Clearsnap StamPress

Reported by Sara McKenzie

Clearsnap is a company that manufactures Ancient Page, ColorBox and Fluid Chalk inks, in addition to jumbo and standard size stamping wheels. The "StamPress" is a machine that allows you to use both size stamping wheels for "imprinting, impressing and embossing" just about anything: paper, foil, polymer clay, shrink plastic, ribbon, fabric, sticker paper, drywall tape, cork- get the idea?

I purchased the StamPress some time ago, and was excited to finally pull it out and explore what can be done with it. It also appears that the StamPress is now provided with an instructional DVD- which was not included when I bought mine. But there is a pretty good video on the Clearsnap site if you need it.

The StampPress comes with everything you need to get started, including a Coal Black Ancient Page ink cartridge, a Jumbo stamp wheel, and two Polyclay trays (one for Jumbo wheels and one for standard). The Clearsnap price is $45.00.

When you pull it out of the box, it looks like a complicated contraption- but it really only has a few moving parts, and it does disassemble and re-assemble easily for cleaning.

Above is a photo of the essential pieces of the StamPress, unassembled.

The photo above shows the drive wheel being inserted as part of the re-assembly process.

Above, you can see the housing for the stamp wheel and the ink cartridge. Everything is easily put together by lying the machine on it's side until you have both the drive wheel and the gray housing inserted in their respective slots.

The photo above shows the simple locking mechanism that holds all the pieces together.

A regular, Jumbo-sized ink cartridge fits into the housing, and with a spring-loaded mechanism, snaps into the proper position (just like in a handle). (See above.)

The ink cartridge housing snaps into place on the back side of the gray housing. The photo above shows it in relation to the stamping wheel that has already been inserted.

Finally, the photo above shows the StamPress ready for action. This is what it looks like with the wheel up, before you have engaged the material you will print on. Below is how it looks when you rotate the wheel downward and apply enough pressure on the drive wheel to pull your material through while making the impression.

Clearsnap provides numerous supplies for use with the StamPress. (Note: They have a funky website which does not allow you to bookmark a specific page. Personally, I find this annoying, but I suppose they have their reasons. To find the StamPress and supplies, go to the Clearsnap website, then click on "Stamps" on the menu bar, then "StamPress" on the drop-down menu bar. From left-to-right are photos of the StamPress, Jumbo wheels, Standard wheels, the drive wheel, StamPress supplies, and ink cartridges. Click on any one of those photos to get the product details.)

Available Clearsnap supplies include:

• White adhesive-backed paper strips: 2" x 12"; 24 pieces, 12 each of matte and glossy finish, $6.00. Use these to print out Jumbo (2") or standard size (approx 1") borders for use on scrapbook pages, cards, frames, and other papercrafts.


• Scored, adhesive-backed metallic paper: 2" x 12"; includes 4 each of silver wavy; silver straight edge; gold wavy; and gold straight edge for $6.00. You can print on these with permanent ink and then separate the 2"wide strip into narrower strips along the score.


• Scored, adhesive-backed white paper strips: 2" x 12"; 5 each of matte wavy, matte straight-edge; glossy wavy, and glossy straight-edge, $6.00. These, like the metallic paper, can be imprinted and then separated into narrower strips to make decorative borders.


• Embossable foil strips: 2" x 12"; 10 each of gold and silver, $6.oo. These are not self-adhesive.


• Polyclay trays: 20 trays for use in imprinting polymer clay; 10 each for Jumbo wheels and standard wheels. $6.00. These trays can be baked, and can be re-used, so one package will go a long way.

In addition, Clearsnap makes over 200 wheels for rubber stamping. The Stampin' Around Wheels from Stampin' Up! also work.

I played around with good old-fashioned cardstock, embossable foil, and polymer clay.
The photo above shows the gold embossable foil being fed into the StamPress, without any ink. Underneath the foil you can see the red, rubber embossing mat that is required for creating the impression in the foil (included with the StamPress kit).

Above, you can see the resulting embossed foil, without ink. Below, is the same foil, embossed and impressed with ink.

I did not end up using the foil on on a project, yet. I found that because it is soft enough to be easily embossed, it is also soft enough to be easily marred or bent with simple handling after you have made your impression. Right now I don't see how you could use it on anything that was going to be handled after it was finished, because of the possibility of damaging the impression.

So I moved on to polymer clay. After conditioning the clay in my clay-only pasta machine, I cut a piece slightly shorter and narrower than the tray, and put it on the glossy side of the tray.

In the photo above is my conditioned polymer clay in a jumbo Polyclay Tray. (Why I used white clay, I'll never know!! What was I thinking!!)

If you have any trouble with the clay sticking to the stamping wheel, you can brush it with a bit of baby powder, or if you are using dark clay, spritz it with a bit of water.

The Polyclay Tray feeds into the StamPress as easily as any other medium, and you have a lot of flexibility in achieving the right amount of pressure to obtain a deep enough impression. You can then put the entire tray into the oven for curing the polymer clay. In my case, however, I wanted to divide the clay into separate panels. So I gently pulled up the impressed clay from the tray, and cut it into pieces, before putting it on a tile for baking.

Impressed and baked polymer clay, above.

Below, the lid of a box that was decorated with one of the polymer clay panels.

Above: A charm that I made after running shrink plastic through the StamPress, cutting out the image, and coloring with pastels (pencil for scale).

Below: The charm used to decorate the top of a tiny hexagonal box.

Pros:

• The StamPress provides constant, even pressure as it prints, resulting in a firm, uniform impression.

• You can use jumbo wheels, and with simple adaptors, standard wheels as well for even more design choice.

• It is very easy to swap out wheels (they snap in and out with just a little pressure) and just as easy to swap out ink cartridges.

• Clearsnap provides interesting supplies pre-cut to fit into the StamPress, and at a reasonable cost.

• You can print on just about anything you can feed through the machine: paper, cardstock, polymer clay, shrink plastic, ribbon, foil, fabric, etc.

• It is very easy to assemble and disassemble for cleaning.

Cons:

• It's expensive!!

• The widest thing you can imprint on is 2".

• It doesn't really do much more than you can already accomplish with a wheel and a handle. And in some ways, it is less versatile. For example, with a wheel on a handle, you can decorate an entire sheet of paper, running the stamp wheel again and again across the paper. You cannot do this with the StamPress; you can only make decorated strips.

Even with all of the "Pros", overall, I was disappointed in my investment. I think of the StamPress as somewhat like a hot dog cooker: it does it's job really well, but it only does one thing. In the same way that there are other ways to cook hot dogs without a specific cooker, you can use stamp wheels with a handle and achieve even more than you can with the StamPress.

If, however, you are always disappointed with the way your images turn out using the handle and a wheel (e.g. light impressions, uneven impressions, skipped areas), you might want to give the StamPress a try. This is the one thing that it did repeatedly and did really well: make even, dark impressions.

You can purchase the StamPress online from:

• Clearsnap
• Blockhead Stamps
• Suzy Scraps
• Amazon

And you can purchase the supplies for $5.75 from GotaStamp.

I would really love to know if you think I've been too harsh on the StamPress- I'm always ready to learn new ways to use all of our toys! Let us hear from you!!

Mark It Permanent Markers by Bic

Reported by Heather Strenzwilk

**Update 7/11/09 Staples Office Supplies now has ultra fine point Bic Mark It Markers in 12 packs. They are also the sole distributor of open stock markers too! So purchase just the colors that you need- 99 cents each.**

On a recent shopping trip at a discount store, I discovered Mark It Permanent Markers by Bic. I was attracted to the set of 12 pastel colored fine tip permanent markers. My plans for them included: shrink plastic and coloring metallic items such as paper clips, staples and stickers. The package also said they are good for glass, plastic, photos, foils, coated paper and oily and damp surfaces. I was a bit confused by their acid-free ink claim which said the ink has "no added acid and no measurable pH" but I didn't plan to use them in archival art.


My first experiments with the Mark It Markers were on tin foil, clear holographic stickers and gold metallic stickers. The marker ink actually went on smoothly but was so light in color that despite multiple coats of ink, it was virtually invisible on metallic surfaces. I did use the darkest color, Polynesian Purple, to color some silver staples. After 4 coats of ink the color is slightly visible but not consistent and not as deep as I wanted.

Next I tried the same pen again some Lucky Squirrel clear PolyShrink. Because my writing looked light, I traced over my design again before shrinking it. Because colors intensify when shrunk, I was much happier with the deer color on the finished piece. But as I looked at the finished piece I wondered: are these permanent markers any better than Sharpie Markers, which I often use with shrink plastic?


I found a very similarly colored Sharpie Marker and I re-tested the same surfaces: staples, shrink plastic, matte card stock, tracing a stencil and on Sheer Heaven (a translucent art surface similar to vellum). As you can see by the photos, the results were nearly identical: both pens performed nearly the same on similar surfaces. If I had to find differences I would say that Mark It appeared slightly shinier on shrunken Polyshrink and Mark It bled a bit less when tracing a stencil. Both pens are labeled as "fine point" and drew lines of similar width.


The biggest difference between the two products is that the Mark It has a rubber grip. It was easier to hold the pen and more comfortable for writing. Mark It Markers are have their color name printed on the pen barrel. I really like having the color name so readily available and as a plus the color names (e.g. tiki hut tan or lemon bliss) provide a no-nonsense description of the color.


Bic Mark It Permanent Markers are available in sets of 12 ($15), 24 ($20) or 36 ($30). Sets of 36 are available at retail office supply stores and online at Office Depot and OfficeMax. They are also available online from Amazon and Dick Blick. Bic has a website just for Mark It Markers which contains project ideas and money saving coupons.

Pros:

• Mark It Permanent Markers have a comfortable rubber grip and the color name printed on the side of the pen.
• Slightly finer point than a Sharpie fine point marker.
• Sets of 12 available in 3 color coded collections: Fashion, Earthly Expressions and Paradise Pastels.

Cons:

• Paradise pastels collection has several colors that are too light to see on metal and foil.
• Labeled as acid-free with the disclaimer: "no added acid; no measurable pH".
• Widely available in the full set of 36, but difficult to find in individual sets.

Although the pastel shades were bit lighter than I wanted, Bic Mark It Markers are good basic permanent markers that perform well on a variety of surfaces including plastic, metals and Poly Shrink. Their fine point draws smooth even lines. The comfortable rubber grip pens feature no added acid ink and color name sprinted on their barrels. I'll definitely be using this set again, but I'm not ready for the original or earth tone colored sets yet. I rate Bic Mark It Permanent Markers 8.5/10.

Have you tried Mark It Permanent Markers by Bic? Please share your thoughts with our readers!

Lisa Pavelka Signature Series Craft Foils

How about a nice warm welcome to Jenny, of Craft Test Dummies!

Reported by Jenny Barnett Rohrs



I love shimmer, shine, and glitz, so I was excited to get my hands on the newest mylar foils sold by Lisa Pavelka under the "Signature Series" label.

I got the "Expressions" colors, which has one sheet each of copper, gold, silver, pearl, oil slick, and speckle. The other set available is called "Bold and Brights" and has green, magenta, purple, red, blue, and a rainbow sheet.


Opening the package, the sheets seemed awfully small-- only a little over 4 inches by 8.5". Big enough for clay projects, sure, but it may be limiting if you wanted to, say, make something on fabric.

The colors were lovely, and I started out putting some gold on black polymer clay. Following the tip on the package, I placed the mylar foil dull side down on a sheet of conditioned clay. I used a small piece of waxed paper and rubbed the top of the foil to transfer it onto the clay. The combination of pressure and heat transfers the foil from its mylar backing onto the clay. Presto! Just as advertised, it transferred easily, leaving me with a shiny metallic clay sheet.



I ran it through the pasta machine a couple of times, but to my surprise it did not really crackle. It kind of stretched out with the clay, making the color less dense, but I didn't get the cracking pattern I was going for. Still nice, though, and I was pleased with the result after stamping an image on it with white ink.

Next I tried a more random look, stamping on white and purple clays with black ink, and then rubbing on some foils. This also worked well, and the stamping ink didn't interfere with the foils at all.



The instructions suggest that after baking you apply a top coat to keep the foils from rubbing off eventually. I tried both a liquid clay and Magic Glos (a UV-curing resin, also sold by Lisa Pavelka), and the results were stunning. The additional top coat make the foil sparkle and shine like a million bucks!

While the pictures don't do it justice, here's one of the final pieces:



Lastly, just for fun- and because the package says it's for "clay and crafts" I tried foiling some fabric. I used an adhesive made for this purpose, and I used a rubber stamp by Stampin'Up to put a silver hand on fabric.

Side note: you can wash the foiled fabric by hand in cold water-- just don't dry it in the dryer or iron it, or the image will come off.

Pros:

• Easy to apply.
• Nice "sampler" of colors.
• At $5.99, it's a good price point for a beginner.

Cons:

• Sheets are small- not good for large designs on fabric.
• No detailed instructions or sample craft included in the package- beginners might be at a loss as to how to use them.
• Hard to find at retail outlets.

Where to buy:

• lisapavelka.com
• polymerclayexpress.com
• shadesofclay.com (Canadian!)

Overall, Lisa's Craft Foils are serviceable but don't stand out as leaders in the craft foil field. A nice sampler for the beginner and worth the price to get you going! I rate them a 7 out of 10.

Anybody else out there love mylar foils? Have a brand you're in love with? Let us know!

Book Review: Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To

Please welcome Jennifer, of Mama Sings the Blues, in her first article for Craft Critique!

Reported by Jennifer McGuire

I am lucky to live in Austin, Texas--a crafting wonderland thanks to the efforts and creativity of the Austin Craft Mafia.

I have lived here for five years now; when I arrived I was in a monogamous relationship with knitting, but over the years I have been greatly inspired by the rad crafty ladies I have encountered here and have substantially branched out.

My latest obsession is embroidery and it took me by surprise. I never really thought it held any interest for me and had written it off as a medium I wouldn't pursue. Every how-to I came across, no matter how "modern" left me baffled and uninspired.

It wasn't until I visited ACM member Jenny Hart's website that I realized what the problem was: I'm left-handed and no tutorial I'd seen had ever addressed that, but Jenny does (are you reading this, Obama?)

I was so excited to feel the "click" of understanding and the thrill of learning a new, fun art. Since then I have gotten her book Sublime Stitching : Hundreds of Embroidery Patterns and How-To and the Daniel Johnston Artist Series Pattern set from her website.

After reading her book and practicing the stitches she teaches (including one she invented, the twinkle stitch!) I was confident enough to tackle a few larger projects including a pillowcase for my brother's birthday:


Pros:

• I love the clear, commonsense directions and the reusable patterns. They are all cute and simple enough to finish fairly quickly and the very first pattern is a stitch lesson, which is really handy.

• Most of the patterns include several different sizes of the images including cupcakes, tea cups, and kitties to name a few. It also includes banners and a great all-purpose font to help customize any project.

• I love that the book has pockets on the covers to help store the patterns after they have been used. (each pattern can be used up to nine times then traced onto fabric after that).

• Another great thing about the patterns is you don't even have to use them for embroidery. You can use them with paint, fabric markers or even sequins. It's entirely possible, using these patterns, to bust out a gift for anyone at the very last minute, always a really big plus.

Cons:

• Not many that I can see. More advanced stitchers might find some of the patterns too simple, but the huge advantage in my opinion is that every single pattern can be used as a base for any number of designs. You can use just the font and your own images or use an image and embellish it to your liking.

• The iron-on nature of the patterns was daunting for me at first--I'm a huge fan of the water soluble marker-- and I have to admit: I didn't practice first and ruined a shirt I was working on, which was frustrating (but entirely my fault, Jenny says several times to be careful of that--the ink does not wash out).

Where to Buy:

• www.sublimestitching.com (currently sold out)
• www.chroniclebooks.com (sold out here too... must be popular!)
• www.amazon.com

So what do you think? Have you gotten hooked on embroidery with all the cool modern patterns available? Do you have this book? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Clip It Up by Simply Renee

Reported by Stephanie Wheeler

After hearing rave reviews from my friends, and reading tales of organized embellishments across the world, I thought I'd take the plunge and buy a Clip It Up, what I think is one of the most innovative and practical ways to store scrapbooking and crafting supplies.



The Clip It Up is a vertical organization unit made up of one central column with an attached rotating metal ring. It comes in three sizes: a 18.5" base unit, a 9.5" upper tier and a 6" mini tier (each sold separately). Each unit comes with a set of clips that slide on to the metal ring, allowing you to clip up your supplies. This makes them easily accessible as well as visible, allowing you to organize and flip through your stash of embellishments such as stickers, die cuts, ribbon, rub-ons and even brads and eyelets.

When ordering my Clip It Up, I decided that more space is always better, so I opted to order the base unit and the upper tier, giving me room for small embellishments on top and taller items like stickers on the bottom. The assembly was a snap. It probably took me a total of five minutes to get mine put together. Everything simply screwed together, no tools were necessary.

After a day of organizing and purging, my pile of supplies went from this:


to this:


making my scrap room much less insane.

For such a simple object, the Clip It Up provides a lot of practical organization in one spot. The fact that it's vertical makes it perfect for storing on the floor, on a table or on a shelf. The rotation of the metal ring makes it really convenient as well, eliminating the need to shove supplies in a box where some might never again see the light of day. I highly recommend it for anyone who's ready to get those embellishments out of a box and into view where they will be used and appreciated.

Although I would consider the Clip It Up to be one of my most favorite organization tools, it does have its drawbacks. For the price of $65+ for only one unit, it is disappointingly made of plastic. I would much rather have a unit made of metal that I know will last for years. It is also only available in single units, making it costly to expand.

Pros:

• Super easy assembly, consists of very few parts
• Base unit comes with 80 clips and 25 tabs and labels for organizing
• Once assembled, makes embellishments easily viewable and accessible
• Holds lots and lots of product
  

Cons:

• Made of hard plastic, not metal
• Only holds a 90-day warranty
• Price is high for a single unit
  
• Each tier is sold separately
• Tends to lean if not organized properly
  

Where to Buy:

• ClipItUp.com
• TwoPeasInABucket.com
  
• Scrapbook.com
• Archiver's

Rating: 8 out of 10

The Clip It Up retails at $65 for the base unit, $38 for the upper tier add on, $55 for the mini tier and extra supplies like clips and zipper bags vary from $4-13.

So tell me what you think! Do you own a Clip It Up? Do you love it? Hate it? Has it changed your life?

Winners Announced!

Congrats to the following individuals! You have won an eBook of your choice from CT Publishing! Just visit their eBook collection HERE and send your choice and email address to info@craftcritique.com


Melinda AKA medialady said...

Most of my crafts involve sometype of scrapbooking or using these products to make cards, etc. Thanks for the opportunity to possible win an ebook.

Wendy said...

I love so many types of books, but sewing, knitting, and scrapbooking are my favorite.

Karen said...

Beautiful! I would love to learn to do this. Sounds like you found it easy to do.

Stamp Out Alzheimer's!

Did you know that Alzheimer's Disease is currently the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.? Currently, 5.3 MILLION people die of Alzheimer's disease in the U.S. each year. It is a fatal, progressive disease that slowly robs a person of their precious memories.

I myself have been personally touched my Alzheimer's. My Grandmother died of this disease in 1998. I have also dedicated much of my adult life to working with people who have Alzheimer's and related dementia causing diseases. Not only does this dementia strip an individual of their memory, personality and often dignity... it effects families more than you could imagine.

Providing care for an individual with memory loss costs a tremendous amount of money and energy. The Alzheimer's community needs your help! Many of us are involved in the memory preservation hobbies, so I wanted to share with you this very special Papercrafting Event.

Jen Tapler, of JenTapler Designs, and Susanna Boyd, founder of Papercraft Planet, have teamed up to bring you an exciting "pay to play" virtual papercrafting event to benefit the Alzheimer's Association; "Stampin' Out Alzheimer's".

Jen's father, like so many others, suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Susanna's Grandmother died of Alzheimer's. It's a horrible disease that really takes it's toll on an entire family.

Jen and Susanna, along with a group of generous sponsors and challenge hostesses, have created a temporary online community where members can take part in a variety of challenges, contests, classes and workshops, and download several free products (a special digital kit, a printable 3-d template, tutorials, etc) in different papercrafting categories; stamping, cardmaking, scrapbooking, digi scrapping, hybrid, etc.

So far the response from the papercrafting industry has been amazing and they have received nearly $1000 worth of prizes to be given away throughout the event by their generous sponsors.
To participate in this event, use the "give" link in the paypal widget below to make your donation. You can determine the amount you donate using the drop-down menu, but we suggest a minimum $5 donation (At the conclusion of the event, 100% of these funds will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association to help with their efforts to provide and enhance care and support for all those affected by this heartbreaking disease). Once you've made your donation, go register on the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's site.

The event kicks off on Monday, May 25 and will only last a week, ending at midnight on May 31, so don't miss out on this chance to help Stamp Out Alzheimer's!

Vendor Spotlight : C&T Publishing

Reported by Melissa Norris

Part of C&T Publishing's line of products is the Create & Treasure line of alterable blank board products. And that is where I chose my review items from. I chose the 6 x 6" black board book and the blank board box shadowbox.

Blank Board Box Shadowbox

The shadowbox is similar to the one that Sara chose, but mine was a hinged box and did not have any type of acetate window. The box is quite sturdy and made of white paperboard that is ready to accept any type of media, from paint, to stamping, to paper and Mod Podge. The hardest part for me was figuring out what I was going to do with it because there are many options.

I chose to make a little shadowbox featuring some photobooth style picture strips my family had gotten on a recent museum trip. In each window there is a little bottom and top "ledge" in which to place keepsakes for the full 3D shadowbox effect. Those pieces slipped right out so that they could be covered easily and so you could easily cover the back of the box. Other than those pieces, nothing else can be moved or unassembled.

my finished shadowbox

The box took Mod Podge and paper well, but it may have not been my best decision. Because it is an assembled paper product, the corners weren't always flush, which didn't make a good area for paper piecing. And sanding didn't really help my cause, but it was a poor decision on my part, there is nothing the company could change based on the type of product it is.

The seams don't meet flush making it hard to paper piece

Overall, I'm happy with my little shadow box and found the product to be easy to use. It might be better to paint or stamp it due to the tricky seams, but it's a great sturdy product and makes a sweet little shadow box.

Pros:

• White paperboard is easy to alter
• Affordable prices as compared to wood alternatives
• Pre-assembled, nothing for you to do but decorate
• Sturdy and stands up well

Cons:

• Pre-assembled, which makes it difficult to decorate at times
• Seams don't always match up to even corners

The shadowbox retails for $8.95 and can be purchased directly from C&T, Create for Less, California Paper Goods and local craft stores.

6x6 Black Board Book

The black board book is a 6x6 mini book with a spine. The pages are made of the same white paperboard as the shadowbox with a black coating, so the core is still white. I chose to whip up a little mini book of our ski trip this past December.

my finished mini book

I started out with the cover and coated the book with Mod Podge and a sheet of cardstock. I thought everything was fine and started adding my embellishments. However, after starting to turn the page, I heard that distinctive crack sound. The sound of the cardstock popping off of the cover. The problem is that the black coating is slick and shiny and has very little texture. This makes it difficult to cover in paper. So when moving on to my first set of inside pages, I had to sand the entire page before applying my Mod Podge and cardstock. This time it stuck a lot better.

The cardstock did not stick well to the book with Mod Podge

The pages have a white core

I really like the size of the book, but due to having to sand before applying paper, you really have to coat every page, losing the point of the black book, you might as well just order white. Also, this book is not really made for embellishments. Because of the spine, there is no room to add thick embellishments like chipboard or buttons. However, I plan on remedying that by removing the spine and using my Crop-a-Dile to punch holes and add binder rings on the side of the book.

the black coating is shiny and smooth

Pros:

• Good 6 x 6 size
• Sturdy paperboard, not as thick as some chipboard albums
• A nice spine and black pages, would be great for a simple photo book

Cons:

• White core, not a solid black book
• Black coating is smooth, making it hard to alter without sanding or other prep
• Spine inhibits the use of thick embellishments

Overall, despite the cons, I'm still happy with this little book. I have found was to easily overcome the cons, so it's not a big waste for me. And I can see this book being a very nice presentation for small photos; a simple, beautiful photobook.

The 6x6 black blank board book retails for $6.95 and can be purchased from C&T, California Paper Goods, and Scrapbook Heaven.

The Ready to Go blank board products from C&T Publishing are great products. They are made of sturdy materials, are ready to use, and make a great surface for altered art. Have you tried any of these products? Let us know what you think!

And how about a giveaway!! C&T is donating eBooks to 3 winners! So leave us a comment with the type of crafting book you enjoy most. You can enter on any of the C&T Publishing posts and have until Friday at Midnight! Email subscribers click here to leave a comment and enter!

Vendor Spotlight : C&T Publishing

Reported by Susie Ziegler

I had a really hard time choosing the book I wanted to review from C&T publishing. Their titles by talented artists and designers are of exceptional quality. Some of the titles I considered were Convergence Quilts because I've seen these quilts at quilt shows and they are a great way to use beautifully textured hand dyed fabrics; Quick Star Quilts and Beyond because star quilts are always terrific; A Touch of Felt because I have a drawer full of colorful wool roving and I've seen this author's beautiful projects on craft shows; and Fast Fun and Easy Fabric Boxes because when I made Fast fun and Easy Fabric Bowls from another book from C&T, they were a huge hit with my extended family and all my kids' teachers.

In the end I decided that in my quilt work, curved seams have always freaked me out. I'm also intimidated by working in 3-dimensions, but I'm getting better at that... I chose Winding Ways Quilts by Nancy Elliott MacDonald. I love that the blocks look kind of like stars or flowers and that there are curving lines that create graceful secondary designs. The author assures that her technique is "practically pinless" which is great because pinning can be a real pain. Just look at this colorful sample quilt you can make with the Winding Ways block:

This quilt is done with two contrasting colors and is really effective. I thought I'd try a smaller version of this and make a toss pillow out of it.

It so happens that I am a person who likes to read and follow directions. You do need to read her cutting instructions. Fortunately, this book has great tips about fabric selection, making templates, and cutting the pieces. As in other C&T books, each step is carefully illustrated or photographed to help keep you on track.

It is really important to fold the fabric the way that the author describes. You need to have four layers with a folded edge that is about 3/8 inches below the raw edges.

You also need to make templates out of plastic, linoleum, or cardboard. I used a couple layers of tagboard. The author has acrylic templates for sale in a variety of sizes on her website. I wish I had those templates, because I think the cutting would be more accurate, but the cardboard worked okay. Accurate cutting is key to successful quilting so be careful with this step!

I made templates for a 9 inch block. Five sizes of templates are offered in the book. No enlarging on a photocopier is required. Hooray for that! Using a rotary cutter is preferable to scissors because they are more accurate. I was super careful, but I did nick off a bit of my cardboard template toward the end of the cutting.

There are only three shapes required for this block. I cut shapes from this green and another pretty red fabric and I started pinning.
You need to pin just a little bit at one end of the curved unit you are going to sew.
I made a simple video to show you how to do the seam. In the video, I call this a "block" but this is only one unit and not the whole block. Also, in the book the author recommends using the concave curve on top. I did it upside down, but it still worked out.

I can hardly believe it, but the block turned out great! I am no longer scared of curves! This simple block by itself is just a little bit boring, so I extended it to make a larger top for a pillow.

The author explains how you will need to press your seams. Since these are very gentle curves, they do not need to be clipped at all.

I added some more units all the way around my block. I was able to get the points to match up!

Although the block went together easily, I think I needed to do a little bit more trimming because the finished top doesn't really lay flat. The experienced author assures that once the batting backing and quilting are finished, this puckering will not be noticeable. Even so, I might still go back and try to fix it. I'm sorry I don't have time to do all that for this review.

The book has detailed instructions for a variety of projects using the Winding Ways block. There is also a section with general quilting instructions for how to do a top-batting-backing- sandwich, quilting, and binding.

Doesn't it look cool? I am so excited! I was planning to finish it for my mom as a gift, but it matches my front room, so I might be keeping it all to myself. It really was an easy technique. Note that this particular sized project isn't in the book.

Pros:

• Detailed, illustrated instructions that anticipate your fears and confusions in a very readable style.
• Beautiful projects showcase this versatile block
• Curves really aren't that scary!

Cons:

• Didn't come with templates. I really want those templates.
• Although the projects are all marked as "Easy", I think they are only easy for experienced quilters who already know how to keep a consistent 1/4-inch seam allowance.
• You do need to read the instructions. This may or may not be a "con" for you.

Winding Ways Quilts is available from Amazon, C&T Publishing, and Hungry Bookworm.

What do you think? Will you give curved seam sewing a try? I'm so happy that I did!

And how about a giveaway!! C&T is donating eBooks to 3 winners! So leave us a comment with the type of crafting book you enjoy most. You can enter on any of the C&T Publishing posts and have until Friday at Midnight! Email subscribers click here to leave a comment and enter!