From Daisy to Paisley, by Leah Day

From Daisy to Paisley: 50 Beginner Free Motion Quilting Designs, by Leah Day, is a "must have" for any quilter that wants to learn free-motion quilting (FMQ) and/or improve their FMQ skills.

Leah Day is an very talented and creative  young woman, wife, mother, quilter, teacher, author and passionate about free-motion quilting on a home sewing machine!  She came up with a personal challenge to create a new FMQ design, every day of the year, thus kicking off the Free Motion Quilting Project (aka 365 days of FMQ), after becoming bored with stiplling.  She soon launched her on-line store and found that this business grew enough to allow her husband to quit his job, so that they focus both of their energies on their own business, which they run out of their home.

While Leah has done an excellent job creating videos that are available on you-tube and her blog (The Free Motion Quilting Project) of her quilting designs, she also captured insights on 50 of her designs in her book "From Daisy to Paisley".  This book is well written and organized into various categories of design styles, such as Edge to Center Designs, Edge to Edge Designs, Center Fill Designs, Stacking Designs, etc..  Each of the 50 designs, in this book, has an excellent visual, as well as a short description to share how to insights.  You'll also find info on Leah's Filler Design theory, Echo and Traveling, Scale, Quilting on a Home Sewing Machine, general FMQ tips and more. 

These ease of using this book to help plan designs for a quilt, as well as to set near your machine while you are building expertise, is another factor why I view this book is a "must have".  You may can still have fun reading her blog, watching her videos, but I do highly recommend you have your own copy of her book if you really want to build your FMQ skills. 

Each of the 50 designs in this book has a very high quality photo or drawn illustration with instructions on how to quilt the design in your own quilts.  And she shares insights on how various design categories work best in various quilt designs.  Some samples of these designs are:

Paisly Quilt design

Pebbling Quilt design

Pumpkin Patch Quilt Design

Super Daisy design

Remember the above four sample designs are just four of fifty designs in this very helpful spiral bound book, by Leah Day!

From Daisy to Paisley is also available in 2 formats.   You can get it printed book (aka Physical Book), that is spiral bound, or you can get it via an electronic PDF format that you can download and print pages, as you need them.  You can even purchase a DVD that contains 30 of the FMQ videos that go with the designs in this book.  Wait, it gets better - you can purchase a "bundle" where you get the book and the DVD!  For more info, visit Leah's online store, where you can also find many other products that are quite helpful for free-motion quilting.

While "Daisy to Paisley" is perfect for quilters wanting to learn FMQ and/or improve their skills, Leah has also has a new book "Feathers to Flames: 60 Intermediate Quilting Designs" which is available now in a downloadable format and the printed format has preorders starting September lst.   I've not had a chance to check out Feathers to Flames, but I am confident it too is an excellent book for those with basic FMQ skills that want to continue to improve their skills.  Both of these books are very reasonably price and will help you add more interest to your quilts, by way of free-motion quilting. 

Lastly, sign up for Leah's newsletter and receive two free downloadable designs, plus you'll hear insights on Leah's teaching schedule and when new products are released.

http://www.daystyledesigns.com/

Wholesale order info:  http://www.daystyledesigns.com/wholesale.htm 

blog:  http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com 

Leah Day, P.O Box 386, Earl, NC 28038