Quilt books on Amazon Kindle

For those with an Amazon Kindle, the electronic reader, you can get loads of quilt-related books. This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is also available. Here are a few convenient links to other Kindle quilting books that may interest you:

• Quilts and Quilting books
  
• Textiles and Costume books
  
• Sewing books

If you have an iPhone or an iTouch you can download the Kindle app. And, if you'd like to read books from your computer, you can even download the Kindle for computer version! Enjoy.

The City Quilter Shines in Time Square

Way to go Panasonic for placing a rotation of five quilts from the City Quilter shop in New York on display in Time Square! It is my understanding the quilts will be up through December 31, 2009 - up high on the 28' x 38' electronic screens. Shown here is Cathy Izzo's "Batik Schoolhouse" quilt. Enjoy!

Have an iTouch? What quilting books are you reading there?

Raise your hands if you have an iTouch or iPhone? I purchased an iTouch last year. For those who don't know, it's like an iPhone without the camera OR the monthly phone bill! I can download any app, song, or even full-length movie from the iTunes store and enjoy.

Earlier this year, I downloaded Amazon's free Kindle app so I can read books purchased for the Kindle electronic reader on my iTouch. My Mom has my old Kindle and she LOVES it - but that's another story (smile!). I've read about five novels now and a few how-to books on my iTouch. As a quilter, you might enjoy the following Kindle versions of these quilt-related books. You can read them all on an iTouch as well.

• Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters by Patricia Turner
  
• The Memory Quilt: A Christmas Story for Our Times by T.D. Jakes
• A Quilter's Holiday: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini

What are your favorite quilt-related things to do with your iTouch? Enjoy!

Try new visual search engine KartOO on quilt research

Someone recently asked me if I had used KartOO.com, a visual search engine designed by two French guys. You've GOT to take a moment and go to http://www.kartoo.com/ - then type in African American quilters ... then just have fun with how certain search phrases are visually represented. What do you think of the site? Enjoy!

Flip Video for your Quilting

Ok - just had to share. I think I'm falling in love with the Flip Video! I spent about 30 mins yesterday exploring how to use it. It's very easy. I opened the velvet pouch it came in, installed the batteries, and read the 6 panel graphical instructions. That's it. I was making a video in moments! The Flip Video camera plugs into your computer via an attached USB plug. The software is in the video camera. My cousin came over to install java for me - as it wasn't on my computer already.

This morning I braved the rains and went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - and shot eight or so quick video snips ... front of the museum, inside, Harriet Powers quilt, etc. There's a mike already in the camera - so I had a couple voice overs. Came home within an hour and plugged the video camera into my computer.

It was EASY to edit the snips to take out terrible scenes where my hand shook too much or the film just ran too long. There's Help links to walk you through any steps. Then, I just pressed the Make Movie link, highlighted the snips I wanted in the "movie" - selected with or without music in the background... and the software makes magic! The various snips were aggregated to one movie. The total time from editing to final movie was about two hours - but that included me figuring out what to do the first time. Then - it was upload to YouTube. Again, just a button.

Technology, in this case with Flip Video, IS changing the way to document quilts, quiltmaking, and our process of creating quilts. What do you think?

Amazon Kindle - Have you tried it yet?

Have you tried the new Amazon Kindle - the hand-size ebook reader? I can't believe it - I got one! Plan to use it extensively this weekend as I downloaded a mystery by a favorite author. Like many others, I'm not crazy about the size page forward and backwards tabs (shown in photo) because it's too easy to leap pages by accident. What I will really enjoy is the EASE of getting new books via Amazon - literally purchase online and the book appears on your device. No trying to learn how to transfer files from a computer. I was surprise to also have internet access via Kindle as well as ability to listen to music via MP3 files. There are about 20 quilting books now available via Amazon Kindle; including a couple of Elm Creek Quilt novels, and quilt history books by Ricky Clark and Merikay Waldvogel. Enjoy!