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Uncovering Traditional Quilts - Adventures in piecing
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BOOK REVIEWS
Uncovering Traditional Quilts: Adventures in Piecing
by Joyce JonesOh, this book has changed my quilting forever, truly. It has beautifully pieced quilts throughout, and easily followed directions, but the difference comes in the borders. Like most quilters, I have put blocks together, sewn on enough straight borders to make it to my desired size and called it quits. This book has pieced borders as part of the pattern and what pizzazz it adds to the quilts. Most of the quilts are what I call controlled scrap, that is, a selected color scheme. But the border treatment is what changes every quilt into a masterpiece. The first one I tried I had already decided, "Forget the borders, too much work." But then I decided the directions looked easy enough so, "Let’s try." I will forever be grateful to Joyce Jones. I made a favorite quilt. Her directions are such that you can then look at a quilt from another book, self designed or an old pattern, and use these border directions to easily make the border on any quilt. Once you see how much it improves a quilt to have integral borders rather than just strips of fabric, you will take the extra time required. Check it out!
Flying Geese Quilters Guild
PMB 292
14252 Culver Drive, A
Irvine, Ca 92604-0326
Book Review 2
Uncovering Traditional Quilts: Adventures in Piecing
by Joyce Jones
Reviewed by Elizabeth ShearerFrom Joyce Jones comes a wonderful book that will encourage you to make a dent in your fabric collection, by offering new twists on traditional block-based quilts that can be made without fuss. The stunning photographs include quilts in garden settings, by beaches and elegant old houses around the Nelson area. The locations reflect the names of the quilts, many with a distinctively New Zealand flavour to them.
Joyce employs a couple of cartoon characters called Squiffy and Squirty that lend humour whilst inviting you on a quilt journey of simplifying piecing & encouraging creativity. With innovative shortcuts and a shorthand language that helps identify both the piece and the process, they will add new zing to your quilts. Even blocks that appear complex are unmasked and broken into simple units made of squares, rectangles and no-bias-stitching triangles. Clever and intriguing pieced borders on some of the quilts are constructed of “bonus” units leftover from piecing blocks.
Adding to the appeal of this book is a number of “Design Double Takes” - quilts made from the same block design, but with a different result. There are charts to help you calculate fabric and cutting as well as instructions for 17 quilts of varying sizes and styles. Every quilt has diagrams of the blocks used and how they fit together. The layout of Joyce’s book is enticing, whilst the content has great text and diagrams, plus extra tips: there is no fluffy page-padding. Both new and seasoned quilters will enjoy getting their teeth into this meaty and substantial book. It is already on the shopping list for Needlecraft staff members. 112 pages.
©Joyce Jones
Nelson, New Zealand
info@iquilt.co.nz
