Welcome to the first Book Review Tuesday. Just some initial details in case you missed last week’s introduction…

When: Book Review Tuesday will be hosted here every second week (initially for 1 year).
Content of the Post: A book review and a project will be made from the week’s selected book.
Give-away: Each post will include a give-away of that book, winners will be announced the following week ~8pm.

Review

Title: “The Practical Guide to Patchwork” – New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker
Author: Elizabeth Hartman
Publisher: Stash Books
ISBN: 978-1-60705-008-7

This was the first book I purchased, last year, when I first started to be interested in Modern Quilting. I was looking for a good reference book, basics for quilting techniques and really just a place to get started.

The Practical Guide to Patchwork definitely provided the basic information I was looking  when starting out, such as:

• How to choose machine needles
• Basic quilting techniques
• How to make and sew binding

The book project layout is well done. It starts off with beginner projects, and moves projects for confident beginners to intermediate projects. There are several projects I am interested in making from this book, but not all as quilts; Small Plates, Valentine, Kitchen Window and lastly Sunspot.  My favorite part of each project is the last section, which provides alternate ideas and additional fabric options. It offers just that little more inspiration by saying “Hey, what about this or that” and gets you thinking about the possibilities of the blocks provided.

This book focused mostly on quilt designs, that use a single block repetitively. I would have liked to have one or two of the projects, in the book focus on non-repetitive block quilts. As a beginner, this would have provided more introduction options into modern patchwork.

This book is great book, if you are looking for a good reference book for quilting techniques or looking for easy to medium quilting projects. It would be a great Christmas gift for a new quilter or a great donation to a school/local community library.

My rating out of 5 is:

Project

The project I chose, from the book, was the Sunspot block. I actually started this project last year. It was my first patchwork block for what I was planning to be, a Christmas table runner. The instructions were easy to follow. I enjoyed the idea of making the angles within the block. I really liked how the block turned out.

For this review, I decided to go with my original plan. I re-purposed that block, and cut it in 1/2 to make Christmas place mats for this year. Here are the completed place mat tops, using that one block.

Fabric: Dear Mr. Claus, Robert Kaufman’s Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Red/Olive, White Kona Skinny sashing.
Size: 14″ x 18″

Do you have projects made from this book? If you have a project link it up.

Give-away

One brand new copy of this book will be given away next Tuesday. All you need to do is leave a comment on why you would like the book. A second chance to win if you are a follower, just leave a second comment indicating you follow. A winner will be chosen at random and posted next Tuesday around 8 pm.

Next Book Review: “Brave New Quilts”.
Upcoming books will include: 500 quilt blocks, Quilting Happiness, Modern One-Block Quilts, Urban Views, Modern Bee.

A disclaimer, all reviews and opinions of the books reviewed will be mine, unless otherwise stated.