Hooray, I can talk about my book!
Guess what, friends? Lucky Spool Media has given me the all-clear to talk about my book. I think it has something to do with the fact that we finally settled on a cover, haha! Having a cover does make it much easier to announce. Here goes!
About this time last year I reached out to Susanne Woods of Lucky Spool. They have an open submission policy, which means you don't have to work with an agent to reach them. I followed their guidelines to submit a proposal to transform one of my most popular classes, Color Intensive, into a book!
I've loved offering Color Intensive as an online class, but as a book it could be so much more. Color is, after all, a tangible experience. I knew my students would benefit from a book they could hold in their hands, with beautiful images to enjoy and unpack.
Luckily, Susanne was excited about the project and totally caught my vision. She understood that I wanted to create a color journey for the reader, an experience of growth and self-actualization. This is not a project book, nope. It's more of a skills workbook. A color and fabric workbook-reference book. It's color for the quilter.
Introducing The Quilter's Field Guide to Color: A Hands-on Workbook for Mastering Fabric Selection. Inside you'll find 150 color swatches just waiting for action. These color manipulatives will allow you to flesh out the concepts in the book, moving from seeing to doing.
The book walks you through 12 color exercises, with opportunity for expression first with swatches and then with fabric. Working with fabric helps you cross that divide from theory to practice. Selecting fabrics is not just about color. It's about scale and style and lots more - all of which we'll unpack layer by layer!
Along the way, you'll make Bear Paw blocks to capture your learning experiences. At the end, I provide three different setting options to transform your blocks into a quilt or two. No orphan blocks here. Oooh, I can't wait to show you the quilts later this year!
Here's what Susanne has to say about the rest of the book:
Completed all of the Exercises? Next, you will join Hauser in an evaluation of your own stash using her series of checklists and tips. She will teach you to understand your helpful and unhelpful fabrics, guide you through creating a color story for each and every quilt you make and even take you on a step-by-step fabric pull demo from start to finish. You will never shop for fabric in the same way again!
Finally, leaf through the series of gorgeous two-page color stories Hauser has created to keep you inspired, highlighting various effective color stories using an inspirational word and loads of different fabrics.
Perfect for using with your guild for monthly challenges over an entire year or for bringing along on a sewing retreat, you will be amazed by the endless color combinations created using The Quilter's Field Guide to Color. Everything you are looking for in a workbook on fabric selection that you will use as a reference again and again: beautiful, practical, personal and fun!
So, I bet you're wondering, when, when? I know! Me too! Well, I think it'll be available sometime in November. The book will make its debut at fall quilt market. Oh, and it's going to be a hardcover! I like that. You're going to use it again and again, so let's build it to last. Yay!
Big thanks to Susanne and the Lucky Spool team. It's been absolutely great working with everyone. They've been professional, friendly and truly collaborative. A book is different than an online class. Working with an experienced team helped shape it into a fresh and absolutely improved experience. I'm so thankful that it happened exactly this way.
And thanks to YOU too. There would be no Quilter's Field Guide to Color if you hadn't started it all by reading this blog, encouraging me to create and even asking me to write about color. I didn't know I could put it into words until I tried. And you made me! Thanks for that.
xo,
Rachel