What a birthday bonanza of quilty books I got for my birthday!
- No Scrap Left Behind by Amanda Jean Nyberg (@crazymomquilts)
- Charm School by Vanessa Goertzen (@lellaboutique)
- Quilt as-you-go Made Modern by Jera Brandvig (@quiltingintherain)
- Weekend Quilting by Jemima Flendt (@tiedwitharibbon)
Wow, what a great bundle of inspiration in there!
My thoughts on each of the books.
No Scrap Left Behind by Amanda Jean Nyberg
As someone who constantly struggles with the ‘what do I do with all these scraps?!’ – this book is perfect for me! Lots of gorgeous pictures to inspire me and some very helpful hints on how to actually manage those ever-increasing scraps!
The Donuts quilt picture caught my eye and what a wonderful way to use up scraps of all different colours! I could be tempted to use a bundle of delicious FQ that is sitting on my shelf instead of scraps for this 🙂
I marked 4 projects from this book that I really want to do. Like now. The hardest part is going to be deciding which to do first!
Overall thoughts: good quilt book. useful. inspirational. definitely worth buying.
Charm School by Vanessa Goertzen
I have been hankering for this book since Vanessa first started showing peeks of it on Instagram. Some simple but very effective quilts in here using Charm Packs. Which, let’s face it, I have quite a few of!
I love the Chandelier quilt which I think will be the first project I start very soon… oh to choose which charm pack to use!
The other one that really caught my eye was Love Letter in red and white…. I just LOVE red and white quilts!
Whilst this book is aimed at a beginner quilter, there are some lovely projects that make use of your charm packs (or cut up a layer cake). Vanessa gives cutting instructions for FQs and scraps as well, so you can easily make these patterns out of whatever fabric you have at hand.
Again I found 4 patterns in here that I want to do soon. And I *might* have already done fabric pulls for three of them!
Overall Thoughts: lovely pictures, good instructions. A lovely addition to the quilter’s library and a great present for a newbie quilter wanting to try something bigger. Or the more seasoned quilter who wants some fun, easy projects to do.
Quilt as-you-go Made Modern by Jera Brandvig
I was interested in this book after a recent quilting experience…Â you know the one… wrangling a quilt, hefting it over your shoulder trying to get a heavy quilt through your machine.
I am lucky, I have 11″ of throat space so I can get a fair bit of quilt in there! But the weight of a larger quilt had me saying some not very ladylike words!
So I wanted to read up on some alternatives to waiting until the quilt top is huge before quilting.
The Ballarrd Blocks quilt might be my first attempt – uses layer cake squares and Jera gives some great ideas for quilting and putting it together.
Jera explains things very well and whilst she does have patterns in the book, they are more of the inspirational type of pattern… to get you thinking about how YOU could do this type of thing.
“This isn’t your typical quilting book with precise patterns and exact measurements. You can be as creative as you want… no two quilts will look the same!” – Jera
Some great ideas of using up scraps as well in here (yes, there was a theme of using up my stash in these book purchases!). The Red Square quilt looks a fun way to use up red leftovers!
I am excited to try some of the techniques on a project soon.
Overall Thoughts: well explained. good pictures. thought provoking. Didn’t make me stop, drop and quilt but certainly has me thinking about trying this approach soon. Probably not a ‘must have’ book – but definitely a borrow-from-the library and check it out book 🙂
Weekend Quilting by Jemima Flendt
It is so good to see some local Aussies doing so well on the International stage! I have been following @tiedwitharibbon on IG for a while and I love everything that she does, so I had to grab her brand new book as well!
It is lovely and well written with sections on the different styles of quilting (including EPP and foundation piecing). As each section introduces a new method the projects are reasonably simple to do.
I really like the churn dash mini – I have wanted to do one of these since I saw Jemima do it like that in Tasha Noel fabric (hmmm… I might just have some of that in my stash!)
The other one I love is called Sparkles and is also on the cover. The foundation piecing makes some great secondary patterns that will be fun to play with!
Overall Thoughts: great instructions. Fab book for someone starting out in quilting so they can try out different styles.
Let me know if you have one of these, or are thinking of getting one – would love to hear your opinion as well!
I almost feel like I’ve read ‘No scrap Left Behind’ since I’ve seen so many of the quilts on the blog hop. It looks like a great book. I’ll be interested to see how you go with QAYG. I admit it sounds easier and I’ve seen some fantastic show work done that way but I still remain unconvinced, probably unreasonably. All in all you’ve got a great haul – lucky you!
Thanks Sue – I was a very spoiled girl for my birthday! I am intrigued by QAYG – especially how the sashing of the finished blocks goes together. Can’t wait to have a few spare moments in my schedule to give it a go!