Last night I started reading a book by Joen Wolfrom called Visual Coloring. It’s not a brand new book (2007 from C&T Publishing) but it’s new to me and I’m finding her ideas really interesting.

She collects photos/ads/images containing color combinations she finds attractive–exciting to her soul, if you will. She files the images into categories such as earthy, watery, warm, cool, autumn, winter, soft, tropical, etc.

When she’s ready to start a quilt/project, she goes to her file and pulls an image with colors that will work in to what she has in mind: here she considers who the quilt is for, how it will be used, the mood she’s after and so on.

She enlarges the chosen image to 8.5 x 11. By studying it carefully, she chooses fabrics in colors to match the image’s colors. It’s so interesting to see her photos and the fabrics she chose based on the photos. There’s a gallery of quilts made using this technique of visual coloring.

If you’re interested in a color method that’s unique, fast and easy, I’d recommend this book. I’m excited to try visual coloring, so the first thing on my list is to start my file of color inspirations. I’ll keep you posted.

I had the pleasure of meeting Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts at International Quilt Market last fall in Houston.

What a delightful and extremely talented quilter! Not only does she design beautiful quilts, she also designs fabric for Moda Fabrics and her first book, Hop To It! has just been published by Landauer Publishing.

You can find the pattern for one of her quilts, Botanic Beauty, in our July/August ‘09 issue, and we’ll be working with more of her designs in future issues.

Edyta has a unique knack for combining different types of fabrics in the same quilt—from batiks to traditional cottons. In an exclusive Quiltmaker interview with Edyta, I asked her if she would share her formula for choosing fabrics for her quilts. She replied “I choose my fabrics by using my ‘Rule of 5.’ The five refer to large, medium, small, stripe and dot prints. If you’d like to learn more about my method for choosing fabrics, I have included complete details of this process in my new book Hop To It! ” Read the complete interview. For information on ordering her book, contact Landauer Publishing at 800-557-2144, info@landauercorp.com, landauercorp.com.

We’re going to give away four copies of her new book. Just leave us a comment with your favorite quilting tip and we’ll randomly choose four lucky people on July 24th to receive a copy of Hop To It!

Bonnie’s not really mysterious, but she sure has fun with mystery quilts! The QM staff have enjoyed getting to know Bonnie Hunter through her blog and in person when she traveled through Colorado in 2008 and we got to spend some time with her.

Let me tell you a little bit about Bonnie. She’s a prolific quilter, a lot of fun and she makes great scrap quilts. She has a workable system for using her scraps (Scrap User’s System in Jan/Feb ‘09) and for making one quilt while she’s working on another (Leaders and Enders in Jan/Feb ‘08). If you ever have the chance to hear Bonnie speak, go! When I heard her speak, I sat there thinking “I can do this–I should do this–It’d be so simple to set up a system like hers.” She’s inspiring.

I’m so glad that we’ve been able to introduce Bonnie to QM readers and, in our July/Aug ‘09 issue we’re starting a mystery quilt designed exclusively for us. It’s called Christmas Lights and part 1 is now available in the magazine.

Special Offer: If you’ve missed any of the previous Quiltmaker issues that feature Bonnie’s articles and patterns, we’ve got a Bonnie Hunter Special on sale now. You get 4 issues that feature Bonnie’s articles and patterns, including July/August ‘09 to start the Mystery series all for $10.99.

Book Review + Giveaway: Bonnie is also the author of a book called Scraps & Shirttails: Reuse, Re-Purpose, Recycle! The Art of Quilting Green, published by Kansas City Star Books. This book is filled with Bonnie’s ideas to recycle everything from stash fabric to thrift store finds. Bonnie will help you tame your scraps and turn them into quilts, and the book has 12 fun patterns as well. Leave a comment mentioning your favorite quilt-related blog  by 12 noon Mountain time on Friday, June 19 and I’ll select 5 different people to win a copy of Bonnie’s book!