The Applique Handbook

I got a lovely package yesterday which had the book The Applique Book which is compiled by Casey York.  It was a giveaway  I won during a book blog hop from Sew How We Sew. Thank you to everyone involved for this great prize.

I normally do book reviews on my book review blog, but I haven't been updating it, even though I have a bunch of books I want to review.  So you don't have to go back and forth, I will tell you about the book here.

I really like this book, and not just because I got it for free.  The subtitle says 16 Quilt Projects; Learn from 21 innovative designers.  I really like that so many people were involved. It gives you a chance to learn a variety of styles and meet lots of new modern quilters.  It really shows the versatility of applique.  See the cover quilt - it is applique not pieced.

Anytime I sit on these steps, Zeus thinks it is time to get his belly rubbed. Be sure to rub his belly before you scroll down. Poor guy obviously doesn't get enough attention as he needs grooming.

 Most of the projects are really innovative.  They are not the same you see everywhere.  There are a couple of quilts that show the beauty of repetition and this is one of them.  The squirrel one on the cover is another. See how such a simple design can make such a big impact when it is repeated.

The quilts use different techniques too. You can try out a bunch and see what you like the best.  This one is reverse applique.   Just a pop of color adds so much to the quilt. The photographs are all gorgeous. You can see the quilting as well as the overall impact of the quilt.

 

This is one of my favorites.  It is more complicated to applique than some of the others, but the quilt is just gorgeous as is the setting for the photograph. The background is pieced and everything else is appliqued.

There is a little information about the designer in the gray box on the right.  There are also spreads of information about other designers who don't provide patterns, but do show lots of inspiring pictures.  When I first flipped through the book, this confused me, since I wanted to see how to make a particular quilt, but there was no pattern for it.  I looked forward and ahead to see what kind of pattern they did provide, and they didn't provide any pattern at all.  Now I see that these showcase designers have a gray bar around the page, but it isn't that obvious since there is gray throughout the book, including the profiles of the designers who did provide patterns.

The back cover does say there are projects from 12 designers and profiles of award-winning artists, and names them there.

I am glad that they did include these other designers, though, and the confusion is a minor issue that was readily remedied upon closer inspection.

Of course I had to show the circle quilt! Besides the beauty shot, there is a full spread picture of the quilt so you can see the whole thing. This one isn't innovative, except to make a large circle on an even larger background, but it is pretty, and is a great way to beautifully showcase your favorite fabric.

The book has 159 pages an there is a full size pattern sheet in the back.  You don't have to reduce or enlarge anything unless you want to change something.  The suggested retail price is $26.95 which I think is worth it to learn about a variety of techniques and a variety of different styles of quilting.