Lucky Spool's Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmakin: From Color to Quilting: 10 Design Workshops from y

The only thing to say is "brilliant"

Great book from some great designers

Quick delivery and product was as described

This book is well worth having, even though some of the chapters (or “workshops”) are not as good as others. The best chapters are by teachers who provided not just a description of what they do but also clear and concise directions for how to apply their technique while also interjecting your own creativity. Best among these are “The Alternate Grid” and “Improvisational Patchwork”. I’ve taken improv classes so I didn’t expect much new in that chapter, but Schmidt’s workshop ideas were interesting and exciting and I can’t wait to try them out. Also the chapter on color was more than I had expected. I have read so many books and articles on color, probably because no matter how much I read I still have a hard time understanding what I am looking at when I’m at the fabric store. Vojtechovsky's chapter has great visuals, usually with side by side comparisons, and really increased my understanding.However, as stated above, some chapters fall short. The absolute worst of these was the “study of modern quilts”. Here the author picked out quilts that she likes. Period. Brief comments from the quilters are included but nothing from the “teacher”. As far as I can tell, she seems to think the very selection of these quilts says it all and we should be able to divine her artistic vision from them. I know what I see in these quilts. What I would have liked is some discussion of what she sees in them and what characteristic(s) lead her to include them in the book. Her take-it-or-leave-it approach has left me literally wanting to just rip these pages out and leave them in the trash. The chapter on large-scale piecing was also disappointing. Jones does a lot of describing large-scale quilt characteristics, but offers no practice exercises and little in the way of guidance. For example, the comment that “Negative space should be used to give the composition an area of visual calmness . … , is not accompanied by any guidance on how to move from “should” to “does.” Of course, I still learned something from these chapters – mostly that I would never take a in-person workshop from those contributors. They may be great artists, but teaching is its own skill.So, in summary, a good book that could have been better but, especially if you are in a part of the country that rarely hosts national level teachers, well worth having.

For me, much of it is review. I particularly like Angela Walter's quilting techniques and patterns. For a beginner, I think this would be a very welcome addition to the sewing room bookshelf.