Review: Up Close and Detailed Primer for Beginners
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2014
There are plenty of close up photographs of how-to quilting basics presented in this book to allow beginners to feel confident as they assemble materials and begin to cut and sew their first quilt projects.Hand piecing of quilt blocks and machine piecing techniques are covered including the English paper piecing technique which is shown for the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern which is made up of small hexagon shapes. The close ups of each technique are detailed, but would be best viewed on a color-capable Kindle or Kindle application in order to see all of the details. Pressing and cutting tips are given with an overview of using rotary techniques and equipment.Assembling of the "quilt sandwich" with fabric, batting, and backing is discussed and illustrated. Marking the quilt top, hand quilting and machine quilting are discussed as well as a mention of tied quilts as an alternative to traditional quilting as a finish. Again, lots of detailed photographs of each step are shown. Binding the finished quilt with self-binding or bias binding completes the project.Most of the sources at the end of the book are listings for UK companies with a few US and Australian companies, but finding local sources should not be difficult for most readers using the Internet as a starting place.A nice touch is the addition of a link to the author's website for full-sized templates for the projects discussed in the book.Recommended.