Customer Reviews

Simply Stars: Quilts That Sparkle

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alex Anderson, host of HGTV's "Simply Quilts", teaches
the reader how to make stars - - but, OH! What wonderful
stars!

Designed for quilters with some experience, though there are
stars for every level, the book includes directions and supply
lists for small (table runners) and large projects (bed-sized quilts).
The personal challenges come in creating your own version of the
star sampler quilts featured in the many photos of Alex's students
projects.

Stars featured in the book range from easy (pinwheels and
friendship stars made from squares and half-square triangles)
to those that require higher skill levels (Sunray and LeMoyne
stars using triangles made from rectangles and diamond shapes).
Even if you only want to READ a quilting book with information on
color theory and technique, and don't intend to make
any stars, this is worth the purchase price!

Alex is a wonderful teacher in person...this book came out of classes she taught so the lessons really work!!! The diagrams & explanations are very clear and the book is organized with the easy stars in the beginning...toughies at the end!

This is a great book. The instructions are clear, the photos are good. I especailly liked the author's comments on how to choose colors. They inspired me to try new combinations.

A great way to easily make an award winning quilt. Instructions are easy to follow and the design ideas leave you breathless.

Beginning with a vast section on fabric selections & combinations, this book exhibits about 12 quilts for inspiration and goes on to demonstrate in detail around 15 projects.

Step by step instructions are of good quality and explicitly demonstrated, while there is plenty of colour and shape variety within the limitations of star quilts.

Obviously a very popular book, with quilts of varying difficulty for the beginners & more advanced. Difficulty level indicated.

Perhaps not the most inspirational book I have seen, but interesting nonetheless.

Recommend library borrowing, unless you are planning a star quilt yourself, in which case the book could be invaluable.

kotori 2005

The book provides easy to follow instructions on making several variations for a few basic stars (about 5 or 6 basic stars) and gives good examples of different color schemes and settings.

But what I most appreciated about this book is that Alex included a section -- with illustrations -- showing how to line up all the different triangular pieces used in all the different stars.

As a new quilter I have followed star patterns in a few other books but none of them explained "When you're sewing a triangle to a rectangle, line up these two edges..." The guide in this book shows all different types of angles and pieces used in different stars and how to align the fabric before sewing. Invaluable!

Alex helps you learn to use color in star blocks. Then use your knowledge to construct different star patterns. Great book for beginners to expert.

This is not a new publication, but one that has wonderful information that is timeless.

You would be much better off purchasing one of the other books about star quilts. I was looking for a book w/various star designs. Alex just takes the same star and uses different fabrics to come up w/different looks. Big deal! I can do that myself. I love her show, but this is my second book I've been suckered into buying...never again!!