Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making

This helpful and informative book includes 10 different workshops about quilt making from 10 talented women.  I finished the 1st chapter on The Principles of Color and turned right around and read it a second time.  I am in between quilts and have been looking at paint chip samples online to provide inspiration for my next quilt.  The chapter on color was very helpful for me.

The next chapter is Working with Solids.  I know that's a BIG trend right now and especially with modern quilts but I don't really like working with solid colors and I've only seen a few quilts in solids that I would actually like to make.   However, Alyssa Haight makes a good case for using solids along with prints.  They provide polish and calm to your design by giving your eye a resting place.  I usually use tone-on-tones for that reason but I am going to push myself to include some solids along with my prints.

There are chapters or workshops on Working with Prints, Improvisational Patchwork, the Alternate Grid, Circles & Curves, Paper Piecing, Large-Scale Piecing, Modern Machine Quilting, and A Study of Modern Quilts.

I have tried some improvisational patchwork to push out of my comfort zone and had a lot of fun.  For a person who isn't very creative I felt empowered.  I haven't taken to paper-piecing because the idea of picking and tearing the paper off the back of the pattern doesn't sound like my kind of fun but, since reading that chapter, I think I will use it occasionally and sparingly to make perfect points and unusual designs.

The workshop on Large-Scale Piecing intrigued me a lot.  The idea is to make over sized blocks or even make one block into an entire quilt top.  I have yet to try this but I'm ready to give it a go.  I think an large scale block would look great as part of the back of a quilt.

My favorite chapter was the one on Modern Machine Quilting as that is something I've been focusing on over the past couple of years.  Angela Walter provided some tips for sewing pebbles that are helping me improve the look of my pebbles.  It will take hours more practice before I will dare to use them on an actual quilt.  And I really liked her classic ribbon candy and the idea of echoing.

One thing I really liked about the book is the helpful hints at the end of the chapters and the inclusion of patterns.  The last chapter shows modern quilts and each quilt is discussed as to what makes it a modern quilt.  Very helpful.