Getting a quilting pattern from a bound book
 

I have a large book of quilting patterns. It is impossible to photo copy the pages because of the binding of the book and I don't want to tear out pages if I don't have to......would like to keep them all together! I have heard there is a way with freezer paper and an iron, that I could get the pattern onto the freezer paper, then adhere my freezer paper to the quilt top, and use it as a guide for quilting. My questions are - 1) has anybody tried this? 2) how hot do you have the iron? 3) which side of the freezer paper do you have against the page of the book with the pattern you are trying to copy?

If anyone has any great ideas other than this for getting the quilting pattern from the book and into a usable form, I'd sure like to hear them.

You can take the book to kinkos and have them put a spiral binding on it. It will lay flat then. Make sure it's a spiral and not a comb bind. I have the advantage of owning a large paper cutter and spiral binding system and do this for a lot of my quilting and music books. Down side is since the spine is removed, you can't see the title if the book is shelved.

Get the book spiral bound at an office supply store cheap, and everything lies flat. I did it with my manual and large reference books

Some have used Glad Press and Seal to trace and stick to the quilt but I heard many say it was hard to get the tiny pieces from the seam after sewing the pattern.

My friend suggested that as they cut the spine, ask to mark the cut edges with a sharpie before they do the spiral. Then you have marked the spine. I was not able to be there when the cut mine. They were busy and had to do it later after I had gone...

If you go to staples they will cut the book and bind it with the wire (like some cook books have). I paid $4.00 and it makes is sooooo much easier to copy a pattern.

Get some tracing paper, trace the pattern in the book. Back the tracing paper with copy paper and you can make photocopies or a master you can keep in a book. You can trace from the copies. Use a sharpie to trace.

I just use a scanner. If the pattern is symmetrical, I just copy the good section, place it 4 times to make a square and print that. I happen to have the software for photography, so I use it.

Never knew that Kinko's does this. I am going to have this done to my 500 quilting motifs, what a help to have a spiral bound book, and will have kinko's mark the name of the book on the cut spine. (or I will do it first).

When ever I ran into this problem, I would just break the spine by opening the book and putting pressure on it till the spine released, think a trip to the office supply store is the better option. Thanks for the great idea!