The Quilting Arts Book

(More Reviews by This Staff Quilter)

This book is the perfect resource for anyone who wants to explore art quilts.  It starts with a basic overview of design principles, including things like composition and color theory.  Then Patricia moves on to what makes up the bulk of the book, consisting of different art quilters and their favorite techniques.  There is such a wide variety covered, everything from collage, digital transfers, reverse appliqué, dimensional appliqué, wax pastel painting, and many more!  The final segment of the book is devoted to six different types of art quilts, showing what the artist went through step by step to arrive at the final piece. 

For instance, Estherita Austin’s finished still life is a small quilt with three colorful bell peppers.  They’re portrayed with a somewhat realistic, somewhat painterly style.  Even if you followed each step, you would end up with a unique piece, similar in style but totally different looking.  These last six examples are helpful that way.  Even if you don’t know where to begin, you can treat them as experimental exercises. 

What I like about art quilts is that there are no patterns to read or steps to follow.  I’ve never been very good at following instructions and I like to learn by trial and error.  By their nature, art quilts are experimental and rules free.  This book is great because it sets you up with a good foundation so you can then go on and let your imagination run wild!  It’s more like a loose guidebook, which for those of us who tend to make up our own rules anyway is perfect!