I think it is awfully useful to read reviews of books before deciding to buy them ... so, with the help of at least one hardy volunteer, I've started a new reviewing page on our website. I thought I'd share our first review with you here - from time-to-time I'll post new reviews. Please do let me know if you find these useful!?!
8/24/2011
More Loose Change: 14 Quilts from
Nickels, Dimes, and Fat Quarters
by Claudia Plett and Le Ann Weaver
reviewed by MARY BOLAND fotdfa@hotmail.com
Most quilters know ‘fat’ quarters, but nickels and dimes? If you are unfamiliar with the terms, nickels are five-inch squares (aka, charm packs), and dimes are ten-inch squares (aka, layer cakes). Ahhhh, those nickels and dimes.
If readers can get past the book’s cloying sweetness (coin requirements, currency conversion, piggy bank tips, dollar signs to denote skill level), they’ll find some good stuff. All but one of the projects in the book are for beginning or intermediate-level quilters. Some of the instructions seem confusing, but what seems confusing when read, I believe will be easily worked when tried.
The quilt patterns are not wildly original, but where the authors shine is in their use of color. Like their patterns, their color combinations are not wildly unique; they are just very, very good. There’s a certain glow which I love to see in quilts (and which I have yet to reach in my own) for which Plett and Weaver seem to have the knack. It shows up in not one or two of their quilts, but in almost all of them. Even those quilts which use colors that I am not innately drawn to are appealing.
In the book’s introduction, the authors give us a clue to how they make their colors work so well. They provide a variation on a wonderful bit of advice which I first heard from one of the master quilters in my guild: if you find a pattern, but you’re having problems clearly seeing its color values (that is, light, medium or dark), or alternatively, if you have fabrics and you’re having difficulty judging their values, photocopy the pattern or small swatches of the fabrics in black and white. [I also find this helps if I see a pattern which I can’t visualize in any other fabric or color combination than the original.] This trick helps clear away the distraction of color and helps to focus your eyes on the essence of what is before you. Try it and see if you achieve what Plett and Weaver do so well.
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Plett, Claudia and Le Ann Weaver. More Loose Change: 14 Quilts from Nickels, Dimes, and Fat Quarters. Woodinville, WA: That Patchwork Place, an imprint of Martingale & Company, 2010, www.martingale-pub.com.
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