool
This one was already in my stash before I worked here. With a seam ripper on one end and a stylus on the other, this tool stays in my hand almost the whole way through a project. Put the caps on the end and suddenly you have a built-in “finger presser” on one end and a point turner on the other. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, this tool has extra-long stiletto that protects fingers while pressing and machine piecing, and because of the tool's shape, it won't roll off your work surface!
6. New Patchwork & Quilting Basics by Jo Avery
If you’ve ever wanted to try different quilting-making techniques, the quick and easy projects in New Patchwork & Quilting Basics will help you build your quilting skills from the ground up. You’ll learn beginning techniques like strip piecing and working with triangles to more advanced techniques like machine appliqué, curved piecing, and foundation paper piecing.
7. Rainbow Quilts for Scrap Lovers by Judy Gauthier
This book isn’t just for rainbow quilts; it’s a revolution in scrap-fabric use and management. Judy Gauthier has not only found a genius method for storing scraps so you’ll actually use them, but the way her brain works to create these scrap quilts is next level. She’s also got an entertaining writing style, making Rainbow Quilts for Scrap Lovers a pleasure to read. Whenever my scrap pile gets unwieldy, I pick this book up for a good pep-talk from Judy.
8. Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool
You’ll want this after Judy shows you how to use it in Rainbow Quilts. Pick a scrap from your now impeccably organized stash and use this tool to pull coordinating scraps from your stash with ease. Whether you use the suggested color scheme options or find the color card you need to match your fabric, this tool has become yet another staple that stays within arm's reach.
9. Amanda Murphy’s Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book
It’s time for another truth bomb. The actual quilting is my least favorite part of the quiltmaking process. My heart is in patchwork, but my heart also hates the idea of turning my baby over to someone else to finish. If my quilt doesn’t scream out an obvious quilting pattern to me (can we please just straight-line this?), I’m grabbing this book to consider what will look good with the patchwork I’ve made. Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book takes the guesswork out of free-motion quilting with 155 ideas to choose from, each handpicked for a specific space on a quilt.
10. Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters
If there were ever two ladies that could turn me into an actual quilter, it’d be Angela Walters and Amanda Murphy. They both make it look so easy. Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters was yet another book I already had in my library before working for C&T. While Amanda’s book is fantastic for giving me inspiration with different kinds of patchwork blocks, this book gives great guidance on how to start your design and where to move next. Every time I end up staring at my needle asking it where I’m sometimes to stitch next, I swear, the needle answers back “Ask Angela!”
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This blog post is written by Administrative Assistant Betsy Friedrich.
