BOOK REVIEW SATURDAY, December 13, 2014

In the magazine world, if you don’t like a book, you don’t review it. I promised to be honest. I’ve based my whole patchwork reputation on “no B.S.” . . . and it’s not easy. Boy, I really wrestle with myself on whether or not I am going to review a book I don’t care for, but if books are so graciously sent to me for review, I feel that I have an obligation to the publisher to review all that are sent. Given I do not depend on advertising for my blog, I don’t need to only review the books I like (and would give fabulous reviews to) for fear of hurting an advertiser’s feelings, and threatening potential revenue. On the other hand it pains me, genuinely pains me (yes, sleepless nights), when I receive a book I’m just not crazy about.

Now, listen…because I don’t care for something NEVER implies that YOU shouldn’t care for it. Mine is only an opinion, one opinion of many who are sent review copies. The goal of any kind of reviewer is to develop an audience, be transparent with their likes, dislikes, taste, quirks, and aesthetic, and let the reader compare their opinions against those of the reviewer.

If you agree with my take on a book most of the time, for instance, you can begin to trust my reviews and know if I like something, you probably will, too. If you don’t generally agree with my assessments of a book, and disagree with most of my reviews, then you know that you want to buy only the books that I hate for your personal library.

Enough tap dancing? Here goes . . .

 

TABLE TOPPERS

Quilted Projects from Fons & Porter

 

This is a terrific little book full of colorful table toppers and runners in different shapes and sizes. The projects are varied so that whatever you patchwork strength may be, you’ll find something in here that appeals to your skill level – simple piecing, paper piecing, a little embroidery, cotton and wool applique, etc. None of the 12 projects are particularly arduous to complete and you still have enough time to be able to whip up a few as holiday gifts. Stuck on technique? Jean Nolte, the editor, threw in some Sew Easy Techniques for quick triangle-squares, quick hourglass units, paper foundation piecing, windowing fusible applique and cutting large circles.

The featured table toppers were designed by some of the stars in the quilting industry like, Jodie Davis, Marianne Fons, Sandy Gervais, Debbie Mumm, Edyta Sitar, and others.

 

I love the assortment of projects, but some of my favs are Marianne’s blue and yellow Bluebird of Happiness wool topper, Jodie’s button embellished Candy Flowers table runner, and Debbie Beaves’ super pretty Dresden Daisies, but there are so many more that really caught my eye.

 

The quality of the book is sound with great paper stock, and the patterns are clear, easy to follow, and uses illustrations as a visual guide done (they look like magazine patterns – no surprise there).

The photos of each table topper is nicely done for the most part although it a little difficult to see Betsy Smith’s Fluttering By [above] table runner project due to the angle and light when the photo was taken.

All in all, I like this book a lot and think you will, too.

 

I reviewed a softcover copy of this book. 

I Really Like this Book!

•  Edited by: Jean Nolte
• Publisher: Fons & Porter
• ISBN: 978-1-60468-571-8
• Form: Paperback, digital
• Pages: 64
• $19.99

Ask your local shop owner or independent bookstore to order your copy, FIRST. 

Or you can buy the book here:  http://bit.ly/1Gkf8fZ

Quick Quilt Projects

With Jelly Rolls, Fat Quarters, Honeybuns and Layer Cakes

 

The love affair with piecing using jelly rolls, honeybuns and layer cakes doesn’t seem to be quite over and that’s a good thing for designer, Darlene Zimmerman, because her book Quick Quilt Projects is all about creating using these precuts.

Darlene has always had an easy and comfortable design sensibility and her book highlights her talent once again. I really do like all of the projects – her quilts, pincushions, quirky potholder “britches,” and wall hangings. Of course, when I think of Darlene’s work, I think of 30’s and 40’s fabrics, but that’s not the case with the projects in this book. There are a few signature nods to that retro fabric, but most of the projects in the book use a variety of fabrics.

Most of the finished projects in this book are on the smaller size. Yes, even the pretty quilts are small (buy more fabric and make them larger, girl), the largest quilt feature is about 67” x 81” but most of the patchwork is about 1/2 that size.

There are 2 chapters and 18 projects patterned in Quick Quilt Projects. Chapter 1 focuses on small projects like the sweet Manly Footstool, the embellished Daisy Patch Valance, Flower Scarf, Woven Placemats, Sweet and Simple Table Runner, a wall hanging, the Hexagon Pincushion (my fav), and more.

Chapter 2 features 8 smallish quilts. I love the Cake Walk and Thimble quilts, but all of them are well designed with that Darlene Zimmerman traditional appeal (and traditional is inching its way back in style, too).

The photos are great, the projects are solid as are the patterns. If you are hooked on the pre-cuts or need a quick gift or pick-me-up, consider this book as a first start.

 

I reviewed a softcover copy of this book. 

I Really Like this Book!

• Author: Darlene Zimmerman
• Publisher: KP Craft
• ISBN: 978-1440237874
• Form: Paperback
• Pages: 112
• $22.99
• Ask your local shop owner or independent bookstore to order your copy, FIRST. 

Or you can buy the book here:  http://bit.ly/1vZyvrr

 

OUTRGEOUSLY ADORABLE DOG KNITS

25 Must-Have Styles for the Pampered Pooch

I don’t have enough time or energy to create the things I want for myself let alone for my 3 hounds, Tulip, Petunia, and Violet, so I’m not really apt to dig out my knitting needles to knit-one, purl-one for the girls – but it’s not like it’s because I don’t care for the patterns in Outrageously Adorable Dog Knits. The truth is, everything in this book is outrageously adorable.

Filled with 25 projects most are not, as you might think, dog sweaters for a warmer pooch. Instead, you will find Pagliacci collars, snappy knitted bowties, an assortment of seasonal chapeaus, ballerina-worthy leg warmers, scarves, costumes and blankets – each one cuter than then next.

 

Now, whether you knit or not, you’ll find these sweet lil’ tail wagging models, a sight to behold in one cute, charming, funny, or thoughtful photograph after another. I might just keep this little paperback on my living room coffee table or in our bathroom’s reading basket. If you’re a dog lover, the photos alone are worth having the book.

All that said, this is a serious knitting book, with real projects and knitting patterns. Some of the patterns are easy enough for newbies and some are geared to the above average knitter (I’m thinking the wonderful Christmas sweater, here). There a are a few simple knitting tutorial photographs and some design templates but I think you had better know your way around a pair of Addi’s before you find yourself entangled in yarn!

 

I reviewed a softcover copy of this book. 

I Really Like this Book! 

• Author: Jill Bulgan and Noelle Woosley
• Publisher: Race Point Publishing
• ISBN: 978-1-631060-43-4
• Form: Paperback, digital
• Pages: 96
• $16.99

Ask your local shop owner or independent bookstore to order your copy, FIRST. 

Or you can buy the book here:  http://bit.ly/1w9WaW4

 

HANDFULS OF SCRAPS PIECED INTO AMAZING QUILTS

36 Inspiring Antique Quilts, 15 Scrappy Patterns, including English Piecing and Broderie Applique

 

If you are a fan of Laundry Basket Quilts and designer, Edyta Sitar, you will not be disappointed with her self-published book, Handfuls of Scraps. The 15 scrappy quilt patterns she features are classic Sitar quilts worked up in the time-honored, traditional, earthy tones that she has built her patchwork reputation on.

The book opens with a gallery of quilts from both Edyta’s family collection as well as museum quality quilts from the Grand Rapids Museum, with examples of medallion quilts, diamond and star quilts, stripes within patchwork, muslin as a canvas, and the repetition of one specific block. I know that Edyta’s Grandmother-in-Law taught her to quilt, and it’s easy to see how her color sense developed, too. Next, there is a very short chapter explaining the techniques and templates used in the pattern section of the book.

 

By the time you get to the chapter, Time to Play: Quilting Projects, you will have been color and pattern stimulated and very inspired and motivated two dive into one of the 15 patterns. Into the patterns is beautiful in its own right, some with the expected Sitar appliqué worked into the total design and some without.

The patterns are easy to understand, some have photograph tutorials included, and each of these quilts could easily become a family heirloom of your own – and just from shopping from your stash!

Handfuls of Scraps is truly is a beautiful book.

I reviewed a softcover copy of this book. 

I Love This Book!

• Author: Edyta Sitar
• Publisher: Laundry Basket Quilts
• ISBN: 978-0-9836688-1-7
• Form: Paperback, digital
• Pages: 128
• $27.95

Ask your local shop owner or independent bookstore to order your copy, FIRST. 

Or you can buy the book here:  http://laundrybasketquilts.com/online-shop.html#!/Handfuls-of-Scraps/p/39181895

 

MODERN APPLIQUE ILLUSIONS

12 Quilts Create Perspective & Depth

There are few books in the quilt world that tackle perspective, at least from purely a design point of view, rather than photo-esque project lesson. Yet, if you are looking for lessons in designing quilts using perspective and creating depth in your quilts, you won’t find those lessons in Modern Applique Illusions. Yes, perspective and depth are explained in a scant overall and general sense, as it had been used in the various perspectives illustrated in the individual projects, but there are no “lessons” in how to achieve or calculate perspective in your own quilts. FYI there are some very fine books on basic perspective available at your local book or artist supply stores that can be adapted to your fiber art if you want to learn how to create perspective in your fiber art.

The first quarter of the book is dedicated to instruction on fabric choices, how to piece a quilt background, fusible webbing, scissors, embroidery supplies, applique basics and then finishing the quilt. If you’ve never raw edge appliqued or used fusible web, you might find some technical lessons here but, like most pattern books, this section seems to be perfunctory delivering very, very basic instruction.

The 12 quilt projects all include some kind of applique and are large cut out shapes that are fused, then hand or machine appliqued, onto background fabric. The projects are divided into 3 themes: Architecture, The Natural World, and Concepts. Through these projects you will learn reverse applique, and how to work with pieces of big pieces of fabric, fused fabric, and very large shapes to be appliqued (which isn’t a walk in the park, in some cases).

With the exception of maybe 3 quilts in Modern Applique Illusions, those being Grand Canal, maybe Grove, Chicken Scratch that incorporates 30’s fabrics for an interesting fabric choice twist, I wasn’t really jazzed by the composition or design of the quilts.

 

On the other hand, an artist with whom I shared the images, really liked the Flight Plan quilt for taking a mundane object, an airplane window, and finding interest in it, and breathing life into it. I still didn’t care for it.

 

I thought the ideas and concepts for all of the quilts were really pretty good, but the end result, the quilts, just didn’t deliver for me. Nothing grabbed me. And I am wondering if that maybe it’s just that the designer didn’t take her designs quite far enough.

I put on my creative thinking cap and tried to imagine playing with the patterns on my own. I would have loved to have seen the tunnel quilt design, repeated and repeated, or infused with the hens from her Chicken Scratch quilt (added in perspective, of course) for a surreal, but complete look (I loved the quilting on the Tunnel Vision quilt, by the way, which illustrates how quilting can add perspective – the designer also did this with horizon lines in her Chicken Scratch quilt).

How exciting it might have been to see the fish from Ripples, swimming in and out from between the Grove quilt’s trees or the buildings in the Concrete Jungle quilt?

As it stands, the quilts are so simplistic and unchallenging that I wondered, other than the valuable lessons in creating very, very basic and extraordinarily simple suggestion of perspective (that is handed to the reader rather than taught to her), what a reader might find so intriguing that I can’t seem to get a handle on or appreciate? I am totally open to suggestions and a beat-down schooling.

I very much liked the quilting designs that the author used in her quilts, which I thought  were often more interesting and creative than the quilt itself.

Now, in my research, I found 2 Amazon reviews. One Amazon reviewer gave the book 3/5 stars. A. Leins, on the other hand, reviewed the book on Amazon and gave it a full 5 stars. Here’s what she wrote:

“Casey York’s book is a great way to learn how to create perspective. We all know when things “look right” in space, but most of us don’t know how to get there, or how it works. What perspective is, and how to achieve it in quilts, is what this book is all about, and it’s a great way to learn the basics for your own projects. Loved it, and love the ideas I’m getting from it.”

 I read the book (yes, word for word) and studied the photographs, and if I didn’t know what perspective was, and how to create it when I opened the book, I may have a better literal understanding about what it is after leafing through it, but I would have no clue how to create real perspective or depth in my own quilts once I worked through Modern Applique Illusions. I would, however, know how to fuse large pieces of fabric.

 

I reviewed a digital copy of this book. 

Sorry, I’m Just Not Crazy About It

• Author: Casey York
• Publisher: C&T Publishing / Stash Books; PAP/CDR edition
• ISBN: 978-1607059257
• Form: Paperback, digital
• Pages: 112
• $24.95

Ask your local shop owner or independent bookstore to order your copy, FIRST. 

Or you can buy the book here:  http://bit.ly/1zKrmu8

 

SOMETHING NEW THIS WAY COMES 

The Magazine for the New Artisan Economy

This Premiere Magazine Guides Creative Entrepreneurs to Success with Advice Columns, Trend Stories, Artist Profiles, and More!

Artists & Makers is a new publication offering a lively, smart, and contemporary take on the business side of art and making. Created for hobbyists and professionals, Artists & Makers gives readers clear, up-to-date information on selling, social media, finance, and studio design, and inspires them with upbeat profiles of top artists, designers, and makers.

“This is such an exciting time to be a creative entrepreneur,” says Artists & Makers Editorial Director, Jeannine Stein. “People understand that supporting art and handmade goods—and the people who create them—is the right thing to do, and that has allowed the ranks of people capitalizing on their creativity to grow.”

Artists & Makers delivers business advice from those who live the life. Grace Dobush, author of the Crafty Superstar books, shows how creative types can become savvy social media users, and jewelry artist and business woman Jen Cushman tells how to become a shrewd negotiator. In the feature Problem Solved, artist Kent Youngstrom reveals how he went from obscurity to being a powerhouse in the commercial art world.

In the debut Winter 2015 issue (on sale November 25, 2014), readers will find encouragement and inspiration in in-depth features on established artists and makers, such as letterpress artist Kevin Bradley of Church Type, artisan knife maker Chelsea Miller, and portrait artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards. They and others share their successes, challenges, and best business advice.  Yes, even quilters are featured, like our own Amy Barrickman! 

Timely features include how artisans are making the best use of high-tech helpers, and how micro funding programs are financing small businesses. Interior designer Jennifer Bertrand offers design inspirations and definitive tips on how artists can show their studio space at its best.

Interweave celebrates artists, crafters, and makers of all sorts as well as their creations. Artists & Makers offers peer-to-peer support that will ensure today’s creators will achieve their wildest dreams.

I Really Like This Magazine!

WIN A COPY OF ARTISTS & MAKERS!

 . . . I have a few copies to give away!  All you have to do is make a comment on today’s blog.  Each entry will get a number, and winners will be drawn on Friday, December 19! 

Stash Slashing for Slow Stitching (and charity)

When I began The Slow Stitching Movement I asked stitchers and quilters to reduce their impact on the planet and their creative psyches by letting go of the stash of books, papers, patterns fabrics, and tools that they have been collecting over many years and haven’t used.  I have been preaching to myself.  So, in an effort to put my money where my mouth is, to open my creativity by being less boxed in by ‘stuff’, I have begun posting boxes of book and fabric bundles on eBay for various charities.

Please visit my eBay store to do me, you, and a few of my local charities a favor and check out my eBay store for what I’ve listed:

Books from Saturday’s Book Review! FREE SHIPPING!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Wonderful-Books-from-Mark-Lipinskis-Saturday-Book-Review-FREE-SHIPPING-/111546697568?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f8b38760

---

IF YOU HAVEN’T SUBSCRIBED TO THIS BLOG YET:

For well over 2 years, I have been posting up to 20 links per day or every other day, on the Mark Lipinski’s Fan Pageon Facebook. Of course, in Facebook’s never ending quest to make lots of money, Facebook seems to have abandoned their mission of a real social networking site and it has become more about Facebook revenue.

Several months ago, Facebook, without warning, had implemented a new business model. As a result, the vast majority of “LIKErs” who have been faithful readers of this Fan Page have been blocked from receiving my posts, time and time again, from getting all or a few of the postings onto their timeline feed.

The reason is, Facebook would like pages like, Mark Lipinski’s Fan Page, to pay money every day, and on every post, in order to advertise and lure readers like you, onto the Fan Page.

With out “BOOSTING” a post, only about 5% of people who clicked LIKE on the Fan Page are actually seeing anything I post — and it could be random – sometimes you get a post, and sometimes not. Basically, it sucks for all of us. I am finding that we are all better served if I posted my tips, ideas, links, and jokes, etc. to my blog. You can subscribe to my blog (only if you wan to) and get an email each time I post a grouping of ideas, links, etc.

I AM NOT shutting down Mark Lipinski’s Fan Page on Facebook and you are welcome to follow me there, too. What I am doing is putting everything that used to be on the Fan Page individually onto my blog, AND there will be a daily link to the idea blog on the Fan Page, just as there were multiple links to the various blogs that I’ve always linked to in the past. It’s not that different, really. It will save me a lot of time, and guarantee those who want to see the creative posts will actually get to see them. And Facebookers, will STILL have to click on “GET NOTIFICATIONS” in your Facebook Settings if they want to see what I post on Facebook (sometimes that works, but not all of the time).

Actually, my new model gives you at least TWO ways to get all of the ideas, etc. PLUS you can PIN them and they will be TAGGED so you can find them again in the search bar even years later. – through the FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and YOUR CHOICE (not mandatory) to subscribe to the blog and get email postings that way.

 

 

---