Customer Reviews

Art Quilt Workbook: Exercises & Techniques to Ignite Your Creativity

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is the text of a 10 week course the authors
teach on art quilts. After an initial look at the various
components of design, the course builds up through design
elements, construction techniques and embellishments. It is
simply superb. Each chapter has plenty of examples, plus three
exercises on the technique discussed. In addition there
are links to quilt artists of that genre and names of painters
to study for design as well. It leads the reader to think,
question and play, while working on a series of journal size
quilts. If you follow the entire course you will have
about 10 page-size quilts at the end. You could dip and dive
through the book, but it is designed to be worked through
from the beginning.

I am so inspired by this book that I am working through it with
a couple of quilt buddies. The appeal for me is gaining confidence,
developing my own style, and making small projects that don't have
to be perfect to have achieved their aim.

I have been an art quilter for almost 10 years. I've done large ones, complicated ones, teeny ones, played with thread, beads, fusibles. I still have plenty to learn.

This book has plenty of ideas, yet is not overwhelming in the least. The majority of examples and the exercises are 9 x 12", a manageable size for anyone. The book opens with a brief description of design principles. Yes, I know, entire books have been written on this subject. Yet, for this book, it is enough. You are encouraged to have fun and play. The authors are like friends who are with you when you are quilting.

Each chapter has references at the end, consisting of collage and fiber artists who employ the techniques mentioned, books to read, famous artists to study and inspirational exercises. I feel the authors did not write this book to show how talented they are or how superior they are. They want to share the fun of art quilting.

Some quilting books I read intimidate me. This book does not. It inspires me to be creative. If I take a five-minute break in my studio, I find myself looking at this book almost every time.

This stepped introduction to thinking differently from cutting squares of carefully chosen fabrics is written in a warm and encouraging style. The use of colour illustrates and enhances the text, which has a brief but stimulating chapter on design, next on colour linked with perspective, then on "Art" quilt techniques from use of photographs, added items sewing techniques and more, each chapter ending with ideas to put into practice so that there is an experience of the theory. I am using it towards developing a method of conveying what I feel about a striking tree in my garden into a stunning quilt.

I bought this book on the strength of other reviews and I was a bit disappointed. If you are an artist, formally trained or self-taught, most of the concepts will be familiar to you: ideas like negative space, the use of color, and perspective are not really useful to most people who have been doing art for a while. I tried to go through the exercises that were suggested and quickly got bored and skipped ahead to see what I could use. What I did really like were the pictures of the artists' work. Just seeing what other people have done was inspiring to me. But you don't need to buy a book to have access to pictures of artists' works. All you need to do is a search on flickr to find pictures of inspiring art. I would give this book two and a half stars. It's not useless but I don't think I would have bought it if I had perused it in a bookstore.

My friends and I highly recommend this book. We are just recently into Thread Painting and this book so clearly gives instructions, Tips, exercises and much much more. We never tire of reading it and trying out the exercises. We thank the Authors very much. You have brought such joy into our free hand machine quilting and hand machine embroidery. We do not need an embroidery machine as it is much more fun learning how to do the Thread Painting. .

This book was educational and informative, and the pictures were wonderful...

This is the best book of its kind that I have found. I am an Art Quilter and I have several books on art quilting, this one tops all!

Brenda Leonard

I was given this book for Christmas. I have been a quilter for over a decade making both bed quilts and art quilts and sometimes feel like I have hit the creativity wall. This book is sure to give me a jump start when I am feeling stalled or just help expand my horizons. I have read through the exercises and believe that the ideas and the challenges are well thought out to make us think outside of the lines.

This book will get your imagination going. When I sat down with this book I was at a standstill for new ideas, but the exercises started me thinking of so many new ideas I couldn't do them fast enough. I like the way each project is done the same size because when you get done with all of them you have a great set of little art quilts for your walls. I learned so many new techniques that I thought would be so hard, but were actually easy. This is a great book and I'm so happy I got it. I have been doing traditional quilting for a long time and I enjoy them but now I know art quilts are even more fun!

This book is well titled. Jane & Elin encourage and support the quilter to experiment and create in new ways. Their detailed instructions are well illustrated and easy to follow and give something for everyone as there are landscapes, seascapes and garden scenes all available and easily accessible.

Jane and Elin have outdone themselves with this beautiful book. It is spectacular in scope, along with being very organized and motivating. There is much to learn here and the process is fun! The suggested artists to study in each section are very helpful and inspiring, a very nice addition to the book as a whole. The instructions and steps are very clear and will be helpful to the beginning art quilter as well as those who are more experienced. I highly recommend this book as the best instructional book on art quilting I have yet seen. In addition, I recommend their new companion art quilting DVD. It is amazing and a "must have" for your quilting library. I hope Jane and Elin collaborate on still more DVD's and books.