New book, new inspiration

It's finally arrived! Ever since I first heard that Jane Brocket was writing a quilting book, I have been looking forward to holding it in my hands. Her previous blog "Yarnstorm" was one of the first blogs I started following when I stumbled into blogland years ago and I have been enjoying her way with words and her beautiful photos of knitting, fabrics, quilts, flowers and sumptuous cakes ever since. Jane has published several books already, and I have enjoyed them all, and being a quilter, this was another one I just had to have. And it doesn't disappoint.

You know that a quilt book is working for you when you have to stop reading mid-sentence to start pulling fabric out of your stash! But the book is well worth reading and full of great pictures of the 15 quilts presented. They are fairly simple quilts - mainly squares and strips -but the way Jane has made her fabric choices work together, make them much more sophisticated than you would have thouht from looking at sketches of the layouts of the quilts. The book would be a great one for a beginning quilter, giving lots of sound advice about buying fabric and how to approach the quiltmaking process. But it is also a very good read, and full of inspiration for long-time quilters such as myself when she talks about the story behind each of her quilts: what inspired the quilt, how she went about choosing her fabrics, where she found them and who they are by (something we quilters always want to know, right?), how she made them, how she changed her mind during the process, removed some fabrics, added new ones etc. I think this book would give new quilters a boost of confidence - learning that great quilts don't always get thrown together by a snap of your fingers, but that you actually might have to let go of your initial ideas and change direction during the process of choosing fabrics and shapes, and that it is perfectly all right to do so.

All in all this is a very enjoyable book, and if only I find the time to actually make them, it will inspire me to make several quilts in future. Or at least dream up several more quilts I want to make, and thats half the fun of quiltmaking, isn't it? -)