A Quilter's Diary: Written in Stitches

By Mimi Dietrich

Book Overview

Ever wanted to write the story of your life? With fabric as your paper and a needle as your pen, you can chronicle your most memorable moments. Bestselling author Mimi Dietrich explains how to tell your personal story--or the story of someone special to you--in extraordinary quilts.

Construct the pieces of your life in fabric with your choice of 100 pieced and appliqued block patternsLet Mimi guide your designs with inspiring questions and themes--24 categories include family, friends, holidays, hobbies, and moreA gallery of quilts, plus Mimi's unique setting tips, will help you launch your own ideas

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564777928
• ISBN13: 9781564777928
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: That Patchwork Place
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Quilter's Diary

The book was perfect - I was not, found a copy in my book stash a month after I received this one. Can I return??? Claudia

inspiring, creative, and beautiful

A Quilter's Diary is a simple guide book to telling your life story in quilt blocks. Mimi tells you how to pick the blocks, arrange the quilt in order, and make each square special and unique to you. There are tons of blocks to pick from, and she encourages you to branch out from her suggestions and take a creative license, showing examples and giving ideas. (Here is one page from the book with some ideas for a "hobby" quilt block. See the books on the left? Guess what's going on my quilt!) [...] Some of the quilt squares that are suggested are: Heritage, Childhood, Parents, Grandparents, First Love, True Love, Wedding, Children, Pets, Seasons, Travel, Dreams and wishes... and tons more. Each theme has seven or eight ideas for you to use, or you can create your own using the theme. Every quilt block has questions that you can answer to inspire you. They make you think about important things and decide what kind of square you'd like to make. There was also some basic quilt making instructions and appliqué and embroidery instructions that are clear and concise with very good illustrations. Then there were photographs of quilts. Oh the quilts were just beautiful! So artistic in every way. This book had my mouth watering and my fingers itching for fabric and embroidery floss. The idea of a quilt as a diary and a permanent keepsake is an old one, but it looks so much less intimidating through this book because of the way it's presented. This book is incredibly inspiring, and I intend to start my own quilt diary. It will take years to finish because I don't have much to share right now, but I'm sure as life goes on, with the help of this book, I'll have a very special and unique keepsake when it's finally done.

Provides well over a hundred pieced and appliqued block patterns to construct a life story in fabric

Mimi Dietrich's A QUILTER'S DIARY WRITTEN IN STITCHES provides well over a hundred pieced and appliqued block patterns to construct a life story in fabric. From themes of family, hobbies and holidays to examples of completed 'diary' quilts and setting tips, quilters receive patterns, colors and tips perfect for chronicling a life story. Quilting libraries will find this an important acquisition. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Journal your life in a quilt

I am a journalist - that is I keep a journal of my daily activities. I am also pretty creative but Ms. Dietrich has one over on me with this book. I never thought to "journal" my life in a quilt! What a GREAT idea. She begins the book with five pages of how to gather the threads of your life by explaining how to pick out the blocks you will use. She uses seven areas of life such as Grandparents, Children and Dreams and Wishes to name a few. Under these sections, she has them broken farther down into such things as Home, Pets, Hobbies and Retirement. Each section and sub-section has suggested blocks. Each section begins by showing an appliqué block and then there are six pieced blocks in that section. All in all, there are 156 blocks to choose from. Two of the blocks are embroidered word blocks. You can see thirteen different "journal" quilts in the gallery that follows the blocks. There is an eight page section on quilting basics which is followed by a wonderful two page suggestion on how to create the quilt label. The final page is a short bio on Ms. Dietrich. This is a book I will keep in my library forever. Besides being a great book on journal quilts, it will be a great reference to 154 quilt blocks.

A fascinating idea, well presented

As with all of Mimi Dietrich's books, 'A Quilter's Diary' is an attractive and well presented volume. The central concept of the book is the idea of making a 'quilt diary' about yourself or someone else - choosing quilt blocks whose names or patterns represent important mile stones in your life. There are photos of Mimi's own diary quilt and the quilts of some of her students as well as the patterns for 150 patchwork and applique blocks arranged according to various themes such as childhood, parents, true love, home, career and so on. The only reason I haven't given the book five stars is because 150 blocks don't really provide enough choice for a personal quilt, and readers will have to look further at other quilt block books - to be fair, there is a list of possibilites in the bibliography at the end, but it would have been nice to see more blocks presented as well as they are here.