Book Review: Mini-Charm Quilts

Mini-Charm Quilts is another wonderful addition to the Moda All-Stars series of quilts from That Patchwork Place, an imprint of Martingale. If you haven’t watched my review of some of the previous books in the Moda All-Stars series, just click here to be taken to my book review playlist.

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

As you have probably guessed from the title, this time the Moda All-Stars have created projects based on mini-charm packs. If you don’t know what a mini-charm is, it’s a 2½” x 2½” square and you can buy mini-charm packs, just like charm packs, with a variety of fabrics from one collection.

In Mini-Charm Quilts, various Moda designers have created 18 projects based on these 2½” square packs. You’ll find a pincushion, small quilts, a table runner, and wall hangings. Since the basis of the projects are small 2½” squares, the projects are also small – no bed quilts in this book!

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

Working with purchased mini-charm packs makes fabric selection super simple – it’s already done for you. You could, of course, cut your own mini charms, but it’s so much easier to buy the little packs – plus, they are adorable!

You’ll notice that some of the projects use more than one mini-charm pack, so if you want to make one of these projects, be sure to check the fabric requirements carefully.

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

If you don’t have mini-charm packs yet – and they’re so cute, you’ll want to get some – you can also use your scrap fabric to make these projects.

For more information on Mini-Charm Quilts, click on the image below to watch a video on my YouTube channel.

Get your own copy of Mini-Charm Quilts by clicking here.

Creatively,

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P.P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product by clicking through links in this blogpost. This allows me to continue to provide you with FREE content each week. Thank you.

Book Review: Lunch-Hour Patchwork

Another book in the Lunch-Hour series by Martingale & Company, Lunch-Hour Patchwork features 15 easy to start and easy to finish projects by a variety of designers.

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

Some of the projects you’ll find in Lunch-Hour Patchwork are a tote bag, a wall hanging, a picture frame, and a needle book. These projects are all simple enough for beginning quilters and just the right size to learn a new technique.

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

As the title indicates, these are pieced projects – not an appliqué project in the mix at all. 

Since these projects are small in size, they are also good choices for using up your fabric scraps.

The various projects in Lunch-Hour Patchwork are also quick to make so if you need a quick gift, you can finds lots of ideas in this book.

Photo courtesy of www.martingale-pub.com

As there are a variety of techniques used to create the projects in Lunch-Hour Patchwork, they are good choices if you want to sample a new technique without having to commit to a large project – just in case you don’t like that particular technique.

You can see more of the projects in Lunch-Hour Patchwork by clicking on the image below to watch a video on my YouTube channel.

For your own copy of Lunch-Hour Patchwork, click here.

Creatively,

P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive FREE emails full of quilting goodness? Just click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

P.P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product by clicking through links in this blogpost. This allows me to continue to provide you with FREE content each week. Thank you.

Book Review: American Quilt Treasures

American Quilt Treasures by Martingale & Company is a beautiful, hard-bound coffee-table book that you will enjoy reading and return to again and again for inspiration for your own quilt projects. NB: Patterns are not included in this book.

Photo courtesy of Martingale

These quilts are from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum and include quilts that are over one hundred years old! I was amazed at the complexity and condition of these quilts.

While the fabrics used in these quilts are not ones that I typically use in my own quilt projects, I could still admire the fine workmanship that was in each of these quilts.

While there were many pieced quilts in the book, there are also appliqué quilts included in American Quilt Treasures. I’m partial to appliqué designs, although I’m not a hand appliquér, and there were several quilts that I found especially attractive. I loved the designs and could only imagine how long it must’ve taken to do these hand appliqué and hand quilted projects. Certainly these quilters had more patience than I do!

The photographs in the book show the full quilt and also several detailed photos allowing you to see the fabric choices and stitching and then the overall effective of the quilt. It’s always so amazing to me the difference between the specific up-close details and the effect that is created. Truly fascinating.

Image courtesy of Martingale

These quilts provide historical information, showing us what colours and types of fabric were available and what designs were popular at a certain point in time.

Many of these quilts were still so vibrant in colour and modern in nature that they could’ve been made just yesterday. Some of them look similar to the modern quilts that are being created today.

I see American Quilt Treasures as a guide for how to create effective quilts. I found myself analyzing the choice of fabrics, the contrast and play of light and dark fabrics, and even the blocks or appliqués that the quilt maker chose. Lots to learn from this book.

Click on the image below to watch a video on my YouTube channel that provides more information.

Get your own copy of American Quilt Treasures by clicking here.

Creatively,

P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive FREE emails full of quilting goodness? Just click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

P.P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product by clicking through links in this blogpost. This allows me to continue to provide you with FREE content each week. Thank you.

Book Review: Piece and Quilt with Precuts

Piece and Quilt with Precuts by Christa Watson includes 11 quilt designs and 18 machine- quilting designs.

Image courtesy of Martingale

This book is a double whammy: intriguing quilt projects using pre-cuts and how to do quilt those projects. The choice of pre-cuts for the projects makes pattern assembly very quick and doesn’t require much thinking as to fabric choice (you might have decide if fabric is light or dark, but that’s pretty simple to decide, don’t you think?). The various quilting motifs in the book can be done by beginning or more advance quilters.

Image courtesy of Martingale

This book has information that I’ve never seen previously in a book: detailed thread information. Christa includes the thread manufacturer, the weight of the thread, the specific colour of the thread, and how much thread she used on that particular quilt. I found this quite interesting and very helpful as knowing how much thread she used on a quilt ensures that you won’t run out of thread should you choose to do the same quilt design on that project.

The designs in the book have a modern look to them and the quilting motifs are chosen to accent the quilt itself.

Image courtesy of Martingale

I appreciate that Christa includes the quilting motifs in Piece and Quilt with Precuts as I really dislike the phrase “quilt as desired”. It never makes sense to me to show you how to stitch up a quilt project and then drop you at the quilting part. This book doesn’t do that! Christa shows you the quilt design that she used on the project and gives you detailed information on how to do the quilting.

There are a variety of quilting motifs in the book, created either by using your walking foot or by free motion quilting. The motifs range from simple to more complex and in some projects she combines quilt motifs for a more complex, but still easy to do, look.

To see more of Piece and Quilt with Precuts by Christa Watson, click on the image below to watch a video on my YouTube channel.

Want to get your own copy of Piece and Quilt with Precuts? Just click here.

Creatively,

P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Just click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

P.P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product by clicking through links in this blogpost. This allows me to continue to provide you with FREE content each week. Thank you.

Book Review: Lunch-Hour Embroidery

I've discovered another hand embroidery book that I wanted to share with you.

Lunch-Hour Embroidery by Adrienne Smitke is an A to Z of delightful designs.

Image courtesy of Martingale

This book really is an A to Z as it has all of the letters of the alphabet in it along with whimsical designs.

Lunch-Hour Embroidery uses simple embroidery stitches to create the various designs in the book. This makes it easy for even those who are just starting out in hand embroidery to make any of the designs. The designs are perfect for both adults and children's projects and are simple enough to stitch up quickly - in a lunch hour perhaps ;)

The book is laid out with the designs shown stitched out on one side of the page and the template on the opposite page. I really like that the templates are at 100% (I really don't like having to enlarge a design to create it!). This gives you a very good idea of what the embroidery will look like once you stitch it out.

Image courtesy of Martingale

The letters in Lunch-Hour Embroidery are shown in both upper and lower case which allows you to use them to create words, if you want to do so. For example, you could stitch "Fox" and then embroider the fox design underneath it on a onesie or on a pillow or on... lots of fun project possibilities with Lunch-Hour Embroidery!

There are no projects in the book, however you could use these designs on just about anything from a small item embroidered on a child's t-shirt to an heirloom-worthy hand embroidered quilt. I actually like the fact that there aren't any projects in this book because it doesn't limit my ideas for what I can do with these embroideries. 

For a closer look at Lunch-Hour Embroidery, click on the image below to watch a video on my YouTube channel that give you more detail.

Feel like doing some lunch-hour embroidery yourself? Get your own copy of Lunch-Hour Embroidery by clicking here.

Creatively,

P.S. This blogpost may contain affiliate links and I will receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product by clicking through links in this blogpost. This allows me to continue to provide you with FREE content each week. Thank you.