Customer Reviews

Radiant New York Beauties: 14 Paper-Pieced Quilt Projects

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Valori Wells is a woman of many talents, a photographer as well as a quilter, and with a keen eye for color and line. The designs and colors of her new book featuring the New York Beauty block are absolutely luscious - deep and rich and complex, with a new surprise and delight on every page. This demanding block, like its sister the Mariner's Compass, presents difficulties in construction (matching points and all that nonsense), but Wells has the answer - paper piecing - and the book provides foundations for the quilt projects and gives permission for their reproduction. The book is sprinkled with "mini-lessons" on specific techniques, and with the author's photographs, especially of plants, from which she gets many of her inspirations. All I can say after drinking in the beauty in this book is "Wow!"

As a quiltmaker, I find this publication to be one of the most beautifully creative books I've seen in years. I think a friend of mine said it best, "Valori Wells may have gotten a start riding on her mother's (quiltmaker and author Jean Wells)coattails, but she has definitely come into her own." Not only are the patterns wonderful, but the creative ideas for quilting patterns are stunning. As an avid reader and lover of all books, I would have enjoyed this book even if I did not make quilts. It would be a colorful addition to the coffee table of any art collector.

The quilt projects in this book are gorgeous, original, and will inspire any quilter in new directions. Each section is interspersed with helpful mini lessons, paper patterns, quilting designs, and the author's photographs of nature and radial images that enrich the reader's understanding of the design process.

A lovely book! The quilts are gorgeous, the instructions are well written, easy to follow and very well laid out. The variations are wonderful. I cant wait to get started!

Lovely photographs, interesting text, and easy to follow directions. An inspiring book that will get your creative juices flowing.

It's too bad all the project images are blocked in the "look inside the book" feature, or I would not have purchased this. I'd hoped for creative inspiration and variations on the NYBeauty block and settings, but one quick flip-through when it arrived was enough; there was not one single project or image that tempted me to linger over it or inspired me to dream of a future project I might make. The cover image is not a good representation of the other projects included.

In hindsight, I could have researched Valori Wells' quilting style before purchasing (I like her fabric designs, and was swayed by that). Alas, I did not, and allowed the other reviews to sell me. There are not many projects, and a lot of them are very similar. Another major drawback for me is that while there are detailed PATTERNS included, there are no tips or methods for getting creative with the NYB form on your own.

This is the first book I have ever returned to Amazon for a refund in over 10 years of freqent shopping. It simply did not deliver the inspiring theme and variations on New York Beauty that I'd hope for based on other reviews. I purchased Karen K. Stone's book instead, even though it is quite pricey; I have spent HOURS with it, and will spend many more, as it is pure eye candy, and well worth every penny. I will be slurping up inspiration from it for years.

I'm sorry I can't say the same for this one. I am giving it three stars because my issues are unrelated to the quality of instruction for those who might like Ms. Well's palette and style, and who don't mind dupicating someone else's design. Stars deducted for: awful matte paper and less-than-great image resolution; no how-to-go-a step-beyond and create your own variations; and because compared to the other quilt books on my shelf this is barely elicits a "meh."

If you understand how to read and follow the pattern of this quilt you can not just make one . This is just such a great quilt book.

I already own this book and have made a quilt. It is my favorite one so far. I purchased this book for a friend I like it so much.

I'm so grateful to the person or people who devised the "foundation piecing" genre of quilting. When I first starting quilting, I was just happy to have the block end up square -I wasn't bothering too much about getting seams to fit and all that stuff, I just wanted the blocks to look normal. After a time, I realized that although I could make a block square, more often than not the accuracy of the block itself left a great deal to be desired. I was OK at getting simple squares and rectangles to match, but it was those narrow angles that started to give me grief.

Mariners compass was a popular block of choice at that time, but only those clever few who didn't have a life were able to get those angles to meet perfectly.

So you can see why I'm grateful for the discovery of Foundation Piecing which has taken the angst out of making blocks with narrow angles.

Having said that, I'm also grateful to Valori Wells who has published one of the best paper pieced quilt project books around. This is not your average project book. This book whets the appetite, feeds the fabric soul and gets you past the "Oh I don't think I can" syndrome we all suffer from time to time.

Valori has very cleverly made what can sometimes be a complicated process into a very easy to understand set of instructions. . She has developed a very easy sequence of instructions for each of her projects. Each project follows the same method, with fabric and quilting suggestions; materials required; cutting and assembly instructions and finally any templates that are required for that project.

The first project starts with two classic blocks set in a nontraditional way. This project allows you the space and time to get familiar with the paper piecing method.

Every single quilt project in this publication is "gob smacking" to say the least. The fabric choices are simply outrageous, but work hand in hand with the arty-farty designs that are uniquely Valoris'.

Throughout this publication Valori includes "Mini Lessons" that are truly invaluable and can be utilized in many other genres of quilting. Topics like Paper-Piecing an Arc; Joining Curved Sections; Needleturn Appliqué; Making Mitered Corners; Paper-Piecing Irregular Points; Drafting a Freestyle Block; and lots lots more.

My Favourite project in this book is the Carnival Beauty, with its madras fabrics, lots of stripes and checks and the amazing possibilities with machine quilting. This project is highlighted on the front cover of this book and I love to leave it on my coffee table. I can get a color "fix" every time I walk into my lounge room.

This book has been published by C&T Publications. I can thoroughly recomment this publication; it really is a "beauty".

This is a wonderful book. I learned many new things. It got my creative juices really flowing. Awesome, creative stuff with the techniques to carry it out.