You Can Quilt! Almost Done!

You Can Quilt!, a book based on the Skill Builder Sampler, is still a work in progress, but it is coming along.  Last Monday Marlene and I were sent the final draft of the book to edit!!!  It looks Amazing!  You are going to love it!  The graphic designer did an excellent job with the layout, colors and figures.  It will not only be informative, but beautiful.  I can't wait to see it for real.

We were given 48 hours to read it over and send in our edits.  That was a crazy 48 hours.  You Can Quilt! is a whooping 144 pages plus over 70 pages on a CD (there is a page for each block, foundations for paper piecing, templates, a gallery of quilts, a bonus block and additional instructions for setting.).  A standard quilt book is usually 96 pages.

We got the majority of our edits in on time and then took a bit more time over the weekend to print and measure all of the templates.  Our edits were compiled by the Book Editor and now the Executive Editor and Layout Editor (I think that is her title?) are making the final changes.  I am hoping that they will be able to send it to the printers this week or early next week.

Once it is at the printers it will take 6 weeks to get back to us.  The standard printing time is 3 weeks, but adding a CD to the book added another 3 weeks.  The extra time will be well worth it.  I think that printing templates and foundations off a CD is the best way to go.  You can pre-order You Can Quilt! on Amazon or a signed copy in my Etsy store.

You Can Quilt! Building Skills For Beginnersstarts with basic cutting and straight line sewing and then moves on to half square triangles, quarter square triangles, flying geese, wonky and improvisational piecing, foundation paper piecing, curves, one-patch blocks, applique, inset seams and ends with three challenge blocks.  We cover Everything!  Detailed instructions for 36 blocks (three for each skill set) are given in the book with instructions for a bonus block on the CD.  Each skill set starts with a simple block, followed by an intermediate block and ends with a challenging block.  You ease into learning each skill, but by the time you have finished making all three blocks you should feel comfortable making any quilt that uses that skill set.

This book is not only perfect for beginning quilters, but also for all of us that are stuck in intermediate-quilter-land.  I had been quilting for years before I tried to foundation paper piece and I would never have tried to applique if it wasn't for my husband (read that story here).  This book is all about overcoming your quilting fears, trying out new techniques and building skills so you can make the quilts of your dreams.

This book is for you!  Your friend!  Your quilt group!  Everyone!
I can't wait to see it!

And I am linking to WIP Wednesday, because this is one of my biggest WIPs ever!  :)