Customer Reviews

50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars [With CDROM]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished watching the video CD to 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars and wanted to tell everyone how fabulous it was! It is included in the book and was one of the reasons I purchased the book. I am really excited about getting started on piecing some of the stars and combining parts of different stars to make new stars. The tips Carol shares will make working on them effortless, with the end product looking beautiful and perfect. I have done paper piecing, but will enjoy it so much more now. Carol is a delightful person and a wonderful teacher! The book itself offers step-by-step instructions and the accompanying video CD helps you through the whole process with tips to make piecing accurate. (I will view this video CD over and over again!) Carol specifies what sizes to cut of the fabrics for each block. With Carol's suggestions, she opens up the creativity of your mind as the possibilities are endless. The book is filled with many, many color pictures of the stars, which inspire me as I look at them over and over again. So, I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about beginning quilting or has years of experience. Thanks Carol for sharing your expertise and creativity with us!

The blocks are stunning. The directions are clear. The blocks are very, very time consumming, since they mostly have about 60 + pieces. This was my first paper piecing project and the technique was fun. It does not however produce 100 percent accuracy at first because it takes just as much skill to sew exactly on a line as it does to sew a perfect quarter inch seam. Piecers should know that the authors method of pre-cutting pieces, sewing to a foundation, and then cutting to size, wastes huge amount of fabric since she always gives you a half inch or more to spare on all sides and is very time consuming. After piecing four blocks, I was very pleased with the results but couldn't bring myself to do anymore. I was extremely disappointed that the cd didn't have files to print out of the patterns. The tight binding makes photocopies difficult and I ended up spending a lot of time re-drafting the pattern in Electric Quilt. I understand you can buy some software with the patterns, but didn't think it was worth the extra money.

Here are some excerpts from my review of this book. You can see the complete review on the Quilter's Review website, as well as a review of Quilt-Pro's Foundation Factory software that includes all the patterns from this book.

"If you've ever tried to do stars but had trouble with the points, you may have heard that paper piecing yields perfect stars with perfect points. Now all you have to do is figure out how to paper piece. And of course, find the patterns.

"You're in luck! Carol Doak has compiled a collection of 50 fabulous star patterns, all paper-pieced, and complete with excellent instructions. This diverse collection starts with the basic LeMoyne Star and adds lines, flowers, leaves and background detail....

"Cutting the fabric to fit is one of the things that make paper piecing so frustrating for beginners. To get the fabric piece large enough to fit the pattern, it seems as though you have to waste lots of fabric. With Carol's chart, you can cut the minimum amount of fabric and the pieces still fit....

"If you don't know how to paper piece or would like to find some tips to make it easier, Carol includes complete step-by-step instructions for her method. But the best part of the book is the video CD that is included. You can watch Carol do a Delaware star as she explains each step.

"When I finished watching the video, I wondered how I could have ever thought paper piecing was difficult!"

Don't get me wrong -- the designs are GREAT! I plan to incorporate several in my next quilt. But I am MOST disappointed that the CD doesn't include the patterns themselves so that they could be printed out from my own computer. My local quilt shops made such a big deal out of the fact that a CD was included in the high price, I (and they) thought that the CD would be patterns, not an instruction video. Now I find out that to get printable patterns, you have to buy an *additional* CD. Not a good way to do business, Ms. Doak -- it's called "bait and switch".

Stars are hard--especially the ones that are made from diamonds. Carol Doak uses paper-piece to create beautiful stars in this book as well as provides a CD to explain her techniques. If you want to piece beautiful and accurate stars--this is the book for you. The color plates are vivid, and she includes the paper-piece formats for each star.

Really nice book, the CD that comes is very informative. The book is laid out nice, the only trouble i had with the book was to get the cd that has the pattern layouts to put on the computer, I had to go to another source listed in the book. It would have been nice to know that an additional CD was needed to use with the book, so the patterns to piece could be printed out on the computer's printer.

I love all of my quilt books but this is the one I use the most. The designs are so versatile and cover the entire range from simple to intricate. I learned the paper-piecing technique by watching the CD. I found it much easier to understand the process by watching the video than reading the book. I recently needed a refresher and was so pleased to have the CD to watch again.

Anyone can piece these fabulous stars with ease! Carol's paper-piecing techniques take the stress out of producing intricate-looking, stunning stars that are sure to please everyone. And if that isn't enough, the CD included in the book offers you a private lesson with the best paper-piecing teacher in the land. A super value for the price.

Should you have any doubts about paper piecing or even confused a little -- this book and CD Rom will answer all your questions. Carol and Nancy did a fabulous job and left "nothing" out. I'm a "show me" person and after viewing the CD Rom I went straight to my sewing room and completed my first star with perfection. Needless to say I'm a very happy camper. What a wonderful job - keep up the good work Carol.. Shall recommend this one to all my quilt buddies. Thanks so much. gb

This book is GREAT, not to mention the WONDERFUL CD that comes with it, just wonderful. I watched the CD once, then the second time I watched while sitting at my sewing machine with all necessary supplies (as Carol Doak points out), from there I chose a block, within the hour I had one entire block completed and felt terribly proud, (my FIRST paper pieced quilt block ever), if you can't do this after watching the CD and reading a bit in the book, you never will. The only difficult part is picking out which of the 50 stars to begin your project. Try paper piecing, it is NOT at all difficult, just like Carol says.
Have FUN. (it is addictive)