Where I Talk About A Book On The iPad

With the holidays, I had a lot of things get put to the side.  Unfortunately one of those things was blogging about this fantastic book I contributed to.  I kept saying to myself “You need to blog about this!” and I’d sit down, edit the photos a little and then get distracted with something else.  (Not to mention I’ve been battling all kinds of infections these last three months.)  As of now it’s just an eBook, thus the photos of the iPad.  The paper version of the book will be released in August, but I wanted to be sure to talk about the eBook as a lot of the projects can be adapted for all year long.  It’s hard to convey my honest opinion when I’m actually part of the book, but I’m going to do my best.  I REALLY love Pretty in Patchwork Holidays!  Even if I didn’t have projects in it, I would still be buying it and telling you how much I love it.  It is honestly one of the best holiday craft books I’ve come across in a very, very long time.  John Adams (the books author, and Quilt Dad as many of you might know him) did such a great job of assembling crafters and all of the projects are unique and beautiful.  John himself contributed lots of patterns and the quilts are amazing.  There were quite a few that I thought “I’d make that!” 

I’ve had the iPad going on almost two years now (have they really only been out two years?!?!) and one of the main reasons I wanted it was to have an eReader.  I love reading books on the iPad (well, now I read them all on my iPhone it seems) but was resistant to the thought of magazines and craft books on it.  I still like the feel of an actual book.  Well, that point of view has changed recently with respect to magazines.  Now I want to skip the paper version and just have it delivered to the iPad.  This was my first experience with a craft book on the iPad, and I have to say that I’m really liking it!  When I buy patterns from online independent sellers I love to email myself a copy of the PDF and open it in the iBooks app and just have my iPad on a stand on my cutting table.  Turning between the pages is so easy and I’ve found it’s a great way to use the eBooks as well.  I think the other positive thing about having the books on the iPad is that I’m saving precious shelf space.  Now, the only problem with the eBooks is the printing of the patterns, but as long as you have a computer with printer that is pretty easy.  And I imagine if you are using a service like Kinko’s, it would be pretty easy to have them help you print what you need.  I haven’t explored it, but I know there are lots of apps that allow you to print from your iPad now (I think iPad2 had this built in…?).  Within the Zinio app for this book on your desktop computer, you just tell it to “Print Current Page” while on the template pages and it prints perfectly.

Okay, so on to the book.  I’ll just talk a like about it now so that when I have the physical book I can gush all about it again, especially since it will be right before the holiday season at that point.  So this is the first project I contributed – wine bags.  Or whatever kind of bottle you might be gifting (maybe sparkling cider).  There are two versions of this bag, the main version is a drawstring top and the other is with an open top and handle.  The front is customizable for the holidays or for gifting at any time of year (birthdays, weddings, showers).  There are templates for a pumpkin for the fall, a tree for the winter, a cake for celebrations like weddings or birthdays and an option to do just a W (for wine) for any occasion. The bag itself fits around a wide bottom bottle nice and snug (I used Sokol Blosser bottles as my test-bottle…one of my favorite wineries for Pinot Noir and of course their Evolution!). 

The other project I contributed was some tiny patchwork ornaments.  There are two in the winter theme (snowman and tree) and two in the Hanukah theme (Star of David and Dreidel).  Now I know that hanging of ornaments is not a Hanukah kind of thing, but maybe there is a gift that needs some adorning or there may be other ways to incorporate the tiny patchwork into other items for the holiday.  Or maybe there are some that celebrate both Christmas and Hanukah and what a great way to blend the two.  Really, who can resist tiny patchwork?!  Aside from that, the book is beautifully designed and the basic instruction chapter at the front is well presented and relevant.  To see a preview of the book (you can scroll through it all at a very small size and zoom in on 3 pages) and download a copy for yourself you can go to the Zinio website.  If you don’t have an iPad or Android, you can still view this on your computer (this isn’t viewable on the iPhones yet, not sure about the Droid phones).  Zinio has a free viewer that you will download and then sign in to your account.  Once in your account you can download what you’ve purchased (books and magazines).  And of course, because you are signing into your account, you can view on all of your devices with purchase. 

Pretty in Patchwork Holidays:  Zinio  |  Amazon – Not available yet

Zinio eReader:  iPad  | iPhone  |  Android  |  Desktop

Pretty in Patchwork Holidays:  Flickr Group  | John’s Blog Post

In short, this is absolutely a book I would buy and love to own.  I receive nothing from you following any of these links.  Yes I contributed to the book and received a free digital copy for doing so, but even if I hadn’t, I still would have bought this.  Go take a look for yourself!  (And I’ll talk more about this again in August when I have a paper copy in my hands!)  Tomorrow I’m going to have a post up about a book I bought at the beach a few weekends ago.  I casually flipped through a few pages and was like “I’m buying this!” so of course I have to share it with you.