I have also been reading Ringle and Kerr’s Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: The FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics. I especially got into the text yesterday morning before I got up. I haven’t completely finished the book, but here is my review, such that it is. When I update it, it will be updated here.
rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book gives quiltmakers points and tools for selecting colors. It does not steer you towards the accepted methods of selecting colors, such as the ‘focus fabric’ method. Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr bring their experience from outside the quilt world to quiltmakers by introducing techniques and methods that quiltmakers are not normally taught. Lstening to instrumental music and identifying the colors the reader sees in it as well as trying to replicate textures in color are two methods discussed. There numerous other suggestions by the authors for methods of selecting a unique palette.
Selecting fabrics is just the start, however.
One of the best things about this book is the definitions. They have definitions of hue and value and color that actually make sense; definitions that the average reader can take away and use.
After the definitions section come the exercises. These exercises are made up of three parts: color variations, individual exercises and group exercises. The pages where Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr display color variations in quilt format gives the reader a practical sense of the use of color. Part of this exercise shows the proportion of color used in a quilt and what happens to the overall look of the quilt when colors are added and removed.
I haven’t done any of the individual exercises, but they are quite accessible and one of them (listing all the colors I can think of and then marking my favorites) is quite tempting.
The group exercises, which took me awhile to notice, make me think of a class where, over the course of a period of time, a group could explore color together.
The three parts of this book made me look at colors in a new way this morning after reading several sections.
As with all quilt books, there are projects and patterns. These don’t annoy me as much as patterns in other books, because the authors discuss their Big Idea in the course of the pattern.
This is a book that I would encourage people to read and keep near by for easy and frequent referral.
rating: 4 of 5 stars I think this books ends nicely, but VERY surprisingly. I was pleased with the ending, which I didn’t see coming at all. I am glad that Terri doesn’t torment her readers with bad situations and that Dewey was able to learn some lessons in order to move forward. I think that haranguing readers with problems of the characters who can never learn their lessons drives readers away. Terri does some things in this book, like fire Kym, which was totally necessary to move the story along. Getting Dewey and her brother back together was great as well. I was confused during the first couple of chapters. Concerned that I blew through them too fast, I am reading them again. I can see that this series will go on. Such series always make me want a compendium with bios of the characters, more background information.
Quilt books are hard for me to read all the way through for some reason. Normally, I peruse them, refer to them and glance at them. Lone Stars, Volume 1: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936 by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan was an exception. I persevered and read all the ‘articles’ about the many included quilts. Partially, I really like stories. Tell me a story and you will have my attention. I also was fascinated by the creativity of the women who made these quilts. This book could have given me more about the stories of these womens’ lives, but the tidbits they did give were great.
The quilts in the book were selected as the best of the submissions, so they are all special in their own way. I like many, many of them for different reasons and had a hard time choosing my absolute favorites. Still there were a few that stood out. My favorite quilts in this book were:
Pinwheel Star pg.134: I like this quilt because it reminds me of my Interlocking Triangles quilts: Spiky Stars and Interlocking Triangles. I do wish that the maker had not cut off the stars around the edges, but it does give the piece movement and boldness.
Feathered Edged Star Quilt, pg.122: This is a really complex quilt and I like the way the maker added 8-pointed stars to the middle of the Feathered Stars. She was obviously an excellent quiltmaker.
Sunburst Quilt pg.96: This is the cover quilt and it deserves to be. I like this quilt, because of the checkerboard diamond shaped piece that makes up one of the pieces of the sunburst (in the same family as a Mariner’s Compass). Not only was the maker piecing a difficult pattern, but she went a step further in piecing a diamond made out of smaller diamonds. Amazing! See above for a picture.
Rose of Sharon with Buds Quilt pg.54: The way the maker has clustered the Rose of Sharon flower patches and, especially, the appliqued swag border make this a stunning quilt. The colors, pink and green, make it extremely cheerful as well.
Rambling Rose pg.48: This is an appliqued quilt where the flowers are flanked by a vine underneath. Each unit has a flower, a curved vine underneath, a spray with three buds sticking out of the top and another vine with a flower and a bud at each end, respectively. I like the delicacy of the vines curved around the flowers.
Rising Sun quilt pg.26: The piecing of many of the quilts in the book is not for the faint of heart. The women who made the quilts in this book were not afraid of difficult patterns. This rising sun quilt is no exception. First, there are the curves, which are thin and all meet in the middle of the circle. Surrounding the circles, made up of all of those curves, is a small, curved border of slightly curved triangles. The idea is similar to a feathered star block or the treatment that Judy Mathieson gives to the outside of her circular Compass Roses. I would love to make a quilt like this one sometime, but think it would be prudent to try one block!
Many of the women pictured in this book are wizened and tiny, old women who look like they have seen more life than any person should and who have also worked long, hard days their whole life. The gorgeous quilts that came off their fingers remind me, again, that there is creativity in everyone and you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Deirdre (http://www.deirdreabbotts.com/… sent this book to me as a byproduct of clearing out her studio. The subtitle kind of says it all about the content of the book, but it doesn’t tell you what great photos the book has. The photos are numerous, clear and detailed, just what I like in a quiltmaking book. Across from the title page is a page of off center star blocks all created in different fabrics. The first chapter has numerous quilts in different styles including a Baltimore Album quilt, a lone star, a 19th century pinwheel as well as a gorgeous orange whole cloth quilt. The book goes on to discuss fabric and supplies, including embroidery thread and machine feet.
The section on cutting and stitching techniques covers templates as well as rotary cutting along with tips on sewing curved seams and inset seams. Hooray! I am really glad to see this information covered, because I think quiltmakers need to know the full gamut of quiltmaking techniques so they can make informed choices about their work. Pressing, preparing applique’ shapes and how blocks can be broken down are also all covered in this section.
The book goes on to discuss projects, but in an interesting way. There is a sampler project, a Pineapple Project, Lone Star, log cabin and foundation piecing.
The book finishes up with quilting, of course. The chapter is quite comprehensive, starting with preparing your equipment, marking and using stencils, straight line and free motion quilting and hand quilting.
I think this is a great reference book, because it covers all the things that a quiltmaker might have a question about. It shows how to make the Cathedral Windows block, which I may never want to make, but I am interested in how it is done. The author also talks about corded quilting, which I actually might want to do someday. This book is modern also, because it covers newer products such as spray baste and those spoon type thimbles.
This is a very comprehensive book with a lot of great pictures.
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Towards the end of the Introduction, the author, Martha Sielman writes “The book’s underlying concept of displaying up to a dozen quilts by each of the artists does limit the number of quilters included in the book, but it also allows the artists’ work to be seen in much greater depth.” I hope that this statement, and the resulting format of the book, is the first step in quilts truly being recognized in the art world. The underlying difference in this book and many other quiltmaking books is that there are no patterns. In the art world, there are probably an equal number of art books detailing how to make an oil painting or dissecting the steps to sculpture as there are books simply depicting an artists work. In the quilt world, dedicated publishers lament the lack of interest among quiltmakers for books with only pictures and inspiration. Then they publish another pattern book. The proposed series of Art & Inspirations books, such as Art & Inspirations: Ruth McDowell books is a perfect example. The series went for two books, was deemed a failure and abandoned. If the quilt world can send its artists out into the world in books such as Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters), then quilts will be welcomed in circles where experts previously thought quilts were only made by their grandmothers.
The first artist in the book is Jane Sassaman. Ms. Sassaman displays a wonderful array of quilts, from the gorgeous Willow to the spiky and, slightly scary Trouble in the Garden. Details of the various quilts show the texture created by the quilting and the detail of the line.
I was thrilled to see that the cast was not limited to the United States. Among others, Clare Plug of New Zealand and Elizabeth Brimelow of Britain were included.
Michael James’ pages were interesting. He showed, mostly, his new pieces and only a few of the pieces that made him a quilt household name. The examples show that having a style is a good thing, if you want to be known, because his new work does not immediately tell you who made the quilt.
I was interested to see a number of artists whose work has not been in the quilt news lately.
Wendy Huhn was pictured and I had not seen her work in a show in a long time. I like her black humor and the juxtaposition of the images with the softness of the quilt medium.
I was surprised at some of the quilts which were included. They seemed to be included because they are popular. Several photos show, basically, photographs placed on a piece of fabric, layered and quilted. Granted, they are technically perfect, the colors are gorgeous, and may be following the tradition of whole cloth quilts, but they don’t use the shapes or lines of patchwork to enhance the work at all.
My only suggestion would be to include the story of some of the quilts. For example, I think that Sassaman’s quilt, Glorious Greens was in the Women of Taste, but this book didn’t say anything more than the name, size and techniques.
It is really wonderful to go back and forth between various artists to compare their works. I also like the variety of artists who were included. I hope this is volume 1 of long and vibrant series. Go and buy this book to encourage Lark Books to produce more.
Goodreads has a new feature where they give the HTML for a review you have written. I am trying it out here. I originally wrote a review of Collaborative Quilting for this blog on October 21, 2006. I filled out a review today on Goodreads and thought I would check out the feature to see if I thought it would work for you. If it works, it will make writing reviews of books a lot easier. Note that if you click the “view all my reviews” link, you will get non-quilt related reviews as well.
rating: 5 of 5 stars One of the best reasons for buying this book is the huge number of photos. It is amazing how many photos of quilts and blocks the publisher was able to cram into this book for the price. I also like the idea of collaboration between the two artists.
Sometime ago Pam RuBert, who has a new blog address BTW, recommended the Jennifer New book on journaling.
I probably went on and on about how I couldn’t find it at the library in a previous post, so I won’t bother here. I solved the problem by finally biting the bullet and buying it. While my flight was delayed I started to read it and it is a GREAT book. I almost like New’s words better than her illustrations, though the pictures of the journals are great, too. One of the quotes that I REALLY like is “journals are the working stiffs of creative life.” That phrase totally makes it ok to just mess around in a journal. I really like it.
The best quote I have come across in this book is one that says “the journal is the working stiff of creative life.” This quote lends the journal (visual journal or art journal or text based journal) an air of humanity. It lends the feeling that it is ok to cross out bits and pieces, to rip pages out, to start over. It gives me the okay to just do whatever I need to in my journal and use it to work out ideas and improve my ideas. I finished this book and felt a sense of relief. Not relief that I had finished it, but a sense of excitement and a new beginning. Imagine letting out a huge sigh of contentment and that is how I felt. I was particularly enamored with the 1000 journals project and wished that New had had more of Denyse Schmidt’s journals. I loved reading about the various artists, especially in the creativity section and felt very inspired by their work. Read this book, it is fantastic!
MeinkeToy has a clean new look on her website. The books literally burst off the page with fabulous color and, of course, inspiration within. I was specifically pointed to this Lustr’ed Cloth by Alyson Mydgelow Marsden, about which Nina says “now I am not wanting to experiment with metals but sheers, metallic fabrics, shiny patent leathers, or angelina fabrics could be substituted. It would also enable me to use some of those threads that Cherie dyes so well and that make haunting pleas in my direction..” Take a look at the new site, Deb has done a great job.
I know that quilt blocks are not in vogue at the moment, but I love quilt blocks and the possibilities that they provide for creativity. I am particularly enamored of older blocks that have oddly shaped pieces and provide interesting opportunities for coloration and settings.
To that end, Rose Lea Alboum has created a variety of indexes to older quilt blocks. She now has created a website, which means that you can see her offerings at: http://americanlegacyquiltindexes.com/index.htm. The website shows the cover of each book and along with a few pages. They are organized by designer or publication and have a small picture of each block along with some basic information such as name and number. Not only do these books provide an organized method of accessing old blocks, but they also provide a look at how quiltmaking fits in with history. The names of the blocks provide ties to history, which show how women connected their art to current events. A great addition would be to add dates to the blocks.
I bought the Index to Laura Wheeler Quilt Blocks, which I mentioned in a post last year. It is a slim, self published volume with a spiral binding. I bought this one because I was interested, at the time, in a block called Snowball Wreath, which I discussed in a post in June of this year.
There is a brief introduction to the book. The blocks are listed in alphabetical order. Each block has a hand drawn picture along with the name and number. The pictures of the blocks are approximately 3×3″. There are no templates. This is a reference tool and not a pattern book (though it is possible to redraft the patterns). The work also contains an index of names and a list by number (e.g. Laura Wheeler Number Sequence).
Now to get the Electric Quilt Company interested enough in these materials to create the blocks they have not already created! Although quite comprehensive, not all of the information that Ms. Alboum has is in EQ6 or Blockbase, but it is easy enough to add. This series is a great addition to anyone’s library who enjoys quilt blocks.
While buying the Pokemon Diamond game guide for the child, I couldn’t help tossing a quilt book for myself into the virtual cart. Both books arrived earlier this week. In a lame attempt to avoid work, I started reading Kaffe Fassett’s Quilt Road.
The Good: gorgeous fabrics, wonderful designs The Bad: The fabrics are only shown in the quilts and referred to extensively as if there were a chart of the fabrics laid out on a page of the book, which there isn’t. After the first page, the text becomes very confusing. The UGLY: I get the distinct impression Kaffe was just trying to churn out another book to coinccide with the new line of [mystery] fabrics. I dislike intensely ‘cheap dates’ and this book is not up to the others in terms of content and careful editing.
Still, I like this book, because the quilts are happy. He really has a way with those large and vibrant prints. My favorite part of the text is where Kaffe says “…which come from a wonderful antique book of 19th century book [sic] of French prints that we purchased at a textile fair in New York.” Even, though the editing is bad, this comment reminds me to get inspiration from other media and what I see around me.
The quilt designs, and this is mostly a pattern book, range widely and have a lot of styles that I enjoy: big blocks that show off the fabric, mosaic floor tile looking quilts, machine applique and some innovative ways of using simply shaped pieces.
One of my favorite quilts is Wallpaper Strips Quilt by Kaffe Fassett. You can see a picture of it (gorgeous picture, but not showing the whole quilt) over at Yarnstorm. She also has some fab flower photos, BTW. the quilt pattern is simply a bunch of strips lined up and sewn together randomly, then put next to each other and sewn together again. I decided that I will do this with the leftover dot strips once I am done with the Pineapple. Why not? Much better than having a bunch of 1.75″ strips laying around.
I also like the Crosses Quilt, which is made from 9patches, but colored in such a way that tic-tac-toe like crosses stand out. This artist has a view that will show you what I mean. Very clever!
Between this book and the Flowering Snowball (Cross Block), I looked at the Hancock’s catalog in a whole new way today. Those big 1960s style prints were just screaming at me. I resisted, because I would have to buy a boatload of them when I could really be happy with a large packet of 6″ squares. Still, it amazes what looking at something will do to how I see things.
Note from 5/26/2007: I found this link for the Lilies fabrics and the Lille collection here.
When I first saw this book, I pooh-poohed it as being just another pattern book. I was, however, struck by the pattern for the heating pad cover. I used a heating pad for months. Throughout those long and painful nights, I would wake up to cold plastic against my skin where the cover had slipped off. Or I would wake up to plastic seams lodged in a fleshy part of my hip or leg. I started to have dreams about making the heating pad cover and different techniques I would use to keep the beautiful cover on the heating pad. Velcro and, eventually, glue dominated some of those dreams.
I couldn’t get that heating pad cover out of my mind so I, finally, checked Denyse Schmidt Quilts out of the library so I could take another look.
At the end of the day it really is just a pattern book, but I decided to buy it because of the way she writes. She does not assume that her readers are morons, like most quilt books. She has a sense of humor (Ready-Set-Sew). The clean, clear lines of the quilts and projects are very restful. Complicated patterns aren’t necessary; simple patterns look great and pack the punch. I also appreciated the clear directions for 3-D items that I have never made before, such as tote bags. I actually feel like I could make a tote bag after reading DS’s directions.
People like Denyse Schmidt should be encouraged, though I would like to see a bunch of her quilts in one book sans patterns. In the meantime I will be satisfied with this book.
I often look through the Piece O’Cake books at stores, sigh and don’t buy them. I love Love LOVE the photos, the authors’ designs and the layout of the books. I would love it if they just wrote a book with photos of all of their quilts in it. I don’t like the patterns. I don’t need or want to make the exact quilts that they have made. My dear friend, JulieZS, author of High Fiber Content, gave me Piece O’Cake’s book Amish-Inspired Quilts: Tradition with a Piece O’Cake Twist. Every now and then, lately, I have had a few minutes to sit and read, so I have started to read it. Normally I don’t do this with quilt books. I look at the pictures and that’s it, under the assumption that all the text is basic and repeats from other books. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I started to read Amish-Inspired Quilts. First off, I liked the way Becky talked about her sons in the dedication, but mostly I liked the way they talked about using using solid fabrics.
I used to use a lot of solids. I liked the simplicity and the depth they created in quilts. They can be a bit harder to use if something doesn’t make them stand out. I have gotten away from using solids as I have progressed in my quiltmaking.
The authors say in the first section on color “These quilts feel bold. They often feel contemporary, which is a testament to their classic beauty. The design of the quilt itself is very important when working with solids. Solid fabric has no pattern–the visual texture is smooth. The riot of color that comes with prints, plaids, and stripes is not there. When you use only solid fabric in a quilt, each shape is clearly defined. The structure of the pattern is for all to see.”
I had a strong reaction to the above statement when I read it, because when I used solid fabrics, I was trying to take out some of the many variables of quiltmaking, so I could understand it. As my skills improved, I got away from the simplicity. Perhaps, lately, I have been trying to regain some simplicity by using simple patterns. Consider Thoughts on Dots. From squares only, I have made it back to triangles with Serendipity Puzzle, but now I wonder if I didn’t go far enough into simplicity. Should I have tried squares and solids? We’ll see. It is never too late.
Books and Media: If you haven’t bought the book, Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, RUN don’t walk to the nearest quilt shop to buy it. Collaborative Quilting couldn’t be more perfect. It was only $20, had techniques and NO patterns. The BEST part was that it has color photos on at least 85% of the 255 pages. If you love fabric and learning techniques (not patterns) and making FUN quilts and looking at FUN quilts, then this book is for you. This is the perfect book for me! I can wander through it and look at the quilts and the fabric combinations and read the bits on color that Freddy writes, peruse Gwen’s liberating quiltmaking. This is the kind of book that inspires me to be creative. I am going to look out for more Sterling Press books, because I think they are reaching beyond the pattern books on which most quilt publishers are focusing. They are not pandering to the lowest common denominator; they are encouraging us to reach.
We also ordered the Journal Quilt book. It wasn’t ready to bring to the show, so Patricia Bolton of Quilting Arts magazine and Cloth, Paper Scissors offered us (and everyone else, I suppose) free shipping if we ordered it then and there. I can’t give a complete review, because I haven’t seen it yet, but, again, no patterns. Lots of pictures of the journal quilts. I am looking forward to another source of inspiration.
There were a group of Alzheimer’s quilts at PIQF, which were some of the best quilts there. No pictures were allowed, but they had a CD, which we bought.
Fabric and Materials: The Scrappy Appleyard (alas, no website that I could find) can be reached at (702) 806-8918. They were unbelieveably nice to us when we were looking for a certain pink striped fabric. They let us take a photo of one of their quilts and didn’t act like we were taking food out of their children’s mouths for asking. I am not sure why I am so surprised, but the whole (true or not true?) idea of all quiltmakers being friends was highly overrated in the vendor area. The vendors didn’t really seem happy to be at PIQF this year. There were lots of signs saying not to take pictures of their quilt samples. I can understand wanting people to buy the patterns, but the signage seemed very offputting. I am sure there is better terminology. “Please ask before you photograph” provides a way for the vendors to get people interested in their products and makes a connection with a potential customer.
I love the different widths of that pink stripe and also the pink and white diamond. Nobody else knew what the fabric was, but the owner of the Apple Scrapyard did and we were able to find it on the web. We would have called her and bought it from her, but she said she didn’t have anymore. I believe I have a pink quilt in me that is dying to come out. It needs to get in line!
With the information that the Apple scrapyard lady gave us, we were able to find both pieces on the web from a store in Texas. I am glad to have a piece and got that bug out of my ear.
The Good, the Bad and Not the Ugly: On the way home, we stopped at a store in San Mateo called Always Quilting. We had vaguely tried to find the store before, but were in completely the wrong part of San Mateo. The Bad: The store is hard to find! It is in an anonymous office complex with NO signage outside on the street or on the building. My unsolicited suggestion was a sandwich board or something that they could set up on the street. The location seems to me to be big problem in terms of sales. I am not their financial consultant and I hope their online store is making up for the lack of foot traffic. We perservered, however, and did eventually find it. The good part was that there was PLENTY of off street parking. Those office buildings have huge parking lots and with none of the workers there we didn’t have to lug our purchases very far. 🙂 They said that they were planning to move towards the end of the year to a different space. Good plan! I really wish them well. It is nice to know that there is a nice sized store with great fabrics nearby.
The store also looked like a hurricane had hit it. It was a wreck with bolts of fabric every where. Some of it was that they had so much fabric. I am sure part of it was that they had pulled many bolts from the shelves to gear up for PIQF, but I was tripping over fabric and that was not a good thing. I am sure their new space will be better and I look forward to seeing it.
The Good: They have great fabrics and a big space. I found a great group of snowflake-like dots by Moda that we had not seen before. I have already cut pieces of some of them for Thoughts on Dots and have found the colorways to be quite useful for cheering up the piece.
They also have a long arm machine and may be getting a new one. They give classes on how to use the longarm and that appeals to me. While I may not want to longarm all of my quilts, I am interested in the process and think I could work with my quilter better, if I knew more about the process. They will be giving classes after the first of the year and I will try and sign up for one.
Fabric Chores: I got my act together to wash the fabric and St. JCN, kind and generous soul that she is, pressed and folded it all for me.
The chores fabrics on the bottom in the photo above I plan to use in the Women’s Work series. You can see Women’s Work 1 at Artquiltmaker.com. Another piece, Women’s Work 2, is still in process. It uses techniques and ideas from a Gwen Marston class I took a few years ago.
As you can see this series starts with red. Glad I have enough.
St. JCN also helped me dig up my front flower bed, get out the bulbs and replant them. We had to buy a few more bulbs, because many had disappeared somewhere unknown and some were rotten. This is the beginning of the landscaping of my yard. This is not something I want to do, but I want it done and St. JCN is good at it and will lead me through it by the hand. HOpefully it won’t be too painful. 😉
Other Thoughts: The show was very crowded and sometimes I get overwelmed with noise and visual stimulation. I thought that, if I were alone, bringing some kind of portable music device (iPod, Discman, Walkman, Muvo, etc.) with your soothing music of choice might be a way of keeping overstimulation to a minimum. It might look a little unfriendly, though.
How can I resist Judy Martin? Her stuff is great! Scraps is Judy’s latest book and I think this is the answer to my comment in a recent post about Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts**, Martin’s previous book. Scraps** is a project book. Many of the blocks used in the quilts seem to come from Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts, especially noticeable in Cooperstown Stars. She has patterns for every skill level and the directions seem to be clear and well illustrated. Though I dislike sections on “how to make a quilt”, Judy’s is very well done and I often read this section in her various books, because I always seem to learn something. Three-of-a-Kind is similar to a free Block of the Moment on Judy’s website called Celtic Squares. She has great BOMs and I keep them all for future when I have skads of spare time.
Updated: 18 September 2025
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this website.
Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: The FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics by Weeks Ringle
