Fantasy Fabrics: Techniques for Layered Surface Design [Paperback]

Bonnie Lyn Mccaffery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1999

Move from fabric lover to fabric designer! Discover simple techniques for making dazzling original fabrics that will add texture and dimension to any fabric-based project you create. Learn to "capture" colorful items--such as threads, ribbons, yarns, lace, silk flowers, beads, glitters, and more--under a layer of sheer fabric to create fascinating one-of-a-kind designs.

Fantasy Fabrics includes step-by-step instructions for creating one beautiful piece of fantasy fabric, along with more than 100 variations on the basic method. Find inspiration for using your new fabrics in quilt blocks and borders, whole-cloth quilts, clothing, frames, and more with over 60 full-color photographs that showcase a range of extraordinary fantasy fabrics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bonnie Lyn McCaffery loves to design, teach, lecture, and travel. Her specialties are Fantasy Fabric, kaleidoscope quilts, free-form appliqued quilts, and dimensional quilts. She is always trying to stretch quilting to its limits.

In 1998, Bonnie was awarded the Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship to attend European Quilt Market and Quilt Festival in Innsbruck, Austria. Only one quilter is selected each year to receive this prestigious award.

Many of Bonnie's designs and articles have been published in American Quilters Society Magazine, Quilting International, Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, and Craftworks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Martingale and Company; 1ST edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564772721
• ISBN-13: 978-1564772725
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,166,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy fabrics are fun, June 15, 2000

By 

Rosemary Muntus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantasy Fabrics: Techniques for Layered Surface Design (Paperback)

This is a book that I had been waiting for. I kept buying wonderful gauzes, glitters and silky fabrics because, like the magpie, I just couldn't resist them. I had played with them a bit, gloated over them and added them to my hoard. Some ingredients were still missing. Bonnie McCaffery's book has provided these. She creates new fabrics by layering. She shows you, in brilliant colour, very persuasively how to use a whole variety of sheer fabrics to trap your gorgeous finds. She demonstrates a wealth of techniques how to create and hold together these layered fabrics. She then stimulates you to go and find other treasures to trap and thereby to embellish your work.

The book has a wonderful selection of Bonnies's own work and is crammed with lovely close-ups that really show you how to choose your fabrics, how to cut and place them and how to sew them together. I particularly love the tumbled squares that appear on many of the pages with idea after idea to get your own creative thoughts racing. I think you should find this book liberating. It doesn't give specific projects: it should stimulate thousands. It makes a really scrumptious addition to any quilter's bookshelf.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quilts and quilts, January 7, 2005

By 

Heidi Waterhouse (Kent, Washington, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fantasy Fabrics: Techniques for Layered Surface Design (Paperback)

I got this as a gift from someone who knows I quilt. I have mixed feelings, and most of it is because I quilt for utility and beauty, and this is a technique that seems more suited to beauty.

The instructions are clear, and give you lots of directions to go off on your own, as well as lots of useful pointers (if you're using glitter, remember that gravity will affect things). The results are gorgeous.

That said, I don't know that this book serves my needs for something that can be washed again and again, thrown on beds and floors and grass, and stand up to the rigors of quilt-like use as opposed to wallhanging art-piece news.

If you are looking for an interesting way to add depth and sparkle to your art pieces, this is the book for you. If you plan to wrap a scared dog in what you make, not so much.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy Fabrics, August 25, 2000

By 

Nancy Eha, author of Off The Beadin' Path: Di... (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantasy Fabrics: Techniques for Layered Surface Design (Paperback)

Love this book and the abundance of techniques and project ideas. With the clear directions and numerous photographs of techniques, the hands-on rewards are immediate! The outcomes are stunning! This is a must have book for any fiber artist!