Book Review: Quilt National 2007

In honor of Quilt National 2009 opening soon, I finally wrote the book review for QN 2007 from Lark Books.
Quilt National 2007: The Best of Contemporary Quilts (Quilt National) Quilt National 2007: The Best of Contemporary Quilts by Lark Books

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Quilt National. I love the idea. I often intensely dislike the quilts the jurors choose.

In this year’s work, I love the photos, but, in general, my initial reaction was that the quilts look the same: lots of squares intersected with a square or another piece of fabric. I felt like I was judging the book too harshly, so to be fair, I went back and read the entire book and scrutinized each quilt and thought about them.

The jurors, Tim Harding, Robin Treen and Paul Nadelstern (whose work I greatly admire), seemed not to be as motivated by notions of beauty or status as they were intrigued by the possibilities of transformation.

Nelda Warkentin’s quilt, Harmony, has a calming ocean-like feel to it. Part of her description/artist’s statement includes the words “quiet, flowing movements,” which I think describes the quilt very well.

Spring Cascade by Virginia Abrams reminds me of calming fences and certain motifs in my my quilt The Tarts Come to Tea. Next to Abrams’ quilt is Dress Circle by Thelma McGough, a black and white piece with umbrella reminiscent motifs. Although it is made up of photos, it retains its quilt-like quality.

Weeks Ringle also has a piece, Tankini, in this book. Hearing the name and looking at the piece don’t mesh instantly, but the concept comes together after a bit of gazing. I love his piece because of the simple lines and the fact that she uses commercial cottons in an innovative technique. It isn’t just the type of fabric she uses, though. The simplicity does not mean simplistic. I think that there is a lot to look at in this quilt.

I am not a fan of realistic faces made into quilts. They freak me out for some reason, but Kristin Tweed has created a successful quilt in #42 Big Head Series: The Gladiator. One successful part of the success of this quilt is the lack of quilting on the face.

There are some good designs in this book. Mostly they are simple, linear designs. There is more digital photography manipulated into blocks and quilts than I remember from the past.

View all my quilt and non-quilt reviews.

Journal Bliss by Violette Clark

Violette's book Journal Bliss
Violette's book Journal Bliss

Violette Clark, a Canadian artist I wrote about on the Creative Prompt page, has a new book out. I first heard about Violette on the CraftSanity podcast with Violette Clark during a recent road trip. The podcast is one of the earlier ones and it didn’t mention Violette’s new book  I haven’t seen the book.

Violette has a great style. If you take a look at her website, you will find it full of creativity, cheerfulness (my favorite) and joy. She has a blog and message forums for her fans to discuss everything from her blog posts to how they are inspired by her work.

Check back for a review of this book!

Book Review: Ocean Waves

Ocean Waves (A Quilting Mystery) Ocean Waves by Terri Thayer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
You cannot blast through this book. I did and I didn’t understand it at all, which meant that I turned back to page one and started over as soon as I finished it. Terri once told me that every word has to count so writers these days prune, prune, prune. I may have realized that with her other two books, Old Maid’s Puzzle and Wild Goose Chase, but it came home to me with this book when I knew the killers and didn’t understand the ending.

Dewey’s character is developing and I like to be able to see that in the book. I also enjoyed seeing her develop as a quiltmaker and am glad she didn’t bail on her class.

Terri has a knack for characters I love to intensely dislike and this book was no exception. One was a control freak and the other had a huge chip on his/her shoulder. I am glad I won’t be seeing THEM again.

This was a pretty exciting book. The ending was fabulous. Terri did not fulfill my fantasy of killing off Kym, but I liked what Terri did with Kym in terms of moving her along with her life. I would have liked a little more background on what has gone in Kym’s life since she was fired from QP, especially since, despite Dewey’s heroics, Kym doesn’t move beyond her self centeredness.

The sad part about books, though, is that we only get a few days of Dewey’s life and I could really use more. Perhaps Terri should write a blog by Dewey…in her copious amounts of spare time!

View all my quilt and non-quilt reviews.

Color Theory by Vicki Welsh

Vicki is one of my blog readers and a wonderful colorist. If you are familar with  the Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop by Kerr and Ringle (review), then you would enjoy Vicki’s blog, Field Trips in Fiber, and especially her work on color theory.

Her color theory work was done a couple of years ago, but she has some very astute comments about the different color theory systems and color wheels. Lately she has been dyeing groups of related colors. I think that this current work must come out of her color theory studies. She posts the groups of colors next to each other (as Kerr and Ringle do in their book, above) as she dyes them, including, occasionally, the inspirational picture. Her postings illustrates perfectly the Kerr/Ringle “Big Idea.”

Books to Read

Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads by Kimberly Winston


My review

I heard about this on the CraftSanity podcast and it sounded really interesting, so I borrowed it from the library. The author said that she gave an inroduction to a variety of religions in the course of the book and crafting sounds like a great way to learn about religions of the world!

An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers by Danny Gregory


My review

Danny Gregory has been recommended to me many times, especially by Amy of the Creative Mom podcast, a very creative and high quality podcast. I bought the book she uses as her bible (it sounds like), The Creative License after I had reserved An Illustrated Life at the library. Of course I received them all the same week. I think that this book will be by the Jennifer New book, Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art, but I will let you know after I have given it a thorough going over!

View all my reviews, including non-quilt related reviews.

Book Review: Inspiration Odyssey

Inspiration Odyssey: A Journey of Self-Expression in Quilts Inspiration Odyssey: A Journey of Self-Expression in Quilts by Diana Swim Wessel

My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of best books about creativity I have ever read. This book was written when quilt book publishers still thought that quiltmakers had brains and didn’t insist on spoon feeding us repetitive patterns with no challenge or thought required. Diana Swim Wessel takes the reader through a variety of exercises to get those creative juices flowing. Useful for more than just quiltmakers as the exercises and ideas apply to a variety of different artistic endeavors. I am very sorry that this was her only book and she seems to have disappeared.

View all of my quilt and non-quilt reviews.

Book Review: Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop

I have also been reading Ringle and Kerr’s Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: The FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics. I especially got into the text yesterday morning before I got up. I haven’t completely finished the book, but here is my review, such that it is. When I update it, it will be updated here.

Quiltmaker's Color Workshop: The FunQuilts' Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: The FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics by Weeks Ringle

 

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book gives quiltmakers points and tools for selecting colors. It does not steer you towards the accepted methods of selecting colors, such as the ‘focus fabric’ method. Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr bring their experience from outside the quilt world to quiltmakers by introducing techniques and methods that quiltmakers are not normally taught. Lstening to instrumental music and identifying the colors the reader sees in it as well as trying to replicate textures in color are two methods discussed. There numerous other suggestions by the authors for methods of selecting a unique palette.

Selecting fabrics is just the start, however.

One of the best things about this book is the definitions. They have definitions of hue and value and color that actually make sense; definitions that the average reader can take away and use.

After the definitions section come the exercises. These exercises are made up of three parts: color variations, individual exercises and group exercises. The pages where Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr display color variations in quilt format gives the reader a practical sense of the use of color. Part of this exercise shows the proportion of color used in a quilt and what happens to the overall look of the quilt when colors are added and removed.

I haven’t done any of the individual exercises, but they are quite accessible and one of them (listing all the colors I can think of and then marking my favorites) is quite tempting.

The group exercises, which took me awhile to notice, make me think of a class where, over the course of a period of time, a group could explore color together.

The three parts of this book made me look at colors in a new way this morning after reading several sections.

As with all quilt books, there are projects and patterns. These don’t annoy me as much as patterns in other books, because the authors discuss their Big Idea in the course of the pattern.

This is a book that I would encourage people to read and keep near by for easy and frequent referral.

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Old Maid’s Puzzle by Terri Thayer

Spoiler Alert!!!!

Old Maid's Puzzle: A Quilting Mystery Old Maid’s Puzzle: A Quilting Mystery by Terri Thayer

My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think this books ends nicely, but VERY surprisingly. I was pleased with the ending, which I didn’t see coming at all. I am glad that Terri doesn’t torment her readers with bad situations and that Dewey was able to learn some lessons in order to move forward. I think that haranguing readers with problems of the characters who can never learn their lessons drives readers away. Terri does some things in this book, like fire Kym, which was totally necessary to move the story along. Getting Dewey and her brother back together was great as well. I was confused during the first couple of chapters. Concerned that I blew through them too fast, I am reading them again. I can see that this series will go on. Such series always make me want a compendium with bios of the characters, more background information.

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Lone Stars Review

Lone Stars, Volume I: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936 Lone Stars, Volume I: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936 by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan

My review


Quilt books are hard for me to read all the way through for some reason. Normally, I peruse them, refer to them and glance at them. Lone Stars, Volume 1: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936 by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan was an exception. I persevered and read all the ‘articles’ about the many included quilts. Partially, I really like stories. Tell me a story and you will have my attention. I also was fascinated by the creativity of the women who made these quilts. This book could have given me more about the stories of these womens’ lives, but the tidbits they did give were great.

The quilts in the book were selected as the best of the submissions, so they are all special in their own way. I like many, many of them for different reasons and had a hard time choosing my absolute favorites. Still there were a few that stood out. My favorite quilts in this book were:

Pinwheel Star pg.134: I like this quilt because it reminds me of my Interlocking Triangles quilts: Spiky Stars and Interlocking Triangles. I do wish that the maker had not cut off the stars around the edges, but it does give the piece movement and boldness.

Feathered Edged Star Quilt, pg.122: This is a really complex quilt and I like the way the maker added 8-pointed stars to the middle of the Feathered Stars. She was obviously an excellent quiltmaker.

Sunburst Quilt pg.96: This is the cover quilt and it deserves to be. I like this quilt, because of the checkerboard diamond shaped piece that makes up one of the pieces of the sunburst (in the same family as a Mariner’s Compass). Not only was the maker piecing a difficult pattern, but she went a step further in piecing a diamond made out of smaller diamonds. Amazing! See above for a picture.

Rose of Sharon with Buds Quilt pg.54: The way the maker has clustered the Rose of Sharon flower patches and, especially, the appliqued swag border make this a stunning quilt. The colors, pink and green, make it extremely cheerful as well.

Rambling Rose pg.48: This is an appliqued quilt where the flowers are flanked by a vine underneath. Each unit has a flower, a curved vine underneath, a spray with three buds sticking out of the top and another vine with a flower and a bud at each end, respectively. I like the delicacy of the vines curved around the flowers.

Rising Sun quilt pg.26: The piecing of many of the quilts in the book is not for the faint of heart. The women who made the quilts in this book were not afraid of difficult patterns. This rising sun quilt is no exception. First, there are the curves, which are thin and all meet in the middle of the circle. Surrounding the circles, made up of all of those curves, is a small, curved border of slightly curved triangles. The idea is similar to a feathered star block or the treatment that Judy Mathieson gives to the outside of her circular Compass Roses. I would love to make a quilt like this one sometime, but think it would be prudent to try one block!

Many of the women pictured in this book are wizened and tiny, old women who look like they have seen more life than any person should and who have also worked long, hard days their whole life. The gorgeous quilts that came off their fingers remind me, again, that there is creativity in everyone and you can’t judge a book by its cover.

View all my reviews, some of which are not related to quiltmaking.

Book Review: The Quilter’s Companion

The Quilter's Companion: The Complete Guide to Machine and Hand Quilting The Quilter’s Companion: The Complete Guide to Machine and Hand Quilting by Katharine Guerrier

My review on Goodreads


Deirdre (http://www.deirdreabbotts.com/… sent this book to me as a byproduct of clearing out her studio. The subtitle kind of says it all about the content of the book, but it doesn’t tell you what great photos the book has. The photos are numerous, clear and detailed, just what I like in a quiltmaking book. Across from the title page is a page of off center star blocks all created in different fabrics. The first chapter has numerous quilts in different styles including a Baltimore Album quilt, a lone star, a 19th century pinwheel as well as a gorgeous orange whole cloth quilt. The book goes on to discuss fabric and supplies, including embroidery thread and machine feet.

The section on cutting and stitching techniques covers templates as well as rotary cutting along with tips on sewing curved seams and inset seams. Hooray! I am really glad to see this information covered, because I think quiltmakers need to know the full gamut of quiltmaking techniques so they can make informed choices about their work. Pressing, preparing applique’ shapes and how blocks can be broken down are also all covered in this section.

The book goes on to discuss projects, but in an interesting way. There is a sampler project, a Pineapple Project, Lone Star, log cabin and foundation piecing.

The book finishes up with quilting, of course. The chapter is quite comprehensive, starting with preparing your equipment, marking and using stencils, straight line and free motion quilting and hand quilting.

I think this is a great reference book, because it covers all the things that a quiltmaker might have a question about. It shows how to make the Cathedral Windows block, which I may never want to make, but I am interested in how it is done. The author also talks about corded quilting, which I actually might want to do someday. This book is modern also, because it covers newer products such as spray baste and those spoon type thimbles.

This is a very comprehensive book with a lot of great pictures.

View all my reviews, including non-quiltmaking books.

Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists

Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters) Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists by Lark Books


My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Towards the end of the Introduction, the author, Martha Sielman writes “The book’s underlying concept of displaying up to a dozen quilts by each of the artists does limit the number of quilters included in the book, but it also allows the artists’ work to be seen in much greater depth.” I hope that this statement, and the resulting format of the book, is the first step in quilts truly being recognized in the art world. The underlying difference in this book and many other quiltmaking books is that there are no patterns. In the art world, there are probably an equal number of art books detailing how to make an oil painting or dissecting the steps to sculpture as there are books simply depicting an artists work. In the quilt world, dedicated publishers lament the lack of interest among quiltmakers for books with only pictures and inspiration. Then they publish another pattern book. The proposed series of Art & Inspirations books, such as Art & Inspirations: Ruth McDowell books is a perfect example. The series went for two books, was deemed a failure and abandoned. If the quilt world can send its artists out into the world in books such as Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters), then quilts will be welcomed in circles where experts previously thought quilts were only made by their grandmothers.

The first artist in the book is Jane Sassaman. Ms. Sassaman displays a wonderful array of quilts, from the gorgeous Willow to the spiky and, slightly scary Trouble in the Garden. Details of the various quilts show the texture created by the quilting and the detail of the line.

I was thrilled to see that the cast was not limited to the United States. Among others, Clare Plug of New Zealand and Elizabeth Brimelow of Britain were included.

Michael James’ pages were interesting. He showed, mostly, his new pieces and only a few of the pieces that made him a quilt household name. The examples show that having a style is a good thing, if you want to be known, because his new work does not immediately tell you who made the quilt.

I was interested to see a number of artists whose work has not been in the quilt news lately.

Wendy Huhn was pictured and I had not seen her work in a show in a long time. I like her black humor and the juxtaposition of the images with the softness of the quilt medium.

I was surprised at some of the quilts which were included. They seemed to be included because they are popular. Several photos show, basically, photographs placed on a piece of fabric, layered and quilted. Granted, they are technically perfect, the colors are gorgeous, and may be following the tradition of whole cloth quilts, but they don’t use the shapes or lines of patchwork to enhance the work at all.

I was pleased to see the work of some favorites such as Caryl Bryer Fallert, Jane Sassaman, Pamela Allen, and Susan Shie. I was also thrilled to see work by artists with whom I was unfamiliar such as Ita Ziv. I love her piece, After the Rain.

My only suggestion would be to include the story of some of the quilts. For example, I think that Sassaman’s quilt, Glorious Greens was in the Women of Taste, but this book didn’t say anything more than the name, size and techniques.

It is really wonderful to go back and forth between various artists to compare their works. I also like the variety of artists who were included. I hope this is volume 1 of long and vibrant series. Go and buy this book to encourage Lark Books to produce more.

View all my reviews, including reviews of non-quilt books.

Goodreads Test

Goodreads has a new feature where they give the HTML for a review you have written. I am trying it out here. I originally wrote a review of Collaborative Quilting for this blog on October 21, 2006. I filled out a review today on Goodreads and thought I would check out the feature to see if I thought it would work for you. If it works, it will make writing reviews of books a lot easier. Note that if you click the “view all my reviews” link, you will get non-quilt related reviews as well.

Collaborative Quilting Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran

My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the best reasons for buying this book is the huge number of photos. It is amazing how many photos of quilts and blocks the publisher was able to cram into this book for the price. I also like the idea of collaboration between the two artists.

View all my reviews.

Good. Clean. Fun.

MeinkeToy has a clean new look on her website. The books literally burst off the page with fabulous color and, of course, inspiration within. I was specifically pointed to this Lustr’ed Cloth by Alyson Mydgelow Marsden, about which Nina says “now I am not wanting to experiment with metals but sheers, metallic fabrics, shiny patent leathers, or angelina fabrics could be substituted.
It would also enable me to use some of those threads that Cherie dyes so well and that make haunting pleas in my direction..” Take a look at the new site, Deb has done a great job.

clipped from www.meinketoy.com

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Quilt Block Indexes

I know that quilt blocks are not in vogue at the moment, but I love quilt blocks and the possibilities that they provide for creativity. I am particularly enamored of older blocks that have oddly shaped pieces and provide interesting opportunities for coloration and settings.

To that end, Rose Lea Alboum has created a variety of indexes to older quilt blocks. She now has created a website, which means that you can see her offerings at: http://americanlegacyquiltindexes.com/index.htm. The website shows the cover of each book and along with a few pages. They are organized by designer or publication and have a small picture of each block along with some basic information such as name and number. Not only do these books provide an organized method of accessing old blocks, but they also provide a look at how quiltmaking fits in with history. The names of the blocks provide ties to history, which show how women connected their art to current events. A great addition would be to add dates to the blocks.

I bought the Index to Laura Wheeler Quilt Blocks, which I mentioned in a post last year. It is a slim, self published volume with a spiral binding. I bought this one because I was interested, at the time, in a block called Snowball Wreath, which I discussed in a post in June of this year.

There is a brief introduction to the book. The blocks are listed in alphabetical order. Each block has a hand drawn picture along with the name and number. The pictures of the blocks are approximately 3×3″. There are no templates. This is a reference tool and not a pattern book (though it is possible to redraft the patterns). The work also contains an index of names and a list by number (e.g. Laura Wheeler Number Sequence).

Now to get the Electric Quilt Company interested enough in these materials to create the blocks they have not already created! Although quite comprehensive, not all of the information that Ms. Alboum has is in EQ6 or Blockbase, but it is easy enough to add. This series is a great addition to anyone’s library who enjoys quilt blocks.

Kaffe Fassett Confusion

While buying the Pokemon Diamond game guide for the child, I couldn’t help tossing a quilt book for myself into the virtual cart. Both books arrived earlier this week. In a lame attempt to avoid work, I started reading Kaffe Fassett’s Quilt Road.

The Good: gorgeous fabrics, wonderful designs
The Bad: The fabrics are only shown in the quilts and referred to extensively as if there were a chart of the fabrics laid out on a page of the book, which there isn’t. After the first page, the text becomes very confusing.
The UGLY: I get the distinct impression Kaffe was just trying to churn out another book to coinccide with the new line of [mystery] fabrics. I dislike intensely ‘cheap dates’ and this book is not up to the others in terms of content and careful editing.

Still, I like this book, because the quilts are happy. He really has a way with those large and vibrant prints. My favorite part of the text is where Kaffe says “…which come from a wonderful antique book of 19th century book [sic] of French prints that we purchased at a textile fair in New York.” Even, though the editing is bad, this comment reminds me to get inspiration from other media and what I see around me.

The quilt designs, and this is mostly a pattern book, range widely and have a lot of styles that I enjoy: big blocks that show off the fabric, mosaic floor tile looking quilts, machine applique and some innovative ways of using simply shaped pieces.

One of my favorite quilts is Wallpaper Strips Quilt by Kaffe Fassett. You can see a picture of it (gorgeous picture, but not showing the whole quilt) over at Yarnstorm. She also has some fab flower photos, BTW. the quilt pattern is simply a bunch of strips lined up and sewn together randomly, then put next to each other and sewn together again. I decided that I will do this with the leftover dot strips once I am done with the Pineapple. Why not? Much better than having a bunch of 1.75″ strips laying around.

I also like the Crosses Quilt, which is made from 9patches, but colored in such a way that tic-tac-toe like crosses stand out. This artist has a view that will show you what I mean. Very clever!

Between this book and the Flowering Snowball (Cross Block), I looked at the Hancock’s catalog in a whole new way today. Those big 1960s style prints were just screaming at me. I resisted, because I would have to buy a boatload of them when I could really be happy with a large packet of 6″ squares. Still, it amazes what looking at something will do to how I see things.

Note from 5/26/2007: I found this link for the Lilies fabrics and the Lille collection here.