Rainbow Disks

Rainbow Disks is the latest innovation in craft publishing. Originally founded by Vivienne Wells and Barbara Case in 2006, the company is now solely owned by Vivienne. Having worked in the publishing industry for over 20 years Vivienne realised there were many brilliant books out there that were not being published by the large publishing companies, because the subjects were considered too specialist.

An example of this, given by Vivienne, is tiaras. She knew there were a growing number of people wanting to make tiaras and barely any books on the subject out there. The large publishers she worked for at the time were not prepared to publish a book on tiaras as they had never done so before and therefore could not prove there was a market. So Vivienne bravely took the step of setting up her own company, not only publishing niche craft books but publishing them on disk rather than on paper. She now offers 2 great guides to making tiaras, along with quilting books, books on beaded jewellery, cookery, card making, appliqué and cross stitch.

The books are purchased on CD, in PDF format. The benefits of this include being able to print up patterns, templates, shopping lists and specific pages, being able to click straight through to supplier's websites, being able to zoom in on diagrams and images - plus CDs take up a lot less space than paper books do! Using the PDF book marking system you can click straight through to the section that interests you or you can go directly to a specific page number, instead of having to flick through.

The books can be purchased online from Rainbow Disks' website: www.rainbowdisks.com  and are priced between £10-£14, plus you can get them gift wrapped for free. The website shows sample pages so you can browse the contents of the CD books.

We were lucky enough to receive a copy of their latest release - Scrap Quilts for Babies & Toddlers by Katharine Guerrier, which of course we will be giving away through the site. This book is published in June and will cost £12, but advance copies are available . We have reviewed the book below:

My first impression is that the images seem a lot brighter and more colourful on screen than they do in a book. Once I had located the bookmark tab it was very easy to navigate. The book starts off with an introduction to the author, and tips on how to use and navigate the book.

Following the usual Contents page and Introduction you come across the projects. The projects themselves are instructions and patterns for 10 cot/small quilts. They are scrap quilts, so perfect for using up some of your stash. Each section starts off with a picture of the finished quilt, followed by a list of what you will need to make the quilt.

There are then instructions and diagrams to talk you through the steps required to make the quilts accompanied by useful tips.

Quick Pieced Flying Geese Step 4: Stitch ¼in away from the lines on both sides

At the end of the book there is a useful techniques section, with photographs to help guide you from the block making to the binding as illustrated above. You will also find a Suppliers section with web links straight through to the supplier's sites. At the end of the book you find details about other books written by the author.

All in all I found the book easy to use, and a lot easier to view details on diagrams and images on a computer compared to in a paper book. The quilts seem to cater for all skill levels and use a variety of fabrics and techniques. There will always be some people that prefer to have a paper book in their hand, but for the rest of you why not give them a try?

Teddy Bear's Quilt

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Competition

To win an exclusive, pre release copy of Scrap Quilts for babies & toddlers by Katharine Guerrier please have a look at the range of cd-rom books on www.rainbowdisks.com and let us know what you think they are missing? What craft subject what you like to see them publish a book on?

Please send your answers to fiona@thesewingdirectory.co.uk

T & Cs - One entry per person, closing date 6pm Tuesday 25th May 2010.  Family and employees of The Sewing Directory and Rainbow disks are excluded.  Winners will be announced on Wednesday 26th May.