Windy City Bags

Sara Lawson, author of the top-selling Big-City Bags, presents a new collection of high-fashion designs. Expand your skills with patterns for 12 sophisticated bags that make impressive gifts.

Ready to move beyond basic bags and totes? Now you can create sophisticated handbags and totes with a modern look. Learn a variety of intermediate to advanced techniques--from installing zippers and magnetic snaps to creating adjustable straps--and find detailed info on selecting the right interfacing, stabilizer, or batting for any project. Choose from 12 new designer-style bags and purses--alternate colorways provide additional inspiration Make use of clearly illustrated, well-tested patterns for sewing attractive bags Add stylish design elements that make your bags stand out: piping, three-dimensional pockets, fabric pleats, and more

Sew a range of 20 beautiful, colorful bags, from totes and backpacks to clutches and shoulder bags. Add a gorgeous finishing touch to any outfit! This mouthwateringly colorful book contains 20 beautiful bags to sew from popular designer Debbie von Grabler-Crozier. It includes a huge variety of different styles and sizes, from totes and bucket bags to backpacks, clutches and shoulder bags, and Debbie makes each one easy. The book contains a complete guide to all the techniques needed, shown using easy-to-follow step-by-step photography; also included is a section on creating beautiful finishing touches, including embroidery, applique, crocheted flowers, beaded charms and labelling. All the templates required are included on a handy pull-out sheet. "Author von Grabler-Crozier provides clear instructions for crafting deceptively simple bags so even beginners will be inserting pockets and zippers like a pro. The author of a craft blog, Pretty Things, she has assembled patterns for 20 bags made out of many pieces, which is perfect for using scraps or fat quarters, while also opening up infinite options for color and pattern mixing, even though she includes the specific fabrics she used for each bag so that crafters can, if they wish, follow her vibrant examples. In addition to a list of supplies and tools needed to create each bag and its accompanying embellishments, von Crozier- Grabler includes directions for inserting a zipper or tackling free-motion embroidery. All of her instructions are precise and specific, making the assembly of a multipocketed, zippered diaper bag with a removable strap totally doable. And there are also patterns for simpler bags. Other projects include a wristlet, several totes, purses, a backpack, and a weekender bag. Large, copyable patterns and templates are included, ensuring that this is a colorful addition to any craft collection". -- Booklist January 1 2018 issue

Dramatic curves and angles for today's adventurous quilter Become a skilled foundation piecer with New York Beauty blocks and arcs of Flying Geese that amaze! Carl Hentsch simplifies a technique loved by many with his straightforward approach to curved piecing, foundation piecing, and simple machine appliqué. Stitch your way through 31 architectural block patterns, ideal for advanced beginners and intermediate quilters. Then it's time to practice on 10 full-size quilts and 27 bonus pillow projects with lively color combinations to provide movement and drama. In a personal foreword, fabric designer Tula Pink discusses how she met Carl and came to collaborate with him on the color choices for his quilts. • Complex piecing made simple! Expand your skill set and learn new tips and techniques for curved and foundation piecing • Traditional blocks shine with the use of modern fabrics in rich color stories, with fabric selections by Tula Pink • Practice your newfound skills on a small project with stunning round pillows designed to accompany each quilt

Christmas at the big Chicago department store Marshall Field's was a magical time for many. Diana Richards and Jan McGrath have captured that magic in Christmas Window Quilt and 14 other projects designed around memories of visiting the store during the holiday. Children's aprons, a wall quilt, place mats and napkins, tote bags, pillows, a tree skirt, and more with embellished embroidery, piecing, and appliqué are in store for you in Windy City Christmas.

Create a sampler quilt as unique as you are! Tula Pink gives you an inspiring quilt block collection with Tula Pink's City Sampler. Make a beautiful, modern quilt of your own design with the 100 original quilt blocks or try one of the 5 city-themed sampler quilts designed by Tula. A note from Tula: "You will notice...that the blocks are not named but simply numbered. This is intentional. I may have designed the blocks and given you the instructions on what to cut and where to stitch, but I have not infused the blocks with any meaning. This is your quilt. The fabrics that you choose, the colors that you use and why you are making it are what will give the quilt a purpose. Name your blocks, write in the margins, cross out the ones that you don't like, draw hearts around the ones that you love. In a perfect world, everyone's book would end up looking like a journal, coffee stains and all. The more adventurous ones might rename the book and write their own introduction. Tula Pink's City Sampler is a collaboration between you and me. I am the platform and you are the speaker, so stand on my shoulders and tell the future who you are and why you make."

GREAT. I've somehow found myself tangled up with a siren, a mermaid, and a homicidal wicked witch who once tried to strangle me to death. Way to go, Amber! Amber Sand, legendary matchmaker, couldn't be more surprised when her archnemesis, Ivy, asks for her help. Ivy's sister, Iris, is getting married, and Ivy wants to prove her sister is making a huge mistake. But as Amber looks into Iris's eyes, there doesn't seem to be a problem—Iris has clearly found her match. It seems happily-ever-after is in the cards, but when Iris seeks out a dangerous, life-altering spell, it's up to Amber and Ivy to set aside their rivalry and save the day. As Iris puts everything on the line for love, Amber continues to wrestle with her own romantic future. Her boyfriend, Charlie, is still destined for another, and no matter how hard she clings to him, fear over their inevitable breakup shakes her belief system to the core. Because the Fates are never wrong—right?

The acclaimed author of the intensely powerful novel Pretty Birds, Scott Simon now gives us a story that is both laugh-out-loud funny and heart-piercing–as sprawling and brawling as Chicago, where politics is a contact sport. The mayor of Chicago is found in his office late at night, sitting in his boxer shorts, facedown dead in a pizza. The mayor was a hero and a rascal: dynamic, charming, ingenious, corruptible, and a masterly manipulator. The city mourns. But it’s discovered that the mayor was murdered–shortly after he may have begun to squeal on some of his colleagues at City Hall. Over the next four days, police race to find the mayor’s killer, while the politicians who bemoan his passing scramble for his throne.

The Windy City comes to life in the ultimate hide and seek adventure for kids and readers of all ages! The mayor of Chicago needs your help! A museum is opening up a new exhibit on the greatest things in Chicago, the best city in the world, and needs YOU to search for the items and find them before the museum opens! In this can-you-find activity book for kids ages 6-10, search for a Triceratops hidden among the crowds at The Field Museum and a statue of a lion at Lincoln Park Zoo or try to spot the anchor at Navy Pier. An interactive adventure for kids living near or far, this bright and engaging seek and find book is a perfect gift for Chicagoans or Illinois natives, Christmas stocking stuffer or travel souvenir. Children will love looking for the items among some of Chicago's most popular and iconic sights and landmarks, including: Adler Planetarium Chicago French Market Field Museum Navy Pier Grant Park Shedd Aquarium Museum of Science and Industry North Avenue Beach O'Hare International Airport Lincoln Park Zoo

Finding Baba Yaga is a mythic yet timely novel-in-verse by the beloved and prolific New York Times bestselling author and poet Jane Yolen, “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” (Newsweek). A young woman discovers the power to speak up and take control of her fate—a theme that has never been more timely than it is now... You think you know this story. You do not. A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself.... "Jane Yolen is a phenomenon: a poet and a mythmaker, who understands how old stories can tell us new things. We are lucky to have her."—Neil Gaiman