Customer Reviews

Complete Guide to Quilting

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been quilting for some time now... However, we can all use a little help now and then on a technique we're not used to using all the time. What I absolutely LOVE about this book is that they give you several different options for almost every technique out there. This book stays on my quilting table at all times! There are tons of charts on quilt sizes, triangle sizes, flying geese, etc. It's just a wealth of great information and presented in an easy to understand manner with lots of pictures.

I have looked at several other "how-to" books and have not yet found one to even come close to replacing this one. I even took it and had it spiral bound so it was easier to look through and hold my place open. It's been worth every penny and it's not even the most expensive one out there!

I'm new to sewing, sewing machines, and quilting. This book is fabulous. It has great color pictures, easy-to-follow instructions, and tons of information that even I can understand as a complete beginner. I highly recommend it!

I taught myself to quilt using this book and totally recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn about quilting. There hasn't been a question I've had that it hasn't been able to answer. Each topic has full descriptions and clear color photos of each step.

Each chapter has its own table of contents, and different color side-of-page labels make the chapters easy to find just by flipping through the book. The chapters are: 1. Tools, Notions, & Supplies; 2. Fabric & Color; 3. Planning Pieced Blocks; 4. Planning the Quilt Top (with blank charts for planning); 5. Cutting; 6. Hand Piecing; 7. Machine Piecing; 8.Hand & Machine Applique; 9. Assembling the Quilt Top; 10. Batting & Backing; 11. Hand & Machine Quilting; 12. Binding & Finishing; 13. Specialty Techniques; 14. Glossary; 15. Index.

I've been to quilting groups where seasoned quilters have been taught new techniques they'd never heard before, and I'd been doing them the entire time because I learned from this book!

Yes, this is the first book you need if you want to start quilting. If you sew a little, it will take you trough everything from fabric, color, notions, techniques and so many other things. Give yourself time to read it from beginning to end, you will be able to make your first quilt and do it right even the first time. This is not a pattern book and was not intended as one, this is a basic how to book and a good one.

I bought this book along with many others when I started my quest for learning to quilt. This was my favorite book because it has such detailed descriptions and beautiful illustrations. I shared this book with a friend of mine who is an experienced quilter and she bought her own copy. I would say this is an excellent book for a beginner and a wonderful reference for an experienced quilter.

I've been quilting (self-taught) for 18 months and bought this book about 6 months ago, so I'm not quite a beginner but still have plenty to learn. I use it as a reference work, but unfortunately I have learnt to use it with a pinch of salt. I made the mistake of using one of the tables for calculating how to cut a certain type of triangle. Thankfully I double-checked with a template before cutting my fabric, as the formula given was wrong, although I then had all the trouble of cutting fabric with two sets of markings on it. The formula for calculating the width of binding is also incorrect. I've not checked any of the other formulae, but I'm extremely wary of using them now.

This book has no overall contents section, which is awkward, although there is a contents page for each section at its start. It is divided into the following sections, and the pages are renumbered at the start of each section, e.g. 8-12, which again is an awkward way to do things, although it is useful that the section name is printed in the outside margin of every page.

1. Tools, notions and supplies
2. Fabric and colour
3. Planning pieced blocks
4. Planning the quilt top
5. Cutting
6. Hand piecing
7. Machine piecing
8. Hand and machine applique
9. Assembling the quilt top
10. Basting and backing
11. Hand and machine quilting
12. Binding and finishing
13. Specialty techniques
14. Glossary
15. Index

As you can see, this covers the whole process of traditional quilting fairly well, and as it's a long book, there is plenty in it. There are oodles of nice clear photographs, good headings, diagrams, charts and formulae (which may not be correct!), separate instructions for left-handers where applicable, and spaces at the end of every section where you may write your own notes.

Where techniques are discussed (a few aren't - bargello quilting gets a paragraph saying what it is but no instructions, for instance), they are usually discussed thoroughly. There are usually several ways to do anything in quilting, and a lot of the time this book will describe several options, though not always. For instance, it gives a variety of options for joining multiple pieces to make backing, but only one option (and not the most popular either) for joining two pieces of batting. I'm not wildly happy with the basting instructions generally, though they're certainly useful when used alongside other instructions. I also feel that a lot more space should be given to hand-quilting technique, where only one page is devoted to the all-important quilting running stitch. I can't judge the sections on machine-sewing as I have yet to learn how to use a sewing machine, but as is usual for quilting books, machine-sewing is assumed to be the norm. Where it comes into its own is in giving a lot more information about hand-sewing than most quilting books these days do, and as a hand-sewer I'm extremely grateful for that.

There are very few troubleshooting sections, which is a particular loss in a book which is giving out incorrect formulae: if you follow this book's instructions to the letter, you're going to run into problems. There are definitely gaps. For example, the only method suggested for marking up fabrics is to use templates, when many quilters prefer to calculate the piece sizes and draw them straight onto the fabric using an acrylic ruler (a method that is, in my experience, far more accurate and far quicker). It doesn't even discuss making sure your shapes will fit together the best way possible to use up the minimum fabric (personally I always sketch them out on graph paper first), let alone how to calculate how much fabric to buy.

The most serious omission is that this book is only interested in old-fashioned quilting. If you plan to spend your entire quilting career sticking to traditional geometric patterns based on repeated square blocks, you'll be fine - as long as you don't expect the book to teach you how to make any of these blocks! Some basic units, such as flying geese or a square within a square, are covered, and there are discussions on the grid underlying blocks as well as five pages of pictures of traditional blocks (a couple of which I'd say are wrong), but nowhere does the book walk you through putting together a traditional block. This is unusual in quilting books aimed at beginners, which usually give instructions for a few blocks and indicate the level of difficulty for each. If your only source of quilting instructions is this book, half of the blocks in the gallery will be beyond you, since there is absolutely no information on how to sew more complex blocks depicted such as the Mariner's Compass or Double Wedding Ring. To be honest, an encyclopaedia-style book should really have a much fuller block gallery than this.

If you want to learn how to make art quilts, or how to piece quilt tops that aren't made of geometrical repeating blocks, there isn't a word to help you. Ruth McDowell is a good author to go to there, and there are many books and websites discussing more unusual techniques.

I've reluctantly given this book three stars. There are too many important omissions in this book, and for a book that sets itself up as a start-to-finish bible, readers may be deceived into thinking that it will cover all of their needs. More importantly, some of the information is plain wrong and will wreck a quilt if followed literally, and some of the instructions give rather odd methods while ignoring the most commonly-used ones. If you take all of that with a pinch of salt, and have other quilting books around to fill the gaps, as well as checking techniques before using them on a full quilt, then it is certainly a very useful book to have in your quilting library.

This book has helped me completely through my first quilt. Although I have read many other quilting books, this was the MOST comprehensive and understandable book, with examples with the directions and plenty of pictures. I recommend this book to anyone -- whether they are starting out on their quilting journey or have quilted plenty before.

Being still new to quilting, the most important thing to me was to find one GOOD all-encompassing book that could be referred to often for any & all questions about the many techniques, glossary terms, etc.. involved that will come up along the way. After wading through so many descriptions of these types of guide books on Amazon & at other stores, I finally decided to take a chance & purchase this one (mainly because of the consistently impressive reviews) & am so glad I did! This is just a wonderful book by any standards, perfectly laid out, easy to understand & with excellent step by step photos throughout. More importantly though, it has completely de-mystified quilting for this newbie. I feel I've got the best of instructors at my side now & can safely take the plunge into this exciting endeavor with complete confidence. It's also nice that I can now invest the rest of my money into the quilting tools, fabrics & occasional patterns instead of having to waste money on additional basic instruction guides. I believe this one book covers everything needed & will certainly become much dog-eared from use.

This is a beautiful guide for beginners and advanced quilters alike. It reveals all the secrets to all the things I've wondered about how quilters do what they do so well! I have five kids and can't get to quilting classes so I bought this book based on previous reviewers' comments and they were right.

It shows an up-close view of every quilting technique with very well-written instructions.

Sometimes I just peruse through the book looking at the wonderful photographs. Buy it!

I bought my first sewing machine back in February 2007. I had never used a sewing machine before in my life. I was fascintaded by quilts and other sewing projects. I reviewed many quilting books at the local bookstore, probably over 30. I found this one the best. It has so many photos giving you step by step instructions on how to make a quilt by hand or with a sewing machine. The format of the book is perfect and arranged great. The book will teach you how to coordinate fabrics by pattern, color, and style with a variety of methods.

Inside the book you will discover many different layouts for quilts and designs. Enough to keep you busy for years.

I was able to make my first quilt with this book. Remember I knew nothing about the subject, what materials to buy, and how to sew a quilt together (I did not even know how to sew a striaght line at the time) and I made a quilt.

After purchasing this book, I do not think I would need another quilting book. There is nothing missing from this book. It is the best reference out there.

Okay, enough said, if you are a beginner or need new tips or techniques, put this book in your shopping cart and buy it.

Have fun quilting everyone.