Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Applique

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I could hardly wait to receive the applique patterns - at last - patterns at my fingertips - needless to say, I was disappointed when I discovered that the book did not contain applique patterns but illustrations only. The pictures are not even illustrated properly so that they may be enlarged to use for patterns.

Filled with hundreds (thousands?) of sketches of applique patterns from antique and modern quilts, this book can be useful in either identifying the name of a certain pattern or in designing your own pattern for applique.

As a previous reviewer stated, it is not a book with ready-to-use applique patterns, but it was never intended to be. It is, however, a valuable resource for anyone who owns or appreciates applique quilts or any quilter willing to use the sketches for inspiration in designing their own pattern.

This was never intended to be a book of patterns that you can use to make quilt blocks - read the title and it is exactly what it says it is - an illustrated INDEX. Antique applique patterns are difficult to categorize since they were often the creations of the quilt's maker - Barbara Brackman has undertaken a difficult task in trying to index them. This is an excellent REFERENCE BOOK (not a how-to!)that will be very useful to anyone who collects antique quilts or who likes to work with traditional quilt patterns. NOTE: OUT OF PRINT! Don't believe Amazon when they tell you they can get a book in 4-6 weeks - this usually means it is out of print.

Here's the TABLE OF CONTENTS...
Part I: pp 11-38
- The Rise of the Conventional Applique Technique
- Design Sources
- Changes in Applique Style
- Pattern Sources
- Pattern Names and Terminology
- The Decline of Applique
- The Applique Revival
- Recent Interest in Applique
- Footnotes

Part II, pp 39-200
- Index
- Key to Major Categories
- The Numering System in Outline
- The Illustrated Index to Traditional and Modern Applique Patterns (138 pp)
- Bibliographical References for Indexed Patterns
- Alphabetical Index to Pattern Names

Quite an extraordinary resource. Over 1700 patterns -- both published and unpublished -- from 1800 to 1950, brilliantly organized with many bibliographical references.

"With the book's visual keys, ...unnamed patterns are easy to find. Those with names can be looked up in the alphabetical cross reference. The patterns are numbered with a decimal system, 1 to 100, followed by a decimal point. Numbers beyond 100 are assigned to piece patterns in Barbara's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, which has been the standard of identification sicne its publication in 1979."