Product Description

Turn your life's stories into a quilted journal that you and your loved ones will cherish forever. Mary Lou Weidman's story quilts are beloved by quilters everywhere, and now she shows you how to do it yourself. 9 easy projects teach you the techniques so you can apply them to your own story quilts; Dozens of Mary Lou's bright, happy celebration quilts are sprinkled throughout the book, plus she shares a gallery of her students' work to inspire you; Mary Lou covers each step of the creative process, from drawing the initial plans through choosing fabrics and putting it all together; Learn how to expand your imagination and turn your own stories into dazzling celebration quilts; More than just a quilting book - Mary Lou shares her insights for living a peaceful, creative, and productive life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #436076 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

From Amazon.com
More a vibrant parade of richly hued celebration quilts than a straightforward instructional guide, Mary Lou Weidman's Quilted Memories: Celebrations of Life seeks to inspire quilters and would-be quilters to "increase their creativity quotient." To this end Weidman offers a number of helpful pep talks on gaining artistic confidence, working in a supportive atmosphere, and finding life events to immortalize in fabric. She gives a very general nod to working with color, choosing backgrounds, and adding fun embellishments like buttons and lace. The nine "projects" are actually just pattern templates of finished quilts; no real instructional guidance is presented other than a very brief list of extremely basic directions. What makes the book a pleasure to peruse are the dozens of intensely colorful, joyfully primitive quilts that fill the pages, produced by both the author herself and her circle of talented quilters. These delightful creations not only mark events as important as birthdays, weddings, new babies, and official holidays, they also celebrate such seemingly inconsequential but no less quilt-worthy happy memories as a snowy family outing, an afternoon in Grandma's garden, or a sunny day at the beach. --Amy Handy

From Library Journal
More than just the re-creation of traditional quilt block patterns, the personalized quilt is either dedicated to a friend or friends (friendship quilts) or recounts the history of a family or an individual. These three books approach the subject differently. Friendship Blocks will be of special interest to individuals and groups planning quilts to honor special people or events such as the birth of a baby, a graduation, or a marriage. The entire process of planning and completing a friendship quilt is covered, including how to make basic signature blocks (which leave ample space for the quiltmakers to sign the quilts with their names or special messages), plan and execute the hand lettering, and finally quilt and bind the quilt. Ten quilt patterns illustrate the possibilities of this type of collaborative quilt. Recommended for public library quilt collections, especially in areas where there are active quilt guilds. Create Your Family Quilt is an example of how increasingly computer-savvy quilters are using the enormous storage capacity of electronic media in connection with specialized software as an aid in designing unique quilts. The accompanying CD-ROM includes patterns for 700 traditional pieced blocks associated with all 50 states and Canada, plus appliqu patterns for symbols such as state birds and flowers. Using a mix-and-match approach, the quilter picks the elements for the quilt (a state block and colors, for example) and sets them into a predetermined quilt layout. Once the quilt design is completed, the quilter can print out a block pattern, full-sized templates, and rotary-cutting instructions for the original quilt in any size from crib to king. While the book alone is packed with interesting facts about each state of the union, installation of the user-friendly CD-ROM software is required for the actual quilt design. An excellent choice for large public libraries. In Quilted Memories, Weidman gets about as far away from a computer-generated quilt design as you can. This book has few quilt patterns, few templates, and no step-by-step anything. Instead, it consists of some 96 pages of inspiration, colorful images, and ideas for designing "story quilts" based on life experiences. Weidman's tips on drawing, choosing colors, appliqu , and the use of embellishments (such as the gorgeous buttons shown throughout the book) are reason enough to recommend the work to the creative quilter. In addition, nine small projects give the reader an opportunity to practice the author's techniques. Enthusiastically recommended for quilting collections emphasizing art quilts.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Mary Lou Weidman is known for her lively folk-art story quilts. She designs fabric and teaches her quiltmaking methods to a wide audience. Mary Lou lives in Spokane, Washington.

Customer Reviews

Quilted Memories
This book is fantastic. If you need inspiration, ideas, or just a chuckle, this is the book for you.

Inspirational!
This book is one of the most inspirational books on quilting I've read. Mary's approach to applique is inspirational and has gotten my creative juices flowing.

I own both this book and "Whimsies & Whynots" by Mary Lou Weidman - in Whimsies & Whynots there are more large quilt examples to look at, while Quilted Memories has more smaller projects. Both have tons of beautiful examples of Mary's applique quilts, but if I had to choose between the two I'd pick Whimsies & Whynots because there seem to be more quilts in it.

But, this is still a 5-star book, well worth your money.

Capture your life in fabric
Others have written books with this same premise. No one has done it better. Mary Lou approaches her free form quilts with energy, imagination and an art background. She shares with the reader thoughts on creativity, suggestions for themes and ideas and the personal stories behind her quilts. I found the entire book captivating and fun to read. Her method is clear and sets just enough structural boundaries so the neophyte will not feel overwhelmed. Practice projects will help you to warm up.