I have to watch my pennies right now, but I really like the mctavish quilting. Is it worth the money for the book/dvd combo? Will I actually learn how to do it? A lot of people make books but leave you hanging so you buy more. She doesn't seem like that kind of person from what I hear.

And which one would be the best?
Thanks for the help. :)

Have you seen Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting website?

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...dow-waves.html

Bottom line--practice, practice, practice.

See if you can find used copies on ebay or etsy. SewAlice suggested website also looks good.

She has some videos on you tube that I watch the other day. I wasnt real impressed, shes better than I. I couldn't see what made her any different than any other longarmer. Check out her videos there maybe that would be all you needed to understand her style and its free.

Yup. Leah Day is one I already watch. I will have to take a look at ebay n stuff. Just really looking for an opinion on which one would have the most info for the money.

The DVD is excellent. The books contains some other stuff, such as shadow quilting, which you might not want. Try her tube demos. Mctavishing is great an you will develop your own style.

I have a different Karen McTavish book/DVD (Quilting for Show) and her writing/instructing style is excellent...clear, understandable and easy to get from here to there.

I picked up the up the book/dvd from my local library. You should check to see if yours has it.

having said that... I liked Leah's videos better...
Here is the link directly to her youtube channel - the links are also on her blog that was already posted a few replies ago - but here's the direct link to the videos ;)
http://www.youtube.com/user/lcvday

I personally would say the McTavish book was nice - but I personally like Leah's take better :)

I have Quilting for Show, Secrets of Elemental Quilting and Custom Curves. I liked the Quilting for Show better of those, but I'm going to buy one of the curvy rulers and give the curved grid quilting a try, too. It's just such a striking look in some areas. :)

I had considered the one that's called Mastering McTavishing or something like that, but that seemed pretty one-techique-specific.

I don't usually need in-depth coverage of just one technique (and I may have been wrong on this point in the first place - maybe it covers a lot more!) but I would definitely go with Quilting for Show.

I haven't looked at it in quite a while, but as I recall, it was full of good ideas and it gives you enough of an idea of how things are done that you can get the gist of it.

I liked Elemental Quilting, too but it seems to be more technique-specific - and I'll bet I'll like it a lot more when I try trapunto or start trying to put together my own repeatable quilting motifs. So far, I'm just drawing little designs and tying them together with loops and squiggles.

Hope that helps! :) Happy quilting!

Yarn or Fabric: thanks for the info.
I need a technique/instruction book. Once I have an idea or direction I'm fine.