Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas (That Patchwork Place) [Paperback]

Mary Hickey (Author)

Book Description

Series: That Patchwork Place | Publication Date: July 23, 2007

Make Christmas come alive in these festive quilts! Bestselling author Mary Hickey shares her signature style in designs that will instantly fill your home with the holiday spirit.

* Find a world of Christmas joy in pieced and appliquéd delights featuring angels, snowmen, and sparkling stars

* Choose from 14 projects in various sizes, including lap quilts, table runners, and a unique banner

* Find bright colors mixed with traditional designs, all sure to be cherished each time the calendar turns to the holidays

Editorial Reviews

Review

Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas by Mary Hickey is a delightful book. The book offers several designs in colors perfect for the holidays, yet most of these designs would work any time of the year. This book is published by Martingale & Company, who always does an excellent job producing high quality books. This particular book is well written and has an excellent balance of photographs and instructions, perfect for all levels of quilters.

Personally, it is difficult for me to select my favorite design in this book, as I love all of them. I love the "Christmas Star Banner." This design is lovely for the holidays, as well as any holiday celebration, and to decorate anytime of the year. The "Ribbon Wreath" quilt is definitely perfect for the holidays, but I can also see this design being adapted for many occasions and color schemes. And the "Little Forest" design is a spectacular design that clearly works anytime of the year. But at Christmas, how perfect to display this delightful quilt.

But then I love the "Watching for Santa" design, and the "Midnight Star" is gorgeous, and "Santa's Village" is delightful. "Frolicking Frosties" is sew much fun, and the "Great Kindergarten Angel Christmas Pageant" is a showstopper ... along with all the other designs in this wonderful book.

I'm hoping to keep it a secret until Christmas morning which projects I make. But certainly I'll be making several Christmas gifts using designs and insights from this book, as well as making items to proudly display at my home. I do hope you'll join me and have some fun making Christmas gifts and decorations from this special book. --sewcalgal.blogspot.com--or sewing, quilting & embroidery enthusiasts

About the Author

Home: Everett, Washington

Mary Hickey is the author of several books and has traveled around the world to teach her quiltmaking techniques. Mary has also made appearances on HGTV's Simply Quilts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: That Patchwork Place (July 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564777634
• ISBN-13: 978-1564777638
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #553,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Hickey has been a leader in the quilting world for more than twenty-five years. She continually brings new techniques, designs, and ideas to quilt making.

When she was younger, Mary taught and lectured all over the world. Now she has turned her energies to creating fresh looking quilts, clever techniques, and updated patterns. Her current passion is to make quilting easy and understandable to everyone. She is working on a new version of her best-selling book, The Joy of Quilting, and making this web site useful and fun.

Mary lives in the Northwestern coastal area of Washington state, where she thoroughly enjoys her family, especially her grandchildren, Audrey, Ava, and Nicholas. Mary loves quilts, toys, and listening to baseball and opera. She spends a huge amount of time reading or listening to books on her i-pod. Matroyshka or nesting dolls seem to collect on her shelves. She started with one nesting toy about the time her first child was born and they just keep finding their way into her house. Their little smiling faces watch over the whole family.

As a member of several groups, Mary does volunteer sewing for kids in shelters, premature babies and folks in nursing homes. Quilts keep stacking up on her shelves and on the beds. The family home over-looks Liberty Bay, a deep-water bay on Puget Sound. She loves to play with her grandchildren---card games, board games, tea parties, cooking, craft projects, beach combing just to name a few of their activities.

Mary's primary goal in designing, writing, and teaching is always the same: she wants to design projects and write directions that enable quilt makers to create beautiful quilts that look complex, artistic, and stunning but that are easy to make.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great patterns for all levels of quilters, September 28, 2007

By 

Barbara Rhoades "Jackie of all Trades" (O'Fallon, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas (That Patchwork Place) (Paperback)

Ms. Hickey has written a quilt book for quilters of all levels. While I consider myself an experienced quilter, I enjoyed her tips on how-to pick fabrics and why to pre-wash them. She takes you through all the steps on how to make q quilt right up o adding the label.

The first section has all kinds of helpful sewing and cutting tips which is a great place for a beginner to start. And, like me, even the more experienced can learn/refresh their knowledge with a tip or trick such as using a battery operated mustache trimmer to rip seams FAST!

The next section has 14 patterns from quilts to table toppers to wall hangings to table runners. Each project comes with a materials list and cutting directions. How to assemble the blocks, the quilts and finishing suggestions are given. There are plenty of graphics to go with the directions and, of course a color photo of the finished project. The projects range from simple piecing, simple appliqué, fusible appliqué and finally 3 D appliqué. A final page tells a bit about the author.

COMFORT AND JOY is a book that will be used to make wonderful Christmas presents for many years to come. I will use it when I teach my granddaughter to quilt her first quilt because the instructions are written in simple, straight forward language. With these time-honored patterns, it will be a book to keep and hand down for generations to come.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to make quilts that look sophisticated, December 25, 2007

By 

Pamela J. Cope "I Love Olive" (Lake Forest Park, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas (That Patchwork Place) (Paperback)

Mary gives us another great book of quilts that are easy to make even for beginners, but they make you look like a pro! Her little comments and stories are entertaining, and the photography and settings with all the sweet little wooden ornaments make this book fun to look at over and over. I would highly recommend any quilt book by Mary Hickey.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Features traditional designs and lovely seasonal presentations., January 6, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas (That Patchwork Place) (Paperback)

Mary Hickey's COMFORT AND JOY: 14 QUILTS FOR CHRISTMAS offers up pieced and appliqued projects featuring angels, snowmen, and stars. There are lap quilt, table runners and more in this holiday collection, which features traditional designs and lovely seasonal presentations.