Cheryl Malkowski

‘Doodle Quilting’ by Cheryl Malkowski is a wonderful book for quilters of every age and skill. Malkowski begins with basic stitches and practicing on paper, then advances to multi-stitch designs. Malkowski has included over 120 continuous line designs, meaning you can keep stitching, without having to lift up your needle and start and stop all of the time (at least until your bobbin thread runs out!). There are some stitches that you will find are common in most quilting design books, like stippling, flames and pebbles. Malkowski also includes some very unique patterns, such as intricate roses, and other flowers, but also combinations of stitches, including flowers with leaves, and different types of ferns mixed together. Doodle Quilting also includes the feather, a standard in quilting, but some of her feathers are embellished with pebbles around the feathers, and designs within the feathers that are very unique and fun-looking to quilt out.
Since one of my goals this year is to work on my free-motion quilting skills, this book will be included as one of my learning guides to sew along with. I think this is a really great book to have in your library, whether you are a beginner at free-motion or wanting to get new ideas for your quilts if you are a more advanced quilter!
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2716… (more)

From the author
Blocks to Diamonds came to be because I couldn't stand the thought of making a Radiant Lone Star quilt just like the ones my friends were making. So I tried skewing a traditional block into a diamond and using that block as one arm of the star in the quilt. Since I hate picking out the paper in the traditional paper piecing method--too much like hand work--I used an easy freezer paper piecing technique that simplifies the whole process. The results were instantly spectacular and very satisfying.… (more)

Blocks to Diamonds by Cheryl Malkowski is a new book with very interesting blocks inside. Malkowski takes square blocks and distorts square by stretching them into diamonds. I had always considered the possibility of doing this, but Malkowski uses fairly complicated square blocks and enlarging them to large quilt sizes. The diamonds that she has made into patterns are beautiful, but not really made for beginners. Instead of using paper foundation-piecing, Malkowski shows how to use strip sets and freezer paper templates. If you would like to make a large quilt in a non-traditonal pattern, this book will give you plenty of ideas!
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1981… (more)