Customer Reviews

Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent resource book for those of us who have lots of fabrics, layer cakes, jelly rolls and charm packs and don't know what to do with them!! I am a pattern/book person - I need suggestions and ideas from patterns/books, and this is just the book for me. I like the color photos and detailed instructions to make several different kinds of quilts. I would highly recommend this book to everyone - those who need the suggestions from books and those who just need some fresh, new ideas for their fabric stash.

I just got the book in the mail, sat down and went through it and I love almost every pattern!! The patterns are origial, bright, and most of them are easy to intermediate. I have the first book and while I like it, I can see already that this book will get used more. If aready started on the flower quilt made with two charm packs.

This book has clear instructions, great photos and has some great-looking quilt designs! I just finished a quilt from the book and it is being quilted right now! There are a lot of great, helpful tips and the authors show just how easy, quick, and fun it is to work with pre-cut fabrics. I just purchased fabric for another quilt from this book. I would recommend this to all quilters, old and new. Just remember to press!!

I was excited to get this book. The patterns while nothing new are pleasant and I thought nice to have a number of simple ones all in one place. I also thought it might be a good book to recommend to a new quilter. They often purchase these cuts of fabric to get lots of variety at a lower price tag.
This morning I decided to dive into the Charming Flowers pattern from the book. I pulled the fabrics from my stash, I was excited. Then reality hit. I had read the preface to understand what sizes, shapes and amounts were standard for the book. the first pattern talked about making 4 1/2 inch finished squares from the 5 inch charm patches. I have been quilting long enough to know that you cannot make right triangles that way. In the text of the directions you are instructed to cut 5 3/8 inch squares. That is ok if you are cutting from yardage but I thought the premise was to use the packs you buy at the quilt store. Sorry I did not see the 3/8 inch supplements to the pack when I bought them, nor would it look good to sew that on.
All right I will look at another. I skipped to Diamonds at Large. What a pretty quilt and since they are all right triangles, I figured we would not have the same problem. The directions tell you to save the 2 1/2 by 7 1/2 inch strip that you trim off to use for the borders and binding. Once again the math does not quite work. You will not have enough strips even if you cut the remaining 4 pieces from the layer cake stack.
Well I gave up after that. Any quilt book that fails so miserably at basic math cannot get my recommendation. It would make any newbie quilter tear their hair out.
If you are looking for some great straight forward patterns get one of Eleanor Burns books in at least the second edition.Egg Money Quilts: 1930's Vintage Samplers

Although the quilts in this book are relatively simple, this book is not for beginners. There are several measurement issues that I have come across that made me (I am a beginner) want to rip my hair out because they are flat out inaccurate.

The first such error I came across was when I made the Hidden Stars top. It went together well, and the instructions were clear. However, when I went back to check the dimensions of my finished top compared to what the book said the dimensions should be? Mine was WAY smaller. I tore my hair out over what the heck I could have done wrong for quite some time. I remeasured all my seam allowances multiple times, reameasured everything several times step by step through the instructions to see what on earth I did wrong. Then it hit me. Their finished dimension measurement did NOT take into account ANY the 1/4" seam allowances. I counted up the seams across the top (and up/ down) and subtracted all those 1/2" losses (1/2" per seam) and yep, it came out to be the same size as mine. Wow. I was so relieved and so mad all at the same time. Apparently they didn't pull out a measuring tape and actually measure the finished top???

Moving on to the next project I've done from this book - I am just about done with Diamonds at Large, and, I believe there is something wrong with the instructions on the diamonds themselves... I am a raw beginner, so it could just be me, but let me tell you what happened. Every single one of my side points on the diamonds are cut off. Every single one. All of my seams are precisely 1/4" so that is not the issue. The first thing I noticed (early on in the cutting/ piecing) is that their picture of how your triangles should fit together when you put right sides facing is completely wrong (they show all 3 sides of both triangles matching up). It drove me batty trying to figure out how they were getting the long edges to match up with right sides of the fabric facing and still having the short sides of the triangles match up. Fortunately, due to the error with the H.S. top, I realized it was probably their error, not mine. Now, the diamond points being cut off on the sides... I have no clue... could be my error... however, I've also got way more space below the top and bottom diamond points than there should be so that the top/ bottom points will not meet the diamond point that is above or below. I hope I explained that well! So, basically, I think there is something wrong with the way that they said to measure and cut the layer cake squares. But again, it could be me... I am a beginner! Oh! And their instructions to stack SIX rectangles and rotary cut them all stacked together? Again, could just be me, but I found that the pressure necessary to cut through all six layers really warped the fabric and made the edges not clean and straight. Anyway, if it weren't for the error I found in the H.S. top I would probably assume that the problems I'm having with this one are as a result of my own idiocy... but when I take the H.S. error into account...

I considered giving this book one star, but the quilts themselves are lovely, so I left it at two.

Bottom line - If you are a beginner do not buy this book. Save yourself some money (and frustration and discouragement!!) and find a stand alone pattern to buy (from places like wwwdotfatquartershopdotcom) that uses these types of fabric packs.

This is a great book, full of inspiration and wonderful quilts. There's something for the beginner but also ideas and layouts for the more experienced. Clear instructions and lots of pics. Can't go wrong with this one.

Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts offers some 17 diverse quilting projects and design options that move away from simple scrap quilts or scrap charm quilts. These are created from one layer cake or charm pack and each quilt uses pre-cut fabrics with little or no waste. The step-by-step instructions make for easy projects for all levels, and a fine photo-packed guide for any quilting collection.

This book had a wonderful selection of patterns for jelly rolls, layer cakes and strips. I loved it!

If there is only one quilting book you need to buy, this is the one! As I started browsing from page one, I'm so captivated by the quilting projects, it just blows my mind away! The projects are simple enough for beginners, and also includes projects for more advanced quilters. Almost every project featured is so beautiful, I can't wait to start quilting right away! I will be making many quilts from this book, no doubt!

This book is so great!!
A lot of beautiful charm quilt with Jelly Roll,
especially Moda fabric.
You will love it.