Modern Art Quilters - Book Reviews

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Helen Howes and Aitchbee working together
Book Reviews (and Magazines, too) Recommended reading...
	Improv Quilting - Dancing With The Wall (HH writes) I did a Zoom workshop with Irene Roderick recently, and found her quilts and her methods illuminating and extremely easy and fun. So, I ordered the books, like you do. This one was not available through my usual bookshop, so, sadly, I had to get it from A****on. Lots of good stuff on how to work improvisationally while still getting a good quilt, flat, quiltable, interesting, and decidedly yours... Interweave Press, hardback, ISBN 978-0-593-33141-5
	And this is the follow-up... More fun, this time on proper bookshop order, and although it was not supposed to arrive yet, it did... Design Then Quilt - A Dynamic Guide To Creating Stunning Modern Quilts Schiffer Craft Books, hardback, ISBN 978-0-7643-6877-6
	From Collage To Quilt Inspirational Quilting From What You Have Sarah Hibbert 2021 Lucky Spool Media: www.luckyspool.com: ISBN 978-1-940655-48-2 Hardback, 174 pages plus a packet of collage papers - a really handsome and beautifully-made book Sarah Hibbert has been a stalwart of Modern Quilting in this country, and is now the ambassador for the Guild's Modern Group. She shows a most inspirational and easy method of generating abstract designs using cut paper and the look-at-it-and-assess-the-results method which is both fun and useful...
	Quilt Out Loud Activism, Language, and the Art Of Quilting Thomas Knauer 2023 Stash Books (C&T Publishing) ISBN 13:978-1-64403-322-7 A4 Paperback, 144 pages Thomas Knauer has been a seminal voice in Modern Quilting and continues to provide a thought-provoking and sometimes controversial take on activism via the medium of the quilt. This book covers not only "obvious" messages, but also Morse code, binary, other languages, and hidden messages. Also good methodology, of course...

	I got this for Christmas, and it's just so delightful. The colours! The techniques! The inspiration! Oh, oh, I'll just go upstairs and sew, I think... Thanks HB! (HH wrote this) A4 paperback; 96 pages: C&T Publishing 2021. ISBN 978-1-64403-069-1. Also available as an ebook https://www.cindygrisdela.com/
As we have suggested magazine subscriptions as your indulgence, this month we have rounded up a few to review We are recommending you subscribe through Contented Cat - they have a superb selection and send out on a per-issue basis, so if a magazine folds (this happens) you don't lose half-a-year's subscription... (Edited to add, June 2025, these have almost all died...)
	Curated Quilts I haven’t bought a quilt magazine for a few years probably since I stopped writing for them (the work involved is rather poorly paid and I'm not in the market for "getting my name out there"). The exception is Curated Quilts. This is more of a book than a magazine being beautifully produced on premium paper with a great design ethic. Each issue is devoted to a theme, the latest exploring polygons, and each features quilters writing about their submission for that months theme. There is a mini quilt challenge each time where a colour palette is specified so they all look good displayed together. Technical articles and some how-to suggestions are presented along with historical references- this time a piece on crazy quilts from the 1880s. And just up my street there are ideas for making quilt coats! Always an interesting read. Click to visit their website Heather Hasthorpe
	America's Finest! This has got to be one of my favourites, madly expensive but I can't see me ever parting with my copies, so maybe not such an extravagance... Each issue covers one state, with a huge range of ideas, traditional, modern, totally crazy and utterly sane quilts. And NO advertisements! Direct subscriptions only, see HERE for their website. Nice paper, smells lovely, oh dearie me... Helen Howes
	I subscribed to Simply Moderne for a long time - it's part of the group of magazines headed by Quiltmania, and comes in French and Cracked English versions. Half the ideas are lovely, half as mad as sundry boxes of frogs, but, as you would expect, always stylish to a degree... WEBSITE here Helen Howes
	Artful Improv, Cindy Grisdela Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free-Motion Quilting Cindy Grisdela has to be one of the most influential and inspiring quilters of the modern era. Her colours are exciting and her techniques flawless. This book covers all the stages of quiltmaking, mainly for smaller pieces, but there's no reason why you could not expand the ideas. Particularly good on working with negative space in your quilts A4 paperback; 96 pages: C&T Publishing 2016. ISBN 978-1-61745-261-1. Also available as an ebook https://www.cindygrisdela.com/
	Improv Patchwork, Maria Shell Dynamic Quilts Made With Line and Shape Maria Shell is indeed a dynamic quilter, some would say much too busy, but there is no denying that her work is both inspiring and energising in a way that is unbeatable. Almost always working with solid colours, she strips, cuts, rejoins, remakes, stripes, and blocks for a most exciting and unique end product.. The book has much good stuff on technique, and she is encouraging to a degree... Slightly-less-than-A4 paperback; 96 pages; CT Publishing/Stash Books 2017; ISBN 978-1-61745-496-7. Also available as an ebook https://mariashell.com/
	Inspiring Improv, Nicholas Ball Explore Creative Piecing with Curves, Strips, Slabs, and More A more basic book than the two above, this one has much more step-by-step technique in it, and a lovely personal style, rather discursive and with a dog. Nothing wrong with that. The assumption is that you will try the techniques and then carry them forward, and as much of his cutting is entirely free-hand; yours will look like yours; as handwriting varies. I love his quilt names too. The improv triangles that everyone fell head-over-heels in love with in 2019 are explained in here in detail, I defy you not to try these. Utterly delicious Slightly-less-than-A4 paperback; 144 pages; Lucky Spool Media LLC 2019; ISBN 978-1-940655-37-6 https://quiltsfromtheattic.wordpress.com/
	Pattern-free Quilts, Kathleen Loomis Riffs On The Rail Fence Block Kathy Loomis has to be one of the queens of the inset line, and her strip-pieced and inset-line quilts have inspired me for a very long time. I love this book for it's freedom and simplicity, and the assumption that everyone who makes can be an artist, a unique voice, and a star. Not nearly so many pictures of rotary cutters as in most books, and some truly delightful student work. A4 Paperback; 88 pages; Creative Girlfriends Press 2015; ISBN 978-0-9884282-1-8 Kathy blogs at http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/

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