50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The results featured in this book provide a bewitching star for every state … excellent instructions and diagrams." -- The Quilting Quarterly

… loaded with useful tips on paper piecing and how to affect the look of the designs. -- --Art You Wear, Spring 2001

Product Description

A must-have book for fans of Star blocks in any galaxy!

Now you can create beautiful, elaborate Star blocks in a snap with the simplicity and accuracy of paper piecing. Bestselling author Carol Doak is back with 50 original paper-pieced Star blocks, all broken down into easy steps that any quilter can complete. Includes:

· Complete instructions for 50 paper-pieced Star designs, each made up of four simple units that join to create 12" stellar blocks

· Ideas for mixing and matching your Star blocks to make fascinating original designs and gorgeous secondary patterns

· Tips on enlarging and reducing patterns to customize your quilts, plus ideas for using finished blocks in a variety of projects

Plus, get a BONUS video CD-ROM! Watch as Carol demonstrates her easy paper-piecing technique, right on your computer screen.

(System Requirements: 486 PC; Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0; 16 MB RAM; Pentium processor 80 MHz or better; mpeg video player; 16-bit sound card. Multimedia software is available free.)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Martingale and Company (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564772713
• ISBN-13: 978-1564772718
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #102,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your Stars Will Be Fabulous!, July 1, 2000

By	Vicky (Mandan, ND USA) - See all my reviews

I just finished watching the video CD to 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars and wanted to tell everyone how fabulous it was! It is included in the book and was one of the reasons I purchased the book. I am really excited about getting started on piecing some of the stars and combining parts of different stars to make new stars. The tips Carol shares will make working on them effortless, with the end product looking beautiful and perfect. I have done paper piecing, but will enjoy it so much more now. Carol is a delightful person and a wonderful teacher! The book itself offers step-by-step instructions and the accompanying video CD helps you through the whole process with tips to make piecing accurate. (I will view this video CD over and over again!) Carol specifies what sizes to cut of the fabrics for each block. With Carol's suggestions, she opens up the creativity of your mind as the possibilities are endless. The book is filled with many, many color pictures of the stars, which inspire me as I look at them over and over again. So, I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about beginning quilting or has years of experience. Thanks Carol for sharing your expertise and creativity with us!

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Warning - lots and lots of pieces, February 21, 2001

By A Customer

The blocks are stunning. The directions are clear. The blocks are very, very time consumming, since they mostly have about 60 + pieces. This was my first paper piecing project and the technique was fun. It does not however produce 100 percent accuracy at first because it takes just as much skill to sew exactly on a line as it does to sew a perfect quarter inch seam. Piecers should know that the authors method of pre-cutting pieces, sewing to a foundation, and then cutting to size, wastes huge amount of fabric since she always gives you a half inch or more to spare on all sides and is very time consuming. After piecing four blocks, I was very pleased with the results but couldn't bring myself to do anymore. I was extremely disappointed that the cd didn't have files to print out of the patterns. The tight binding makes photocopies difficult and I ended up spending a lot of time re-drafting the pattern in Electric Quilt. I understand you can buy some software with the patterns, but didn't think it was worth the extra money.

41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make Stars The Easy Way With Paper Piecing, February 5, 2001

By	Sharon Darling "quiltersreview" (Quilter's Review) - See all my reviews

Here are some excerpts from my review of this book. You can see the complete review on the Quilter's Review website, as well as a review of Quilt-Pro's Foundation Factory software that includes all the patterns from this book.

"If you've ever tried to do stars but had trouble with the points, you may have heard that paper piecing yields perfect stars with perfect points. Now all you have to do is figure out how to paper piece. And of course, find the patterns.

"You're in luck! Carol Doak has compiled a collection of 50 fabulous star patterns, all paper-pieced, and complete with excellent instructions. This diverse collection starts with the basic LeMoyne Star and adds lines, flowers, leaves and background detail....

"Cutting the fabric to fit is one of the things that make paper piecing so frustrating for beginners. To get the fabric piece large enough to fit the pattern, it seems as though you have to waste lots of fabric. With Carol's chart, you can cut the minimum amount of fabric and the pieces still fit....

"If you don't know how to paper piece or would like to find some tips to make it easier, Carol includes complete step-by-step instructions for her method. But the best part of the book is the video CD that is included. You can watch Carol do a Delaware star as she explains each step.

"When I finished watching the video, I wondered how I could have ever thought paper piecing was difficult!"