AQS is more than just a huge show in Paducah and a year-round quilt museum with some of the best of the Best of Show quilts hanging there on permanent display. It’s also a prolific publisher of quilt books, and for this Scoop we have several to recommend. At the end of this post, comment on the one you were most tempted to plunk down the green for and one of you picked randomly will receive the book!
And for those of you who share our more modern sensibilities and see these books as more traditional in content, it’s like we always say: There’s always something to glean for your specific purposes in almost any quilt style and approach. Just make it your own!
Jelly Roll Quilt Magic
Kimberly Einmo
AQS Publishing, 2011
www.americanquilter.com
Softcover, 98 pages, $26.95
Kim is a good friend since our other magazine days, when we asked her about her most touching quiltmaking experience. (A military wife, she was commissioned to make a special retirement quilt for a well-loved officer.) Kim has the best sense of humor and never stops laughing or smiling, something that’s very apparent in her writing. (We love how she has her fabric pieces modeled around the kitchen appliances!) But if she didn’t add that little something extra to yet another book about jelly rolls (2 ½” precut strips), we wouldn’t be happy to present this to you.
There are a dozen full quilt projects, tips and tricks for wrangling the strips, suggestions for leftover pieces and an outline for hosting a strip Round Robin exchange. Her no-brainer suggestion for using a lint roll to pick up the extra fuzz from the sides of an intact jelly roll was almost the price of the book. And the comparison between using a traditional method of making Flying Geese blocks and using a special ruler actually stopped Jake from complaining once again about having a book cite a special ruler to use. (It’s a pet peeve, but Kim shut her up good! Almost 100 extra Flying Geese blocks can be squeezed out from one jelly roll using her recommended ruler.)
We forgot to mention that the quilt designs are strong, too. Love that Lone Star! So, yeah, go buy this book. It’s worth it.
Two Patch Scrap
Pat Yamin
AQS Publishing, 2011
www.americanquilter.com
Softcover, 112 pages, $26.95
This book is all about using it up…you know, all those scraps you have lying around the surfaces of your sewing room? The patterns are uber-traditional. But they can all be re-styled into something more currently pleasing. (And we’d LOVE to see you all try!) What works here are the charts offering many sizes for each quilt and the yardage estimates for each quilt piece. That means the mix-and-match needed to successfully piece a true scrap quilt is more easily done.
The other thing we like about this book is that Pat gives us very clear instructions for tackling those problem areas that send many quilters, especially beginners, into anaphylactic shock—curves, Y-seams and other forms of corner torture. She’s so blatant about the use of these tricky techniques that we kinda think she was born doing needle pivots. Disgusting, but we’re glad for the instruction.
Enhance Your Quilts—Embellish!
Terry White
AQS Publishing, 2011
www.americanquilter.com
Softcover, 98 pages, $26.95
Terry takes on the deep topic of blinging up our quilts and does so with solid tips, leaving us wondering why we’ve ignored those specialty threads for this long. The quilts are definitely more art-spirational. There are no quilt patterns; this is a technique book. But there are many techniques, accompanied by many pictures, so that we feel as if we’re not out there all on our own as we work through some of them.
One part we really like is the list, with pictures, of different sewing machine feet that can be used to embellish. But, know beforehand that Terry is a Bernina fan and that the feet won’t look like yours if you use any other machine besides the Grand Old Bernina. Still, just look at the actual shape of the foot itself and you’ll be able to translate well enough for other machine brands.
Terry does a great job of showing how to work with threads and yarns to make something that’s all your own. There are also some instructions for making your own beads from paper and fabric. Way cool!
We have one small, teeny tiny complaint, and we’re willing to be told to get our eyes checked, but there’s something wrong with the pictures. They look dark and some are just not clear. Maybe the color correction was off, or the flash wasn’t working, but it made us struggle to sort through the images and see what needed to be seen.
Still, the content carries here and you’ll have plenty of inspiration for your own projects.
Fall/Winter 2016 (Issue 22)
Summer 2016 (Issue 21)
Spring 2016 (Issue 20)
November-December 2015 (Issue 19)
September-October 2015 (Issue 18)
$9.99
July-August 2015 (Issue 17)
© 2015 Generation Q Magazine. Site by Spunmonkey.
COMMENT #1
Jelly Rolls
I think
The book on Embellish resonates too.
COMMENT #2
I’d love to win the Two Patch Scrap book, because 2012 is going to be the year of the scrap bust for me – and I need plenty of inspiration!
COMMENT #3
Now this is a really tempting post! Two Patch Scrap is a book after my own heart. Our weekly quilting group have just been discussing the two patch project for next year. We used a process this year for charity quilts that involved making 9 patch blocks (12 each) in fall themed colorways. We put them in a bag, passed the bag around, everyone took 12 patches and could add more, add more fabric, etc. to share with the rest of the group. I am in the process right now of organizing the project for 2012. By increasing each contribution to two blocks, we will add much more variety to the finished products. We want to start earlier this year to have the quilts done for October, the month that our guild dispenses the quilts to chosen charity groups. We try to have 80 to 100 quilts done per year.
COMMENT #4
Jelly Roll Quilt Magic! I have yet to use a jelly roll. Still looking for the perfect pattern and I bet it’s in there!
COMMENT #5
I would love to have Jelly Roll Quilt Magic, as I have a rapidly expanding (think of rabbits) collection of jelly rolls with no idea what to do with them. If I don’t win this, I’m liable to lay out the cash for the book.
COMMENT #6
All three books look great! I lean most toward the Jelly Roll quilt as I really enjoy Kim Einmo’s work – I even took a class from her at AQS in Paducah one year 🙂 Military wives need to stick together 😉
COMMENT #7
I’ve got a ton of jelly rolls that need to be used, but I also really want to learn more about embellishing my quilts – tough choice but today I’d pick the Jelly Roll Quilt Magic book.
COMMENT #8
Oooh, decisions, decisions! I think the Two Patch Scrap one :o) Thanks for the chance to win
COMMENT #9
Thanks to you, I am only thinking scrap these days. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them. So, of course, the Two Patch Scrap book is the one that speaks to me. Would love to sit down with it with a cup of tea in hand and get inspired to turn my random scraps into something wonderful.
COMMENT #10
Sitting here staring at all my scraps and thinking I really need to use some of this fabric up. The Two Patch Scrap Quilts book by Pat would be just the thing to get me going. Thanks for the giveaway.
COMMENT #11
I would love the Two Patch Scrap book.
COMMENT #12
It’s a tough choice for me between Two-Patch Scrap Quilts and Embellish! I need good projects for using up scraps but I also want to get ideas for embellishing … hmmm … thinking … OK, I’d choose Embellish!
COMMENT #13
Would really be interested in Terry White’s Embellish. One can never have too many techniques for embellishing!
COMMENT #14
jelly rolls, for sure. thanks for the chance!
COMMENT #15
Great giveaway! I’m very tempted by the Jelly Roll Quilt Magic! Thanks!
COMMENT #16
I think Jelly Roll Quilt Magic. I might have gone for Enhance Your Quilt – Embellish!, if it wasn’t for that problem with the photos. I need to be able to see the pics clearly, without squinting!
COMMENT #17
Jelly Roll Quilt Magic would be my pick.
COMMENT #18
Loving the sound of Two Patch scrap. Like many of us, I have an addiction to fabric, and want to buy EVERYTHING I see. Hence, I have an awful lot of small cuts, and end up making scrap quilts fairly often. Most of them tend to be one patch patterns – so I would really like to start expanding my repertoire!
COMMENT #19
I’d pick Jelly Rolls. Thanks for the chance to win!!!
COMMENT #20
Two patch scrap would be my choice
COMMENT #21
I have two jelly rolls here that have yet to be touched, so I think that would easily make my request be for the Jelly roll book, though I do have a substantial number of scraps, too. Truthfully, though, I’m a book lover and would be happy with any! Thanks for the reviews and the opportunity for one of us to win.
COMMENT #22
Embellish I like new ideas.
COMMENT #23
Even though I’ve never really used jelly rolls, I love how clever the designs they come up with for using them are, and I’d love to have a look inside just for the ideas that I could translate into my own designs.
COMMENT #24
Definitely would like Terry’s book on Embellishments. Her work is wonderful!
COMMENT #25
It’s gotta be Jelly Roll Quilt Magic. Love to see what can be done with these luscious rolls of color and pattern. To do it in a strong modern way is the icing.