August Book Reviews 

Little Welsh Quilts by Mary Jenkins

This e-book (pdf format purchased on CD rom) from Rainbow Disks focuses on a more relaxed approach to quilting.  Think sitting into front of the telly hand quilting whilst you unwind at the end of the day, working on a small quilt not worrying whether your quilting is perfectly symmetrical or not.   Imagine using household objects around you to draw your quilting pattern onto the fabric, sounds like a hassle free relaxing way to quilt to me.

The book talks you through the basics of Welsh quilting and has embedded video clips showing you the basic techniques you will need.  There’s a good section as the start on choosing fabrics too.  Youwill then find 6 small quilt projects with detailed instructions on the cutting, piecing and quilting as well as printable templates.

This book is a refreshing change from the other quilt books on the market, in both it's format and content.

Little Welsh Quilts is published by Rainbow Disks you can look inside it here, and purchase it here.

Little Black Dress by Isabel Sanchez Hernandez

This book shows you how to create the patterns to make many variations of the Little Black Dress (LBD).  From the simple to the more complex construction, from the plain to the dressier more detailed or embellished LBD. 

This book covers 2 methods of construction, the geometric method where you start with a basic geometric shape and manipulate it to make the dress, and the conventional method, where you alter various basic patterns constructed from tables of standard measurements for the body. 

There are several basic patterns in the back of the book (that need to be increased in size before use), all the patterns in the book are for a size 12 so if you are a different size you will need to grade accordingly.  

This book would be great for an experienced sewist who wants to experiment with making different dresses, and of course you don’t have to stick to black, these designs would look great in colour too.  The book may seem a little expensive, however compared to the cost of buying 19 dress patterns it is a bargain!

This book is published by A & C Black and can be purchased on their site here. 

Folk Quilt Appliqué by Clare Kingslake

In this book there is a mix between quick projects like a Tilda style Christmas angel, hanging hearts decorations, rose bouquet bag and the flowers sewing bag and the more time consuming projects such as the quilts.

The projects in the book are a mix between classical and more modern contemporary ones, some of this is down to the fabrics used.  I found some of them to be a bit old fashioned for me personally but there are a couple of really bright cheerful quilts which I love, the Buttercup quilt and the Feathered Friends Quilt.

The projects have a rustic feel and as you can guess from the title involve a lot of appliqué.  However, don’t panic if you haven’t tried appliqué before as there is a sizeable reference section at the back of the book which covers appliqué techniques, quilting and embroidery. 

This book is published by David & Charles and can be purchased on the RUCraft website here.

Steampunk Softies by Sarah Skeate & Nicola Tedman

This book contains the instructions to make 8 quirky steam punk characters; it is part of the popular Search Press softies series.  These characters are very unique and would make a great gift for teenagers or someone who likes something a little different.

Each softie has several pages of instructions supported with diagrams and photos.  I really like the fact that at the side of the page they show you shots of the finished softie from all angles.

My only concern with these softies is that they require a lot of materials and equipment, several of which are non fabric (the accessories for the softies) which many people probably wouldn’t already have in their stash so it could work out costly to buy them all.  

You can look inside the book here.

This book is published by Search Press and can be purchased on their site here.