Becky Goldsmith

I rarely write reviews but this book bothered me! It seems well-written enough, and for such a short book I'm sure there's a lot of good information here, but it's arranged in such a way as to make it as painful as possible to use.

The subtitle is "Everything you need to know to choose the perfect thread for every project". So you'd think that if you're starting a project, you could flip through this book to identify which type of thread to use. Unfortunately, all of the detailed thread information is inexplicably arranged by thread manufacturer instead of by type of project.

So if I were wanting to make a garment, or do hand quilting, say, I couldn't simply look up "garment-making" or "hand quilting" to find out what kind of thread of use -- instead, I'd have to read through each page for the dozen or so manufacturers listed, looking at each type of thread each manufacturer produces to see whether it was appropriate for my type of project. This is definitely not a quick reference guide!

I gave it two stars instead of one because (a) there is some useful info and (b) maybe I'm missing something and this layout makes perfect sense to experienced sewists?… (mehr)

I often look through the Piece O’Cake books at stores, sigh and don’t buy them. I love Love LOVE the quilts, the beautiful photos, the authors’ designs and the layout of their books. I would love it if they just wrote a book with photos of all of their quilts in it. I don’t usually buy their books, because there are a small number of pages with photographs of quilts and most of the book is taken up by patterns. I don’t need or want to make the exact quilts that they have made.

Piece O’Cake Designs creates quilts with lots of fabric which are cheerful and fun. Someone gave me this book as a gift and I read a bit of the introduction (before the patterns). I was pleased to have done so, because they had written some really interesting information on using solid fabrics more effectively. Reading the bit in the front also made me examine the photos of the quilts more closely.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I started to read Amish-Inspired Quilts. First off, I liked the way Becky talked about her sons in the dedication, but mostly I liked the way they talked about using using solid fabrics.

I used to use a lot of solids. I liked the simplicity and the depth they created in quilts. They can be a bit harder to use if something doesn’t make them stand out. I have gotten away from using solids as I have progressed in my quiltmaking.

The authors say in the first section on color “These quilts feel bold. They often feel contemporary, which is a testament to their classic beauty. The design of the quilt itself is very important when working with solids. Solid fabric has no pattern–the visual texture is smooth. The riot of color that comes with prints, plaids, and stripes is not there. When you use only solid fabric in a quilt, each shape is clearly defined. The structure of the pattern is for all to see.”

I had a strong reaction to the above statement when I read it, because when I used solid fabrics, I was trying to take out some of the many variables of quiltmaking, so I could understand it. As my skills improved, I got away from the simplicity. Perhaps, lately, I have been trying to regain some simplicity by using simple patterns. Consider Thoughts on Dots.… (mehr)