Biographical note:

     
     Elsie Campbell is best known for her exquisite hand-quilted, award-winning quilts, but she started out, like many other quilters, in the field of dressmaking. She grew up in the small community of Deer Creek, Oklahoma, attending the Deer Creek Mennonite Church and learning her quilting skills from her mother and the Deer Creek Mennonite Women’s Mission Society. After graduating from a small teachers college in Oklahoma, she taught home economics and special education in public schools. Elsie began exhibiting her quilts nationally in 1992 and has won numerous prestigious awards. Most recently, she won Best Machine Workmanship awards at several national-level shows. Earlier awards include: ?First Place in the traditional category at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas ?Best of Show at Quilt America! in Indian¬apolis, Indiana ?the Mary Krickbaum Award for Best Hand Quilting at the National Quilt Association Show ?the American Quilter’s Society’s Excellence in Hand Workmanship Purchase Award. Elsie lives in Ponca City, Oklahoma, with her husband of 38 years, Kenneth. The couple has two grown sons.

Main description:

    
     Award-winning quilt maker, Elsie Campbell, loves to take homemade fabric yardage and turn it into stunning, pieced, string quilts, whose leftover yardage can then spawn an appliqued "sister" quilt. Ten patterns for all skill levels.

     
     String Quilts is one part innovation, one part thrift, and a whole lot of fun. When author, educator, and award-winning quilt-maker Elsie M. Campbell needs a break from creating precision pieced and -appliquéd beauties, she turns to making string quilts. "This is my playtime," she says. String Quilts is an innovative approach to quilt-making that involves creating your own fabric yardage from new or leftover strips of fabric. This new yardage becomes the basis for creating stunning pieced quilts, whose leftover yardage can then spawn an appliquéd "sister" quilt. 
     
     The 10 quilts are shown in brilliant full color photography with easy-to-follow instructions, patterns, and diagrams. Also included are "Elsie's Top Tips for Successful String Quilts" and a full-color Gallery of 12 additional quilts by Campbell and other playful quilters, all demonstrating the range and charm of string quilts. Patterns for all skill levels.