Learning to Quilt – Part I: Books

I received this e-mail from April this morning:

“I have been an avid reader of your blog for the past few months and I just love your gorgeous creations. I have recently become interested in making a few quilts for myself. I grew up with several great-grandmothers who were hand quilters but they passed away before I was old enough to learn anything from them.

I was wondering what book(s) and tools you might reccommend for a beginner? I have a relatively inexpensive Brother sewing machine but that’s pretty much it. So much of the information online is overwhelming and I was hoping you could give me a few good ideas of what books would help me.”

I could have written that myself five years ago. I’ve been sewing my whole life but learning to quilt sat on my to do list for years. I tend to buy books and teach myself things. There were just so many quilting books. Where to begin?

I bought Glorious Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett sometime in 2000, my first ‘quilt’ book. I was drawn to the beautiful patterns and unbelievable combination of colors. This is not a book to teach yourself how to quilt. It did fuel my desire all the same.

Fast forward to 2005. Move to new island. Fall in love with local fabric shop. Take beginning quilting class. I was very lucky. Margret Darrah was my first teacher. I’ve shown some of Margret’s work on my blog before. Guess which quilt she taught for the class? Leafy Rosy Quilt from Glorious Patchwork. The only quilt book I owned. Sometimes the Universe has to hit me over the head with directions.

The class taught me the basics of a 1/4″ seam, how to use a rotary cutter and how to read quilt instructions. I HIGHLY recommend taking a beginning class. It’s a sure-fire quick start, mine was only 4 sessions long which was just right for my attention span.

After the class I was filled with ideas and started off on my own self-taught journey. I checked a TON of books out from the library. I ended up buying these three for my own reference:

The Art of Classic Quiltmaking by Harriet Hargrave + Sharyn Craig. I recommend this book as the absolute BEST teach yourself to quilt book ever written. No kidding. If I had to own one book on a deserted island it would be this one (hee, hee). There are several reasons why I like this book:

1. The sequence of topics is covered in the order you should learn them for quilting. No guessing about where to begin.

2. One thing I found very confusing when learning to quilt was where everything fit. Strip Piecing, Applique, Curved Piecing, Triangles, etc. This book turned on the lights. Each technique is covered in order from easiest to most difficult. This cleared up they mystery of why one quilt pattern was considered ‘more difficult’ than another.

3. For each technique, Harriet and Sharyn demonstrate 4 or 5 ways to do it and discuss in detail the pros and cons of each. They do a very good job of pointing out what they like about various approaches, this allowed me to try different ways and determine which would be ‘my way’.

4. There are a lot of fabulous, simple, classic quilt patterns presented to support the discussion of each technique.

5. The instructions are extremely detailed and clear with excellent supporting illustrations.

The Quilters Ultimate Visual Guide – From A to Z Hundreds of Tips and Techniques for Successful Quiltmaking by Rodale and editor Ellen Pahl. This is a very comprehensive reference style book. I like it because it includes tips from well-known and accomplished quilters. More conversational in tone with a bit of flare, not rigid or boring.

All About Quilting from A to Z from Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, Quiltmaker Magazine, and C&T Publishing. Another reference style book with a traditional bent. LOTS of tips.

When researching a technique I pull all three books out and read what each one has to say on the subject.

Looking through my bookshelf I noted 4 other authors who have inspired me and taught me invaluable techniques:

The Quilted Garden by Jane Sassaman. I love this book because it comes straight out of Jane’s heart. She is an incredibly talented artist and does a very good job of sharing her quilting journey and describing the techniques she uses in an understandable way. This was my first ‘art quilt’ book and I still go back to it for inspiration.

Denyse Schmidt Quilts by Denyse Schmidt. The simplicity of taking classic quilt patterns and adding a modern twist is brilliant and inspiring. I’ve made many successful projects from this book and love every one of them.

Pieced Vegetables, Piecing Workshop, and Fabric Journey all by Ruth McDowell are amazing works. I like to piece and Ruth is the Queen of piecing art quilts. I’ve learned many valuable techniques on how to piece intricate and non-traditional shapes. While I’ve never made anything nearly as complex as Ruth’s work I have applied my learning to a whole host of projects using her freezer paper template approach.

Glorious Patchwork and Passionate Patchwork are my two favorite Kaffe Fassett books although I own 3 or 4 others. These books have inspired me to be bold when mixing color and pattern. I also feel they’ve broadened my thinking about fabric use with traditional blocks.

This post is already too long! I just changed the title to Part I. I’ll just keep going until I run out of advice. Please comment with your favorite quilting books!