Flower Pounding: Quilt Projects for All Ages [Paperback]

Ann Frischkorn (Author), Amy Sandrin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

A guide to preserving flowers in a quilt. It presents methods for transferring pigment from fresh flowers directly onto special treated muslin. There are nine "flower pounding" projects and a gallery of 40 quilts to spark the reader's creativity. The book includes a photograph glossary of 57 different flowers and tips on how to find the right ones.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With a bit of simple preparation, an ordinary piece of muslin becomes a canvas for the intriguing art of flower pounding. Taped to the muslin and whacked with a hammer, nearly any type of flower or leaf surrenders its pigment, leaving behind a ghostly image resembling watercolor painting. By outlining these delicate images with permanent marker and stitching over them, Ann Frischkorn and Amy Sandrin turn them into lovely quilts. Some specifically resemble the flowers from which they came: roses, alstroemeria, irises, morning glories, and many other blossoms arranged in a central panel, ringed by a quilted--and sometimes pieced--border. In others the flowers have been pounded through stencils, to lend their translucent hues to shapes of fish, coffee cups, even a skateboarder designed and pounded by Sandrin's son (yes, kids will love this noisy, rewarding activity).

Once they've explained fabric preparation and the specifics of the technique itself, the authors present a gallery of 40 of their quilts, accompanied by commentary about what inspired each design and some of the flowers appearing in it. The project section offers another seven designs, with brief directions about creating them. The actual quilting and piecing instructions are quite cursory; though the designs are relatively basic, at least a nodding acquaintance with quilting methods is presumed. As for the actual pounding, the authors recommend experimenting with various types of flowers, remarking that the color of the bloom is not necessarily the color after pounding and that even flowers from the same plant picked on different days may result in different shades. But a bit more information about what general color ranges they tend to expect would have been helpful. The "flower index" at book's end--composed of 57 color photos representing a selection of flowers used throughout the quilts--seems like an ideal place to have indicated something about this. Still, this is an interesting and different approach to fabric adornment and might be nice on wearables too, although the authors don't mention whether the flower-pounded fabric will stand up to washing. Further experimentation ought to resolve this issue as well. --Amy Handy

About the Author

Amy Sandrin & Ann Frischkorn are identical twins. Despite the 1,000 miles that separate them physically, they still manage to converse almost daily. Amy is a quilter and award-winning romance author who lives in Colorado. Ann is a writer and award-winning quilter who lives in Illinois.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: C&T Publishing (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571201165
• ISBN-13: 978-1571201164
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and artistic results from your garden!, June 18, 2001

By 

richard bostwick (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flower Pounding: Quilt Projects for All Ages (Paperback)

You may be wondering what in the world "Flower Pounding" is. Put simply, it is the process of transferring plant pigments to specially treated fabric via pounding with a hammer to create floral imagery reminiscent of water color painting. When I read through the book I was amazed at the beautiful projects within and wanted one for my very own.

The book has a wonderful alphabetic index of common garden flowers in the back and all of the gallery photographs list the flowers used in the projects for reference which I found to be very helpful. Along with detailed visual instructions for every step of the process from fabric treatment through pounding to completion with outlining, there are numerous photographs in the book of scenes created by the authors, Ann Frischkorn and Amy Sandrin. They have also included instructions for nine projects complete with quilting how-tos and templates to get you started. And, lest you think that this a project limited to the spring flower season, there are examples using fall flowers as well as poinsettias.

The authors glibly suggest that once you try flower pounding, you will never look at flowers the same. I must say that they are right in this assessment. Just the other day, I was at Costco and I eyeballed the fresh flower bouquets as I walked by. But, I was not thinking how pretty they were, no, I was wondering how they would look pounded!

Try it and see if you don't start thinking the same way!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gorgeous Book!!!, April 4, 2001

By 

Carole Bellacera - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flower Pounding: Quilt Projects for All Ages (Paperback)

FLOWER POUNDING is a beautiful book of quilt projects that make you want to run right out to the craft store and start buying all the materials you need. The directions are precise and make it look easy to create lovely quilts using flowers. My biggest problem is trying to decide which of the gorgeous quilts to make first. What an outstanding job Ann Frischkorn and Amy Sandrin have done in creating this book! This is a quilting book I'd recommend to everyone, beginners and old pros.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm having a lot of summer fun with this.....KATE, June 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Flower Pounding: Quilt Projects for All Ages (Paperback)

A friend introduced me to Flower Pounding. We are having a great time with this. The authors give a lot of great tips on their website. They also state that your Flower Pounding works of art are dry-cleanable. This is great news! We have also tried color copying our poundings to transfer paper and having them ironed onto t-shirts. It worked great. Now they truly are washable. I don't see why you couldn't iron them onto a quilt block too. The possibilities are endless with this technique. Thanks to Amy and Ann for making my summer and my quilting a lot more interesting.