Uncovering Traditional Quilts: Adventures in Piecing

Rating:
Summary: How to use squares and rectangles to easy advantage
Review: Joyce Jones' Uncovering Traditional Quilts provides piecing tips and techniques, showing how to explore combinations of piecing techniques and how to use squares and rectangles to easy advantage. A recommended pick for avid quilters.

Rating:
Summary: Uncovering Traditional Quilts
Review: This book is more than what it might seem at first look. Yes, it is a primer for making simple traditional-style quilts. Beginners as well as more experienced quilters will have excellent results using Joyce Jones' easy techniques, largely new to America. One happy fact is that no triangles have to be cut or pieced to create any of the many new designs in the book - hard to believe, but true! The author presents her system of quilt construction and her "quilt shorthand" language for analyzing any traditional quilt patterns clearly and with humor. But what I found even more intriguing are the many original designs themselves. I've been quilting for a number of years, and I'm pretty familiar with traditional designs. These quilts look like they might have been made one hundred years ago by our great grandmothers - almost! In each case, there is a freshness to the design; a bit of a different look that lets the reader know this book comes from somewhere else - New Zealand in this case. I'm tempted to make several of these quilts, because I know that each one is going to look original and refreshingly new to my fellow quilters. If you like to piece, like the geometry of traditional designs but want to make something just a bit different from the usual, and want to work quickly and accurately, give this book a try. The author covers, with thoroughness and clarity and excellent illustrations and photos, the basics of fabric selection, preparation, all the steps in quilt construction, and finishing techniques. From inspiration to standing back and listening to the complements, this book will be an invaluable guide to you in your next several projects.

Rating:
Summary: Uncovering Traditional Quilts
Review: This book is more than what it might seem at first look. Yes, it is a primer for making simple traditional-style quilts. Beginners as well as more experienced quilters will have excellent results using Joyce Jones' easy techniques, largely new to America. One happy fact is that no triangles have to be cut or pieced to create any of the many new designs in the book - hard to believe, but true! The author presents her system of quilt construction and her "quilt shorthand" language for analyzing any traditional quilt patterns clearly and with humor. But what I found even more intriguing are the many original designs themselves. I've been quilting for a number of years, and I'm pretty familiar with traditional designs. These quilts look like they might have been made one hundred years ago by our great grandmothers - almost! In each case, there is a freshness to the design; a bit of a different look that lets the reader know this book comes from somewhere else - New Zealand in this case. I'm tempted to make several of these quilts, because I know that each one is going to look original and refreshingly new to my fellow quilters. If you like to piece, like the geometry of traditional designs but want to make something just a bit different from the usual, and want to work quickly and accurately, give this book a try. The author covers, with thoroughness and clarity and excellent illustrations and photos, the basics of fabric selection, preparation, all the steps in quilt construction, and finishing techniques. From inspiration to standing back and listening to the complements, this book will be an invaluable guide to you in your next several projects.

Rating:
Summary: I can do that
Review: This is an excellent, well set out book with clear instructions to make suck quilts as:
Berried Treasures
Bishopdale
D'Urville
Fifeshire
Marble Mountain
Sandy Bay
Tasman Bay
Trafalgar Square and others.
Using Joyce's Squirty & Squiffy family of quilting shorthand one look through this book should make you think "I can make that."
I have very successfully made mitred borders with Joyce's instructions - they're now a breeze!!!
Quilts are photographed on location (eg Berried Treasures in a Berryfruit garden) in and around Nelson, Top of South Island of New Zealand.