Quilting Modern Book Review

I was so excited when this book arrived from Amazon about 10 days ago and haven't stopped showing it to my quilting friends since! It's beautifully written and illustrated and has loads of inspiring techniques and projects. It covers 7 clever improvisational patchwork techniques and shows ways of applying those to quilt design.

The book is divided into eleven chapters and the first four are devoted to basic quilt making and design with advice on choosing tools and materials, actually sewing a quilt, choosing colours and backing and binding. All of this is very clearly laid out and explained with clear diagrams.

Chapters five to eleven are each devoted to an improvisational technique with basic instructions followed by three example projects. The techniques covered are:

Chapter 5: Free Piecing
Chapter 6: Improvisational Log Cabin
Chapter 7: Slice and Insert
Chapter 8: Stitch and flip triangles
Chapter 9: Strip piecing
Chapter 10: Modern crazy piecing
Chapter 11: Improvisational curves

The three projects in each chapter show how very different quilts can look using these techniques and range from full bed-sized quilts to cushions and table mats. Although the quilt projects can be completed exactly as the examples in the book the authors encourage you to have a go at creating your own designs too. Here are a few of my favourite quilts:

 I just love the simplicity of the black and grey and I'm itching to make my own version of this for one of the men in my life.

 Janet will tell you my usual reaction to the mention of 'crazy quilts' is the uttering of not very polite words - rather like her reaction recently to the mention of the word 'collage'!! The crazy piecing in this book is not at all like the Victorian examples to be found in museums and even I can see myself using this as in the beautiful quilt above.

 I enjoy piecing curves but they can be time consuming to cut and sew accurately. These improvised 'pods' are really fun to make.

Just to prove modern quilts do not have to have a large amounts of white or grey the last quilt in the book is a riot of colour - right up my street.

I was so enthused with the book I started straight away by making some improvised log cabin blocks using some hand dyed fabric I've been saving for a special project. I also tried the curved pods then used the scraps to make border strips:

I haven't pieced the blocks together yet (I got distracted this week by daughter's wedding planning) and I may add some more. I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

Anyway I can thoroughly recommend Quilting Modern and suggest you visit the author's blogs: Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio and Katie at Sew Katie Did to see more of their wonderful quilts.

Happy Stitching!

Hazel